About Henrik Bonde Hanfgarn

It started in the summer of 1994

I got my first real 4-string (Pun intended) in one of the local music stores, and I remember it being a big thing. A US-made Washburn MB-4, and I bundled the bargain with a Peavey TNT 115 combo. From that day on, I considered myself a bass player!

Jazz Basses came first and stayed for a long time. That clean rock tone was everything I wanted, and I got comfortable controlling it live and in the studio. Precision basses? Not my thing at all. The chunky neck profiles felt difficult to swing into, and I found the sound too boomy and indistinct.

But luckily I got wiser – it just took more than a decade! During some intensive years of gigs, our sound engineer Peter (and good friend) kept returning to the same line after soundchecks: “Rock N’ Roll sounds best with a P-Bass.” He was cleverly persistent, and eventually I started looking for a way to get that Precision sound with a neck I could actually live on.

That search led me to the early-70s narrow “A” neck profiles, and from there to a Fender Japan PB70 reissue – the affordable route to the same thing. It didn’t take long to find a good candidate, and it was love at first sight. Half of what’s in the vault today traces back to that one bass.

-> How I got hooked on the Fender Japan PB70s

How the strange places happened

Any first step will lead you to the next. In my case, a longtime connection with Kasper Kamuk – brilliant photographer, good friend, and founding partner at Kolorit Media – led to us planning a one-off photo session showcasing basses in the old orchard basement storage that’s part of their studio location.

That one session turned into the first of many. Since then the basses have been to a brickworks, a vintage car collection, a record store, a Danish rapeseed field in full bloom, and an Odense parking garage. There are plenty more to come.

Almost all of it is shot on a phone. No rigs, no lighting setups, nothing getting between me and the moment. It means working with whatever light is already there, and being able to chase an angle even if it involves climbing something. The goal is never weird for weird’s sake – it’s finding places that make you see an instrument differently.

-> See the Bass Journeys

The Bass Vault

A good case of a bad obsession! There are forty-odd basses here now: Fender Japan reissues, American Fenders from the CBS years, Gibson’s stranger experiments, artist signature models, and a run of polarising finishes that divide opinion and photograph beautifully.

I’m not a collector in the traditional sense. I don’t hunt serial numbers for the sake of fame or investment. I’m simply the concierge of these instruments for a time, and my only real rule is that they get played, heard and shared. These are not closet queens meant for silent storage – the bass you see sitting in a rapeseed field went to a session later that same week.

I do fully agree with the phrase “you can only wear one pair of shoes at a time”… but I like to be prepared and live by the saying; Do what makes you happy 😉

The real depth is in Fender Japan. PB70 Precisions and JB62 Jazz Basses across the MIJ and CIJ eras, plus an Aerodyne, a Mustang and a Hama Okamoto signature. Enough of one thing, over enough years, that I can tell you what genuinely changed between a Fujigen-built early MIJ and a late-90s Dyna Gakki CIJ – rather than repeating what the catalogues say.

-> Explore the Bass Vault
-> The Fender Japan archive

What I know – and what I don’t

Worth being upfront about, because there’s a lot of gear writing out there claiming more than it has.

Fender Japan I know properly. MIJ versus CIJ, Fujigen versus Dyna Gakki, model codes, neck pocket and heel stamps, which eras are worth chasing and which really aren’t. That comes from owning a lot of them and comparing them side by side over many years.

Dating and authenticating vintage Fenders is the other thing I’ve put the hours into – serial cross-referencing, pot date codes, pickup windings, hardware and tuner styles, neck profiles and finish application. Whatever I find goes into the vault entry, mismatches included.

Setups and repairs? No, rarely! I’m a player, collector and documenter, not a luthier or repair tech. For the actual technical work I rely on people far better at it than me – and if you’re in Denmark and need a recommendation, just ask. I’m happy to point you toward the ones I trust with my own instruments.

And I don’t know everything about basses I’ve never held. When I write about one, I’ll say so.

-> Navigating the MIJ & CIJ eras

Gear I love to use

On stage and in the studio: a TC Electronic Blacksmith, a Fender Bassman ’67 (AB165), Ampeg cabs, and the Line6 HX Stomp when it calls for quick and compact solutions.

Want to hear the basses behind the collection?
-> The Bass Vault Playlist

Elsewhere

I play live in Denmark with Bad Boys of Boogie and Foo Fighters Tribute. The bass hook on Nü Néon’s “Vi Kysser Natten Farvel” came out of a short-scale Mustang from the vault – the whole track was built around a riff that turned up in my first week with that bass. It was released in July 2022 and picked up by DR KarriereKanonen shortly after.

I had a great conversation about the collection with Danske Bassister.

I thrive on being inspired, and I owe a lot to Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass, Rob van den Broek’s Gibson Bass Book project, and Johnny Marr’s Guitars – those sparked the flame. The rest are in my must-read bass books list. And a big shout out to all and any of you sharing your stories, collections and passion for bass guitars 🔥

• Instagram @bassgarn
• Instagram @bassesinstrangeplaces
• Bad Boys of Boogie on Spotify Artist link
• MAWIC on Spotify Artist link
• Nü Néon on Spotify Artist link
• TalkBass Profile
• Basschat Profile
• LinkedIn Profile

Reach out

I would love to stand corrected! If you’ve got a Fender Japan you can’t identify, a strange place I should photograph, or a fact on this site that needs rephrasing – let me know. And if you want to share your own collection, photos or stories, I look forward to reading them.

Get in touch and Project FAQ for questions about the project itself, image licensing, and how the journeys come together.

Hope to inspire you – Thanks for your time and interest.
Best regards, Henrik