Starting in 2021 we are exclusive distributors for F Basses in Spain. Of course we ship worldwide too.
We have gathered most of this information from F Bass' website. We are really excited to offer these really fantastic basses to all of you from now on.
History
F Bass Inc was founded by George Furlanetto in 1978, way back when 5 and 6-string bridges had to be fashioned from two 4-string bridges. George’s life path towards luthiery was inspired by his father’s craftsmanship and his mother’s musical talent. He started out by restoring instruments for a local music shop during the late 60’s & 70’s. It was here that he discovered that basses needed much more attention and had significant room for improvement. So he set out to create his own unique basses with “modern” appointments like a 5th & 6th string, fast action, and discreet wooden pickup shells. The company operated out of small workshops in Hamilton for several years to build upon this foundation. In 1986, F Bass grew into our current 5,000 sqft factory on McKinstry Street, becoming a hub for creatives and musicians alike. Four decades later, F Bass Inc continues to be family owned & operated with George’s son Marcel carrying on his vision.
Handcrafted
To this day, our basses are handcrafted in small batches in our hometown of Hamilton. Our basses are still built by George and his highly trained and dedicated team, many of whom have been honing their craft with us for over 15 years. After decades of evolution, we’re in constant R&D to improve every facet of our builds. Whether it’s tweaking our handmade pickups & preamp, experimenting with finishes, or improving neck feel by just a few passes of the rasp. We’re never happy resting on our laurels and will continue to create some of the most refined and respected instruments in our industry.
Quality Components
All of our carefully selected lumber is aged in-house and never used prematurely. Whether it takes a few months or a few years, we’ll only use lumber that meters within our strict 4-6% moisture content requirement. This means most of the moving our wood does is in our hands and not in yours. We source our tone woods from local mills, while our exotics are sourced globally and are fully CITES & LACEY compliant. To complete our builds, our pickups, preamp, and even wooden knobs are handmade to our specification right here in Hamilton. We also only use quality hardware from proven industry leaders in the US & Japan.
Built For You
Our passion for luthiery goes well beyond the builds themselves as we obsess just as much over the bassists who play them. A beautiful boutique instrument is one thing, but we also firmly believe that it needs to be incredibly dependable and gig worthy — for the weekend warriors or those selling out stadiums. If it can’t last a lifetime then it’s simply not worth building. We’re always open to discussing basses, gear, life, (and dogs) with our players and love incorporating their feedback into our designs.
VF4 Bass PJ Sea Foam Green
The VF Series captures the vibe and tone of the vintage ‘60s and ‘70s industry staples. While we stay true to the originals, we’ve trickled in much of what we’ve learned in these past 50+ years.
Being fans and collectors of vintage Fender instruments ourselves, we know the hunt for the perfect specimen can be endless, terribly costly, and at times downright frustrating. Our love of the originals is apparent in our design so vintage enthusiasts will feel right at home. Between the infusion of F Bass DNA, premium materials and components, and our build consistency, you’ll be hard pressed to find an original that plays and sounds better than an F—all at a fraction of the cost, with lifetime warranty against manufacturer defects and un-paralleled customer support. Not to mention plenty of finish and exotic wood options to truly make it your own.
The quest for “The One” just got easier.
The Aguilar pickups are our favourite vintage repros, handmade in New York with Heavy Formvar wire and Alnico V magnets. Aguilar’s P-60 pickup is big, round, and wooly with just the right amount of midrange honk to cut through any mix. The J-HC pickups are hum-cancelling but don’t let that fool you, they produce one of the best vintage single-coil tones available. They’re clear and aggressive, produce rich “burpy” mids, have loads of presence with firm control of wild high frequencies and respond so well to playing dynamics—with no 60 cycle hum to boot! Our preamps are handmade right here in Hamilton using discrete components (transistors, resistors, capacitors) rather than over-engineered IC chips. This helps us achieve a more open and transparent sound that allows the instrument to translate its inherent tone without colouration.
Our 3-band preamp controls Bass Boost, Mid Boost, and Treble Boost. When all are set flat at 0, there is no perceivable difference from your passive tone. This makes for an extremely predictable and shape-able tool to explore tones or to simply cater to various gigging environments. The 9V pre has a low draw allowing for approximately 500 hours of play. Now if your battery happens to die in the middle of a gig—don’t fret!— you can pop up the passive tone control to engage passive mode Through careful design and consideration of each component’s weight (down to the ounce), we ensure perfect balance whether playing in the seated position or strapped in. While we take on requests for a slightly lighter weight, we don’t shy away from a medium to medium-heavy build clocking in between 9.25-9.5lbs (4 string), 9.5-10lbs (5 string), and 10lbs-10.25lbs (6 string). This gives the VF a commanding rather than toyish feel and avoids dreaded neck-dive. We also find it adds solidity to the low end and packs serious punch through the mids. To maximize comfort in the seated position and to allow for easier access to the end of the fingerboard, our treble horns are curved outwards and set further back into the body.
Conclusion
Our personal impression is that this is an extremely responsive bass that manages to get that hard to find vintage tone in an incredibly well built and extremely comfortable and ergonomic instrument. It is a bass with a strong voice, a beautiful stage presence that plays like few basses out there. It really is a bass for a lifetime. We think that the price is more than fair because you are not buying just an exotic bass that looks nice. This is a true working bass player's instrument that will give you years of trouble free operation, will be incredibly inspiring night after night and will last for a lifetime. Check the price tag again. Do you think that's a lot of money for such assets?