F-Bass BN6

I custom ordered a BN6 from George Furlanetto in May 2007. The Fbass factory is in Hamilton, ON Canada and was shipped to me in Vancouver BC well packaged and in an fbass flight case along with t-shirt, leather strap, and 3 stets of strings. I ordered a standard satin finished, ash/maple/rosewood BN6 (4250.00 cad) with the following upgrades: figured bubinga top with matching headstock/heel/pups and knobs, flamed maple/bubinga laminated neck, one piece ash body, abalone serial inlay and 18mm string spacing.

These are not cheap instruments and rightfully so... because they are comparable to basses by the very best makers in the business.

I play bass in smaller bands mostly dedicated to 'making music' and not 'making it big'. Blues, jazz, funk, reaggae and rock n' roll are usually on the set list. These basses are true chameleons and the magic is in the fbass preamp. From modern J style tones, vintage passive P-bass, or nice fat and punchy fingerstyle tones... you can dial it up, it's in there. I don't need any other basses because this bass can literally do it all. It's got Active/passive and single coil/humbucking push pull knobs, tone knob and lo/mid/hi boost only active eq.

It's equally at home in the studio or on stage because of it's very pure and sweet preamp. It just sounds so balanced, warm and natural compared to anything else I've played. It's definitely a blend between vintage and modern, with no 'hype' to the acive tone. Just beautiful IMO.

The neck is super fast, and has a great feel. A nice blend between a vintage j profile and the more modern asymmetrical profile say an MTD. Every fret is easily accessible and the ergonomics of the bass are superb! The bottom horn will hug either leg nicely while sitting down, and the bass sits really well on a strap with zero neck dive.

My bass needed to be set up out of the box. I'm not sure why... if it was a change in humidity or what. I haven't needed to touch it much for 2 years now and I travel with it all the time. The fit, finnish and fretwork on my bass is impeccable! Not a single flaw anywhere... I honestly can not believe the attention to detail here. Matching, curved wood laminates everywhere... just crazy woodworking. Great string to string balance and no dead spots on the FB.

I feel more comfortable on the DR highbeams that I put on, rather than I do the stock labella supersteps that come on fbasses. While the supersteps sound great (especially matched with the fbass pre) I can not get used to the exaggerated 'lose' feel due to their exposed core design. The DR's sound great and are the perfect balance of clean/gritty, with just the right tension on this bass.

You see all these bolt-on basses these days with 6 to 9+ bolts slammed into the heel... I think that is total overkill. The Fbass has only four bolts and maintains has a super solid connection between neck and body. This also due to the perfect 'zero clearance' fit of the neck in the neck-pocket. My BN6 has an oil finish that is easy to maintain and it still looks like new after 2 years. Very nice strap buttons and great hardware top it all off.

I could not recommend a better place to order a custom bass... period. I dealt with George F personally to create may bass, and found him to be very accommodating to even the most neurotic concerns I may have had during the development stage. The bass was supposed to have taken 6 months to complete, and was delivered 6 weeks after I ordered it!! Emails are prompt and to the point, and you feel very taken care of with fbass. Now that's what I call service!!

I've been playing bass for 10 years now, and I've tried them all. These basses are extremely solid and are compareable to instruments twice their price. While they can be very expensive ordered directly from George, they can also be found at bargain street prices in comparison. I would say that if you found a BN6 used or new for under 3500 USD - it's a smokin deal! especially if it's got an exotic top. They have a tone that's all their own, and are great tools for the working musician. I don't own another fretted bass because I just don't need one, this bass will do it all for many years to come.

Built in Canada 2006, 24 fret maple fretboard (and maple body i believe), defeatable active pre-amp and also passive tonecontrol, humbucker/singlecoil switch.
Transparant blue, F-bass pickups with colormatching covers.

Extremely rich sound, with plenty possibility's from the 'Jaco' voice, to a fat slapsound, or from a dark reggea till Geddy Lee-like aggresive sound.
Whatever you want, i would say.

No noise.

I would prefer a pickup-blend control instead of the double volume controls, but that's just a minor thing.

Real fast action/neck, though the string spacing could have been 1 mm less, but that's personal ... i got used to it.

Great sustain, probably due to the F-bass strings (La Bella) and the instrument itself.

This bass almost plays by itself.

This is a top class instrument, it seems this bass will live for many many years. Maybe the finish won't last that long ..

Didn't need them yet, which is a good thing i guess.

This bass is the best instrument i ever played on (27 years on bass), i own some good others, among them 3 "6-ers", but F-bass is an absolute winner!!

I would buy instantly a new one (if possible), if this one ever got lost or so ... but i hope it wont!!!!

Fretted BN6 6 string bass.
Solid Swamp Ash body with a beautiful high gloss 3 tone sunburst
Macassar Ebony fingerboard.
Wonderful F bass 3 band preamp with 2 vol/ active passive, passive tone/ coil selector,bass, mid, treble
F bass soapbar pickups
Hipshot tuners and bridge
34.5 scale with a very fast thin neck.

Tremendous variety of sounds.
It gets down & dirty with that old time Marcus Miller jazz sound to a modern boutique type sound. Great for slap and finger.

I bought the bass used and it was set up very nicely.
I got lucky that the bass was in just about flawless condition.
This bass is as I heard the easiest playing 6 string bass out there.
Tremendous workmanship.

Solid as the brick sh__ house

I have not had to use their service but I have heard that the owner himself will be happy to help you out.

Been playing 35 plus years and have 15 basses at the moment. Have owned off & on more than 75 basses. The F bass ranks right up there with the best. A joy to play and listen to.
If I had to stick to one bass only, the BN6 by F bass would be at the top of the list along with my Alembic & Custom basses. It would be a difficult decision.
A very expensive bass but close to being worth every cent. Wonderful!

Sweet.
Emrald green, with flame maple top.

Got a great deal at GGuitars. (Great customer service-Thanks Brian!)
Bought this new without trying it, on strength of reviews alone.

The neck is simply amazing, so comfortable, makes you play like a monster. I can play chords comfortably at the 24th fret, it feels like there is no body horn.

Best preamp I've come across, 3 band eq, coil taps, bypassable and a passive tone knob gives tons of control. First time I've found a mid that sounds good boosted.
Only caveat is I would have prefferred a blend knob instead of 2 vol knobs. I think you can get this as an option if you custom order

Marcus Miller type of sound.

Incredibly dynamic, actually I've never found this in a bass before, it has the dynamic range of an acoustic , great for expressive type finger stuff.

Sounds wonderful slapped, very natural, with all the right detail.
Has a reputation for being the best 6-string for slap/sound. All I know is it kicks!

No noise from the preamp whatsoever, as I said above, the bass and mid controls are the business. The treble is voiced for tweaking though, it's not the kind you leave on full all the time, but this is the point of eq, I suppose.

It really brought out the weakness in some of my gear, it sounds so good. I just want to process it as little as possible.

Very well set up, brilliant fret job.

My only gripe actually was the strings it came with.(Labella super steps) They were probably pretty dead when I got to them. Do this wonderful instrument no justice at all. Replaced them with boomers and now it sounds slap tastic.

The bridge is made to take the aformentioned taper-core strings, so the slots in the saddles are very narrow. It does work fine with normal strings though,with a few adjustments.

What you would expect for a bass in this price range.

George F. is well known for great customer service.

Absolutly love this bass. Very happy.