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Thomann selling Harley Benton basses as 'Decoration only'

Annoying Twit

By Annoying Twit,
in Bass Guitars

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Grangur Mentor

Grangur

Posted
Posted (edited)

[quote name='Left Foot' timestamp='1430125433' post='2758083']
Are they really bad basses? Ive noticed no chat on here about them, even at only £28 something quid!!
[/quote]

The PJ I bought has a great finish and excellent weight, if a little heavy towards the neck end.
The pups weren't very powerful, the strings hitting the frets sounds a bit tinny, but if you're thinking about a change of strings and pups, then the rest is ideal. A change to light-weight tuners would also be good, if you're fussy; which I am.

Hell, I just now sold the body only for more than I paid including shipping! Anyone want to buy a neck?

Edit: reason for selling - I've got enough PJs

Edit 2 - Damn! He just cancelled!

Edited by Grangur
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Annoying Twit Proficient

Annoying Twit

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[quote name='Left Foot' timestamp='1430125433' post='2758083']
Are they really bad basses? Ive noticed no chat on here about them, even at only £28 something quid!!
[/quote]

If you read through the thread, you'll see that some of them have issues that require fettling. My two dekos, (see: I can resist temptation even though there are some dekos I plan to buy in the future) were both fine, except very poorly set up. And my acoustic has minor finish flaws The worst one I remember from this thread was the uke bass with the non-functional truss rod. There have been other problems, but I'm at work and can't hunt down stuff much (and check that I spell Blablas correctly etc.) Did we ever hear what happened to the bass with the very quiet output on the pickups? Or was that the bass where the pickups and electronics were swapped out so that we didn't find out how easy the issue was to fix.

Under the consumer contracts regulations, if someone does receive a deko with a smashed neck, they can be returned within the limits of that legislation.

Edited by Annoying Twit
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Bassassin Grand Master

Bassassin

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Posted

[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1430127631' post='2758123']
Do left handed Dekos ever appear?

I'm after a left handed neck as a donor to a project. Seems like a cheap way of getting a reasonable neck...
[/quote]

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1430031660' post='2757171']
DEKOS!

[url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_jb_20_sb_lh_deko.htm"]http://www.thomann.d..._sb_lh_deko.htm[/url] Left handed Jazz bass.

EDIT: Gone.
[/quote]

I suppose you might be taking a chance that there aren't neck issues - but most seem to have been fine.

Jon.

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bartelby Grand Master

bartelby

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[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1430128920' post='2758137']
I suppose you might be taking a chance that there aren't neck issues - but most seem to have been fine.

Jon.
[/quote]

ta

for £30-ish, it's worth a gamble.
Could always flog the other parts.

I guess I need to start paying attention to Thomann....

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Grangur Mentor

Grangur

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[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1430129842' post='2758150']
ta

for £30-ish, it's worth a gamble.
Could always flog the other parts.

I guess I need to start paying attention to Thomann....
[/quote]
Gamble? You could visit Denmark Street and spend more on the train fare or the parking & congestion charges alone.

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blablas Proficient

blablas

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[quote name='Left Foot' timestamp='1430125433' post='2758083']
Are they really bad basses?[/quote]
See below, it's only a sample of one bass but it gives an indication of the things you can run in to with these deko's.

[quote name='blablas' timestamp='1429271273' post='2749873']
There is minimal hump in the fingerboard between fret 10 and 17, in this same area there are also some high frets, there are also quiet a few sharp fret ends. Maybe the bridge nut is too low, but I can only be certain of that once I've fixed the fingerboard.
In principle there are no problems I can't fix! :)
For the rest the bass looks nice, it tunes up okay, haven't tested the electronics yet.
[/quote]

And the final result:

First thing I did was level out the hump in the fretboard by leveling the frets, it's alive and plays (the hump was not that high but rather long).
Next step was removing the sharp fret ends and giving all the frets one final level session, after that I crowned and polished them.
Also put a shim (half a millimeter thick) under the bridge saddle, as I already suspected it was set up too low, while I was busy working on the bass I gave the nut some tweaking as well.
Another thing I needed to do was tightening all the tuner screws and nuts, they were all loose.

Put a set of D'addario ETB92 Nylon Tape Wound strings and a 'de afwerking' thumbrest on it and gave it a final setup.
The action is a little under two millimeters at the 12th fret, precisely what I like.
The electronics work without any problems and the sound possibilities are plenty.

Edit: The sticker on the inside also has the famous mistake "5 string fretless bass", I did check the photo's on the Thomann site for these lefty basses and there you can see the same misprint as well. :)

Edited by blablas
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Annoying Twit Proficient

Annoying Twit

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[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1430220843' post='2759049']
To be fair lefties (apart from the acoustic Bass) are not that frequently displayed in the Deco area on Thomann but they do pop up infrequently.
[/quote]

When they do pop up, they seem to last longer than the R/H instruments do.

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Annoying Twit Proficient

Annoying Twit

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Dekos!!

Thunderbird bass: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_tb_70vs_deko.htm"]http://www.thomann.d...b_70vs_deko.htm[/url] ONLY ONE AVAILABLE. Oh, sold as I was typing this. Was up for five minutes.

CLB Acoustic bass. [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_clb_10sce_ns_deko.htm"]http://www.thomann.d...sce_ns_deko.htm[/url] ONLY ONE AVAILABLE!!!!

Both right-handed. Sorry left-handed people.

As per normal, the L500 les paul copy insta-vanished. I'd be prepared to put £10 into a prize pot to be scooped up by the first person to actually manage to buy a LP deko.

EDIT: CLB bass still there.

There was a rosewood strat up as well. It went so quickly that I didn't even notice that it had gone. Here's the main item. The deko disappeared within a minute, along with the L500 LP copy.

EDIT: CLB now gone. Back to normal. Not a bad batch of instruments IMHO. I was expecting the t-bird to be quite popular here.

Anybody get anything?

Edited by Annoying Twit
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BigRedX Grand Master

BigRedX

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Posted

Well I think I know what has given the Baritone guitar its deko status.

I restrung it with D'Addario Medium gauge baritone strings (14-68) which has made a big improvement in the playability at the bottom end although for my tastes I'd be happier with an even heavier low B. However fitting the new strings has shown that it is impossible to get even string spacing with the bridge that is currently fitted, as the height and intimation screws get in the way of the ideal positions for the stings.

Looking at the Eastwood version, I see that they have a more conventional Tune-o-matic style bridge rather than the Jaguar style that this Harley Benton sports. However Tune-o-matic bridges are fixed radius so I'm going to need one that matches the radius of the HB fingerboard. There's no specs given on either the Thomann site or for the Eastwood model, so how do I measure the fingerboard radius to ensure I get the correct replacement bridge?

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bartelby Grand Master

bartelby

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Posted (edited)

[quote name='Annoying Twit' timestamp='1430303110' post='2759968']
@BigRedX - couldn't you take a flat malleable piece of metal, bend it to match the fretboard, then use it as a curve to draw a line onto graph paper? Just guessing here, I'm no expert at that sort of thing.
[/quote]

Or a profile gauge:
[url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-598573-Steel-Profile-Gauge/dp/B0015NRK0Y"]http://www.amazon.co...e/dp/B0015NRK0Y[/url]

Edited by bartelby
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uncle psychosis Mentor

uncle psychosis

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[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1430301639' post='2759941']
Well I think I know what has given the Baritone guitar its deko status.

I restrung it with D'Addario Medium gauge baritone strings (14-68) which has made a big improvement in the playability at the bottom end although for my tastes I'd be happier with an even heavier low B. However fitting the new strings has shown that it is impossible to get even string spacing with the bridge that is currently fitted, as the height and intimation screws get in the way of the ideal positions for the stings.

Looking at the Eastwood version, I see that they have a more conventional Tune-o-matic style bridge rather than the Jaguar style that this Harley Benton sports. However Tune-o-matic bridges are fixed radius so I'm going to need one that matches the radius of the HB fingerboard. There's no specs given on either the Thomann site or for the Eastwood model, so how do I measure the fingerboard radius to ensure I get the correct replacement bridge?
[/quote]

Here is some info about modding the bridge on these:

http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/38132/ngd-mosrite-style-baritone-deko

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BigRedX Grand Master

BigRedX

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[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1430319489' post='2760239']
Here is some info about modding the bridge on these:

[url="http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/38132/ngd-mosrite-style-baritone-deko"]http://thefretboard....e-baritone-deko[/url]
[/quote]

Thanks for that link. However on mine it's a combination of both the intonation and height adjustment screws that are preventing me from having the strings in their ideal locations. I'll have a play with the suggestions in that thread (at least I've discovered how to adjust the overall bridge height from it) but I think that if I'm going to keep the guitar, the supplied bridge will have to go and be replaced something a bit more robust and easily adjustable.

If I could find a Tune-o-matic type with individual height adjustable roller saddles that might be the best bet.

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tauzero Grand Master

tauzero

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[quote name='alittlebitrobot' timestamp='1430123718' post='2758063']
speaking of temptation; it's getting harder and harder to resist flying to Germany and personally destroying that mini Thumb.
[/quote]

You should buy one.

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tauzero Grand Master

tauzero

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[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1430301639' post='2759941']
Looking at the Eastwood version, I see that they have a more conventional Tune-o-matic style bridge rather than the Jaguar style that this Harley Benton sports. However Tune-o-matic bridges are fixed radius so I'm going to need one that matches the radius of the HB fingerboard. There's no specs given on either the Thomann site or for the Eastwood model, so how do I measure the fingerboard radius to ensure I get the correct replacement bridge?
[/quote]

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Set-Of-9-Radius-Gauges-Guitar-Luthier-Tool-TO17-/130890216986"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Set-Of-9-Radius-Gauges-Guitar-Luthier-Tool-TO17-/130890216986[/url]

or, rather cheaper

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Radius-Gauges-Instrument-Guitar-Setup-Measuring-Fingerboard-Fretboard-Saddle-Nut-/301424231615"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Radius-Gauges-Instrument-Guitar-Setup-Measuring-Fingerboard-Fretboard-Saddle-Nut-/301424231615[/url]

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