DaLi

Hi all, I'm looking for some advice about what to do with my Harley Benton active bass. It was my first bass back in lockdown and I've played it on and off since but when I came to pick it up the other day I pushed in the push/pull knob to engage the active circuit and got no sound! I then turned up on of the EQ knobs (from memory I think it's the mids) and it farted into life emphasis on the fart as it was heavily distorted and as soon as I rolled the mids back from 10 the sound cut out again. When I pulled the volume knob and turned it passive the sound came back albeit quiet and muddy (I don't think HB designed this to be played passive). At first I thought it was was a battery issue as I hadn't swapped the battery since I bought it but 3 sets off batteries from 3 different brands no dice. (Though I did find each set of batteries did change the sound when the mids were on full. old=farty distorted new=much noisier like tone on full through a distortion pedal noisy) So my intuition is that it's not a battery, pickup or output jack issue and this leaves me with the circuit itself. I did a little bit of testing mids on full and playing with the other EQ knobs and you can hear the treble and bass knobs shaping the white noise so they seem fine. I also opened up the cavity an all the solder joints looked fine nothing hanging off or cracked. My best guess is possibly the Mid pot is broken? I'm kinda hoping it's not the preamp as then it would be a tough decision as to whether it's worth buying a new preamp as most on Thoman are 75% of the cost of the bass 😅 Anyway apologies for the long post just wanted to cover all the details and see if anyone had had this issue or knows a fix!

Yeah this one has rocketed itself up to the No1 position for me! Do you find you have a volume difference between the P and the J pickups?

I have to agree I think Ibanez may have just won themselves a fanboy with this one! Would love to see pics of yours!

Cheers! It looks even better than the pictures I saw on the website:)

Cheers John

That's the finish I saw in all the demo videos! Very nice!

Thanks back pics as requested!

Hi All, After a week of waiting I finally received my Ibanez SR655e and I couldn't be more happy! It feels like the body was moulded just for me. As a bonus it also came strung with flats so I get to try flats! Excuse my poor photography it's not my forte

Just an update on this after a lot of shopping around and hmm-ing and haa-ing I finally settled on an Ibanez SR655e second hand! I found somewhere where I could test some of the Ibby necks (thought they didn't have that exact model in) and I'm sure I've made the right choice! Now I just have to wait patiently for it to arrive!

I think that's part of the problem is I'm not sure if I want a 5 or a 6. I have a 5 string currently, a HB with a very similar neck to an Ibanez 5 (and a broken active circuit). So I thought if i had another 5 E-C then I can keep both a low B and high C but then if I just got a 6 instead I would have the best of both on one instrument (that works) I have seen a Cort C5 in CC I know it's slightly different to the A series, not neck-thru, hipshot hardware etc. But the C5 had the Bartolini MK1's which I like from the sr505 and a decently preamp. How do you find your A6? I also realised I didn't actually state my budget in the original post but all the ones I listed were between £260-£350 apart from the 806 but that is at a retailer that does 6 months interest free finance so I could just about stretch the extra 2 bills

Thanks for the headsup on the Schecter! Hadn't looked at them when I was looking around

That EHB does look very nice! Had them on my radar for a while, since I saw bullythakid review one on YouTube. Maybe if I could shift my LTD les Paul I could look at that

Thanks for your reply yeah unfortunately my palm:finger ratio is more palm favoured haha. Could I ask why 35 would make chordal playing harder? Would the upper frets be spaced wider? I have seen a used fretted GW online somewhere but it was out of my price range

Thanks for your reply Yeah I currently have a bass with 16.5mm string spacing and one with 19mm. I definitely feel more comfortable on the 16.5 neck. I think the Jackson is the only one that isn't 16.5mm but it's only 17mm which I can't imagine would feel that much more different. The only thing that puts me off the Jackson is that it's 35" scale so I'm worried if I put a high C on it it could sound very thin. I hadn't considered short scale 5's in B standard wouldn't it be quite floppy and muddy?

As it says in the title I'm currently struggling to decide on what I want in a new bass. I've been looking at more modern style active basses and have narrowed it down to 3 (4 that is a bit of a stretch £ wise): Ibanez SR305 Ibanez SR306 Jackson JS3V Ibanez Bass Workshop SRFF806 (this is 200 more than the other 3 so is very much a stretch) I'm looking to get into chordal and soloing style playing so would be stringing the 5's with a high C. I've found a steal on the SR305 but I'm wondering if I'm giving up much over the Jackson with the active/passive and coil split functions or the 6's with keeping the low B and still getting the high C I'm looking for. Does anyone have any experience with any of these? Or advice for someone wanting to get into high C or 6 string bass?