Rees F-Light and Big-F-Light Basses
Lightweight basses that punch like heavyweights
Choice of body size
Choice of headstock styles
Choice of a single P-bass pickup; or dual pickups of P-bass and J-bass with punchy humbucker voice
After you have played one of these basses you will be asking yourself: why are almost all basses so big, heavy and clumsy? - Well they need 34 inches of scale for fullest deep bass tone, but they don't necessarily need the industry standard 5 kg or 11 lbs of weight and long overall length for best tone. 3 kg or 6 lbs is quite sufficient for very best tone in a well designed and constructed instrument of finest wood.
F-Light Bass
4 string, long 34 inch scale, bass guitar
Ultra lightweight - half the weight of an industry-standard P-bass
Small overall length and easy to play - the long upper horn brings the headstock closer to the musician
One or two Seymour Duncan pickups for punchy full tone of vintage pedigree
Highly portable - a travel bass guitar for gigs
Korina hardwood body for fine tone and long sustain
Choice of body colours and sunbursts
Maple neck with maple or rosewood fretboard
See a 3D rotating animation of this bass
Big-F-Light Bass
Choice of spearhead or 2+2 headstock
4 string, long 34 inch scale, bass guitar
Very lightweight - lighter than industry-standard S or T solid lead guitars
Normal bass overall length and easy to play - the long upper horn brings the headstock closer to the musician
One or two Seymour Duncan pickups for punchy full tone of vintage pedigree
Korina hardwood body for fine tone and long sustain
Carved on both sides on the front and back to reduce weight and increase comfort
Choice of body colours and sunbursts
Maple neck with maple or rosewood fretboard
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Carved korina |
Single P-Bass pickup models
The pickup, made by Seymour Duncan can be either of these:
1) SPB1 Vintage P-Bass for traditional precision bass tone.
or
2) SPB3 Quarter-pound for P-Bass: The sound is a bit more punchy / fuller / modern
The sustain is very long with either pickup..
Controls:
Volume rotary knob
Tone rotary knob having a very wide range of tone
Hear Lorenzo De Feo playing a Rees F-Light bass:
This instrument has a Seymour Duncan Quarter-Pound P-Bass pickup.
This model has evolved from developments to create a voice with a fat full-toned humbucker sound that has balanced brightness, clarity through the full harmonic range, and crisp punchy response, without resorting to the unreliability of battery powered active pickups. We tried several different pickup types and combinations on prototypes. Slightly surprisingly, this configuration sounds better than ready-made humbuckers! And yes, the obvious bonus is that this beauty can also deliver authentic precision bass and jazz bass voices at the flick of a switch.
Neck pickup: Seymour Duncan SPB1 Vintage P-Bass
Bridge pickup:
Seymour Duncan SJB1 Vintage J-Bass
The result is a very versatile bass that can switch between 4 voices:
precision bass
bridge jazz bass
humbucker (both pickups wired like a humbucker in series)
smooth dual (both pickups wired in parallel as on a jazz bass)
The sustain is very long with any of the four voices.
PBJB1 Controls:
Volume rotary knob, with push-pull switch. (pull for precision bass voice)
Tone rotary knob having a very wide range of tone, with push-pull switch. (pull for bridge jazz bass voice)
(push both knobs for punchy humbucker voice)
(pull both knobs for smooth dual pickup voice)
or
PBJB2 Controls:
Volume rotary knob
Tone rotary knob having a very wide range of tone
4-way blade pickup selector switch: humbucker; precision bass; jazz bass; smooth dual
Hear Lorenzo De Feo playing a Rees F-Light 2 PU bass:
This instrument has a Seymour Duncan Vintage P-Bass pickup and a Vintage J-Bass pickup.
All these recordings were directly input and played with the instrument tone control full-on. Some might prefer to roll back the tone control a bit to clean up the recording.
P-Bass pickup
P-Bass Pickup - slap bass
J-Bass Pickup
Smooth Dual Pickups
"Humbucker" Both Pickups
Andrew Tunnicliffe talks about his Rees Big-F-Light bass:
"I have a small collection of Bass guitars at home including a Fender Precision, Music Man and a Warwick. The Rees Big-F-Light is now my favourite by
a long way.
I've been playing bass for over 25 years, covering many styles of music.
My style is quite percussive and I like to play full bass lines with plenty
of content. I need a guitar that is strong, has great action and
variability on the pickup tones. Also I wanted something light and easy to
carry. Clive has built the Big-F-Light bass to meet these needs.
The Big-F-Light has a real feel of quality to it. You can tell the
difference with a hand built guitar like this compared to a production line
model immediately. I feel very comfortable playing the Big-F-Light. It also
looks great."
Does Size matter?
F-Light: overall length 104cm (ins); weight 2.9 to 3.1 kg (6 1/2 lbs)
Big-F-Light, spearhead headstock: overall length 114cm (ins); weight 3.3 to 3.5 kg (7 1/2 lbs)
Big-F-Light, 2+2 headstock: overall length 108cm (ins); weight 3.3 to 3.5 kg (7 1/2 lbs)
(The 2+2 headstock on a Big-F-Light is bigger than the F-Light headstock)
The bass body fits closer to the musician's body due to the sculpting. The bass feels much smaller because it hangs on the strap with the fretboard considerably closer to the musician. You don't need to be a giant to play these basses, and you don't need to compromise tone with a short scale neck.
F-Light advantages:
Fits more easily to play in an orchestra pit or corner of a pub
Easy to carry on aeroplanes in a padded gig bag and put in the overhead locker
Most comfortable to play when standing up because it is lighter
Big-F-Light advantages:
Body feels more normal and comfortable when playing sitting down
| Musician height 167cm = 5ft 6in | |
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| Musician height 185cm = 6ft 1in |
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Prices
Please add £40 for maple fretboards (extra work lacquering fretboard and re-polishing frets)
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F-Light £695 |
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F-Light 2PU £775 |
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Big-F-Light 2+2 £735 |
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Big-F-Light 2PU 2+2 £815 |
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Big-F-Light SpH £735 |
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Big-F-Light 2PU SpH £815 |