Thomann selling Harley Benton basses as 'Decoration only'

[Myke]

[quote name='owen' timestamp='1464123000' post='3056803']
There are fret lines on the side but a dot on fret 3/5/7 etc it is a bit disconcerting!
[/quote]

Oh, that does sound a bit off putting!

[Owen]

[URL=http://s8.photobucket.com/user/peredur/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20160524_223100_zpsmdcsif56.jpg.html][IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/peredur/Mobile%20Uploads/20160524_223100_zpsmdcsif56.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

I had no idea that I was that attached to dot placement!

[Owen]

[quote name='owen' timestamp='1464123000' post='3056803']
More importantly, the fretted is fine on G and A, appreciably louder on D and sadly quieter on E. I presume it is time to take the bridge saddle off?
[/quote]

I took the bridge saddle off and retrieved a small strip of metal from under the piezo element then screwed it all back up. The G and E were fine and dandy but the D and A vanished. I then put the small metal strip over the piezo element under the D and A. It is now OK but it is too late for me to turn the volume up to a level that drowns the acoustic volume to check properly. That would go down like a bucket of cold sick as the rest of the house is asleep.

[yorks5stringer]

Headphones?

[cheddatom]

I notice the warwick mini rock thumb bass is always on there... are they no good or something?

[yorks5stringer]

Sent my mini Thumb bass back as the neck was too small...

[Maude]

My two Ubasses turned up yesterday.
First thought was they look a lot nicer than I expected.
The fretted one has razor sharp fret edges and buzzes quite a bit but is nice and even across the strings plugged in, a quick tweak on the trussrod and the buzzing has gone so a file on the frets will sort that one out.
The fretless needed the same trussrod tweak but plugged in has low volume on the A and D strings, paper shims sorted this on the deko acoustic bass I got a while ago so shouldn't be a big problem.
On the whole a happy chappy

[Grangur]

[quote name='owen' timestamp='1464125702' post='3056834']
[url="http://s8.photobucket.com/user/peredur/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20160524_223100_zpsmdcsif56.jpg.html"][/url]

I had no idea that I was that attached to dot placement!
[/quote]
We never know we are perfectionists until we find something that bugs us. I'd probably be able to live with that.... I hope

[Maude]

Having only played unlined fretlesses that's exactly where I'd expect the dots to be, I find the lines to be the confusing part if anything.

[yorks5stringer]

Quilted 4 string Deco up again as B Stock- £31!
Sorry sold out now

Edited May 31, 2016 by yorks5stringer

[yorks5stringer]

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1464720825' post='3061878']
Quilted 4 string Deco up again as B Stock- £31!
Sorry sold out now
[/quote]

Lefty Deco Ukes, £45 http://www.thomann.de/gb/decorative_guitars_and_basses.html?sid=f3220875c9fec54d63950b5685cd8177

[dpcookson]

Just received a HB kula bass, nothing wrong with at all and only set me back forty odd quid + p&p!

Edited July 9, 2016 by dpcookson

[yorks5stringer]

Thomann got a well know litigious Bass copy in the decos for £108. Hope it is OK to post this? Piccy bottom right as the full price version.

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_rb_414cs_deko.htm

Edited August 31, 2016 by yorks5stringer

[kodiakblair]

Reckon the "[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] [/font][/color][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]litigious" thing is past it's sell-by date. They never filed the TM in Australia so companies can claim it's a Pitbull copy [/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Regarding the deko[/font][/color][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif],got mine from greenalsatian at £150.Same as Deacon John sold his for.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] [/font][/color][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]It didn't get a warm welcome on the FB Faker page either,wasn't fake enough for them [/font][/color]

[Bassassin]

[quote name='kodiakblair' timestamp='1472670682' post='3123180']
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]It didn't get a warm welcome on the FB Faker page either,wasn't fake enough for them [/font][/color]
[/quote]
Indeed! This if a Rick-influenced bass and doesn't qualify as a copy. John Hall & RIC have trademarks on various elements of the design - body shape, headstock, trc etc - and this bass doesn't infringe any of them. Hardware is all generic shonky Chickenbacker stuff and the only thing that copies a Rickenbacker component is the scratchplate. And Johnny H is on record saying he doesn't have a problem with 3rd party scratchplates.

If it was £40 (a proper Deko price) I might be in, but for £109 they can stuff it.

[Myke]

Harley Benton FanFret 5er. First time I've seen one of these up. In stock as well.. Probably because it's £280

[url="https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_fanfret_5b_black_burl_deko.htm?sid=d1e9908e14ed274f95bd273fc14a63ce"]https://www.thomann....5bd273fc14a63ce[/url]

Only about £50 off of full price.

Edited February 2, 2017 by Myke

[Grangur]

[quote name='Myke' timestamp='1486063422' post='3228999']
Harley Benton FanFret 5er. First time I've seen one of these up. In stock as well.. Probably because it's £280

[url="https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_fanfret_5b_black_burl_deko.htm?sid=d1e9908e14ed274f95bd273fc14a63ce"]https://www.thomann....5bd273fc14a63ce[/url]

Only about £50 off of full price.
[/quote]
They had one of these the other day.

I'd probably go for one of these though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znp8bWQjGSg

[kodiakblair]

Pre-ordered the BZ-4000 couple of years back. Very nice basses,rock solid build and great feel to it. Only trouble was I'd way too many active
4 string neck throughs so sold it to a pal. It's been his main bass for the last year and half.

The solid build means some will find it heavy,mine was about 11lb.

edit

I posted in the Fan Fret " Leap of Faith" thread that I reckon the high cost of the deco is down to the manufacture costs.
Jazz and P bass are very common so cheap to build,single cuts not so much. Then add in the fan fret niche market and
prices rise again. No single cuts on Ali E for less than £270,no Fan Frets for less than £429 so I doubt Thomann are paying
much less than £280 themselves.

Edited February 2, 2017 by kodiakblair

[BassApprentice]

The Fan Fret SC 5er is down to £166.97 currently for those interested https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_fanfret_5b_black_burl_deko.htm

[Rich]

Some of the guys here who have bought deko basses have got lucky and received perfectly playable basses out of the box. My 20 quid Harley jazz deko had a banana for a neck, so I wasn't so fortunate. For this reason, there is no way I would put down 170 quid on a deko. Too much of a leap of faith for me.

[yorks5stringer]

Still returnable under german distance selling regs if you get a lemon/banana!

[Rikki_Sixx]

Has anyone managed to grab anything other than the 5-string fan-fret as deco lately? Every few days I see a bunch of stuff come up, but by the time I click through to the product it's out of stock! People must have cottoned on to how good these are - or someone is buying them all up to eBay.

[yorks5stringer]

[quote name='Rikki_Sixx' timestamp='1493198917' post='3286357']
Has anyone managed to grab anything other than the 5-string fan-fret as deco lately? Every few days I see a bunch of stuff come up, but by the time I click through to the product it's out of stock! People must have cottoned on to how good these are - or someone is buying them all up to eBay.
[/quote]

Check out eBay, its awash with them, all being sold as 'New'......

[ben4343]

I got really in to deco hunting about 3 years ago, and have bought three; a JB-75N, the Thunderbird-a-like, and a fretless acoustic. All are great guitars. I have moved on the jazz (at no profit, and with full disclosure of its deco nature) only because I couldn't justify two 4 string fretted jazz basses and it wasn't as good as my Sandberg (hardly a fair comparison though...). Weighed an actual tonne though.

My point: I gave up 'the chase' about 2 years ago because things would sell out literally instantly; I think the thread worked out that there were probably scripts running to automatically purchase decos as soon as they were listed. It rather took the fun out of it...

Finally, I too am seeing more and more HB decos listed as "as new, but with small ding on back", often at double or triple the price decos cost. It rankles me slightly, not so much because the seller is trying to turn a profit (why not try?), but because I feel information/the full story (which is available, but is pretty niche) is being unfairly withheld from potential buyers. It's a funny one.

[alittlebitrobot]

[quote name='ben4343' timestamp='1493279071' post='3287025']
My point: I gave up 'the chase' about 2 years ago because things would sell out literally instantly; I think the thread worked out that there were probably scripts running to automatically purchase decos as soon as they were listed. It rather took the fun out of it...
[/quote]

Sorry to resurrect this thread but just, as a possibly final word on it, the page of "decorative" instruments on the Thomann site is almost always empty these days but their eBay page is more frequently populated:
[url="http://www.ebay.ie/usr/thomann_gmbh?_trksid=p2047675.l2559"]Thomann_gmbh[/url]

There's no 'buy it now' option so they're obviously trying to maximise their money on it, but I've seen a few nice things go for good prices.
It's funny to see this [url="http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Marcus-Miller-V7-Swamp-Ash-4-BMR-Gebrauchtware-/401372476601?hash=item5d73a9f4b9:g:M9IAAOSwS35Zd1Hf"]Marcus Miller Sire V7[/url]s condition listed as "for parts or not working" when the only problem is a dent in the wood near the bridge.

Edited August 1, 2017 by alittlebitrobot