TheLowDown

Finger exercises and warm up for around 15 minutes with the metronome. Then arpeggios, walking around the fretboard singing the notes with my eyes closed, and then i'll open the book that I'm learning at the time. At the end I may do some jamming to varying rhythms and time signatures with the metronome or a drum track so that i put into practice inversions, quickly finding the notes and intervals on the neck and making up basslines.

Playing arpeggios - major, minor, dominant(though not for triads because there's no 7th), half diminished -  daily appears to have helped. It kinda sinks in like osmosis.

I find it difficult to hear the difference if playing quickly, so I tend to let the note that's different ring out more. For example, for 7th chord arpeggios I will play the major arpeggios(root, 3rd, 5th, 7th) and then the dominant(root, 3rd, 5th, flat 7th) arpeggio, but I will let the 7th ring out a little longer because that's the note that's different. I will then play the minor(root, flat 3rd, 5th, flat 7th) arpeggio followed by the half diminished(root, flat 3rd, flat 5th, flat 7th), but let the 5th ring out longer and with emphasis.

Stew, I definitely recommend trying to sing the note as you're playing it when practicing arpeggios(chord tones being much more important than scales for us bassists) and scales so that you can hear the collection of notes where the chord toens comes from. Even if you have to go into a soundproofed room. Many of us feel the same way about our own voices.

1 hour ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

You could claim that being able to adjust the pickups and better upper fret access would be an advantage of the Ibanez over the Harley Benton, and judging from reviews and YouTube demos it sounds better too, to me at least, many mention the Harley Benton sounding boomy and muddy, whereas there seem to be a lot of praise of the pickups in the Ibanez, finally to me  the Ibanez also looks much much better.

The only disadvantages of the Ibanez over the Harley Benton, from what I can see and to me personally, would be the fact that you can't run it in passive mode from stock, as you mention, which though would just be a matter of always making sure the battery is fresh and keep an extra one, just in case (there's easy access to the battery compartment at least), and that it has slightly wider string spacing, though to some that would actually be an advantage, well and then the price obviously.

Hard to tell for certain though, when I haven't actually personally played any of the two basses in question.

In any case I have  already ordered the Ibanez, so no turning back, unless I return it again, but if it works as it is supposed to and live up to the impression I got from the reviews I've read and the YouTube demos I watched featuring it that won't happen.

It's only boomy in passive, as mentioned above. It's not at all boomy in active mode. The range of tones is actually very versatile, although I rarely change the settings once I've found something I'm happy with. . Good luck with the Ibanez 👍

18 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Well, that certainly got me reconsidering.

Luckily my yearly revenue of streaming/playback money from my music production excels all expectations, just checked my bank account and got a minor shock of how much it was.  

Almost thought it might have been a mistake. 

Anyway that means that I can easily afford the Ibanez SR306EB, plus some other musical equipment I have been wanting for a long time, so I think I'd likely end up getting that Ibanez 6 string bass, in the weathered black finish with black hardware. 

I was just listing the negatives, and every bass has them. If they were a bass to reconsider I wouldn't have bought 3 of them.The Ibanez has plenty of downsides too as the only practical advantage of it is its preamp(there's no passive switch on the Ibanez), and you're more than doubling the cost for that. Paying more doesn't necessarily mean a better bass.

16 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

Don't they have springs or is it foam ?  If its foam, remove it and get 4 springs (maybe need cut down to size). Re-use the existing screw holes.

 

Raise or lower to your heart's  content.

I unscrewed the screws but it doesn't alter the height - it just removes the screws, so I don't think there's any foam in there. I'll have a look later.

23 minutes ago, Rich said:

Yeah, but there's a bit of a difference between musicians having a friendly dig at each other, and a retailer going "Hey bassists, you're a bit rubbish! Buy our stuff please."

That's not what they're saying. As mentioned, they could have chosen any instrument, but they chose the bass because  bass and guitar are seen as being similar to many people.

The message says nothing other than "hey guitarist, why don't you try a [instrument] instead".

Yes, they definitely look alike. But to be fair, apart from outlandish designs, all basses fit into one of a handful of design templates.. The Yamaha RBX JM2 also looks like many that have gone before it.

16 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

I consider getting the Harley Benton B-650 Progressive Series 6 string bass in black finish.

Would be my first 6 string bass, though if I get it I will tune it in D standard tuning, as in the lowest string just being 2 half steps bellow regular E 4 string bass standard tuning.

It gotten some great reviews and I like the fact that it got a more narrow fretboard than most other 6 string basses on the market (unless you go shortscale Fender Bass VI type instruments, but that is too narrow string spacing for my taste, and I actually want to go regular 34" scale too), with a just 51mm nut width and 16mm string spacing.

Not too pretty though in my opinion, but honestly not something that really bothers me much :

 

I have both the fretted and fretless. They're surprisingly lightweight for a 6 string. The active/passive push-pull button can easily be knocked so you need to watch for that, and it's very audible. In passive mode it lacks treble. No shortage of low end with this one. The stock pickups can't be raised or lowered.

I don't think this is meant to be a slight on bassists. They could have chosen any other instrument to indicate that they shouldn't be playing a guitar, just so happens that the bass is the guitarist's bro.

4 hours ago, stewblack said:

I have a sunburst Jazz which is older and a real ⚓. The 2 pickup version of the musicman style bass and that's pretty heavy too.

Maybe the all black ones are from a new run using lighter materials. I don't know but I have the P Bass and MM bass in the Stealth Black and both are a beautiful weight. 

1 hour ago, mcnach said:

 

I suspect that the sunburst and black versions are essentially 'different' models commisioned at different times perhaps at different factories and likely different specs to some extent. 

2 hours ago, DarkHeart said:

I had a the 5 string sunburst and it had a monster neck on it, I`m thinking for the black ones they may have revised the profile of the necks, certainly the 4 string I`ve now got is really comfortable and quite shallow, maybe some extra weight is coming from the chunky neck?

I suspect so. Come to think of it, the lighter weight quotes seem to be taken from the black version. I have the HB B-450 and B-650 too, and the depth of the neck on them is almost half that of the MB-4. The tuning pegs are like huge metal monoliths, so they add to the weight too.

17 hours ago, DarkHeart said:

Is it one of the black ones or sunburst?

Sunburst. Maybe they're heavier. I've seen the bass quoted as being around 8lbs which is a good kg lighter. I expect there to be some variance in weight between basses, but surely not this much.

My MB-4 arrived today. It's much heavier(4.5kg) than I expected it to be for a 4 string, and is even heavier than my HB 6 string! The neck is chunky, but playable.

16 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

Close to 6 years moderating the bass side of the Harley Benton forum and the same dishing out numbers on the TalkBass owners thread, never had anybody make a similar claim.

Video Boy is reading far too much into things, must think EBMM have exclusive rights to a pickup position.

He's also comparing his bass to a 5 year old photo, in that time Thomann have switched factories at least twice. Each factory changes has seen a difference in parts to reflect what they have in the stores or what deal their suppliers offer. 

That photo is still on the website https://harleybenton.com/product/mb-4-sb/

15 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

What legal considerations would that be ?

 

Thomann's a multi million concern not some fly by night Ali Express vendor.

I'm well aware of Thomann.

It was suggested on a YouTube review of the MB-4

There's some decent Harley Benton 5 strings as well as the Sire M2 range.

Because there's a market for them. They have quite a unique tone that people like, and they're really easy to handle and play, less chance of neck dive, generally lighter. There's not much not to like.

I've heard that the pics that they use are slightly different to the bass that you receive due to legal considerations.

17 hours ago, stewblack said:

Whether this has been addressed or not I can't say. I can say I put a Lidl rechargeable 9v in mine sometime early this year and when I picked it up today it was still fine. 

Yup, well it didn't happen all the time but I'd noticed it at least once.

The finish is actually brown even though it looks red.

The progressive series is old but I like them. So much so that i bought 3 of them. They're really lightweight, flexible with the pickups, and can provide a good upgrade platform if necessary. There seems to be an issue with them eating batteries though, and I've noticed that with some of mine, so I only use with in passive mode. I think the feel of them is fantastic though, and awesome value for money.

10 minutes ago, stewblack said:

Amazing tonal variety if that's your thing. Personally I get a sound I like and stay there. 

 

I'm the same. Choice is overrated  😃. I often find that once I've got a tone I like I've never change it, and I don't see any reason to ever change it. Most tones  sound good to me so long as it's not that nasal jazz bass bridge pickup sound, then I'm OK with it.

5 hours ago, Bassfinger said:

Mine is 8lbs dead (4 string), so not a featherwieght but still south of middling.

I think 8lb for a 4 string is quite decent. It's definitely on the lighter side of things. Basses like Ibanez SR300 and Sire M2 are about 7.8/7.9lbs and they're some of the lightest. Plenty of 4 strings that are over 10lbs. Perhaps they put dumbbells in them, otherwise I don't know how they manage to weigh so much.

The volume difference with the B string could be a twisted string. Happened to me once. I'm not sure otherwise.

Height of pickups?

28 minutes ago, 6feet7 said:

You could be right. I’m not even sure why I’m looking. I’ve got two gorgeous Maruszcyck Jake V’s (a P/J and a P/MM) and a Warwick Starbass Pro V, plus a double bass. 
I think it’s wanting to have that ‘Rawk’ look whilst I can still stand without a Zimmer frame. 

There's a Thunderbird copy by Harley Benton for around £170 if you want that shape. Heavy as hell though. Perhaps they include a zimmer frame.

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_tb_70_sbk_deluxe_series.htm

On 18/11/2020 at 22:04, stewblack said:

One of favourite instruments. Lovely finish, sounds great, not too heavy, plays nicely. 

Stew, any idea how heavy it is? Thanks.

I'm not a collector of basses, so I would consider the Gibson to be hugely overpriced for what you get. It's also way too heavy and unbalanced for me.