Paul S Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 There was a small discussion recently about the possibility of a short scale, headless bodiless bass. The Kramer Duke/Hondo Alien was flagged and Mike @alyctes agreed to sell me his for next to nothing It arrived and I liked the compactness of it , in fact most everything about it was nice, but found the tinny sound it made fairly unagreeable. A couple of weeks ago I found myself with a spare Entwistle P bass style pickup so thought it might be worthy a try getting it fitted into the little Alien. I handed it over to my ever indulgent pal and luthier Leighton Jennings to see what he could come up with and this was the result that I just collected this morning. Leighton did a proper set up, frets needed a levelling etc, new flat strings. The paint finish was a little brittle around the edges so he made a little bezel which works just fine. However, to my astonishment the P pickup sounds totally amazing. The original was weak and still is - I'll not bother using it, just leave it there to fill the hole, but gosh the P pickup has some balls. Gone is the weak tinny sound. There is a richer, darker tone about it yet still a little of the bite that I guess comes from the ali neck. I would gig this, no doubt about it. So - would a headless, bodiless short scale bass work? Yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete.young Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 Thats an interesting mod. I've got one of these somewhere which needs some TLC. Do you mind me asking what strings you put on it? I have Status half-rounds on mine but they seem to have a bit too much tension. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted March 10, 2020 Author Share Posted March 10, 2020 25 minutes ago, pete.young said: Thats an interesting mod. I've got one of these somewhere which needs some TLC. Do you mind me asking what strings you put on it? I have Status half-rounds on mine but they seem to have a bit too much tension. Good question. They were lying about out of the original packaging but I 'think' they are La Bellas - black silks at both ends and quite tapered at the tuner end so they fit into those tiny little tuners just fine. Short scale, obvs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooky_lowdown Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 I'm guessing the tinny sound was the original strings, probably steel roundwounds. The flats would have fixed that straight off the bat. The neodymium pickups are a nice addition nonetheless. 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 Ohhhh, now there's a coincidence - I was just scouting around EBay for something like this to take on a holiday I've got booked, plus something to use for jam nights for the easiest possible load-in. I did some gigs in Italy a while back and borrowed a FrankenSteinberger thingy, which I enjoyed more than I thought I would... And a P pickup improves everything... 😁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted March 10, 2020 Author Share Posted March 10, 2020 37 minutes ago, hooky_lowdown said: I'm guessing the tinny sound was the original strings, probably steel roundwounds. The flats would have fixed that straight off the bat. The neodymium pickups are a nice addition nonetheless. 👍 Nope. I put flats on as a first move, it just sounded tinny and flat And when I select the rear pickup it is the same as it was, so now fairly redundant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted March 10, 2020 Author Share Posted March 10, 2020 36 minutes ago, Muzz said: Ohhhh, now there's a coincidence - I was just scouting around EBay for something like this to take on a holiday I've got booked, plus something to use for jam nights for the easiest possible load-in. I did some gigs in Italy a while back and borrowed a FrankenSteinberger thingy, which I enjoyed more than I thought I would... And a P pickup improves everything... 😁 Well, for my old ears, yes. I've had several of the Hohners - a B2, more than a couple of B2As, some with the drop D facility, a B2V but the one I liked the most was the B2B which was passive with a bolt-on neck and P/J pickups. Like an idiot I sold it but for what I want to hear it was the pick of the bunch - much more organic kind of tone compared to the EMGs. This actually doesn't sound a million miles away but with the added bonus of being short scale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooky_lowdown Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 22 minutes ago, Paul S said: Nope. I put flats on as a first move, it just sounded tinny and flat And when I select the rear pickup it is the same as it was, so now fairly redundant. What's your definition of "tinny" as I associate it as sounding thin and metallic? Not two words I'd ever link to flatwounds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted March 10, 2020 Author Share Posted March 10, 2020 You would if you had them on an Alien. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete.young Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 This has prompted me to dig mine out and give it a clean. The action's not as bad as I remembered, it plays OK all the way up the neck although it could be a bit lower, and the tension isn't that bad. There don't seem to be many ready replacements for the pickup, that don't require a router. A Seymour Duncan NYC neck would just fit but these are very expensive and hard to find. What do people reckon to buying a couple of Entwistle Jazz Pickups, cutting off some of the mounting loops and sticking them together back-to-back? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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