FBB Owners Past & Present

Nick B. Owner of #43-01. Purchased off another TB'er back in '03.
This is Matt's one and only "wave" top. Since it's inception, It has been upgraded from the stock passive EMG's to an Aggie OBP-1/Bart 18v set-up. Very nice bass. My only Irks are how far forward the bridge is mounted. It puts the neck at an almost uncomfortable reach for the first 5 frets when its strapped on. Sitting, its perfect.

 

Here's my old one. Traded it to my friend Bryan in Chicago for a 7 string Conklin, I initially tapped Matt to build me one but the build time was just too long for me.
I absolutely loved the bass and should have NEVER traded it, truly a beauty in every aspect.

 

Ed,
Great idea. I'd be particularly interested in learning who JonB is that has/had this one, #039-01:


Mine is #031-00:


Former TBer Xush still has his FBBs, as far as I know. Check www.xush.net.
I know Major Metal used to have one, and Peter McFerrin has two at one point, but I know he sold one. One of his was #1046-01. I don't know which was his fretless.

 

I'd love to see that list sometime, and maybe sync it up to a Map, so we can see how far our FBBs have traveled! Proud owner of #019-99 here.

 

Here's mine: #10-41... I think last year, I pondered selling it and getting a cheap 6 stringer or something, but I'm glad I didn't... Honestly, it's the best bass for me, as it is the one I started on. Now I bass every bass I play/try/etc on my FBB, and none of them feel quite right... My only complaint is that's it a bit heavy, but thats my own fault due to the selection of woods... So here are some pics below:

 

I owned this one shortly

 

I sold mine, was glad to be rid of it. It was a valuable (if expensive) lesson, though, as I now know not to choose custom bass features/woods/etc. just because of how cool they seem in my imagination, but rather only to choose elements that are already known to work well together. That bass has been re-sold at least once more that I know of.

 

Bongo... what was wrong with your FBB? Just curious...

 

Oh, I had a bunch of fancy ideas in my head, and Matt built it exactly the way I asked without challenging any of it. The result didn't sound anything like I thought it would. He also didn't challenge some inherent contradictions in what I asked for. So the advice of "listen to what your luthier suggests" would not have applied here- I really wish I had gotten more feedback from Matt about what I was asking for. Basically I started out with some specific tone goals, and then got caught up in picking fancy woods and electronics etc., and by the end of it was off track from those tone goals.

The construction quality was very clean and sharp, except for two things: one, the wood segments all fit together pretty randomly, like a Jenga or a jigsaw puzzle. It was tight, there were no gaps or glue showing, but the interlocking sections all looked pretty random. The second thing was the frets had very sharp edges; I sent it back to him for a few things to be altered and said "please file down those sharp-edged frets" and he sent it back saying he didn't see anything wrong with them.

I also didn't like the neck profile- that's another thing that Matt did not ask me about or make any comments or suggestions about, and at the time I didn't know what to ask for.

 

Yeah, it sure looked (looks) sweet. I feel I should emphasize again that he built exactly what I asked him to. I just didn't have a real grasp on what I was asking for or how to get certain results.

 

Ahhh! Why now?!
Thanks for looking out, Ed.

 

I just picked up this FBB short scale today..excited to get it next week.

I really dig short scales, so excited to find one of this quality