Fbass - BN5 Deluxe

Details
Bass Diaries

A renown boutique instrument builder often spent most they career to design, make and then to perfect their signature product.   I’d say a BN5 is the one that made the name for Fbass.   And few decades later, they’ve decided to revamp their signature product to bring it up to a new level.   I’m lucky enough to have my hands on one of the earlier BN5 Deluxe bass and I think they did it.   

 Specs:

  • Roasted Ash body
  • Maple Neck
  • Mac Ebony fingerboard
  • 22 Frets
  • 34.5” Scale length
  • 19mm string spacing
  • 10lbs
  • New dual coil pickups with 3 way switching for each pu
  • 3 Way toggle are Series Humbucking/ Single Coil / Parallel Humbucking
  • Alumium Hipshot A Bridge with brass saddles
  • Classic Fbass preamp
  • Controls are Vol / Vol / Tone (Active/Passive) , Hi / Mid / Lo (Boost only)
  • Fbass gig bag

Playbility:
Fantastic playability, the long upper horn puts the bass more up right when using a strap, which makes fretting the 34.5” effortless.  All 5 strings are well balanced and smooth.  Fretworks are exceptional, neck is straight, action is low with moderate string tension .   Compound neck profile is not necessary small (the profile has an overall more P than J feeling to my hands).  The finish is very slick.    

Sound:
Roasted ash body plus Mac ebony fingerboard, think a classy and delicate 70s style jazz bass ..   not as raw/wild as the maple/ash combo but has a sweet and round sound by natural.  3 bands boost only preamp is very transparent yet musical.   And here comes to fun part !   The 3 way coil switches for each pickups.    They cover everything from a pbass (neck in series) , jbass (single coil), and musicman style (bridge in parallel) not just more versatile but  they did darn seriously.    The switches are very intuitive to use and it’s very difficult to dial something that doesn’t sound good .. 

Thoughts:
BN5 has been around for a long time and made its own reputation, they’re good in every way, and I think they’re still a Fender influenced instrument.   This new Deluxe rendition mades me feel like they’re now on par with other boutique builders such as MTD and Fodera with that even more in-your-face dual coil /compressed sound ..   or even more ..   

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