My First Bass Guitar

Al_Nico

Hi.

I went to town to get some paint and as I went past the pawn shop I dropped in and bought a cheap Harley Benton TB-70 SBK.

I gave it a quick test and could make it sound nice through a teeny tiny combo amp on quiet. It's still on the battery it came with so might be even better still with a new one. It's in perfect condition and I'm really happy with it.

I've been making some tones with Pod Farm and will record some sounds and post on the forum soon.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/s2we55tbqsws3cxmwwfjh/harleybenton.jpg?rlkey=vhuu4e3va2tl2bh856xgu6aym&st=ttjc56y6&raw=1

Didn't get any paint.

OilCityPickups

Yay good for you!!! 

Dave_Mc

Oh nice!   I think that one was on offer on one of Thomann's big sales there not that long ago, I just about managed to resist...

Al_Nico

OilCityPickups said:

Yay good for you!!! 

Thank you. I'm continuing in the excitement of having a new thing in my life today too.

Al_Nico

Dave_Mc said:

Oh nice!   I think that one was on offer on one of Thomann's big sales there not that long ago, I just about managed to resist...

Thank you. It's solid and heavy. When I first picked it up I thought it might be plastic with the weight and finish, but when you rest it's base on a stool and press your ear against the body and play it, it has a deep deep sound.

Definitely a good investment if you have an open fire because if you don't like it it will heat the house for weeks.

Al_Nico

Attempted Image of Harley Benton. (I've lost the knack of posting images somehow, hope you can see it).

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/s2we55tbqsws3cxmwwfjh/harleybenton.jpg?rlkey=vhuu4e3va2tl2bh856xgu6aym&st=ttjc56y6&raw=1

Al_Nico

Now that I own a bass guitar I've noticed that when I talk about it, while saying the words 'bass guitar' I waggle my thumb side to side in an attempt to subliminally gaslight listeners into thinking I am a funky player of some considerable talent.

spev11

oooo I do like a thunderbirdy shaped object, thats lovely and has inspired me to pick up the bass again

Al_Nico

spev11 said:

oooo I do like a thunderbirdy shaped object, thats lovely and has inspired me to pick up the bass again

Me too. Good stuff.

Dave_Mc

Al_Nico said:

Dave_Mc said:

Oh nice!   I think that one was on offer on one of Thomann's big sales there not that long ago, I just about managed to resist...

Thank you. It's solid and heavy. When I first picked it up I thought it might be plastic with the weight and finish, but when you rest it's base on a stool and press your ear against the body and play it, it has a deep deep sound.

Definitely a good investment if you have an open fire because if you don't like it it will heat the house for weeks.

Oh nice, the pics weren't there when I posted yesterday, that looks awesome 

Now you mention it, I think the weight might be one of the things that put me off chancing one- most of the reviews and Youtube videos I saw mentioned the weight.

Al_Nico

Dave_Mc said:

Oh nice, the pics weren't there when I posted yesterday, that looks awesome 

Now you mention it, I think the weight might be one of the things that put me off chancing one- most of the reviews and Youtube videos I saw mentioned the weight.

Thanks. It's got a strong look. I don't have a reference for how much a bass might weigh. The body has nothing carved away yet the neck outweighs it on a shoulder strap. Having said that, no compromise in mass makes it lively, and the strap is so taught the sound vibrates my neck. Lovin' it.

BillDL

That was a really good impulse purchase.  Yes, inspired by the Gibson / Epiphone Thunderbird but obviously with "metal" players in mind.  It should be quite versatile given that it has a coil split switch on the volume control for both pickups, separate tone controls for each pickup, and active electronics on board.

Okoume body, Mahogany neck, Blackwood (man-made composite material?) fretboard, 20 frets, 34" scale, 0.045 - 0.105" strings, Roswell GB4 Mini Humbuckers (M56101).

Everybody needs a bass.  I know what you mean when you talk about the whole thing vibrating like it does compared with a normal 6-string guitar.  It's a very earthy and "primitive" feel.

OilCityPickups

BillDL said:

That was a really good impulse purchase.  Yes, inspired by the Gibson / Epiphone Thunderbird but obviously with "metal" players in mind.  It should be quite versatile given that it has a coil split switch on the volume control for both pickups, separate tone controls for each pickup, and active electronics on board.

Okoume body, Mahogany neck, Blackwood (man-made composite material?) fretboard, 20 frets, 34" scale, 0.045 - 0.105" strings, Roswell GB4 Mini Humbuckers (M56101).

Everybody needs a bass.  I know what you mean when you talk about the whole thing vibrating like it does compared with a normal 6-string guitar.  It's a very earthy and "primitive" feel.

Earthy and primitive describes my normal electric bass playing perfectly :-)  

I really like Thunderbird basses (and their clones/imitators) ... bit of my 'Entwistle envy' coming out ... 

Dave_Mc

Al_Nico said:

Dave_Mc said:

Oh nice, the pics weren't there when I posted yesterday, that looks awesome 

Now you mention it, I think the weight might be one of the things that put me off chancing one- most of the reviews and Youtube videos I saw mentioned the weight.

Thanks. It's got a strong look. I don't have a reference for how much a bass might weigh. The body has nothing carved away yet the neck outweighs it on a shoulder strap. Having said that, no compromise in mass makes it lively, and the strap is so taught the sound vibrates my neck. Lovin' it.

I'm much more a guitar player than a bass player (cynics would say I'm not much of a guitar player!), but for me, about a pound more for a bass than a guitar is about right. For me ~7lb for a guitar is great, 8lb is ok. I'd prefer basses to be as light as guitars, but being practical, they rarely are! Under 9lb is better for a bass, though the weight distribution affects it a lot too.

Neck dive is annoying, it makes the bass feel a lot heavier. I'm sure I've said this already somewhere else on the forum recently, but the Neotech straps are great for making the instrument feel lighter. However, Comfort Strapps, while I didn't find them just as good for (perceived) weight reduction as Neotech, seemed a little better for neck heaviness.

BillDL said:

That was a really good impulse purchase.  Yes, inspired by the Gibson / Epiphone Thunderbird but obviously with "metal" players in mind.  It should be quite versatile given that it has a coil split switch on the volume control for both pickups, separate tone controls for each pickup, and active electronics on board.

I think it has a bit of a strange control layout, it doesn't seem to have a volume per pickup? That was another thing that concerned me a little, although if you were really worried it wouldn't be that hard to convert it to passive with individual volume controls.

Al_Nico

Dave_Mc said:

Neck dive is annoying, it makes the bass feel a lot heavier. I'm sure I've said this already somewhere else on the forum recently, but the Neotech straps are great for making the instrument feel lighter. However, Comfort Strapps, while I didn't find them just as good for (perceived) weight reduction as Neotech, seemed a little better for neck heaviness.

- I looked up Neotech. They look good. Thanks for that. I like the look of their super strap. The other problem is the position of the strap button. I will likely put one directly behind the last dot on the fret board. They put it where an LP has it, but the body slopes back so it's at an angle ready to fall out without locks, and about two inches too far back. I moved the strap button on my Jackson V forward 2 inches onto the top front neck screw. That balances now.

BillDL said:

That was a really good impulse purchase.  Yes, inspired by the Gibson / Epiphone Thunderbird but obviously with "metal" players in mind.  It should be quite versatile given that it has a coil split switch on the volume control for both pickups, separate tone controls for each pickup, and active electronics on board.

I think it has a bit of a strange control layout, it doesn't seem to have a volume per pickup? That was another thing that concerned me a little, although if you were really worried it wouldn't be that hard to convert it to passive with individual volume controls.

What they've done is wired it so both pickups are on, then there's a pull switch on the volume that turns off the bridge pickup. The pickups loaded have a small output compared to my guitars. I don't know if basses work with high output pickups? The sound I'm getting is solid, like you expect from active pickups, but also very articulate. With compression to level the output it seems easy to keep an even weight of sound. I've been looking at the EMG's but there are loads and I don't know how they might compare so will wait until I've got a bit more understanding of the machine.

Al_Nico

BillDL said:

That was a really good impulse purchase.  Yes, inspired by the Gibson / Epiphone Thunderbird but obviously with "metal" players in mind.  It should be quite versatile given that it has a coil split switch on the volume control for both pickups, separate tone controls for each pickup, and active electronics on board.

Okoume body, Mahogany neck, Blackwood (man-made composite material?) fretboard, 20 frets, 34" scale, 0.045 - 0.105" strings, Roswell GB4 Mini Humbuckers (M56101).

Everybody needs a bass.  I know what you mean when you talk about the whole thing vibrating like it does compared with a normal 6-string guitar.  It's a very earthy and "primitive" feel.

Thank you. Blackwood is very smooth with a matt finish. On close inspection it looks like composite based on the absence of a grain pattern, but it is so black it's hard to tell?

When I bought it I had been struggling with bass guitar VSTs and wanted a change from synth bass. I'd used a friends active jazz bass before and liked the way active captured the low end and this one has good low end too but a bit too much in the low mid, and bit low in the high mid. The tone changes a lot depending how I play it so it could be me yet.

BillDL

These days I would far rather have a good composite material for the fretboard than some of the sub-standard very grained and pitted rosewood that's being built into a lot of the sub-£400 guitars.  Most of the Pau Ferro is nice and smooth and dense, and some of the Amaranth (Purple Heart) I've had on a couple of guitars has been great, but it's hit and miss and a good composite resembles ebony, is consistently dense and smooth, and is stiff enough to retain any sonic characters that might be inflected by hardwood as a fretboard.

Al_Nico

BillDL said:

These days I would far rather have a good composite material for the fretboard than some of the sub-standard very grained and pitted rosewood that's being built into a lot of the sub-£400 guitars.  Most of the Pau Ferro is nice and smooth and dense, and some of the Amaranth (Purple Heart) I've had on a couple of guitars has been great, but it's hit and miss and a good composite resembles ebony, is consistently dense and smooth, and is stiff enough to retain any sonic characters that might be inflected by hardwood as a fretboard.

The frets are finished well and all the frets play cleanly. The neck is so thin? Do basses have thin necks in general. Look, it's hardly thicker than a common or garden pole.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/a1r6gzdgf8v4u08vp1wp7/thinneck.jpg?rlkey=pu78pedhfxt9v7pm6xs9rja1w&st=tt24bfyr&raw=1

Al_Nico

Here's what I had in mind when I got the bass.


well, it sounded better in my head.

OilCityPickups

Al_Nico said:

Here's what I had in mind when I got the bass.


well, it sounded better in my head.

Excellent

Al_Nico

OilCityPickups said:

Excellent

Thank you.