discreet Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 (edited) HB PB-50 Modded! - *Version 3.0* *Audio Clip* This is my third modification of a Harley-Benton PB-50 Precision Bass. If you want to see what the stock donor bass looks like, Thomann have it for sale here - with more and better pictures than I can be bothered to take: https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_pb_50_sb_vintage_series.htm As usual I reshaped the headstock to a 50s-style Telebass and painted the pickguard, but this time I went to town and converted the stock four-saddle top-loading bridge to a through-body two-saddle bridge with ferrules, more in keeping with the 50s vibe. Yes, I had a spare pair of pants on hand when I drilled through the body. And being a bit fed up with sunburst, I did a full refinish in Shoreline Gold. Yes, I know Shoreline Gold wasn't available until after the 57 Precision redesign, but what the hell, I really like it. The pickup is another Herrick Tele '51' - this time the Neo magnet version as opposed to the AlNiCo 5 variant fitted to v2.0. It's a bit stronger in the high mids and top end, throws out a bit more signal and sounds great. https://www.herrickpickups.com/products/tele-51-bass-single-coil/ I really liked the look and texture of the Shoreline nitro, so didn't clear coat it. I'm hoping it will age naturally in all the right places. The only stock components remaining on this assembly are the body and neck (obviously), the neck plate, the control plate, the string tree and the strap buttons. Everything else has been upgraded or replaced. As you can see, the Fender flats are getting a bit elderly and I want to get some of those La Bella flats that are specifically made for through-body bridges. Nevertheless, the bass sounds great and plays like a premium instrument costing many times more than the donor bass. Result. Body refin in Shoreline Gold nitro Pickguard in Ivory Cream Squier Vintage Modified through-body two-saddle bridge with ferrules Herrick Neodymium Telebass '51' pickup CTS solid-shaft pots, Chiclet cap .047uF, Switchcraft jack in cats-eye side plate Fender flat-top knurled control knobs with grub screws Wilkinson WJBL 200 tuners Fender 9050M steel flatwounds 55-70-90-105 Thanks for looking! Edited February 9, 2018 by discreet 13 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigwan Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 (edited) That looks AWESOME! I see the Wilkinson tuners still need fettling to fit. That was a horrible job when I did it for my brother's bass last year. Edited February 8, 2018 by Bigwan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bass Fumbler Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 Lovely job! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted February 8, 2018 Author Share Posted February 8, 2018 (edited) 10 hours ago, Bigwan said: I see the Wilkinson tuners still need fettling to fit. That was a horrible job when I did it last year. There's certainly not a lot of room on the back of that reshaped headstock! As you can see they're not fully screwed in yet, I'm letting them settle down a bit before I get them sorted - but I think they will just about work. I may need to do a bit of subtle filing, but I think it's worth it. I prefer the big backplates on a Fender-style bass and the shafts are quite long on the Wilkinsons. The clover buttons taper nicely into the shafts too, I don't like the sort that are stepped at the bottom. Edited February 8, 2018 by discreet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skidder652003 Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 looks amazing, can you tell us how much the mods came to? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karlfer Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 Fabulous job discreet, looks bloody amazing! 1st refusal when you flog it 😃. Congrats. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted February 8, 2018 Author Share Posted February 8, 2018 (edited) On 08/02/2018 at 12:57, skidder652003 said: looks amazing, can you tell us how much the mods came to? These are very approximate prices, I didn't buy everything all at the same time: Herrick Pickup £60 Squier Vintage Modified Two-Saddle Bridge + Ferrules (USA import) £35 Shoreline Gold Nitro £15 Ivory Cream Canbrush Acrylic £9 Wilkinson Tuners £25 Fender Flats £22 Electrics and Knobs £40 Total: £206 Plus the donor bass is around £100 from Thoman, so total cost would be around £300. I'm aware that you can go and buy a very nice-sounding, playable, good-looking new bass for £300 - you don't save money by making a bitsa, you really have to enjoy putting them together - which I do. Also a Squier (for example) will hold it's value pretty well - there's no way I could sell this and get my money back. Which is a good thing, because it means I'll keep it, play it and enjoy it. Edited February 20, 2018 by discreet 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted February 8, 2018 Author Share Posted February 8, 2018 5 minutes ago, karlfer said: Fabulous job discreet, looks bloody amazing! 1st refusal when you flog it 😃. Congrats. No problem - see post above - to you, £450. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartelby Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 That is fantastic looking*!!! *except the bridge. 2 saddle bridges are the work of satan 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groove Harder Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 Wow! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LewisK1975 Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 Amazing work Discreet! Every time I look over my guitar rack and see the PB-50 there, I think about the ones you've done and how I really should do something similar.....mine has the Wilkinson Pickup in it so I'm not sure I'd need to replace that.. I've even got the headstock re-shaping template...hmmmm.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted February 8, 2018 Author Share Posted February 8, 2018 (edited) 7 hours ago, bartelby said: 2 saddle bridges are the work of satan Obviously I like the look of them, but haven't owned one before - you can see why Leo moved on to a separate saddle for each string! A two-saddle makes intonation and action adjustment more difficult, but not impossible. Not really a problem compared with the effort needed to fit the bloody thing in the first place. Edited February 8, 2018 by discreet 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LewisK1975 Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 I'm particularly impressed with the neck tint. Would you mind sharing how you've done that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted February 8, 2018 Author Share Posted February 8, 2018 2 minutes ago, LewisK1975 said: Every time I look over my guitar rack and see the PB-50 there, I think about the ones you've done and how I really should do something similar.....mine has the Wilkinson Pickup in it so I'm not sure I'd need to replace that... I've even got the headstock re-shaping template...hmmmm.. You have to bite the bullet, decide it's going to happen and as Nike say, Just Do It. The Wilkinson pickup is really good and doesn't need upgrading. The newer HB PB-50s have a Roswell pickup, which doesn't sound that bad, but it doesn't look the part. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted February 8, 2018 Author Share Posted February 8, 2018 2 minutes ago, LewisK1975 said: I'm particularly impressed with the neck tint. Would you mind sharing how you've done that? Not at all. The original neck has a really nice satin feel so I left it as-is on the back. The headstock, heel and fretboard got a couple of coats of Amber Tint nitro, with the headstock getting a couple of light coats of Dark Yellow nitro, (which is actually more of a brown colour). You have to be careful, it's really easy to put too much on and make it too dark. I would actually have preferred it a little lighter overall, but couldn't be bothered to re-do it. It's OK. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 Oooosh, love the look of this!! Second dibs when you sell it Si 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted February 8, 2018 Author Share Posted February 8, 2018 1 minute ago, Sibob said: Oooosh, love the look of this!! Second dibs when you sell it No problem - to you, £750. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uk_lefty Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 (edited) Do you take orders? The lefty is out mid March Edited February 8, 2018 by uk_lefty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted February 8, 2018 Author Share Posted February 8, 2018 2 minutes ago, uk_lefty said: Do you take orders? The lefty is out mid March Yes, I noticed that... I'm sure we can come to some sort of arrangement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jus Lukin Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 (edited) - Edited March 1, 2022 by Jus Lukin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrTea Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 That does indeed look amazing! Attempting to take the discussion slightly off topic how does the stock PB50 stack up against the Classic Vibe 50s? I'm GASsing for a 50s precision at the moment so interested to know if a new pickup and loom for example in one of these would give a better 'working' bass than the squier. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grangur Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 That looks a really shockingly good result there, Sir! The body on these is basswood, of course. Are they really light weight? Just wondering, as some lightweight bodies can leave the necks a bit heavy by comparison. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LewisK1975 Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 6 minutes ago, MrTea said: That does indeed look amazing! Attempting to take the discussion slightly off topic how does the stock PB50 stack up against the Classic Vibe 50s? I'm GASsing for a 50s precision at the moment so interested to know if a new pickup and loom for example in one of these would give a better 'working' bass than the squier. I would expect the main differences to be the weight and neck dimensions. MY PB50 is quite heavy (don't know the exact weight sorry), and the necks are very chunky. I like that about it mind you. I'd expect the squier to have a modern C neck and be lighter... But I could be completely wrong! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted February 8, 2018 Author Share Posted February 8, 2018 (edited) 22 minutes ago, MrTea said: ...how does the stock PB50 stack up against the Classic Vibe 50s? I'm GASsing for a 50s precision at the moment so interested to know if a new pickup and loom for example in one of these would give a better 'working' bass than the squier. It depends on how much work you want to put in. The biggest improvement you can make to a stock PB-50 is to put some decent flats on it. Makes a world of difference. But more generally, the PB-50 body is sound and the neck is incredible. The neck is worth the price of a PB-50 on its own, IMHO. But as said above, it IS quite chunky even though it's 42mm at the nut. So you have to be a P-Bass fan, really. Jazz-types probably wouldn't like it. As far as being a 'better' bass than the Squier? I'm not sure. Logically I'd buy the Squier as it would hold its value if you wanted to move it on - and no fettling required! Edited February 8, 2018 by discreet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jus Lukin Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 (edited) - Edited March 1, 2022 by Jus Lukin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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