lksmks792

Been wanting a fretless acoustic for a while now, mostly as a couch/noodling/practice thing; Ibanez did a nice parlor sized one a couple of years ago but those seem to have vanished as quick as they came (bit niche anyway, I guess). Now they've come up with this which seems to be a fretless version of this, the latter of which was already in the catalogue. Anybody have any experience with the fretted version? Thoughts?

Tantacrul makes some great videos. He used to be very critical (rightly so) of Musescore, then was offered a job by them to make things better and took it. Did some good work and made a couple of pretty informative videos to go with it. Superb channel

Talking dads

Definitely not too heavy (don't have exact figures though) and balances pretty well. No neck dive to speak of. Again much better than my 5er PJ, which is very neck heavy.

I just got one last week, in shell pink. Build quality etc bang on, nothing to complain about. Tuners do feel a bit cheap though less so than on my other HB (5string PJ). Set up pretty good as well, with low action out of the box. Intonation seems to be in need of some tweaking. I only rehearsed with it once for about half an hour but I wasn't disappointed. Great, classic JB tones for very little money.

I had a Sire V7 fretless 5er for a while, as well as a fretted 4 string P. Nice basses both of them. Guess you can't really go wrong with the fretless P.

366

The Bad

Looks the part! Was the bridge a straight fit?

Thanks again! I'm in Belgium so that adds a bit to the price (and hassle) but it's definitely an option. Got some things to think about now!

Didn't even know that was an option and tbh not sure if it can be done locally but I'll consider it, thanks for the tip!

Thanks for the info! I placed an order yesterday with an extra set of strings. I'd planned on changing the pickups if necessary but after a bit of research I've realised things might prove a little more difficult than I thought at first. Decent inexpensive five string pickups are a bit harder to find or so it seems (neither Tonerider nor Wilkinson seem to do them really). Anyway I'm looking forward to playing the bass as it is and will decide what to do about the pickups later on (if they really do need changing that is)

Hi all I've been eyeing the 5-string PJ (https://www.thomann.de/intl/harley_benton_hot_rod_5_bass.htm) for a couple of weeks and I guess I'm about to order one. Does anyone have any experience with this particular model? I know HB's are great for the money and every one seems to love them; I'd just like to be as sure as possible about it (it being a five string and all) if possible. Thanks for any help! L

My neighbour rents and sells pianos and stores them in garages just like you described. Doesn't seem to be a problem in winter (Belgium based).

Ziggy Stardust (the song, and/or the entire album)?

Some crowd somewhere must've sung along to The Chain, I'd guess. Don't have a video at hand to prove it though.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds / Grinderman

That's actually a great idea, I might just try that! Anyway, yesterday it was announced stores here in Belgium will be closed again starting on saturday for about four weeks, so I'll have some time to think. Thanks to all of you for the advice!

I own a P7. The battery died about two months ago and I haven't replaced it yet, just been using passive mode. At least for home practice/playing along to tracks I haven't really missed the eq. It's got PJ pickups mind so there's a lot of tonal difference already in there.

Hi Thanks for taking the time to reply. Looking at pictures of both of those brands I don't think it was either of those. It did look most like a Palatino though, with its slimmed down 'classical' styling. Biggest difference with the Palatino I could find was it having control knobs on the back instead of on the side. There might be or have been a Palatino with controls on the back of course, but I only find information about one model on the internet. The bass looked as if it could be about 20 years old though, so it might just as well have been made by a manufacterer that has long been gone. Any way I've decided to think about it for a week or so and then maybe ask for more information and make an offer. Thanks to all of you for replying!

Hi - thanks for your reply. I thought of it to late and anyway I doubt the salesman would allow me to take a picture in the store. I hoped there'd be some general advice anyway. But of course I do understand it's difficult to assess without pictures. If I had to guess I'd say the scale length was longer than a bass guitar's. I 'played' it for a bit and the experience was definitely different. The fingerboard did have a curve to it so I guess that's a good thing. There's also a piezo in it (I asked) but the man from the store said something about '2 pickups', I wouldn't really know what the second one would be though (neither did he anyway). There wasn't a magnetic pickup in sight anyway. I'd think if there's a piezo it would be underneath the bridge, but I wouldn't know where a second one would be. Thanks for your reply!

I completely agree. Iirc there's also a mic picking up any tapping etc one the body, to allow for percussive elements in loops etc.