Cheapo bass adventures. Hohner arbor.

[Twincam]

I often get to work on much nicer instruments, but for some reason I've always been drawn to old, not overly commonplace these days, budget or tat equipment.

I also like rescuing unloved instruments in general. Often putting in a good number of hours. So I thought I would write about some of those that pass through my hands as they come along. And I'm bored! 

So introducing this Hohner arbor mx1, I believe 1987. Also known as the sb420. Korean cort factory made.

I enjoy it so much that I recently pulled the sale of this, in case some might of seen it on a certain auction site. 

I believe these were a precursor to the marlin series or ran alongside or one above the marlin range. Maybe someone knows better? As in the very late 80s I was 6.  No idea about the original price. On average these can be picked up for about £60 now it seems. I suppose it's the sort of instrument you would have as your first bass and so I'm guessing there were some bad ones about as well as the better built ones. These are not sort after at all, I think the marlin range gets a bad rep, however the arbor range get a tiny bit more respect, well 6 strings do at least. I think it has a bit of retro cool about it. If I seen one gigged though, I would wonder why would you do that lol. 

Specs. Birch ply body, very heavy. Candy apple red. Maple neck, 21 frets, rose wood board and 42 mm nut. Precision style front pu, double jazz, mm style rear pu. Vol, vol, tone.

Bought a bit unloved, and it was a bit dusty, some kinda filth smeared about, possibly mud and some other brown smearing! Haha. Clearly been well played in its past has some nice patina, a lot of nice front pu cover wear. Came with random rusty strings. Good neck with zero issues, working truss rod. There was a good bass waiting to emerge. 

Initial Work done. Cleaned!, fret leveling and recrown, polish, although the frets were not too bad. Board oiled with boiled linseed oil, the board was thankfully not absolutely dry and knackered. Setup. Good strings, kindly donated by a fellow basschat member. Some little dints and scraps drop filled. Bridge saddle screws needed cutting down as they stuck up despite the neck pocket having a shim, possibly from the factory. It setup very well and I find easy to play. Although I do find the g slightly close to the fret board edge, although It isn't, just my bad technique means I prefer the g to be a touch further from the edge. 

Plugged in, disappointing, thin and a bit weak sounding. Opened up the cavity. 500k vol, vol, tone mini pots. Interestingly found an old active buffer which wasn't actually attached. Looks like there may of been other mods done, treble bleeds, could of been from the factory. Non factory I believe tone cap fitted. 

So I clipped out all the rubbish and used the existing pots and wires, to make a simple standard jazz style circuit with 047 cap. Big difference! Much more output and not weak. Plenty of tones in there, some not so useable and some really good, gets a lovely growl. 500k pots so it can get very bright. Front pu is the better and seems ok constructed, typical p tone. Rear pu is x2 single coil jazz style side by side. Bit too scooped sounding for me on it's own, can get a lovely growling tone. Was found to be slightly microphonic. So I opened it up. Brass shielding plate revealed probably one of the cheapest pu construction I've see. Solid magnet across pole pieces on a,d and g. Snapped bits of magnets on the pole pies on the e string. Very cheap bobbin construction. All glued in place. I wax potted as best I could the whole assembly. Which improved things. However I couldn't get the string volume balance i like on the rear pu. I will add washers to the pole pieces. Front pu no issues. 

So tone sorted. What I like is the ergonomics it's a very easy bass to play, despite the weight of the ply body. Neck is lovely despite my preference for jazz necks. Hardware is a slight step up from budget, it's still holding up very well after 30+ years. I love the body colour and matching headstock, I also like the retro hohner headstock branding. Neck backplate is good quality and a nice touch.

Thinking about upgrading the rear pickups and fitting 250k cts pots. 

Next adventure in cheapo basses I hope to have some proper jap crap maybe lawsuit or something really pants from the catalogue. Some prices are on the rise so need suggestions for something cheap and interesting. Also wouldn't mind something eastern bloc.  

 

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 4, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[songofthewind]

Good work! I do like an eighties vibe.

[Bassassin]

I think this is probably mid 80s. As far as I know the Arbors were a budget line alongside the very decent Hohner Professional range. There wasn't a connection to 80s Marlins (the ones with the 12th fret fish inlay) at that point, as Marlin was owned by British Music Strings in Wales. Hohner later bought the Marlin brand but I think Arbors were long gone by then.

Not very interesting - but you did ask!  

[Twincam]

46 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

I think this is probably mid 80s. As far as I know the Arbors were a budget line alongside the very decent Hohner Professional range. There wasn't a connection to 80s Marlins (the ones with the 12th fret fish inlay) at that point, as Marlin was owned by British Music Strings in Wales. Hohner later bought the Marlin brand but I think Arbors were long gone by then.

Not very interesting - but you did ask!  

Yeah something like that, I seen a arbor like mine in the 1987 catalogue so maybe that was there last year, Hohner Marlins started 88 I think. There is there is a marlin slammer model very similar to this arbor sb420. So I suppose marlins taken over the arbor budget range and maybe some more penny pinching taken place. 

By the way I do find this sort of info interesting. Soon enough we may long for the halcyon days of talking about this kinda thing ha. 

Wouldn't mind an old Horner professional. 

[Maude]

I have an Arbor Series fretless P. Same neck plate and highmass bridge as yours and made of ply, but it's one of my favourite basses, it sounds great a plays great. I've owned it for about twenty years and it's a 'never selling' bass.