1992 USA Fender HM Bass... 7 lbs! SOLD £720 Edinburgh

[funkle]

Hello all

I bought this in the spirit of optimism, but I really prefer maple boards to rosewood. So it's up for sale.

I have very rarely seen 3 pickup basses, and I did a fair bit of research before buying this and after I got my hands on it. They were made for a short time in the 90's - I found a pricelist referring to this model after a lot of digging - https://guitar-compare.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/1992-February-1.pdf. This is number 72 of the 200 or so of these made. 

This is alder bodied, rosewood fretboard. It weighs 7 lbs, or thereabouts, very light indeed. (No neck dive though.) Colour is called 'Blackstone'.

It's in very good condition overall. The body has no dinks, though the headstock took one at the lower front and was touched up by someone. The neck plate is worn, but perfectly fine. The neck is straight. I replaced the stock strap buttons with Dunlop Straplocks. One of the knobs is missing the Fender logo; that's just as it came to me. 

Jazz nut width (1.5"), and a very flat fretboard (12" radius according to my feeler gauges). Narrow neck front to back too, so it feels really fast to play. 22 frets.

Setup is medium to low currently, pretty flat in terms of relief. I polished the frets, oiled the fretboard, and re-strung it with D'Addario Prosteels. It’s a very cool sounding bass with a lot of flexibility - more on that below.

3 humbucking pickups, passive, with a volume and a TBX control and a switch to control pickup combinations. The pots are a little scratchy but work fine. 

I ran some magnetic paper over the Fender branded pickups on my version. It looks like they are split coils, humbuckers, like Precision pickups but in a Jazz casing. The pickup resistances read 7.79k neck pickup, 8.56k middle pickup, 8.56k bridge pickup. They sound very clear and even. 

The pickup distances from the centre of the 12th fret to the centre coil of each pickup are interesting. These measure 28.6 cm front pickup, 36 cm middle pickup, 39.6 cm rear pickup. That puts the front pickup very near to where a conventional Precision bass EA coil sits (28.3cm from centre 12th fret to centre coil pickup), the middle pickup just in front of where a 60s Jazz bass pickup sits (36.6 cm from centre 12th fret the centre coil pickup), and the rear pickup way nearer the bridge than any other pickup I know of.

Now, for some interest, lol..... I replaced the stock 5 position switch with a Freeway 10-way switch. Link to explain is here (https://youtu.be/mrLKZZ5B8b0) but essentially you end up with 2 'banks' of 5 switch positions each. Works like a charm and opens up even more tonal possibilities for the bass.

Currently, using this wiring diagram from page 1 of the link (https://www.freewayswitch.com/app/download/8112261315/5B5-01+3PU+2Pot+Part1.pdf?t=1532631306) the switch gives the following options (from front to back):

Bank 1: Front, Front + Middle Parallel, Middle, Middle + Rear Parallel, Rear (exactly the same as stock switch)

Bank 2: Front + Middle in Series, all 3 pickups in Parallel, Front + Rear in Series, Front and Rear in Parallel, Middle + Rear in Series. 

My favourites are setting 2 and 4 from the the stock settings (Bank 1) and 1, 3, 5 from Bank 2.

 

I found a few links to try and give an idea of the sound, since hardly anyone will have heard of this bass... 

 

 

 

And photos....finally!

 

 

I'm looking for what I have put into it, so £SOLD for this USA made, rare, very light, and flexible instrument. Happy to ship anywhere.

 

Pete

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2021 by funkle

[madshadows]

That's a beauty, GLWTS  

 

John 😎 

[fiatcoupe432]

Anton it's one of my favorite bassist

Great basses too and good luck with tge sale

[funkle]

1 hour ago, fiatcoupe432 said:

Anton it's one of my favorite bassist

Great basses too and good luck with tge sale

He's now one of my favourites too. Unbelievable playing!

[funkle]

Deal pending. I’ll mark it off as sold once I have payment received, but on hold. 

[funkle]

Sold.