Paolo85

Nice! How much does it weigh? Balance?

38 minutes ago, alyctes said:

 

This is not something I'd heard of.  How does it work?

Somebody in another forum suggested that if you want your new flats sound like very old flats you can leave them soaking in eucerine cream overnight. I tried a couple of times and it works. I cannot say if the result is better or worse than playing them heavily for a year. I suppose, if at all different, it would be a matter of taste anyway

As said in the other thread, I am really loving the TIs. I may have been unlucky with my set of LTF, or more likely it a matter of taste, but I found that each strings was producing quite a different tone and I did not like it much. E extremely thumpy, maybe even not enough mids for my taste, G a bit tinny to my ears. It all improved as they broke in - and even more after I treated the D and the G with Eucerine cream! I liked them but I wasn't fully satisfied. I eventually moved on to strings with unbalanced tension to get a fatter G (eg GHS 45-95, which feel as soft as the LTFs except for the G. I still have to put my head around what I think of them, or GHS 55-105, which sound amazing but are hard work).

With the TIs, I do not get any of this problems. Obviously, the E is not as thumpy as in other flats, but the G is certainly not tinny. Still they can thump if played in the right place and with the right touch (a "relaxed" touch, I find). And if I play hard near the bridge I get a proper funky snap, which is great to be able to do with flats

On 07/03/2023 at 12:10, Reggaebass said:

Thanks Rayman, at the time I was playing heavy dub with old labella’s which I still have so they probably would have been a lot brighter ,but now I dabble in a few different types of music (badly 😁),   nearly all my basses have LTF’s and the TI’s are a similar tension so I’m quite looking forward to trying them 

I have re-installed a set after a long time. I had abandoned them because I wanted more thump, but now I can't get enough of them. What is special about them I think is that they are very reactive. It's not just that they are in between flats and rounds. They can do actual thump and actual zing.

Unlike LaBellas, which I find the harder you play the more they thump, with TIs I find that I need to play with "relaxed" finges to get a thump, at least 1cm away from the P pickup roward the neck. Not a LaBella thump, but still..

Enjoy!

Is it heavy? That 9.2kg in the description scares me a bit 😁

I may have accidentally ordered one yesterday in a moment of weakness. It was £99 and not even b-stock, and I have a Wilkinson P and a Tonerider J lying around which work well together.

But I am getting buyer's remorse!

I have a Squier made in the same factory in 2008 and I suspect identical (mine also has those tuners a nut width of ~40mm and a neck that feels in between a P and a J overall).

If it's like mine it's a real steal. Great neck and tuner stability, way better than any other cheap bass I have had. Fretwork is spot-on and allows for low action. Good balance and acceptable weigh (mine is heavier than 3.7kg). I prefer wider necks but I cannot get myself to sell it because I fear that if I had to find another P that thicks the same boxes in the future it would cost me several times more

I had an HB JB75. The HBZ might have been slightly lighter but still in the ballpark. Also, not as good as the J, for which weigh was literally the only issue.

I had one. Pros: you get a 5 string with a good frettles fingerboard, tons of mwah and an interesting sound for not much money

Cons:

-Mine weighed a ton and I understand it's not an exception

-The edges of the fingerboard were sharp as a blade

-They do not put foam under the pickups so they are not adjustable. Obscene choice. Easily fixed except in my case screws were stuck so I had to sweat for it

-The sound is peculiar. I would say it lacks definition, especially noticeable when playing in isolation, but at the same time there is something inspiring about it. Not everyone's cup of tea I imagine

-Pickups are non-standard size so not a great mod platform

-I had to push saddles really to the floor to get the action I wanted. Considering I cound not shim a neck-through, I was a bit unease about it

-Tuning/neck stability I would say is ok for the standards of very cheap bass. No positively surprised on that front

-The body is made with whatever piece of wood they have at hand, so in my case it was quite visible the difference between pieces. Still, my wife thinks it was the best looking bass I have ever had

What I would say is watch these two videos

This is what this bass does best. If you like the vibe and can get over the issues it may have then I believe it's a good option

Just bought P from Gerry. Quick delivery, great communication, a pleasure to deal with him!

I cannot help but I can say I had experiences similar to yours last year and I got into my head that next time I'll go outside London

That's rather cool! You only measure the relief under the E string so you go on the neck for some 3mm or less but I guess a bit of curve would help even then

Right, I am officially out. I am a weak person, I know. But how is this my fault? I was drooling over this bass the first time it went for sale. Then the second. At least, I thought, ot will go to a good home. But then I saw this!! 😁

1 hour ago, rwillett said:

.

 

I also have to confess that I brought a second hand Fender Jazz bass yesterday. Circa 2000 MIJ model, I went in for a few plectrums and stayed for around two hours trying things out. It was such a good setup and so much fun, that it seemed a shame not to. The neck was beautful to use, it just worked for me. The tones were great as well. I tried every bass they had and just kept coming back to the Fender.  In the end it was a choice between a cheap bass (which was very, very good) and the Jazz which was brilliant. The Jazz has some scuffs on it, but it wssn't too expensive. So I now have a Westfield El Cheapo Precision Bass Clone (WECPBC) (which is going to have the pickups replaced, once I get the neck sorted out) and the Fender Jazz.

 

 

Ha! That's a beautiful thing!

If you can print gauges that's amazing. I tjink I bought a set on Amazon for some £15 but I cannot tell hiw precise they are. As said, Fender measurements are a starting point, then everything is adjusted based on preference and what the bass allows, so being spot on matters bit to a point

Stop this madness! I'll buy the bass😁

If this helps, this is Fender's setup guide https://support.fender.com/en-us/knowledgebase/article/KA-01903

I am not an expert so when I do a first setup, I pretty much follow the guide to the letter (setting shimming aside unless it turns out there is a problem there). Once I get to those measurements for everything, then I adjust further. If the bass has very good fretwork it may allow for lower action (so less relief, or lower string heith at the bridge - less relief is my preference). If the bass has bumpy frets and it buzzes, then it is a balancing act. If it buzzes at the first five frets then you need to add relief. If it buzzes after that you need to raise the strings. Sometimes, if there are one of two spots where it buzzes indicating that there is a significant bump, I'd consider keeping a bit of buzz rather than having to set action extremely high. EDIT: note that things can spiral down, if you add relief the neck is more bowed so implicitly requires more string height to avoid buzz around the 9th-12th frets, so I found myself going up a lot with both relief and string height to run after specific bumps.

Even better, frets can be filed, I was quite scared about doing it at first but now I do it regularly on cheap basses if needed. If done with care and decent tools doing damage is unlikely. One can argue that if there is a significant bump the bass is already "damaged" to start with and will only get better.

So your previous strings were also flats? They weren't more rugged?

A lot of people are happy with the Rotos, so if they work for you that's great. If at some point they start feeling like hard work (eg your hands get tired easily) or you try a different bass somewhere else and like the feeling of other strings then you can look for more info.

Yes Roto 40-100 refers to the gauge of the rotosound. Still, you have no guarantee that the truss rod would not need adjustment with thinner strings. The old bass may have had strings with completely different tension regardless of the gauge. All strings are different. EDIT: Besides, basses need setup every now and then anyway as necks move over time and with temperature/humidity changes

For the setup you would need an allen key for the truss rod, one for the bridge (a set is better value for money IMO as you can use, on multiple instruments) a gauge feeler, a small metal ruler that can measure mm or less (some people do without these last two items but I think they are totally worth the little money) a screwdriver for the bridge saddles, ine for the pickup height and a capo. All that cost me around £40. All those things need adjustment together though, they rarely work in isolation

Welcome!

Do not worry at all about the neck. Clearly you got higher eension strings so the neck is bent. There is an adjustable metal bar inside called truss rod which can straighten it out. Setup is very important so 40 pounds or so spent at a good tech (a recommended one, I was quite unhappy with a tech in a shop so they are not all the same) are totally worth it. You want your bass to have a nice comfortable action. Longer term, it is even more worth it to buy the tools and learn how to do a setup, which also applies to guitar.

Before doing that though, have a think if you like the feel of the strings.

I never tried them but I think rotosound flats are notoriously high tension. Also, I am a big fan of flatwounds but I think they would have not be my choice for somebody starting out on bass given that 90% of bass players use roundwounds which tend to be less stiff, come out more easily in the mix, and be less sticky.

I say that because strings are extremely important in terms of enjoyment of the instrument. Maybe you would like to try again and buy something more "neutral" (say some D'Addario roundwounds, they are not too expensive). Or if you want flats, there are other options with lower tension

6 hours ago, Leroy said:

I appreciate everyone's help!

Paolo thanks for the video links.  The first video is exactly the info I was wanting. 

Cheers. I was thinking, do not underestimate fretting hand technique. As you deal with bigger strings, longer scale and higher action than on a guitar, you may need adjustments to prevent injuries. I started on guitar and then moved to bass, and I had a few problems with that. I would say being careful is especially important because, as an experience guitar player, you may find yourself playing relatively advanced stuff early on without building your muscles slowly over time.

When you fret, use as many fingers as possible. I mean, if you fret with the pinky, all other three fingers should also push the string gently toward the fretboard (not too hard, you don't want unnecessary use of energy, but enough to relief the pinky). If you fret with the ring finger, you also have index and middle down and so on. On guitar, right or wrong, I was only thought to do that for bends.

Also, I would suggest you look into the Simandl technique whereas instead of playing one fret per finger, you just use index, middle and pinky. Never the ring finger. So your hand covers an area of three frets and you move more sideways and adjust fingering based on that. This reduces effort dramatically and is used extensively by bass players to play near the neck (first five frets or so), but not only.

https://youtu.be/CR8yQCZX2HQ

https://youtu.be/b2HBaiTgOxE

https://youtu.be/VS0nUyMKYBQ

These 3 videos should do. The guy in the videos is good. There isn't really an agreed "proper" way. I imagine the first video would touch on it but note that the sound changes a lot whether you pluck near the neck or near the bridge (or anywhere in between) so you may want to play with that deliberately (and in this case, using techniques that do not require resting the thumb on something helps)

Just bought two straps for £11. Technically I am out

I am still not going to buy big toys

Just bought two straps for £11. Technically I am out

I am still not going to buy big toys

I say a LowEndLobster review on the Harley Benton 5 string. He was saying there was plenty of neck dive. The bass has 24 frets, as opposed to the passive HB Stingray copy with one pickup, which has 21. Because of that the body is squeezed a bit and on his bass this did not work in terms of balance. You could be lucky though

50 minutes ago, lksmks792 said:

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. 

Great! How is it in terms of weigh and balance?

While these were mentioned in the "Thoman tease" thread, that was mostly about the "Gotoh" basses and I think these deserve their own thread. Despite all the hype around the Gotoh basses, which came out pretty much at the same time, I see that the cheaper JB-62 are doing rather well in terms of sales.

The picture is Thoman's ranking of their best selling J basses. If I read this correctly, the sunburst "Gotoh" is the only one in the top 20. It is followed by a JB-62, and there are another three JB-62 in the list.

Are any of the JB-62 owners on Basschat? How do you find them?

There's an online review on Youtube (in Polish, with translation) and the guy says it is less than 4kg - thanks I would gess to the poplar body. Same wood used in much more expensive basses such as some Squier CV or Sterling Ray4.

I feel that the JB-62 has on paper much more potential to revolutionise the low-end market. At ~£150, one can live with cheap tuners. And replacing them is not too hard or expensive if needed, with total costs remaning below or close to a Squier Affinity. The Roswell pickups are good. I do not have an opinion on tone wood yet but I do know for sure that some poplar basses can be very good, and poplar can be a good trade off if the HB's alder Js easily go over 5kg.

But then, this is all on paper. Are they built to the same quality of the JB-75? With that lighter body, are they massive neck divers? Any other issues?

30 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

 

I'll sell you some of my dead skin and bogies if you like. That seems to be what strings end up covered with 🤢

Thanks for the kind offer! Though I was thinking more of the sort of stuff made by people in white lab coats, wearing gloves and not putting them in their nose