FARAY GUITARS

Malang, Indonesia

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At the base of mt. kawi in east java indonesia, ferry hari susanto and a small team of builders imagine and bring to life unique basses that embody the rich floral culture of their surroundings.

The tropical environment of Indonesia supplies Ferry and his collaborators with beautiful indigenous hardwoods like Spalted Tamarind, Rosewood Root and Curly Mango. His team fashions multi-string and multi-scale instruments with unique color schemes and design aesthetics that draw from the lush flora of their region. The Celor model (designed exclusively for The Bass Spot) features a leaf shaped headstock and a green to yellow hombre finish.

Working in an open air shop right off the rural streets of Sumberpucung, the builders at Faray Guitars use few power tools to craft their unique instruments. Only power band saws and belt and spindle sanders are used in the building process. The majority of the instruments are shaped by hand using planes and rasps and elbow grease. The frets slots and frets are installed by hand with exacting precision. All decorative fingerboard inlays are cut and installed by hand. A touch of modern technology is added when the laser engraved logo and “made in” designation is added to the instrument control cavity cover.

SPOTLIGHT ON

Owner, Ferry Susanto

  • A: We saw the many advances of bass builders on social media and the internet and the beautiful work they had made. This inspired us to create new designs with our version.

  • A: We started building instruments since 2017

  • A: Our builds we make are not done en masse, we make one from another which is done specifically at a specified time, and we also use selected wood materials that we provide so that 80% of our buildings look exotic and natural

  • A: The dry quality of the wood is one of our reasons we achieving good tone results. The pickups and electronics also play a big role so that the instrument will sound great. We also pay great attention to comfort, playability of the neck, scale length and also the accuracy of intonation as well.

  • A: We have been making instruments for 7 years and during that journey we have used many things... from traditional or modern equipment to lasers or CNC. According to our experience, traditional equipment plays a very important role in making our instruments, and modern equipment only speeds up some of the work. Both methods help each other and are always connected between traditional or modern, in our opinion traditional equipment is easy to control with movement and heart because to achieve a beautiful building you have to do it with feelings and heart

  • A: Our satisfaction is when customers say that the instrument they ordered from us is truly perfect and they always play it at every performance or during practice, we feel that it is a source of pride that cannot be replaced by anything.