NBD: Furch BC 61-CM4

[Djadja]

Ive been gassing for an acoustic bass for a number of years but every one that I played was missing something. The physics of the instrument make it terribly difficult to not make overwhelming compromises. My sense was that if one spent enough money, a solution was more or less possible (obviously an ABG is not going to be as loud as an upright nor as deep and rich) with acceptable trade-offs. I played one of the Klein/Taylors and it seemed to work but was sooooo freaking huge. I never encountered a Tacoma in the wild. I played a couple of Breedloves... they were close but something not quite there. Then the Spector and Boulder Creeks at NAMM... again close but not quite. I played the Guilds... nope. And a number of the shorter scale acoustic basses... cool but not what I was looking for. I saw some videos of the Furch that sounded great... They seemed to have a bit more sustain, less clank, and more depth. Maybe. I played one at NAMM 3 years ago And as well as I could tell at NAMM, it met my hopes in every way except I’d prefer a slightly shorter scale. Trade-offs.

I still wasn’t sure whether I wanted the fretted or fretless. I was pretty sure that I preferred the cedar top (I almost always do on acoustic guitars).

At that point I couldn’t find any in the US and didn’t feel confident about ordering one from Europe.

I played another at NAMM 2 years ago and had the same positive impression. And I kept watching/searching for one in the US. About 2 months ago a number of new ones came up on Reverb. Then a used one here. I bought the used one here. Thanks @Dickie ! It arrived yesterday.

I haven’t plugged it in yet but as an acoustic instrument it really is head and shoulders above the other ABGs Ive played. Sustain is exceptional. It has real depth. It seems loud enough that it would work with an acoustic guitar. The previous owner had replaced whatever the OEM strings are with DAddario tape wounds and they sound great on this bass although I’m guessing impact the volume a little. All in all, I’m really looking forward to getting to know this bass.

Heres the for sale thread... with photos.

And a great video of the fretless version.

 

[Djadja]

I got to plug the bass in for a few minutes today... I’m not crazy about under-the-saddle pickups in general but this one seems as good as any (an LR Baggs Element I believe). I basically had to turn the tone all the way off to remove the harshness but then I was able to cop a nice upright bassish tone with the tape wound strings. I was able to get it as loud as I wanted without feedback issues standing right in front of my Genzler 12-3 cab at more or less the same volume I play my electric basses with the church band. It did seem to lose a bit of the sustain when played amplified. And the pickup is really hot. Still, it will work live once we get back to being able to have live gigs. I think it will be perfect with some of the singer/songwriter gigs I do.
Another thing that struck me today as I played with the bass standing up is how incredibly light weight this bass is. I play a Lowden acoustic that weighs a lot more than this bass. And the bass is big... although so is my Lowden.
It is obviously the blush of new love at this point but I like this bass a lot.

 

[MD]

That's a nice sounding bass.