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Harley Benton PB 50


Nothingman
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Picked this up off a fellow BC'er (El Capo) last year and it has been sat round gathering dust. First photo is his. 

 

It is a beauty considering the price so I have decided to spruce it up. 

 

No as my fat fingers are pretty ropey at doing anything practical, a friend of mine is doing the actual graft on this. I am just calling myself 'project manager'. 

 

Now despite 75% of my basses have been sunburst, I am not too keen on them. So with this we (well he) is stripping off the sunburst, which appears to be a wraparound coat (see picture) and going to paint it TV yellow/Butterscotch blonde. However, not decided which yet.

 

The head stock was already shaped to mimic Fender one and there is a decent fender bridge on there. 

 

Going to take a wee bit off the neck, but not much as I like a hefty neck. 

 

Other than that, not much to do. Will see how PUP gets along and swap out at a later date. 

 

Just need to order a black 3 ply plate to finish it off and may do something different with the volume and tone wheels. 

 

So purely aesthetics at the moment. Really I am using this as an experiment to learn a little about building and re-painting guitars (although I can't shadow hime now!) so I know what needs to be doen and how much to spend if I see a project for sale in the future. 

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More pics...

been itching on one of these... i likes a rear routed and simples... just a shame its not a split P.

I understand the finish is a transfer. some google search seems to say that there ia a ply or something layer on the sunburst model over the red one.

would be interesting to see how the finish is applied and what the bass wood under looks like.

I would look to maybe Danish oil the plain wood, and maybe cocktail stick the scratchplate holes, and fit the thumb rest above the E.

More pics please.

Edited by PaulThePlug
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14 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

I understand the finish is a transfer. some google search seems to say that there ia a ply or something layer on the sunburst model

It's a "photo flame" , same as was used on many Fender Japan models.

 

Basically a photo print of grain gets stuck on the body with a stained Poly lacquer sprayed on top.

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1 hour ago, Nothingman said:

@PaulThePlug I’m new to this stuff. But what is meant by cocktail stick the scratch plate holes? 

Use a cocktail stick as a filling dowl, pva glue it in to the scratch plate screw holes, cut slightly proud 'n sand flush... or cut for just under the body level and fill with a pva and wood dust type mix then sand flat when set.

Plain body... No scratch plate

Edited by PaulThePlug
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2 hours ago, Jimothey said:

@kodiakblair your collection looks awesome!

Just out of interest did you do anything with the body you got off me? 

Cheers James, been a couple of changes since then.

 

The blue slab in the middle was sanded back , looked way too dark. Currently has an old Noll P-bass preamp in it and a massively over-wound (29.9k ohm) single coil from Dave at Bloodstone 🙂 The aged white to it's right went to live with Stew Black. Chi-Sonic Telecaster now sports a snazzy white pearloid plate courtesy of Mr Pillans in Glasgow.

 

Sill have the body . Had a hard time sourcing pickups and a neck for it. Ended up buying a Yamaha 5'er neck and a couple of Peavey VFL pickups.

Glued a block in the neck pocket ready to router out again. Then I ran out of steam 🤣

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  • 3 weeks later...

Been slack on the updates. 
 

But got the ‘Slab’ back last night and gave it the best amateur set up I could. 😬

 

Don’t think the photos really bring out the colour but it’s a lovely vintage cream with a hint of yellow. 
 

Mate did a bit of a re-wire too, stripped a little off the neck, oiled it up etc. 
 

Now, as you can see from my amazing photoshop skills, it I need to make a decision on pick guard. Stuck between black and dark red tort, with the tort ahead by a nose at the mo. 
 

Was never going to be a high end refurbishment but a quick sprucing up. 
 

As mentioned earlier, I was hoping to shadow him and learn how to do this myself. COVID put that idea to bed. 
 

However, now I’ve got the bug to work on more projects and learn a bit about refurbishing basses. I’m pretty useless with stuff like this, but I do love a challenge! 
 

Best start searching the Market place for some cheap beat up bodies. 

 

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