No BB posts in nearly two weeks and slipped to halfway down page three. I'm beginning to worry my grumpy BB issues have broken this thread. ๐
Fear not, I've spent a couple of hours playing my new BB734a this morning and all is well in BB land again.
I decided to take the (very small) discount and stop being a fussy git, as they can't say when they'll be back in stock.
I'll flat and polish the defect when I get time, along with maybe some other tweaks.
I've been A/B ing it with my BBPH, as the PH is a kind of 734a/1200s hybrid.
They should both feel identical to play, with the same body and neck, but weirdly they don't. The 734's action is slightly lower and the PUs slightly higher, plus new strings, so maybe that's it but I like the difference. It's very grindy and aggressive if wanted.
Maybe you do 'play with your eyes' as the BBPH feels classier, that's not to say the 734a isn't lovely, just different.
The 734a pre amp seems way hotter than the PH. Hooky appears to have the bass and treble on full and the middle just above halfway so I set them both like this and and the 734a was far too wild. To get an even match the 734a needed to have the bass and treble just above half and the mids on about a quarter, so almost a 50% reduction across the board. Maybe it's the fresh strings and pickups being closer, plus the reverse P in the PH.
The PH pre, although seems to have a less dramatic affect, feels easier to use and more pleasing in its extremities, no harshness, but the 734a has far more scope, maybe too much. When the strings loose their freshness it might settle down a bit.
It might sound like I'm still not happy with the new 734a but I am, it's a very nice bass and actually different enough from the PH to be useful so that's good, it's just that the PH is a great bass, hey they can't all be the best can they.
There's a couple of points on the 734a which make it feel like slightly cheap compared to the PH which I might do something with over time.
All in all, they're both fantastic basses. ๐๐