blablas Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 (edited) A couple of week ago I bought a fun little (lefty) Harley Benton PB-Shorty. I liked this little bass a lot (after having put in a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder), 30 inch scale while all other dimension are similar to a Precission Bass. It got me thinking of wanting one with Jazz Bass pickups, given that this is not available I decided to convert one myself, this is my little rebuild diary. Orderer another to do this conversion. After it arrived I found out that this second one was nowhere near as well made as the first one. Well whatever is wrong or I don't like will be fixed along the way. (The second PB-Shorty is the one in the back) For this conversion I'm going to use a set off Jazz Bass pickups I have laying around that came from one of my Squier VM's after I put Chi-Sonic's in that one. For controls I prefer volume/balance/tone, these three controls will be on the top and I am going to ad a sidejack. The conversion and fixing begins: The tuners needed realigning, they were mounted rather sloppy, not at an straight angle and also misaligned from each other. Before modifying. Filling the holes with toothpicks and CA glue. After the glue hardened I just cut of the toothpicks and leveled them with a sharp chisel, re-drilled the holes and mounted the tuners again. And after modifying, mounted straight. There were also a lot of sharp fret ends, well they are gone now. On a more positive note, the neck is made out of a piece flatsawn maple. First real sawdust. Drilled the hole for the sidejack. And jackplate in place. Routing and new pickguard. Routed the pickup cavities and made a new pickguard (mint green, the protective foil is still on, it doesn't look at its best right now). Shielding. Applied shielding and mounted the bridge pickup. Edited January 10, 2018 by blablas changed picture links 1 Quote
blablas Posted January 21, 2015 Author Posted January 21, 2015 (edited) And more shielding. Mounted the neck pickup, made a shim (the saddles are a tad to low without to my liking), mounted the neck and put on some strings to check the alignment of everything. Not bad. Edited January 10, 2018 by blablas changed picture links 1 Quote
Grangur Posted January 21, 2015 Posted January 21, 2015 Looking good. This must be one of your easiest projects you've done in some time, but it's looking good. Quote
blablas Posted January 21, 2015 Author Posted January 21, 2015 Building something from scratch is not that much more difficult, It only takes more time. Quote
blablas Posted January 22, 2015 Author Posted January 22, 2015 (edited) And it's finished. Sorted out the wiring this evening, put on a set of new strings and did the first setup session. While making the pickguard I also made a new one for the original P (I could get two from one rough pickguard plate), that one is also in place. I probably still have to level and dress a few frets, but that's something that can be done at a later time. I'll make more detailed pictures during daylight tomorrow. Edited January 10, 2018 by blablas changed picture links 1 1 Quote
blablas Posted January 23, 2015 Author Posted January 23, 2015 (edited) The promised pictures. Full frontal portrait: details: It was a fun little project to do, the end result is exactly what I had in mind, sound wise and looks wise. Edited January 10, 2018 by blablas changed picture links 1 Quote
sblueplanet Posted January 23, 2015 Posted January 23, 2015 When are you taking orders? .....:-) Quote
blablas Posted January 24, 2015 Author Posted January 24, 2015 (edited) Here is the PB-Shorty with new pickguard. Edited January 10, 2018 by blablas changed picture links 1 Quote
Andyjr1515 Posted January 25, 2015 Posted January 25, 2015 (edited) Excellent result Edited January 25, 2015 by Andyjr1515 Quote
Annoying Twit Posted January 25, 2015 Posted January 25, 2015 Very interesting project. How good would you say the quality of the basic materials that the bass is made from are? The basic wood and fretwire? Quote
blablas Posted January 25, 2015 Author Posted January 25, 2015 The wood for the body is fine, a bit on the soft side, not that strange given that it's poplar, when I machined the pickup cavities I came up to no bad spots or anything else that was out of the ordinary. What I could see of the wood after I milled it was that it actually looked very good and had a nice grain to it. The neck is made of flatsawn maple, no knots or anything, fingerboard is a nice looking piece of rosewood. The fretwire is something that time will tell how good it is. All other hardware is okay, and to my eyes and experience doesn't need to be replaced, the only letdown is the stock pickup which sounds rather bland and boring and is really cheap muck. That's why replaced it with a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder on the P version, which more than doubled the price. For the bass I converted here this stock pickup was not a factor at all because I was planning on putting in Jazz pickups anyway. All in all I'm tempted to say you get a lot more bass than you pay for with these Shorty's, there are a few little shortcomings but nothing that can't be easily fixed. Quote
Annoying Twit Posted January 26, 2015 Posted January 26, 2015 Thanks. I ask because I'm considering building a Harley Benton p-bass kit sometime this year. Looking at kits, there seems to be a big gap between the el cheapo kits and the high end (e.g. Carvin) kits, and not much in between. The Harley Benton kits received mixed, but sometimes good reviews. I was curious about what you found out about the PB shorty to find out about HB quality in feral. Thank you. Quote
blablas Posted January 26, 2015 Author Posted January 26, 2015 (edited) Over on TalkBass there is a topic on Harley Benton's and someone over there just bought a P-kit, maybe it's interesting for you to take a look there. Edited January 10, 2018 by blablas Quote
blablas Posted February 16, 2015 Author Posted February 16, 2015 (edited) I'm playing around with the idea to make a third shorty variation, think "big humbucker and preamp". But first I have to finish my custom 12 string before I'm going to do more with this idea. Edited February 16, 2015 by blablas Quote
blablas Posted February 25, 2015 Author Posted February 25, 2015 (edited) The 'MMB-Shorty' goes for real, ordered the bass and parts. Edited January 10, 2018 by blablas changed picture links 1 Quote
blablas Posted February 27, 2015 Author Posted February 27, 2015 (edited) Bass and parts are in (only waiting for a black series/parallel switch). The plan. The pickguard will be replaced with a black one. The parts. First things to do. Align the tuners and remove several sharp fret ends. I seem to have a patent on this with HB basses, or I am more critical than most people because I also build my own instruments. Edited January 10, 2018 by blablas changed picture links 1 Quote
Rumple Posted February 27, 2015 Posted February 27, 2015 So are you having the pick-up in the MM position and cutting part way into the scratchplate? Quote
blablas Posted February 27, 2015 Author Posted February 27, 2015 Yes, that's also why I go for a black pickguard so it won't be noticed too much. Quote
Rumple Posted February 27, 2015 Posted February 27, 2015 I thought it might look quite cool with white but black is good to. Look forward to seeing it when it's done. Quote
blablas Posted February 28, 2015 Author Posted February 28, 2015 (edited) Filled. Leveled. And filled again. Now the tuners are on straight and aligned. Edited January 10, 2018 by blablas changed picture links 1 Quote
blablas Posted March 9, 2015 Author Posted March 9, 2015 (edited) Made the new pickguard today, looks ugly due to the protective foil that's still on. Edited January 10, 2018 by blablas changed picture links 1 Quote
Vinny Posted March 9, 2015 Posted March 9, 2015 [quote name='blablas' timestamp='1424883763' post='2701567'] The 'MMB-Shorty' goes for real, ordered the bass and parts. [/quote] "Potiknob Tandem" sounds like a Stanley Unwinism. (probably not funny in the Netherlands!) Quote
.jpg.2a95db90b70ff3f3317b0f7ee3970acb.jpg)
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.