stewblack

I find it very thin. Just got in after gigging the new bass. Stayed in tune, a joy to play and sounded absolutely thunderous through CTM 100 and BF Compact. The neck is loverly.

Sorry for the confusion. The HB/Sandberg comparison was not with this particular bass. They were discussing a different instrument. My comment about the bridge was meant as an example to illustrate a wider point - in fact my whole post was more about the nature of subjectivity, the real thrust being in the analogy with photography. Reading back it comes across in parts as a swipe at other people and their views which wasn't my intention and so I apologise for that.

I found a comment on a review which made sense in this whole "are cheap basses crap or are expensive basses just expensive labels" debate. The reviewers said that in their opinion the Harley Benton had some features which were genuinely better than the Sandberg it was based upon, and others which were less good. But no way was the difference in price reflected in the difference in quality. The comment which I liked however was this. While the new off the shelf HB represented excellent value for money would it survive in such great condition after a couple of years of humidity and temperature changes? The pricey bass had stood that test well, remaining solid and up together, would the cheap instrument also be as stable? Time will tell. In general the whole debate seems as subjective as whether we like the shape of a bass or not. Those of you who have decided, for example, the bridge on my new bass is crap may actually be correct. If you held the bass in your hand you might even know this for sure rather than just making your mind up from a distance. But if, like me, you couldn't tell one bridge from another and as long as it stays where it's supposed to be and does what it should then you were totally happy with it, then it's a great bridge. We're both right depending on what we value and want from an instrument. No one is definitively correct or definitively in error. It's like cameras. Once I had upgraded my cameras and lenses to a certain point then the smallest improvements began to arrive at astonishingly huge price increases. Anyone who didn't give a fig about noise levels at high iso or chromatic abberation would shake their head in wonder at the fool who would blow such sums when their camera phone could take just as good a picture. And they'd be right. But I do care about such things so I stumped up the cash. The results (invisible to the average Joe) make it worthwhile because I get joy avery time I look at the pictures I get with this expensive gear. It's exactly the same with music because actually all that really matters in photography is the picture. If someone likes the picture they won't give a damn whether it was taken on a Nikon D850 or a Panasonic ZS80. If someone likes a song they really don't give a stuff what the bass player spent on his bass. We as bass players might care, but not necessarily to the same degree and maybe not about the same things. Playing in time is more important to me than what pick ups I'm using. Writing as bassline that makes the BL smile matters more to me than what material my tuning peg is made from. As long as the instrument doesn't hurt or explode and sounds OK to me that is all that matters, not label, not price. Anyway we heard all this before on Bassworld. back then it was Behringer who's products were being lambasted. Generic tales of speakers blowing up at the first rehearsal were being repeated like a Trump speech. Their kit was cheap Chinese made crap said those who wouldn't go within a mile of it. Now? Now I see it used everywhere and I still have and use some of their stuff I bought decades ago and it still works and sounds great - to me. Doesn't mean it is great. You simply can't measure these things. Or you can measure everything but if the measurements don't mean anything to you then do they matter?

Glad I bought a Harley Benton and not one of these Chickenbackers - they sound awful.

We regularly do a cheap and cheerful gig at a cheap and slightly scary pub. The owners of the venue also own a nice hotel which they've invited us to play this NYE. Nice paycheck, food and drink and accommodation thrown in. Being the only sober member of the band they have even reserved me a single room with everyone else sharing so I can get to bed while they get wasted and I don't get woken up by their amusing drunken banter. I call that a win.

30 beautiful sounding basses. Obviously a great musician will sound great on any instrument. I would have them all! Yep even the horrendous ugly ones that looked like the designs were chosen from the least successful drawings in a competition of blind 5 year olds working with crayons on a roller-coaster. Drunk.

It's difficult to say what was my best or favourite purchase. This is because I'm old and can't remember what I've bought. I suspect it will turn out to be the Yamaha BB. A seriously good bass.

I wanna red one!!

I can't afford to indulge in resolutions. I have to do the right thing now not promise myself that I will do it in the future. Experience teaches me that I'm the kind who replaces action with intention. Different for others I know, having said that I do hope to get back on my push bike as soon as possible

My parents generation would scoff at Made In Hong Kong on a label. We used to hear 'Jap Crap' now Crafted In Japan is a badge of honour and everything is made in China. Once our economy is finally destroyed completely Asian manufacturers will probably outsource to the UK to exploit the cheap labour and lack of employment law and produce Brit Sh|t or some such.

As above. Its a great piece of kit, works just fine with my zoom

Well, I basically spent the entire afternoon and evening playing my latest Harley Benton. Very very pleased with it and will definitely gig it on Thursday.

Anyway, call it what you will, I loved it the moment I saw it, it plays beautifully, and I don't regard it as a cheap instrument - except in terms of it's price. I have moved on 'better' basses over the decades which were not as good. Not nearly.

So ... not really a CB then ...

I try to stay away from off topic for most of the time.

So far so good. Action is how I like it now, plays fine - proof of pudding is in the gigging. Boxing day it will get its first outing.

Now, if you told me on the other hand, that this was a fugly pos I would firstly, compliment your use of the modern vernacular and secondly, heartily agree.

OK so I Googled this Ric bridge which seems to be exercising some of you (having no idea what it looked like) and while I see a passing resemblance (and am happy to assume Ric bridges are made of, um, better metal, or finished more carefully or something), I can't really see how the bridge on the HB is exciting so much ire. They're similar but different. This isn't a Rickenbacker. The bridge looks and works just fine. I absolutely promise to come on this very thread and report the moment it folds in half or spotaneously combusts but remember while the design of the HB clearly doffs it's cap to its more illustrious predecessor it is emphatically not a Ric, nor a copy of a Ric and as such it doesn't make much sense to me to compare it to a Ric. Why not ask how it stands up against other £150 basses? EDIT (mind you i don't own any so I couldn't answer if you did)

No the pots are fine 😶

Happy Wednesday to you too mate 😉

How's that for polite internet disagreement?!

You function with a definition of character different from my own.

There's three I would never sell. Two for sentimental reasons as much as for their inherent quality. The BT sig joined this elite group simply because it is an extraordinarily good instrument.

I FOUND A FAULT! There you go, for anyone who really doesn't want this bass to be any good. One of the five allen bolts used to raise and lower the bridge takes a different size allen key than do all the others. How's that for cheap crap!