Very Belated Harley Benton PB-50 Build Diary

[Huge Hands]

Hello all,

 

I am very late in posting this up, but Christmas 2023, I bought my son a Harley Benton acoustic g****r from Thomann and managed to sneak myself in a PB-50 (sunburst a'la Sting) into the order. All delivered to my house from Germany before the big day for under £200.  I don't really play 4 strings these days but I love the original Precision look. I have not seen a decent 5 string one without blowing a wads ot cash on a custom, so thought I would get it for my own guilty pleasure, and at that price (I think it was £105), it was hard for me to refuse 

 

I liked the bass straight out of the box and apart from filing down a few rough fret edges, it was ready to go.

 

I spoke to forumites on here who kindly sent me the templates to cut down the headstock to match. This concerned me as with my blunderbuss approach and giant sausage fingers, I reckoned I'd be left with a snapped headstock and a bloodstained house.

 

But then during Christmas 2024 I had a dafter idea. I have always loved the look of upside down headstocks, so why not look for a lefty neck for it?  I also looked for original look bridge and pup covers....

 

I was talking to @Merton about it last week and realised I hadn't posted a thread about it 

 

I did complete it in January and don't have the greatest amount of photos from the build, but happy with the results, so here we go ...

[Huge Hands]

First I added a bridge cover. I've not had covers on any of my basses before, apart from a really cheap thing as a kid which had threaded bolts sticking of the body that you spun a knurled nut on to. This made the cover much more easily and quickly  removable than having screws through it. 

 

I was discussing it with some friends and started looking online. We came up with the idea of threaded inserts in the body, with knurled top bolts that screwed into them. This would avoid having two prongs of death sticking out of the bass when the cover was off.

 

So, off I went (as gingerly as I know how) with my trusty Makita.

 

I was worried about drilling too far into the body so thick the thread was only about 4mm deep. It worked great but if I had my time again I would have ordered a longer insert and kept the 4mm bolt. As I had to add some foam as a spacer to the pickup cover edge to allow it to fully tighten against the body without rattling. (Pics of that later).

[Huge Hands]

So I had it like this for about 12 months. The bridge (and later pickup cover) were opportune Fender branded buys from eBay and such like which were about £35 each.

 

The inserts and bolts were a bit of a bulk buy only thing so came to about £20 if memory serves.

[PaulThePlug]

Good Darts, loves a HBP50 modder post.

Did it get a lefty stock?

 

Here is mine.

Edited 22 hours ago by PaulThePlug

[Huge Hands]

Yes, it did!

 

Apologies, ran out of time last night!

 

I kept my eye on the internet but wasn't seeing anything with a proper lefty headstock that wasn't silly money.

 

At the same time, I had become obsessed with trawling Ali Express and finding dodgy looking but very cheap little electronic gizmos that I didn't need but wanted to try out.

 

It was on one of these sleepless nights of constant scrolling that I noticed there were sellers on there doing various necks.  After more eye-dehydrating hours, I found a maple neck with the correct looking shape headstock, but a right handed nut, all ready to go for about £70 delivered. 

 

In my lack-of-sleep delirium I decided it was worth a punt. I hit order, and waited....and waited.... Eventually, about 2 weeks after the due date, I got a message to say it had been delivered, which it hadn't.  Figuring I had been scammed, I messaged the seller. They said it would be there soon, and fair enough, it turned up a few days later...Phew!

 

The neck turned out to be really straight. I did file down a few rough fret edges again (no worse than the HB one) and there was a slight smudging of one of the 12th fret edge markers, but apart from that it was fine. 

 

I found the heel of the neck was a little wider than the HB body's pocket, so had to sand the pocket edges a little. I probably should have been patient and sanded a little more off, but with a confident tap with a rubber mallet it squeezed home fine. 

 

My only gripe with the neck was the nut was only 32mm wide, so the neck has more of a jazz feel than an original P bass, but it is still nice to play even though my personal preference would have been to be wider. It wasn't mentioned on the listing, so "beggars can't be choosers" as they say....

 

I put a cheap set of flats on it, and it sounds awesome! The stock pickup in the HB (I think it is a Wilkinson?) sounds fine to my ears 

 

The final thing I had an issue with was the circular string tree. As the neck was brand new and not drilled, I nicked the one from the HB neck and guessed the best placement. Due to the longer length, bigger thickness and tension of the E and A strings that were bow under it, it started to pull the screw from the wood 

 

After searching my bits box I found a suitable wider and slightly longer screw that fit still fit through the tree.

 

Once it was all done, I loved the look! The neck is really straight and definitely looks the part!

 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Huge Hands

[Huge Hands]

..and before anyone asks, I did eventually take the protective plastic off the pickguard! 

[Huge Hands]

Ok, so last bit....the pickup cover.

 

Getting a bridge cover had been pretty easy online. There appeared to be lots of sellers that had them.

 

Pickup covers were not so easy - only options I could find were shipping from abroad and adding about £25 on to the bill for delivery.

 

Eventually, I found someone on eBay selling one they had bought but not used for about the same money as I paid for the bridge one (£35).

 

I added this using the same inserts and knurled bolts technique as I did the bridge cover.  My original idea being that if I was playing it and the covers were getting in the way I could get them off quick without tools.

 

As mentioned in the earlier post, I did have to add a foam spacer under the feet as the 4mm bolts tightened all the way into their inserts but it still rattled slightly. All was solved after that.

 

That left the finished guitar! I love the look of it and use it as my noodling bass at home. I like the fact it is exercising my brain and muscle memory into being able to flip more easily between 4 strings and my gigging 5s, and I have even taken it to a couple of gigs to try out on the odd song.

[Huge Hands]

Here's a rough idea of costs (from my rusty memory so not exact). Estimates include delivery per item.

 

HB PB-50 - £105

Neck - £70

Covers - £70

Inserts and Bolts - £25

 

So I reckon I am into this for £270 (ish). 

I already had the Makita, tools, rubber mallet, files, sandpaper, pack of plasters, eye drops, paracetamol etc....

 

I know I wouldn't get my money back on it, but that is not the point. I suppose I could sell the original HB neck but I'm not that bothered to be honest, it can sit on the shelf as an ornament! 

Edited 2 hours ago by Huge Hands

[Huge Hands]

Hi @PaulThePlug - just had a look through your build - you were certainly more adventurous than me!

 

I have toyed with the idea of putting a decal on the headstock, but not sure if it should also be upside down, or the right way up for the way it is played. More obsessive thought required methinks! 

 

Did you just lay that on the top, or lacquer over it? My Chinese neck has a really shiny lacquer on it so don't really want to spoil that by sanding it down or over spraying.

 

I also don't want to spoil it! 

 

It's my first mod/build that I haven't really ballsed up in any major way and therefore for the first time I am pretty satisfied and not feeling depressed about it lol!

 

I tried a more modded version of my green Squier P5 (the other one in the pic) but the supposedly identical model I used had a banana neck and could never get the pickup placement right....