Bass The World - Harley Benton Signature Bass.

[spyder]

 

Very interesting development.

[Hellzero]

Especially the "high end" version.

 

I'm just checking for a price...

[Jonesy]

Depending on final pricing, it'd be interesting to see if HB can convince people to spend more on their brand.

 

The most expensive 4 string currently comes in at £421 and regular MVs are £240ish.

 

They do look cool though

Edited Sunday at 19:33 by Jonesy

[Seadunk]

Gotoh hardware and Klopmann pickups, will certainly be interesting to see where they price this. 

[FretsOnFire]

I'm a big HB fan and own 3 of there instruments and love there basses but I yesterday purchased a squier cv precision pj bass so I'll have to give these a miss for a lil bit

[42Hz]

Probably due to choice of lens and camera setup - it appears enormous compared to Mr. BassTheWorld.

[stewblack]

Typical. Just as I stop buying basses.

[Hellzero]

26 minutes ago, 42Hz said:

Probably due to choice of lens and camera setup - it appears enormous compared to Mr. BassTheWorld.

Nope, the guy, Gregor Fris, is small, that's why he's always filmed from a high angle on his videos.😉

[Owen]

We truly live in the golden age of luthiery. 

[42Hz]

1 hour ago, Hellzero said:

Nope, the guy, Gregor Fris, is small, that's why he's always filmed from a high angle on his videos.😉

Thinking about it I dont think I have seen him play in any of his videos. But he does the talking, with his charming accent.

[Hellzero]

7 hours ago, 42Hz said:

Thinking about it I dont think I have seen him play in any of his videos. But he does the talking, with his charming accent.

If you go back in time, he used to play, but for an unknown reason, he stopped, preferring to let others do this job.

[velvetkevorkian]

My kingdom for companies to announce things without making me watch a bloody video

[LeftyJ]

12 hours ago, stewblack said:

Typical. Just as I stop buying basses.

Famous last words 

 

[simisker]

These look appealing; it just goes to show that white pickup covers can work when you co-ordinate them with the rest of the instrument.

 

£400-450 for the Plus, I reckon, going by another HB "signature instrument with quality appointments" guitar that I bought recently.

 

Tempting... not that I need another Jazz, but you all know what it's like 😄

Edited Monday at 10:30 by simisker

[BassApprentice]

I reckon it'll be closer to £600 - which will be an interesting place for HB to be.

 

Will be aiming to go above Sire at the £400 with better hardware and electronics. But not enough to make the brand snobs think it's too close to a base range of Fender.

 

I don't really get on with Jazz basses but these do look good!

 

 

[krispn]

The neck on the MV series HB range have a nice profile. More D than C so feels more substantial in the hand than a Flea sig (I have both). 
 

I put some Fender PV ‘74 pick up’s in my HB and a new loom and it sounds fantastic. (As an aside I’ve never used a 70’s wind jazz set before and they really do add some muscle and add in a more forward midrange. Very impressed by them!) but I think Gregor favours the 60’s wind. 

 

Kloppman pick up sets, especially the one Gregor likes, are about £300 per set so this will likely be a great sounding bass but as a one off series it’s probably gonna be spendy for the brand but with good quality hardware. The neck looks like a nice piece of wood and hopefully they’re monitoring the weight to keep them under 4kg. 
 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by krispn

[ped]

60s or 70s spacing?

[krispn]

I think this this range is 60’s (even though I put the PV 74’s into a 60’s spacing). 
 

I believe there is a 70’s version from HB with the blocks and binding but again BTW Gregor is into the 60’s thing. 

[NancyJohnson]

I enjoy the BTW You Tube channel and can understand this desire to work with a manufacturer to produce a signature model, but raise the question as to why they feel it's necessary to bring another Jazz styled bass into a marketplace that's already full of them.

 

Players here will make all the usual points about the hardware, the weight, the electrics, the nut width and (ooh) the tonewoods, but let's face it 99.9% of guys here (me included) couldn't recognise ash from alder or Wilkinson tuners from Gotoh unless they could read the name stamped on them.

[Hellzero]

1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

I enjoy the BTW You Tube channel and can understand this desire to work with a manufacturer to produce a signature model, but raise the question as to why they feel it's necessary to bring another Jazz styled bass into a marketplace that's already full of them.

Okay, I fully understand your point of view, here is my latest addition to the herd:

 

 

Waiting for your comment...

[NancyJohnson]

56 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

Okay, I fully understand your point of view, here is my latest addition to the herd:

 

 

Waiting for your comment...

 

I have no issues this whatsoever.  Quirkier the better.

 

My point was more about 'do we really need another budget Jazz Bass on the market?'. You could go to eBay, Marketplace, Gumtree and (arguably) pick up an equally (or better) specced Jazz bass for £500-600, Fender badged included.  You can get a new budget  Squier/Sadowsky/Markbass/HB/Bass Centre/Eastcoast JBs for well under this, all of which carry more kudos than HB.

 

My take?  Brutal as this may sound, the BTW model will be gone in a year or 18 months tops.  They'll be discounted to clear by next summer.  Nice experiment, thank you and goodnight.

[Cato]

I was skeptical when Sire broke the £1k barrier with the V/P 10 range a few years back, but not only are they still in production, Sire have actually moved upwards in price bracket again with the some of the new F series range.

 

So it's apparently possible for a brand that was once perceived as budget (I think my series 1 V7 fretless was less than £400 brand new) to successfully move upmarket.

Edited 55 minutes ago by Cato

[neepheid]

1 hour ago, Cato said:

I was skeptical when Sire broke the £1k barrier with the V/P 10 range a few years back, but not only are they still in production, Sire have actually moved upwards in price bracket again with the some of the new F series range.

 

So it's apparently possible for a brand that was once perceived as budget (I think my series 1 V7 fretless was less than £400 brand new) to successfully move upmarket.

 

It's possible if you provide the goods which are actually worth the asking price.  Compare and contrast with Epiphone's prices ticking upward, but giving basically the same instruments they always did, as well as creating strange anomalies like a bolt on single pickup Grabber costing more than a thru neck, two pickup Thunderbird or a hollow bodied Jack Casady (which surely *must* cost more to make than a Grabber).  It makes no sense at all.