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Short scale beauty with Aguilar ceramic P pickups. And stripes. Yum, competition stripes!!! Weighs zip all too.

A bit late but Hurtsfall played on Saturday at The Met in Whitby supporting Krow as part of April's WGW. With there being nothing on at The Pavilion this time, as the promotion company has changed hands and is gearing up for a big event in October, this was probably the most important WGW gig... A couple of photos:

"there are no tone controls to color the sound; therefore, the tone is manipulated solely by the user's technique and finesse" That's me f*cked then

Some more progress...

Right, so I have decided to give it a try in the end. And I must say I am very happy with it! The bass is beautiful. In pictures it seems a bit wonky but in person that's not the feeling at all. At first I was disappointed. The sound acoustic seemed alright but when I plugged it in it sounded all muffled. I thought preamp and pickups must be horrible. Then I replaced the strings with D'Addario tapewounds and it started to sing. Exactly the sound I was hoping for. The neck is just great. Not as slim as say an Ibanez, but feels very confortable. The tight string spacing helps. The neck is maybe a bit sharp at the edges, but that's not the same as having sharp metal frets. The bass was playable out of the box, just I decided to lower the action for more mwah, and I must say I really got what I wanted. Massive mwah through the entire neck. Even too much for what I want to do I may increase the action a bit after all. There are obviously downsides - I would be surprised otherwise as it is £245 for a 5-string fretless. The pieces of wood used for the body most likely were not chosen because of the beauty of their patterns. Wood finish seems not to be there in a couple of spots. The bridge positioning is probably not ideal. I was not able to set the intonation for the 12th "fret" in between the two spots on the side of the neck. I had to align it with just one of the dots (the one closest to the neck). Ultimately side dots will provide a rough guide and I wil have to familiarise with the neck. Most importantly, it is heavy. I haven't weighted it but it's proper heavy. In fact, there is a slight chance that I might return it because of the weight. But it is very very sight because I like it too much and because I do not see any other options of interest in the market anywhere near this price (and the fact that I want tight string spacing restricts options even further for second-hand). So, yes, I believe it is a great bass for the money.

That sarcastic attitude would have been all I needed to cancel the order. What an absolute tool. 😡 Name & shame.

At the risk of looking a silly billy and making a joke off my own post, maybe "in stock" ment 'in Stockholm '....... 🙄 Coat on and Taxi ordered... 🚕

Well, I start with a lie since I received it on Saturday... but it was meant to arrive today! I have owned a few 5 string basses in my time. From cheap ones like a Squier Jazz V DeLuxe and a Peavey Millenium to less cheap ones like Lakland 5502 and a USA made EBMM MusicMan SUB5, oh and a G&L L2500 (beast!). I never really gelled with any of them (Lakland was the closest, beautiful beautiful neck) and didn't really get to use any of them frequently enough. Eventually I decided that I didn't need a 5 string. Last year my girlfriend got me a Harley Benton MB-5. The black matt one, Stingray style. For some reason it just felt right, I loved its sound, and I kept playing it... Eventually I got used to 5 strings and these days I use either, and I'm getting to really like having 5 strings. Then I saw the new Harley Benton JJ and PJ series, I had some unexpected money in my pocket... and before I realised it I had spent £181, all included, on a natural finish JJ-550. I'm far too impressionable. This bass is not light. It's 9.8 lbs (The MB-5 is 9.1 lbs), which is not terribly heavy as far as 5 string basses go, but it's not light. I use these wide and nicely padded Lekato straps since I hurt my shoulder a while ago, and they have made weight pretty much a non-issue. I can't recommend those straps enough (and they aren't even expensive). Not light, but not a boat anchor, and it balances really well, both standing and sitting down. The neck is wide but shallow, perhaps not as shallow as the Lakland, but not far off. I find it very comfortable. Fret ends were smooth, nut is a tiny weeny higher than ideal (will take care of it at some point)... I had to do nothing to it and it alreay played well. It turns out this exact bass was the bass Thomann used as a model for their photographs, so perhaps they spent some time adjusting it: I have played another two HB basses and both needed some minor adjustments to frets and nut (as well as intonation etc). The string spacing is 18 or 18.5mm I think, I need to measure it (not in my hands this minute!), so it's in the wide side, which I prefer. Build quality... no complaints. It was £181, but it could have been a £600 bass and I'd see nothing wrong with it in that respect. It would be a very good platform for building your own with better quality hardware and electronics. Hardware... Nothing to call home about. Far better than the black hardware on the other HB basses I've had my hands on, but nothing amazing, just the usual inexpensive chrome hardware you get in this kind of instruments: they do the job without fuss, 'though. Electronics... Probably the best place to start investing money on, but just like with the hardware I don't see a need to replace anything just yet. My first impressions were a bit 'meh', but it turns out the EQ on my amp was all over the place and I had not seen that. Once I noticed and set it to more reasonable parameters, the bass sounded a lot better. I do think I will replace the pickups, simply because I like humbuckers on my Jazz type basses. The single coil hum can be annoying. It's no worse than any other single coil Jazz pickups, 'though, and I tend to roll off quite a bit of treble which also reduces hum. I would like a Model J here, but they don't make them for 5 strings so I'll have to wait and see what would be a good one to use. It's got a 2-band active EQ. Nothing amazing, but I have to say I like it more than the usual cheap preamps you find on low end basses. And not so low end! I really dislike the 2-band preamp on my Sandberg VM4, and I'm not a fan of the EMG in my Schecter Model-T Session. One 'problem' I find with a lot of 2-band preamps is that the treble is too high, so that when cutting it only cuts finger noise and little more (I'm a fan of passive tone controls). However this one works quite nicely, which was a surprise. The bass EQ is still a bit lower than I'd like, ideally, but it's no different to most other 2-band preamps. It's probably centered at around 40-50 Hz. Shielding is non existent, 'though, which for a bass with single coils is not great. Easily remedied, but really, it should be standard in any instrument. Polepieces on the neck pickup hum when touched, but the neck one is silent. Again, easily remedied, but the fact that one hums and the other don't probably hints at the care (or lack of) when choosing these components. I felt I had to say something negative, so that's that! I even like the strings it comes with (same as the MB-5: I have a set of Newtone strings I bought for it, but I ended up liking the stock strings so I have not replaced those either). I'll deal with the shielding later tonight. I have a recording session tomorrow and I would like to use this one. I've put some foam at the bridge, and I'm cutting down treble a lot, so I really don't hear any noise as long as my hands are on the strings (and very little when they're not), but I don't want to take chances tomorrow: I'm showing up with a really cheap bass, I don't want to have unwanted noise and look like I don't have a clue. Anyway... that's it for now. I'm very impressed by this bass. The MB-5 and PB-20 (Stingray and Precision style) I've played were fine (after some TLC) but you know they're cheap. This one feels like a substantial improvement in quality. Did I get lucky? Or is this representative of the range? I don't know. I'll take some pictures when I get a chance... but it is the very same one pictured here: https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_jj_55op_natural.htm edit: I liked it so much, I went and bought the PJ version a week later, see below.

This looks interesting. https://pitchslap.rocks/

Sorry in advance, rant incoming. Why to shops say items are in stock, when they aren't in stock? I ordered something from a well-known UK musical instrument supplier (probably not who you're thinking of though!) last week. The item I ordered was showing as "in stock" on their webpage. I ordered specifically from them because it was marked as "in stock" as I needed it for this coming weekend. Everywhere else had it marked 'to order' or 'back ordered'. It has been five days since I placed the order, so I've just given them a call just to check it will arrive in time. "Oh, it's been delayed coming from our supplier", was the answer. "But your website said you had it 'in stock'?' queried I. "Well, when it arrives with us from our supplier we will have it in stock, won't we?" came the response. "But that doesn't mean it was in stock with you when I placed my order on the basis of it saying 'in stock' on your website, does it?" quoth I. "But it will be when it arrives with us, won't it?" was the further retort. I mean? Whut? If it is not physically in their possession pending delivery, it is not "in stock". It is "on order" or "awaiting delivery" or "backordered". Even more clearly, it is a product which can be 'ordered on request'. It's now too late to get from anywhere else in time so I have to hope it will arrive with them in time to be sent to me. This sort of thing really boils my fosters. IT IS NOT 'IN STOCK' IF YOU HAVE TO ORDER IT FOR THE CUSTOMER!! THE FACT YOU CAN GET IT SUPPOSEDLY WITHIN A DAY DOES NOT MAKE IT 'IN STOCK'. IT IS DEFINITELY NOT IN STOCK IF THE SHIPMENT IS DELAYED FROM YOUR SUPPLIER!!! 😡 I have no problem with retailers not holding stock and ordering on request. In fact, it seems sensible to me. But saying you are in possession of an item when you are not I find really annoying. It seems to be very much particular to the music industry, too. And breathe....

Goodday all, I was wondering if there was already a thread dedicated to such hybrid basses and I found nothing, so I thought about starting a discussion. I own a Fender replacement tele/51 bass neck that was sitting on a Classc Vibe Squier body; I found an Italian relic split-model body and decided to try making them fit, since I really enjoyed the Fender neck but not quite much the tone of the overall bass. Being the body I found used and off-brand I decided to butcher that and keep the neck original, slapped a Fender re'62 pickup on the body and filled the missing parts with leftovers from past years coming un with this: The relic laquer body feels greats and incredibly resonant, the neck is and always has been simply amazing, the pickups are the same I've been using the last 12 years on my main bass and I love them.. This thing turned out to be a killer instrument and I look forward to make the body way more reliced with some real life playing. What's your take on this combo? Has anyone got anything similar?

Tiny dancer - elton

Probably time to change the subject Trussrod cover magnets in/on : Check is complete for full allen key movement and withdrawal: So that's another item off the To Do list

Remove strings. Remove old bridge. 10 minutes. Install new bridge, string up. 12 minutes. It's easy to find out whether the difference is worth it to you. You know what you're looking for from the bass, no-one else here does. It's not too hard to find out if this bridge is it.

Dear Friends, as promised, I’m happy to show you the first pictures of the EVO4 Headless Bass Bridge prototype ...

Read my lips - Jessie ware

Roxanne - The Police

Back to the Nineties when I was in a band playing the "military" circuit. I'm not sure which is worse...the hair or the shirt!

I restored an old cracked battered body….. and made up this bad boy a mate of mine has it as his go to bass pretty much almost wish I didn’t let it go, but it’s in a good home

If youngsters have grown up with it, the fault lies with the generation raising them. In this instance, age is less of a factor than attitude. I’d also suggest the guy in the end of the phone is the one enacting the duplicitous scam from the owner(s) - themselves likely to be older people. So feel sorry for the employee, blame the boss! Hope the OP gets the item. Let us know what it is and perhaps one of us can lend it to you.

Great work as ever - and that’s why they call him Andy “No gaps, No naps” Rogers..!! 😅🤣

“Can you play bass?” ”not really - but I do have some leathers” ”you’re in”

New Ray Day!

The humour of this is swerving me (PLEASE tell me the whole thing is a massive urine extraction) and is bordering on irritating.

oops kinda accidentally bought a bass ...

I really fancy either getting or building a short scale Strat-based bass, and spotted this... but is it just my eyes, or is this particular one a bit Roy Rogers? That E string is hanging off the side of the neck and I'm pretty sure the bridge needs to be a lot further back than it is. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115355170140?hash=item1adbb4355c:g:2O8AAOSw64FiYr~u

I was following a thread on TB about an EB-3 restoration and someone posted a link to restoration of a shattered NR T-bird. Absolutely magical!

no no no

I recognise that headstock shape...:)

And so there goes my last stick of Luminlay: Farewell, sweet Luminlay - I hope he treats you gently Very sad... ...but, heck, it's another one crossed off the To Do list!

It Dozen Matter Anymore Buddy Holly

Is that really the sound he was looking for? It sounds a bit like a duck.... quack, quack. His old Mexican Jazz sounded fine to me.

I now have a router table on my shopping list!

I would say desperate to be not wrong and too stupid to realise he's about to lose a customer if he doesn't admit the wrong doing.

Here’s my SB1 with Labella 76fx strings. Tone down about half way and vol backed off a bit.

Here’s one I made earlier, this came to me as kit of parts taken in a trade for a guitar amp on another forum. Warmoth painted body and bakelight scratch plate, Bareknuckle 58 P pickup and ready made loom, with a Korean Squier neck as the original owner was running out of cash. My original plan was to try and source a nice fretless neck, but in the meantime I thought a tele style headstock would be a good look, so out came the jigsaw and rattlecan, my search for another neck became sidetracked when I bought a mid seventies fretless P instead, but that’s another story. The Korean neck had a nice piece of rosewood for the fretboard and with a bit of refinishing it plays perfectly and I’ve used the completed bass at several rehearsal sessions and would happily gig with it.

Just picked one up on a local adverts website for a great price and I must say I'm very impressed at how loud this thing gets and how good the sound is out of it. My main gigging amps are an Ashdown Spyder 550 and a 'portable' Ashdown little bastard, I also possessed an Ashdown CTM100 until about 2 weeks ago but moved it on as it was gathering cobwebs. Needless to say my current steed of amps weren't exactly lightweight and I was looking for something handy for playing in small living rooms and tight corners in cafes. I still think I prefer the sound from the Ashdowns and my Spyder will remain my main amp, but the Elf will definitely come in very handy. My only tiny gripe if the fan noise, again not the loudest I've heard (looking at you 1st gen Orange Terror Bass! ) but its definitely 'there' at low volumes. For a budget Class-D micro amp though it's very very impressive and small things like that are just something you have to get over.

A little bit of flat fun with my '71 and La Bella 760FL's. Love that bass and those strings.