Le Fay’s Waran 5: A Bold Bass Built for Speed and Stage Presence
Germany’s Le Fay Basses has a wide range of striking bass designs, but the Waran may be the most unusual. Named after a monitor lizard, the bass has a double-cut body design with a long, pointed upper horn and a deeply recessed lower cutway for full access to the 24th fret.
“The aim Le Fay had in mind when they designed the Waran was an e-bass for musicians with extravagant tastes, for self-confident limelight enthusiasts who express their passion with the instrument’s design,” their website explains. “It’s built for leather-clad bassists who play high-speed lines and need hammering pressure for their wild staccato that continues all the way into the B-string.”
The Waran 5 is built with an ash body, carbon-reinforced padauk neck, and a padauk fingerboard. Le Fay fits it with a set of their single-coil pickups and a full cockpit of controls. It features two mini-switches – one for active/passive modes, and one for coil taps – and five knobs: active bass and treble, passive treble cut, and two volume controls.
Le Fay Basses Waran 5 Bass Specs:
| Construction: | Bolt-on |
| Scale: | 34″ |
| Body: | Ash |
| Neck: | Padauk |
| Fingerboard: | Padauk |
| Frets: | 24 |
| Inlays: | Mother-of-Pearl Dots |
| Pickups: | Le Fay Single-Coils |
| Electronics: | Le Fay |
| Bridge: | Le Fay |
| Tuners: | Gotoh |
| Finish: | Acrylic open-pore satin finish |
In his time with No Treble, Kevin has met hundreds of amazing bassists and interviewed icons like Jack Casady, Victor Wooten, Les Claypool, Marcus Miller, and more. He's a gigging bassist performing jazz in Northern Virginia and bluegrass with The Plate Scrapers up and down the East Coast. Kevin appreciates all genres of music, from R&B to metal and everything in between. Connect with Kevin on Facebook and check his performance schedule on his website.
