Baloney Balderdash

I had a thought, could it be that since Harley Benton have no issues with the no name pickups in even their lowest dirt cheap models sounding absolutely amazing that big brands with a budget line on purpose make lackluster pickups to put in these lower end models to make their expensive high end line of instruments seem better than they really are, so to speak to create an illusion of a difference that in reality is far from as huge, and certainly nowhere near what the price difference would otherwise suggest? Could this theory actually have any reality to it, or am I just making up conspiracy theories here? I mean the big companies would certainly have a motive to do so, and this theory does seem to match my, admittedly fairly limited and nowhere really statistically valid, first as well as second hand experience with such instruments in question.

Full size, yes. But there should be no need to upgrade that pickup, it sounds no short (no pun actually intended) of amazing.

I'm a big fan of the Joyo Orange Juice for everything from just a slight tube like breakup, over low gain overdrive, and all the way up to a medium kind of distortion. I got 2 on my board, one used as part of my always on basic "clean" tone, set to an upper low gain overdrive and mixed in parallel with clean signal via a Boss LS-2, placed towards the start of my signal chain, and later a post reverb medium gain distortion, and I actually plan to even add a third for a high gain overdrive, placed towards the start of my signal chain. Though I guess technically it is a seriously sized down clone of the Tech 21 Oxford, just with simplified EQ section and no cab sim filter, to accommodate it's miniature size, but I just had to mention it, since it is probably my favorite bass drive pedal for just about any level of drive, bar high gain distortion and fuzz. From what I heard the One Control Hooker's Green Bass Machine, as suggested by someone else earlier on the thread, sounds really great as well, providing a warmer, somewhat fuzzy, thickening kind of grit on lower gain settings and gets amazingly gnarly on higher gain settings, with as good as no low end loss, where as the Orange Juice is a somewhat other beast, more in the gritty grindy end of the spectrum with a good amount of bite as well.

Obvious the best tone bone for the nut of a bass is bass bone!

All other things being equal, that is design wise and going through a similar cabinet, an 800W amp will theoretically/technically, and likely in practice too, only be about just bellow +2dB louder than a 500W amp, try turning a booster through an amp with clean head room enough up +2dB and see if that'll really be worth it.

An old recording by me, for my alternative folk solo project "...and for such a long time". Unfortunately not that well recorded and mixed, but I do plan on remixing it at some point in the future. But otherwise I am actually really happy with the actual composition and lyrics writing I did.

It doesn't look abused to me, the front "scratches", as several people already pointed out, really looks like cracks in the finish, which would have happned regardless of how much one had babied around the bass, and the back scratches look like perfectly normal healthy use of an instrument that age, without anxiously obsessive cautiousness around what essentially is a mass produced tool, meant to be used, rather than displayed as if it was a piece of high art.

That's wildly impressive and really cool.

Which again is a rip off of Fender's :

I use these Harley Benton rubber washer strap locks : Simple, cheap and effective.

Yes, cause as we all know popularity (read quantity) equals quality, just look at Top 40, absolute gold, cream of the cream of music, the true avantgarde, pure genuine genius, all classics that will be listened to for decades to come by true music lovers, one only has to listen to Kanye Wests version of "Bohemian Rhapsody", which is at least 100 times better than Freddie Mercury's, to know this is for a fact true, and that Kanye West is indeed the greatest legendary rock star who ever lived, and that Queen should be stripped from all they ever achieved and instead have all the respect and space in music history that they've earned given to Kanye West, as he rightfully truly deserves. Just like Joe Dart's "Dean Town" displays a musicianship at least a thousand times greater than Jaco Pastorius's "Teen Town", the number of real teenage listeners of the respective songs here should speak for them self, not only as to which is the better song and which holds the greatest musical qualities of the two, but also as to which of them truly deserves it's place in music history and which do most definitely not. It is time for "Dean Time" to be declared legendary at the expense of "Teen Town", which from this day on shall be declared no longer legendary, along with Jaco Pastorius, in favor of Joe Dart! No doubt Vulfpeck if any has the power needed to rewrite music history. From scratch! Mozart have had a central role in music history for way longer than plenty, way overdue time to erase his contribution to music history for good and for his spot in it to be passed on to OneRepublic! You see, there is in fact such a thing as a limit to just how long you can be legendary before your contribution to history is no longer legendary but just boring old news that only boring people wants to listen to/read, and who wants to be boring? I'd say burn all the history books, they are just full of old boring news anyway, and write some new ones with a more modern and action packed story involving some reality stars and YouTube/Instagram influencers, and just watch the amount of readers sky rocket in no time! For instance I'd suggest replacing the story about Napoleon and Waterloo with a "most popular YouTube influencer Vs most popular Instagram influencer" kind of story, like same concept as the "Alien Vs Predator" movie sort of thing, though the latest season of Paradise Hotel I think probably might work well for this too, cause honestly who wants to read some old boring story about some old boring dead megalomanic French guy, hello, sooo boooring! Yes, I see now clearly what you are saying Sideshow Bob, very acute and insightful point, thank you for granting me this pricelessly unique insight to the inner workings of a hipster Vulfpeck fan's mind.

So this is the thread to post pictures and tell about your Harley Benton basses. I must admit I only own one, a Harley Benton GuitarBass, their take on the Fender Bass VI concept (that is a 30" short scale 6 string bass, but tuned like a guitar, only 1 octave lower, and with narrow typical guitar like string spacing), that I bought a couple of months back, but which has quickly grown on me to now having become my main instrument of choice. I however has it tuned to G standard tuning, that is 9 half steps bellow regular guitar E standard tuning, or 3 half steps above regular bass E standard tuning, using a set of custom made Newtone nickle plated roundwound hex steel core strings, gauge .080 - .060 - .045 - .034 - .027 - .020. I had heard a lot of praise about Harley Benton instruments, and it wasn't lies, this instrument for sure is unbelievable amazing value for the money. No finish flaws that I can spot, just beautiful if you happen to like sunburst with tortoise pickguard (which I must admit is one of my absolutely least favorite finish options, but it actually has grown on me, since getting this instrument, had it come in any other finish option I had picked one of those though), absolutely perfectly spot on cut graphite nut, the 1 piece maple that makes up the neck got perfectly straight grains running the length of the neck, the pickups sounds not short of amazing (if rather noisy, but I guess that's pretty much part of the deal with any single coil pickup in any instrument that hasn't been shielded properly), even if I only use the middle one soloed, gives me spot on the kind of tone I like, very articulate and very sensitive to picking dynamics in a very natural way, and the frets are as good as perfectly leveled from factory too, I have it set up with ever so slightly bellow 2mm (~0.078" ~5/64") action, measured from bottom of the thickest string to top of 12th fret, and about 1.5mm (~0.059" ~4/64) action on the thinnest string, but I am confident I could go even lower if I should wish so without any fret buzz whatsoever. Here is is, with an added Jack Skellington (character from Tim Burton's animated movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas") skull sticker, the stock knobs swapped for transparent clear and black lampshade knobs, with respectively green and red electrical tape (also known as insulating tape) cut to shape and stuck on the top of them, the electronics swapped for a set of EMG solderless wiring, with the middle pickup having had it's wires swapped for a shielded one, and connected to the 250kOhm volume pot only (adds up to the original stock 500kOhm respectively Volume and Tone pot, and I have no use for the tone pot anyway), the remaining EMG solderless tone pot and the original 5 way pickup switch left unconnected, only being there for aesthetic reasons, as is the neck and bridge pickup (though except for the original stock wiring not being shielded and the original stock jack output socket seeming a bit to the flimsy side the stock electronics actually seemed and worked perfectly fine): And a more artistic rendition: The only additional mod I plan really is painting the stock black pickup switch knob very light yellow, like on this PhotoShopped image: Definitely won't be the last Harley Benton instrument that I get either, next one is likely to be either their dirt cheap short scale P Bass, sounds amazing in the samples provided on Thomann's own homepage, or their fretless Violin/Beatles Bass (that they call Beatbass), which sounds amazing in the demo videos I watched featuring it on YouTube, especially one very thorough one where even the straight DI'ed tone with no post production that it demonstrates sounds pretty amazing to me, kind of curious to try out a fretless bass, I know I for sure will have some use of it in the music I create, and it being short scale, which there aren't many options for when it comes to fretless basses, makes it the obvious choice since I almost exclusively played short scale basses for something like the last 15 years or so. Oh, and the strap in the picture is a Harley Benton one too by the way, an 85mm wide black real suede leather one with 6mm memory foam padding. Really comfortable to wear, even with this instrument, which, what I didn't mention, is actually quite heavy.

Not at far as I am concerned. At least at that point it becomes legendary for being seen, not for being a bass player, and that would really just be famous/popular, not legendary really, as being seen requires little skill, at least non that makes you worthy of being considered legendary. To be legendary it requires a craft or a skill one can be considered legendary at, it requires of you to be worthy to be written into a significant person in the history of the art or craft you master. Legendary is all about the significance of one's contribution to the history of ones art/craft, regardless of how commonly known or popular said craft or art happens to be outside of circles of people who have a specific interest in that field of work. I very doubt any of Vulfpeck songs, at least this far will go down in the music history books as legendary, songs Tony Levin helped create and played bass on already are. Tony Levin, while being most famous for King Crimson and Perter Gabriel, was and is by the way still a sought after and highly regarded session player as well. Tony Levin is worthy of a lengthly chapter in the book of music history, having been active through decades and still is, Joe Dart maybe of a side note mention somewhere about the 2010's/2020's. Ever heard of anyone say: "Man that guy is absolutely legendary for being popular, he sure hell know how to be seen, just amazingly famous, I don't know how he pulls it off, truely awe inspiring!"? Whenever we are talking music, or any other craft or art for that matter, opinions on it from people who have little understanding of it doesn't really matter, at very least not in a historical context, past, as well as present and future, other than as a fairly insignificant side note. People don't write history on the basis of being popular, unless you are unusually and extremely, significantly, popular, and that is not the case with Joe Dart, or Vulfpeck for that matter. For instance I very much doubt that many people here in Denmark know who they are, unless specifically musically interested or specifically interested in bass, and I dare claim that then more would know Tony Levin is, or at least King Crimson or Peter Gabriel, and that regardless of age.

Tony Levin should most definitely had gotten one, and I strongly assume Joe Dart only did so because he is paying for the production costs himself. Tony Levin is a legend, which can't hardly even remotely be said about Joe Dart. Levin certainly more so than John Myung and Tim Commerford too.

Just heard the examples again, and I will have to change my guess of which is a P Bass, even pretty sure it is in fact #3 (and not #2 as I first guessed, not paying proper attention, and guessing after just one listen though of the 5 examples. I'd even go as far as to say definitely not #2.). The tone of #3 has a complexity and certain mids focus that non of the other examples really got that tells me that's the one.

So Music Man/Earnie Ball is sending Joe Dart the bill for the production of his signature basses? That's usually not how signature instruments work.

And yet another, even never shot, of my beloved Harley Benton GuitarBass (Bass VI). Now with knobs, with respectively green and red electrical tape (also known as insulating tape) cut to shape and stuck on the top of them, and expanding further on the artistic background PhotoShop shenanigans.

You need to call yourself Sir Doctor Professor V.I.P to be taken seriously now?

Just what the... My comment was deleted. Not because I broke any forum guidelines, but simply, I must assume, because some moderator didn't like it. No notification about it, nothing, just deleted, which I find concerning. I think it was actually relevant for the topic. Critical?: yes, definitely - Caricatured and satirical?: absolutely - Harsh?: maybe - But humerus and tongue in cheek, and, probably more importantly in this context, totally relevant and on point. Here is an article about the famous "stinky poo" on can art piece that my original comment was a reference to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist's_Shit

What you lack is high mids frequency content, which that preamp scoops right out of your tone. Sorry, but you picked the wrong preamp for what you are trying to achieve.

I don't recall any 80's Metal bass players that used a 5 string. Modern Metal sure, but back then it was all 4 string basses. I wouldn't rule out a 4 string short scale bass either, sure no 80's Metal bassists played short scale either, but if it turns out a short scale feels more comfortable for you to play, then why make it harder than it need to be, lots of great short scale offerings on the market today that are exactly as great as any regular 34" scale basses. If you insist on a 5 string bass, then for instance try out the 30"-32" short-multi scale faned frets Ibanez EHB1005SMS.

TC Electronic SpectraComp ! (if you want more physical controls available you can just get the regular big version of the Hypergravity pedal instead, which utilizes the exact same compression engine/algorithms, and their respective Toneprint editors are completely identical too, just for some totally lame reason TC Electronic chose to not make it possible to use the premade artist and template Toneprints for the SpectraComp on the Hypergravity or the other way around for that matter, though as, as I'll explain later, you would want to dial in your own custom Toneprint anyway this doesn't really matter at all). All you ask for and way more, as long as you are willing to do the work and take the time required to dial in your own custom Toneprint using the Toneprint editor. This compressor really allows you to customize you compression exactly as you like it, to fit perfectly with your personal preferences for any thinkable application. 3 band's (that is dividing your signal into a bass/low frequency band, a mid frequency band, and a treble/high frequency band) with freely adjustable crossover for each of them, volume of each of these bands individually (technically this would be compression makeup gain for the 3 bands respectively, but it can be utilized as a way to shape/balance your tone as well), individual parallel clean blend for each of the 3 bands respectively as well, and each band with their own individual full set of freely adjustable compression parameters. Note though that I personally didn't like any of the premade artist or template Toneprints, but taking the time to dial in the settings exactly to my liking in the Toneprint editor gave me exactly what I was looking for, which is why I pointed out that this would be a requirement for really making this pedal useful, but then it is not only just useful but absolute perfection. As transparent or prominent as you like it, and if you wish, but only if you wish so, a very powerful Toneshaping tool too, and any and as many of the parameters available in the Toneprint editor can be assigned to be controlled in whichever way you like to whatever physical knob on the pedal you wish (that is if you get the Hupergravity pedal, the SpectraComp really only got one physical control knob, though that one knob of course can be assigned however you wish too).

Well, I am not an expert of any capacity, but to me it seems like all the potential issues you point out would be shared with the concept of a regular trussrod, and as we know that concept is very well proven and works brilliantly (as for the tension of the strings and strength of the experimental "trusscable" OP already accounted for that). And to OP: Super cool and interesting project, and I kind of really like how the bass looks too. Best of luck with it.