Paolo85

Hi all, has anyone tried both the Harley Benton JB-75 fretless and the JB-40 fretless? It seems most people buys the JB40fl, with good feedback. I would jump on the bandwagon no problem but the JB40 is out of stock. While I can wait, I wonder if the JB40 is seemingly more succesful because of differences in build quality or maybe it's mostly the Jaco looks. Looking at the specs the only difference is the fingerboard: pau ferro for the JB40 and laurel for the JB75. What sort of difference should I expect from the two woods? Thanks!

While I do love Frnder designs (more than Ibanez's for the most part) I was thinking/wondering whether the Ibanez SR design is the only design that is now a standard, seen in the hands of tons of people and copied by others (eg some ESP, Cort) that does not come from Leo Fender. I may be totally wrong (eg forgetting other designs that are as succesful, or maybe Ibanez got the broad shape of the SR from something else)

No, I cannot undo them either. I gather from the answers that this is not normal really I was already sending it to Thomann to fix because it came with a wonky tone control that works intermittently. I guess now I'd just ask for a replacement..

Thanks! No success unfortunatley

Hi all, I have one question/issue for which I'd love some advice. I've recently got a Sire V7 fretless from Thomann. Tonight I tried to adjust pickup height but I could not turn the screws. Granted, my screwdriver is not a very good one but my experience with other basses was that the screws are very easy to turn - which makes sense as there should be foam/springs underneath so not a lot of pressure on the screw. Is that normal? I definitely don't want to force it unless I am sure it is normal on this bass..

Without the pickguard I suddenly find it very attractive!

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.

Right, so I have checked with Andertons and it looks like it was marked as limited edition by mistake

Thanks!

Hi all, I have just noticed on Andertons that the Ibanez SRH505fl is marked as "limited run". That's probably a dumb question but.. should I assume Ibanez will discontinue the 5 string? Thanks!

Right, so I brought it to the Gallery. They said there was no visible bump, that level of difference in sound with the other frets is fairly common, but dressing the fretboard could help. I guess I'll leave it as it is for now and see if it continues to bug me😁

Great choice! I was very very close to making an offer a while ago. I really need a 5-string more that a 4 string but for what I have heard of the sound of these Roadster, they are magnific

Just to clarify, I wasn't meaning to criticise HB. Never tried, but I have one on the way right now

I am not an expert so others will give you better advice. But I have a cort B4fl and while it does not sound like a jazz I have a feeling it may be a step in the right direction https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/BRS6C Here is a clip of the neck pickup, not from me but from a guy that was complaining that it does not mwah in another forum. He is trying to mwah, but as you can hear, if you do not slide the sound is fairly "normal" and full. (Edit: note that in the clup the guy progressively moves his right hand from the neck to the bridge, so you progressively hear a less full, more honky sound) Here is same bass, same pickup, but in active mode (I believe without touching the EQ) https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/ppKQq I believe for your budget you can do better (the Cort B4 sounds a bit "dead in active mode and in passive you do not have a tone control). But it has two things that you may want to explore for a "strong clean sound in the lower register": an uncoated fretboard, which I believe reduces the mwah, and a humbucker pickup at the neck

Right now I am exploring different type of basses because it's fun, because it seems there is a lot of decent affordable stuff around, but the excuse is that I do it as part of a process to figure out what sort of playing style I want after a 9-year break (in a way longer than that but it's complicated) and some radical changes in musical taste. In fact, right now I am exploring quite basic differences (one 4-string fretless active modernish, one 4-string fretted passive vintagy, one 5-string fretted modernish, one cheap EUB immediately returned, one 5-strings fretless coming.. maybe a mid/short scale bass wil add to that eventually). The plan was to just figure out what I wanted and see see how things evolved (eg, will I join a band? What kind of band), then stick to the "right" one or two basses, hopefully upgrading from the sort of stuff I am buying now (all under £300, although two of them would have been above new). But then things may work out differently. With the latest two basses I bought, I told myself (and my wife) that I was going to sell one of the existing ones. But then the basses are still there.. because I like them all

Sorry, on second reading I think you meant adding relief so you could lower the stings.. please ignore my previous post 😁

If you did not get allen keys with the bass, it could be worth buying a full set (they come at arounf £15 on amazon) so you also get the small ones for the string height at the bridge which you may also want to adjust after moving the truss rod. By the way, I am not so sure adding relief would get the strings down, though I am still learning about setup. My advice, which may or may not be of help, is to check the Fender guide to setup and follow it by the letter. After you have done that, you can adjust truss rod or height at the bridge if need be (if you get buzz up to the fifth fret, maybe you need a bit more relief, after the fifth maybe better increasing height at the bridge, if you do not get any buzz maybe you can try going a bit lower). To follow the Fender guide however you also need a capo, a gauge feeler, a metal ruler with marks down to the 0.5mm at least, and tools to measure neck radius (although you may know that already). I believe you can buy all this stuff (including allen keys) for a total of £40ish. Which is some money but I think it is worth it. I had long tried to do my setup in more "improvised" ways but with mixed success. Then I decided to do everything by the book with the Fender guide on my Sire V5 and everything was suddenly ok

I bumped into this and I am quite intrigued. I was exploring options for a 5-string fretless at £400ish, but it seems there isn't much really in that range except from Sire basses which isn't exactly what I am looking for. I was thinking the HB could certainly be an introduction to 5-string fretless with limited downside in terms of price. I have seen a couple of videos on youtube. As usual, it looks like a good player could get a good sound out of it (not that I am one). But I am only interested if it is a solid bass with a decent neck that its thing without serious flaws..

Ok, I take it back 😁

I do not understand the clickbait criticism. Lobster is clearly running a business. Seriously, what person owns a Rick and buys a £190 Harley Benton copy? How many people spend their evenings making 20 minute videos (writing down, presenting, recording, editing, all to a good enough standard)? Ask anyone who makes videos for a living: it's actual work. Fun, but work. He's running a respectful business that helps people like me with limited experience getting an idea of what their perfect bass may be.. within the budget. As a person running a business he hopes to get viewings and he presents his stuff in certain ways, the same way a small local newspaper bumping into a story that is of impact for the local community would run it in the front page with big headlines. Even if the story would not in itself be remotely worth the attention of a national. For a channel entirely dedicated to cheap basses, the fact that the Gretsch is cheap does not mean anything. In fact, it makes it even more topical. For some, few hundred pounds is a lot. I do however understand the "so what, it sounds great" criticism.

That's a very interesting question. I have a 34" fretless that I love playing. I am also craving a Squier CV Jaguar 32". My intonation is already not very good as things are, so I am holding back with the Squier..

Many thanks! I think I'll try that next time. I have TI flats on my other two basses and I love them (at the same time, I agree that LaBella flats sound better especially for the purpose of sounding like flats proper.. if only they were low tension!) By the way on that I have to report that I have put some TI Jazz on, but rounds. Playability is incredible. I had to add a bit of relief, but this is more than offset by the low tension of the strings (maybe they are the lowest thension strings on the market?). At the same time, there is some buzz if I dig in hard (I rarely do). Also G is .043 and E is .089. For as good as the strings can be, this is noticeable. They sound surprisingly aggressive and maybe not "full" enough. I would not buy them again. But given the cost, I'll let them age a bit and see if they get better. Overall I would say the work well for an Ibanez (G)SR, however, as long as that's the sort of strings one is looking for. Maybe if I was playing metal, as I was many many years ago, and I was chiefly concerned with speed and coming out in the mix given that the guitar covers it all, they would be perfect.