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I bought a HB Shorty when they first came out and, several years and a major bass sell off later, it is the only Fender flavoured bass I still have. I swapped the pickup for a Tonerider, just because the extra oomph suited the band better, but everything else is stock. Anyhoo, I would say if you buy cheap flats you will just be disappointed - you'll end up with a dull thud and lose all the nusanced tones that more expensive flats will give you. The Thomann flats don't come in short scale I don't think and MIE cutting longscale flats to fit usually ends up with the cut end unravelling. I have TI Flats on mine - they do a shortscale version - and couldn't be happier with the sound and playability. If you baulk at paying £40+ for strings, they usually turn up secondhand in the classifieds here for £25-ish. You just have to wait.

I've made a few guitars and basses with an aluminium backbone and 3d printed body. No wood at all in the body but decent wooden necks. Nobody has yet said they sound rubbish. Perhaps they were being kind. I play them as much as I play the wooden bodied guitars and basses I own. I do not claim to be a guitar virtuoso but they sound different but no more different than my 80's Westone to my MIK Squire Tele to my Strat. My headless bass is different to my Jazz or Bitsa Jazz or Westone Thunder, not worse just different. What was interesting was how little effect the incredibly strong magnets had on the pickups. Given the strength of them, and I laughed out loud at the anvil, I would have thought it would affect the tone but it didn't appear to. I think it was a great experiment, mad but still worthwhile.

Thanks. The flats for my HB are recommended by Thomann as GHS 3020 L which are £45. The flats for my Beatles bass are recommended by Thomann as Daddario ECB81M which are a bit costly at £43 plus shipping. The strings would cost me as much as the bass.😄 I do like Daddis but I am a bit broke just now. lol

I'll share my experiences buying my two custom basses, a Serek and a Wilcock, and briefly owning an off the shelf Alpher. Granted, neither does goes as far down the custom route as Alpher when it comes to woods, pickups, pickup placement etc., but you may find the process and reflections useful (or not!) The Serek and the Alpher I bought on reputation, having never played either before I ordered one. The Serek I asked for a couple of things he didn't normally do: an unpainted roasted maple neck (he normally uses mahogany and paints the whole instrument), and moving the neck pickup back into the 'sweet spot', rather than typical jazz spacing (precision bass is my preferred sound). Before buying the Wilcock, I played one in the Gallery in London and loved the sound and neck. Viv only gives you a few things you can choose: neck and body material, and colour (you can get binding and different colour hardware as well), I chose roasted maple, alder and shell pink. The Alpher was one of their first Mini Mako short scale basses, no custom options, just bought as is from the website. Good fortune meant I loved the Serek as soon as I played it. Neck profile felt great, it sounded how I wanted it to, and is my workhorse Do Any Gig bass. The Wilcock was as great as I expected and is my main originals bass. The Alpher has amazing fit and finish, great features, incredible craftmanship... but it wasn't Mine, if you get what I mean. It was probably the neck profile, but I ended up selling it because it just didn't feel right. The lesson I learned is you don't really know the bass until you've played it. You can spec it out to the tiniest detail, but in the end you've just got to play it.

Turn, Turn, Turn - The Byrds

Has anyone any experience upgrading the speakers in the Harley Benton BB210T cab ? I’ve read a great thread on Talkbass (see below) about upgrading to a 4 Ohm cab (Oberton speakers) but I really need an 8 Ohm cab as both my power amps don’t go lower (bridged) .. https://www.talkbass.com/threads/harley-benton-bb210t-driver-upgrade.1163109/

Well there you go , the massive hath spoken 😁 well done Upsy , a well deserved victor to start the year, post me a pic and I’ll get February under way , it’s a short month, with a few days away for half term, so I for one, will need to get started a bit pronto 😂

The magnets don't "see" the wood, or your fingers, very well at all. The idea was to block out the air gap so no way fingers could be put into danger. You would still want sub pinkie sized gaps to maintain the air guitar schtick.

The magnets don't "see" the wood, or your fingers, very well at all. The idea was to block out the air gap so no way fingers could be put into danger. You would still want sub pinkie sized gaps to maintain the air guitar schtick.

The magnets don't "see" the wood, or your fingers, very well at all. The idea was to block out the air gap so no way fingers could be put into danger. You would still want sub pinkie sized gaps to maintain the air guitar schtick.

The magnets don't "see" the wood, or your fingers, very well at all. The idea was to block out the air gap so no way fingers could be put into danger. You would still want sub pinkie sized gaps to maintain the air guitar schtick.

northwest stuff is great, I have a bitsa P bass all made from their stuff I've bought a couple (3 actually) jazz necks from ebay, two fitted up well, needed levelling and the third is unused as of yet

yep looking good, well done for a tidy job confidence boosting isn't it

Hey John apparently the Harley Benton flats are very good

Albatross - Fleetwood Mac

Stingray Sunday here a decent 6 hours in the music room today - luxury