Vin Venal

Nice collection. Is the Starcaster vintage, or one of the reissues? Got pics? 👀

I love the sound of a big muff, but I'm into mids at the moment, and the big muff is too scooped to make it onto my board. Using an EBS black haze now, which is a fuzzy distortion pedal - kind of sounds like a rat without the low end loss.

Mostly my friend Rich, who had the internet, and would download stuff onto compilation cds, and bring them round to mine. 😁 We were going to gigs most weeks in those days too, so you got to know loads of bands that way. There were also the alternative clubs. I didn't have the internet or even MTV until my 20s, and I didn't really figure out how narrow my tastes accordingly were until I discovered streaming much later in life. Gen Z is growing up with access to basically all of the world's music whenever they want for free (or at least for very little if they don't want to break the law), which is amazing in a way, but also scary to people for whom discovering cool bands was like a badge of honour.

I had a separate compressor - a dead good aguilar one. I was able to figure out how to use it, but the problem was, I didn't need to adjust the settings often enough to remember how to use it the next time if you see what I mean. I'm a one-knob type of person when it comes to compression it seems, so the one in my amp will usually suffice.

If I were to put money on it, I'd guess a combination of the latter 2 - they probably had the production line running for Aria, until Aria stopped buying em, so they offered em to Thomann cheap. I don't think Harley Benton has capacity to produce any original designs though, beyond what their suppliers are offering. Harley Benton don't really exist as an instrument manufacturer in that sense. Like, I don't believe there is a team of designers in Germany, who have stuff made overseas to their spec. Thomann just picks from the catalogue of their manufacturer, who brands accordingly. It's the inherently unstable artificial division under late stage global capitalism into the centre (where the intellectual property and the technical expertise are maintained) and the periphery (where labour is exploited), being eroded before our very eyes, as it comes up against the intrinsic class based conflict which remains the driving force of change in the system even when you are able to geographically isolate the respective parties.

Mojo is a good thing, and even better if you earn it yourself. A harley benton you've battered the sh*t out of is better than a clean one imo.

Oh yeah I know, I think I was just labouring my point that I reckon these are made in the same factory as the Arias. Like, if you were just gonna copy the body design for a cheaper bass, you wouldn't include details like that necessarily. But if they come off the same production line, probably cheaper to include it than to retool or whatever? I dunno, I'm just thinking aloud because I'm curious about the phenomenon of an exact "copy" of a little known, relatively cheap bass, and what insights it can give into the way brands and manufacturers work in the luthiery business. 🤷🏼‍♀️

The Aria has a truss rod wheel as well.

That was me speculating to that effect. It was pointed out that Aria use Samick in Indonesia, not China. But Harley Benton has some of its stuff manufactured in Indonesia too, and I wouldn't be surprised if they use Samick on their higher quality stuff. I dunno who owns what, but I'm convinced this isn't just a copy of the design, it looks like the same bodies off the same production line. The routing for the controls, the hardware, the location of the pickguard screws - all look identical to the Aria. Someone speculated above that the pickguard from the Aria might fit and I'd be surprised if it didn't. Dunno who designed what, but clearly, whether its through some sort of licensing arrangement or whatever, whoever manufactures these for Aria is able to sell the same design to Thomann.

I was just about to say this. 😁 It's like the essence of the 90s distilled.

Yeah, I thought that - they probably just have a machine that drills out the holes for the three point bridge, and didn't change it for these.

I understand the theory of using a clean boost to drive a tube amp harder, thus getting more distortion without too much more volume. Can I get the same result putting a boost in front of a modern class D amp with built in OD circuits in the front end? Specifically my Darkglass Microtubes 900 - I like both the built in ODs, but would like a switch to add more drive at times. Rather than buying an OD pedal to put in front, which would add its own flavour of drive, was thinking I could just get a booster, or even run an eq pedal with the volume cranked? But I dunno if this only really works with tube amps? This is the Darkglass block diagram, with the drive section inside the dotted line - it has a separate Level control before you get to the main gain staging of the amp. Sorry to ask stupid questions, I know I could just try it, but don't wanna buy a pedal just for that.

Lobster is as good as it gets by youtube standards. You can accuse him of clickbait video titles and thumbnails, but within the context of the culture of YouTube, his stuff is very mild. That's just how the youtube algorithm works I'm afraid. If he didn't engage with the youtube culture at all, none of us would likely have ever heard of his channel. Unlike basically all the other bass and guitar channels, Lobster doesn't do sponsored content. He buys all the basses himself, or borrows them from friends. All the other youtubers I know either get paid for their "reviews" by manufacturers or dealers directly, or at least get the gear for free. Lobster is only able to do that because he's basically independently quite well off. He did a video explaining this. His videos are monetized, so will be generating some ad revenue, but it will be a pittance, and probably won't even cover his expenses. That's not how youtubers make money any more.

Only 3 times the price... 😬

Trogly covered it - unlikely to get a more "in depth" look, cuz he takes them apart on his workbench, and photographs everything close up. The finish issues are apparent, but rather than being QC, it seems like that's just how Gibson does gloss finishes, especially on the headstock. They just blast it with thick paint, and let the woodgrain show through in places... Doesn't look like £2.5k worth of guitar to me, that's for sure. But I expect massively overpriced from Gibson.

I enjoyed this guys take on Gibsons current marketing, including the Gene Simmons tie in. Obviously just one person's opinion, but I do think there's something to the notion that Gibson, having been in hot water financially fairly recently, are still all about targeting the safe money, which is in the hands of boomers, hence working with someone like Simmons, who's reputation hasn't exactly aged well. Simmons is kind of an interesting figure in that sense - like I feel there's a generational divide where to some people, simmons is pure rock n roll nostalgia, and to others he's a bloated misogynist from a reality TV show.

Love Viagra Boys. Great bass tone on that song. Shades of JJ Burnel. Most pictures online show him playing a jazz bass, seemingly modified with active electronics. A few pictures of a P bass too. Backline mostly seems to be SVTs and ampeg stacks - 2018 rider stipulates this for backline. Reckon you could get this tone pretty easy with a P bass, or favouring the neck pickup on a J, into a sansamp or an OD pedal that simulates that ampeg grind.

I would like them to release an epiphone ripper/grabber type bass, and an epiphone flying V, at a similar price point and quality to the good squier stuff in the classic vibe and vintage modified ranges.

I suppose its entirely possible Aria didn't even design the bass. Rather than the Chinese factory copying the Aria design they'd been licensed to make, and selling it to Thomann with HB on the headstock, Aria may have effectively ordered that design from a catalog from their Chinese manufacturer in the first place, and it's legally theirs to sell to whoever wants their name on the headstock.

I feel like a ripper/grabber might be coming - several references in the ad to "what's coming next..."

I like the looks of these, and although I haven't played one, by all accounts some of the HBs with the "roswell" pickups and the Wilkinson hardware are really good value for money. I'd definitely buy a second hand one, or one someone has weighed - can't go much above 8lbs, so won't take a punt on a new instrument. But it does weird me out slightly when manufacturers start doing cheap copies of already budget products which are still in production. I believe this happens when manufacturers (in this case Aria) are having something produced in China, and the factory screws them over and offers the tooling and patterns to someone else on the cheap. Must be very annoying for the likes of Aria, but I guess that's part of the risk of offshoring your production to places where they don't give a toss about IP.