bnt

The only guitar I've had for years is one of these, a Thinline nylon-string semi-acoustic by Harley Benton (Thomann). I wanted something semi-acoustic, not too loud in person (though it's not exactly quiet), along the lines of the Gibson Chet Atkins CE for much less money. I don't think it spent one day in standard tuning, since I went all fourths straight away (EADGCF, a la Alex Hutchings), and it's now in my experimental major/minor chord tuning (G B D F# A C#). Anything to not be a busker, basically. But I do have an eye open for a Cheap Telecaster ... maybe in Purple.

It’s not crazy at all: car culture was huge in the USA in 1950s, and articles such as this describe how Fender got on board. Also: back when TV was black and white and studio lights were harsh, people had to wear yellowish makeup so that they would look white on TV, and Gibson produced guitars in what they called TV Yellow. It was a weird greenish yellow, but people grew to like it and they still use it sometimes on new guitars.

Guy Pratt has just posted a video about his work with Kirsty McColl, and he's playing a bass discussed in this thread:

If we’re talking carbon fibre composite necks, then we can’t leave out the company that started it: Modulus Graphite. The founder (Geoff Gould) had an aerospace background, and did some experiments and concluded that sustain was a function of stiffness (Young’s modulus) than weight. One of their neck-through instruments has been on my “ship came in” list for decades now.

It was a feature I looked for and got when I bought the Harley Benton Enhanced MP-4 a few months ago. This was not from any expectation that it would make a major difference to the sound, but simply because I have seen bridges pulled up or bent because of how the forces are applied. With string-through-body, the forces push the bridge down, rather than pull it up at the back.

Quick update: I've been trying a couple of unsuccessful tone control experiments, but nothing really necessary. I'm happy with the split processing tones I can get: I get the feeling that I need to hear how these tones sit in a mix with other instruments, but right now it's a solution in search of a problem. In the short term I'm going to leave it, in the long term, if I need to make it gig-worthy, I would consider replacing the lot with EMG electronics. I'm happy enough with the construction and flexibility of this bass that I'm trying heavier strings than I've ever used before: I found a D'Addario EXL160BT set locally. This is the balanced tension set, 50-120 (201.7 lbs) instead of the typical 50-105 (189 lbs) or EXL170 45-100 (165 lbs). I gave the truss rod about 1/3 of a turn before installation, and it's pretty close but will need a check later. The increased tension on the low strings means a stronger tone that handles drop tuning well. The other day I had it down to CGCF so I could tackle Anesthetise by Porcupine Tree, and they didn't go floppy on me. (A .120 string is a light low B string as it is.)

If you don't mind a Sandberg feel, Thomann has the Harley Benton Enhanced range which includes 5-strings in P and J styles. (The natural finish is on back order, but they have the blue in stock.)

I was surprised to find a D’Addario balanced tension set in a shop here today, so I snapped them up for my HB. The neck is fatter than my other bass and would seem to lend itself to drop tunings, so I have the EXL160BT set, gauges 50 - 67 - 90 - 120. Guitarists (ptui) would call this a light top / heavy bottom set, I suppose.

I've been trying to spec a custom set for either CGDA or GDAE (fifths), and found this string gauge calculator helpful. If I try to balance all strings for about 40lbs each, I get something like this: My "takeaway" from this is that the relationship is not linear: for a given tension, the gauge roughly halves for every octave up.

Well, that and his EBMM signature model, :

I bought one of these last year, not sure at the time exactly how I was going to use it. Since then I've hooked it up to an 2018 iPad (with the USB3 camera connection kit), and hung various thing off it, including a Mackie Performer audio interface, and old-ish synth (Novation Xio), a modern USB MIDI keyboard (Nektar Impact), my t.c. Spectradrive, even my wireless phone charging pad. It's been trouble-free, using Aum to route audio and MIDI in, out and around the iPad to soft synths. Push-button port switches are handy too.

Here’s a play along video with the EHB1506MS quite high in the mix:

40k, you say? It sold for $93,438.75 (includes buyer's premium). What's that in $ per cc of sweat? 🥴