therealting

This is a good shout. I have a clip of the coppers here if you want to hear them.

@fretmeister Ooh, look forward to your review! I’ve received two basses in the past few weeks so figure I should probably wait until payday at least 😂

Elixir nickels?

I regret passing up on the one that was on sale here a while ago.

As mentioned above, the HB Shorty gets great reviews, for under £70. https://m.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbp90bk_shortscale_ebass.htm

I actually have a super shorty that I’ve been looking for flats for for AGES. I’ll pop you a message!

Love the shape! I discovered I am a P guy rather than a JJ guy in the past few years, and for me it does make a difference in the mix.

@owen What is that bass?

I think that looks way way better now.

They look funky - my worry would be finding flats that fit. The Harley Benton Shorty is a 30” P and half the price.

Since we’re posting four strings too, I love my 64. It’s everything I dreamed it would be. As far as value for money 5-string P/Js go, my Yamaha BB435 is stupendous. One of too many I have, so it’s in the classifieds, but worthy of a place in anyone’s collection.

@Kev Yes, these are much closer to the Dingwall Supers in their fan.

Oof, ok I’m definitely going to check that tonight. I anticipate transplanting EMGs into this, so I’m interested to know if that will be a problem. I’ll try those settings. Which pickup are you favouring with that? I’ve not stripped the neck before... would it just be a sandpaper job?

The bridge alignment issue is annoying, but easily fixed by filling and redrilling the screw holes. I might take the opportunity to replace the bridge units as it appears that some of the adjustment screws are stripped. I’m thinking that gold bridges with black saddles might look cool - and similar for the tuners. ... and yes, 32-35” would be my preferred scale too, as per my Dingwall Supers. Want to try the Ibanez EHB multiscale sixer once those start turning up secondhand.

Yeah, I had a Mk I Combustion and it just wasn’t me. My Supers are much more “it”! Would love a 6-string Super. Almost all the Dingwall demos seem to have that grindy, scooped metal tone that is all the rage these days. I’m more into old school P tones, just refined and with better balance. This one is closer to the 90s gospel / soul tone a la Ken Smith and my Sadowsky NYC Modern. And re: neck profile - of course we are allowed our own preferences on feel and everything is relative... I’m talking more about the overall scale of neck profiles, where Ibanez Soundgear is definitely on the skinnier side of the spectrum.

Oh I’m certainly not trying to compare the Dingwalls to this - I have owned three and they are in a different league. But I would be looking at over £2k for a six string AB (I tried the NG six string but I hated the sound of the Darkglass Tone Capsule on the prototype I tried through a headphone amp at the LBGS, sounded icepicky and I couldn’t get a tone I could tolerate out of it). The neck on this certainly isn’t fat, it’s just not super skinny like the Soundgear necks. I have five 6-strings now, should probably shift the KSD...

@TheMaartian Those are very cool looking, similar vibes to the Wilcock.

Absolutely. The QC is evidently bound to be spotty... but I can obviously only relate my own experience of the one example of this model that I’ve tried, so as to give some sort of idea of what buying one might entail for interested Basschatters. Often with these cheaper basses the question is how good they are as is, and how good they can be made to be with a little extra investment. In my case, I’ve actually owned the similar Ibanez model, the SRFF806, which I bought thinking that if I liked it, I might splurge for the Prestige model with the Nordstrands. To avoid making a loss, I bought it secondhand for around £700 and sold it again for around £700 after six months. The only real problem I had with it (albeit a crucial one) was that the slim neck did not work for my hand, I would start cramping within half a minute of starting to play. I was desperate to love it - it sounded good, wasn’t too heavy, looked good... but with the best will in the world, if an instrument’s ergonomics cause you pain them it’s not for you. I have played this one for several hours today without any pain in my hand - which makes me VERY happy. Given that an equivalent Dingwall is bound to cost me at least £2k, I’m now happy to put a little bit of money into it (maybe another £200-300, so £500 overall) to see if I can make it something that would be a bargain at £1k.