For a short period of time in the early 70, Fender came up with a bass that has alder body(60s) plus an all maple neck(70s) later on they started building basses with ash body, but these ‘transition’ basses had earned their reputation in bass history, the most famous one is probably Geddy Lee’s 72 jazz bass, the tuxedo.
Named after a New York bassist playing the same bass. RA is Jimmy Coppolo’s take of this special ones, and it happened to be the best of both world.

Background
Many says when the warmth of the 60s meets the snap of 70s basses.  Beside the wood combination, the bridge pickup was also shifted to the bridge just so it gets covered by the huge bridge cover, that ended up became part of the 70s jazz recipe. 

To many players, if they can only have 1 bass, RA is probably the one. 

Specs

• Alder body
• Maple neck
• Maple fingerboard with block binding
• Thin black urethane finish
• AC homebrew pickups on 70’s position
• controls are: Vol / Vol / Tone, hi / lo boost 
• 19mm string spacing
• Hipshot tuners
• AC bridge

Playability:
Well balance, easy to play, can easily archive very low action without buzzing.  I tend to like my basses in medium low now a day, but this bass plays fine in any setup.   

Sound
Nothing replace that raw punch from a maple fingerboard, it’s not Ash chunky like 70’s style basses, it’s not as refine like the LGs but that happen to be right flavour for any modern music.   Rather than the big round smooth bottom of a LG, the RA has more low mid growl and definitely more attitude.   As much as I love my LG5s, sometimes they can be too mellow for certain contents. 

Thoughts
There are many other great builders that offers perfect 70s style jazz sound, that’s pretty much finding the piece of ash you can and put on a maple neck.  Chunky solid tone that’ll sustain you all day ..      Jimmy builds the best 60s style 5 string jazz basses in my opinion, and this RA is another great addition to the product line that covers the best of both sides. 

Gallery

Video