NBD Encore P bass (Charidee shop mate).

[Maude]

It's cheap, it's an Encore and I don't 'need' it in the slightest, but it's money in a good charities coffers. Ah the reasons we find to justify a new bass. 😄

 

To be fair St. Lukes Hospice is a great charity in Plymouth and has really helped a few people I know so that genuinely sealed the deal. 

 

I'd seen this on eBay and liked the look of it, you know when something just has 'a look' that grabs you somehow. I had to go Plymouth today so decided to pick it up while in there. 

 

With a good clean up I think it'll be a little gem. Nice trans red with some nice grain (I can see a three/four piece body so don't think it's a photo job), aged pearl pickguard, nice grain on an amber neck, and it plays and sounds really quite well. Pots are a bit scratchy but if it cleans up nice and a good set up and fret dress gets it playing really nicely, it might even get treated to a upgraded PU and loom. 

 

Who doesn't need an extra P bass knocking around for £50?

Oh yeah, included a strap and gigbag, both cheap but the bag will keep the dust off once clean. 

 

Does anyone have any idea on age? It looks like an older Encore but it could equally be a modern one with a vintage look. I've no idea on the history of Encores. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 12, 2022 by Maude

[Paul S]

I know nothing about Encore basses, whether they are all created equal or if there are stars amongst the brand, but I bought a really cheap double cutaway short scale one.  £65.  Headstock sported a mother-of-toilet seat decal so perhaps it was a posh model   It was incredibly lightweight, 3kg on the nose if I recall, which was great.  Pickup was a bit meh so I swapped it for an Entiwistle PBXN and, well, wow.   I wanted to 'stealth' it so swapped the bridge and tuners for Wilkinson jobs, stained the fretboard with black leather dye.  It was half decent, really. 

 

 

There was a slight twist to the neck, though, so in the end I used the body to marry with a nice maple neck from a Hondo II H1015 to make a bitsa that I still have and use.  But I'd probably get another of these if it was cheap enough.

Edited February 12, 2022 by Paul S

[Maude]

I think very roughly speaking there is old Encore and new Encore. Old was a brand name of John Hornby Skewes and were decent quality (at a price point), new Encore is less decent, built to a lower budget. 

Although this P bass has the feel of an older bass I think it's one of the newer ones as the hardware is all too shiny. I think they use Wilkinson now so should still be decent. 

 

I have an old Encore sunburst Strat that is very beaten up but looks very cool, a la John Frusciante. The paint must be nitro as it's just flaking off around all the chips and scratches. 

That's actually a really nice guitar. 

 

Your all black Encore looks really nice too. 

 

I love a budget guitar/bass that manages to hold its own with the big boys. 

[Munurmunuh]

Ah that's smashing 🥰

[Thump]

For 50 quid you'd have been mad not to have bought it. Nice find 

[shoulderpet]

1 hour ago, Maude said:

It's cheap, it's an Encore and I don't 'need' it in the slightest, but it's money in a good charities coffers. Ah the reasons we find to justify a new bass. 😄

 

To be fair St. Lukes Hospice is a great charity in Plymouth and has really helped a few people I know so that genuinely sealed the deal. 

 

I'd seen this on eBay and liked the look of it, you know when something just has 'a look' that grabs you somehow. I had to go Plymouth today so decided to pick it up while in there. 

 

With a good clean up I think it'll be a little gem. Nice trans red with some nice grain (I can see a three/four piece body so don't think it's a photo job), aged pearl pickguard, nice grain on an amber neck, and it plays and sounds really quite well. Pots are a bit scratchy but if it cleans up nice and a good set up and fret dress gets it playing really nicely, it might even get treated to a upgraded PU and loom. 

 

Who doesn't need an extra P bass knocking around for £50?

Oh yeah, included a strap and gigbag, both cheap but the bag will keep the dust off once clean. 

 

Does anyone have any idea on age? It looks like an older Encore but it could equally be a modern one with a vintage look. I've no idea on the history of Encores. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very nice, lovely finish, looks much nicer than the Encore I owned a while back, if you want to upgrade the pickups and dont want to spend too much on it WIlkinsons Alnico P bass pickup (the slightly more expensive one) is a really nice sounding pickup that is just as nice as the more expensive offerings from Seymour duncan etc

[Maude]

20 minutes ago, shoulderpet said:

Very nice, lovely finish, looks much nicer than the Encore I owned a while back, if you want to upgrade the pickups and dont want to spend too much on it WIlkinsons Alnico P bass pickup (the slightly more expensive one) is a really nice sounding pickup that is just as nice as the more expensive offerings from Seymour duncan etc

Wilkinson are similar to the Entwistle pickups that I'm a fan of. I actually think the Entwistle neos (PBXN) are almost identical sounding to the Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder, but actually better as they have slightly more pronounced mids. 

 

I might give the Winkinsons a go if I need to. I reckon it's Wilkinson in there now but probably a cheapy. 

 

Warman are another favourite of mine, excellent pickups for very little money. 

[shoulderpet]

17 minutes ago, Maude said:

Wilkinson are similar to the Entwistle pickups that I'm a fan of. I actually think the Entwistle neos (PBXN) are almost identical sounding to the Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder, but actually better as they have slightly more pronounced mids. 

 

I might give the Winkinsons a go if I need to. I reckon it's Wilkinson in there now but probably a cheapy. 

 

Warman are another favourite of mine, excellent pickups for very little money. 

Yeah I think if the pickup in there is a Wilkinson it will probably be there cheaper ceramic pickup which is not a bad pickup, I have tried the ceramic and the alnico versions and the ceramic is more aggressive than the alnico version (when I tried the ceramic one I found it had really snarly mids) but it doesnt have that low mid punch that the alnico one does 

[Maude]

That's good to know because my other P bass has a SD 1/4 Pound and is aggressive and scooped. 

I'd like this to be more classic Motown P tone. 

[shoulderpet]

1 minute ago, Maude said:

That's good to know because my other P bass has a SD 1/4 Pound and is aggressive and scooped. 

I'd like this to be more classic Motown P tone. 

My tone is generally very aggressive so I haven't used that pickup in a while but when I used it I was immediately reminded of Mike Mills from REM's P bass tone(not there earlier stuff when he used the ric), that kind of full,warm low mid focused tone

[kodiakblair]

 

It's dead easy to tell if your Encore has ceramic or not , there will be a magnet glued to the underside 🙂

 

BTW the final years of Encore overlap with the other JHS brand "Vintage".

[shoulderpet]

5 minutes ago, kodiakblair said:

 

It's dead easy to tell if your Encore has ceramic or not , there will be a magnet glued to the underside 🙂

 

BTW the final years of Encore overlap with the other JHS brand "Vintage".

That's true although I think at this price point I think it's safe to assume it will be ceramic

[Maude]

I'll pull it apart tomorrow probably and give a good clean and polish. 

I'll see what's what then. 

 

I really need to stop buying 'rubbish' though. In my 5 space living room rack at the mo I have an Encore, Hohner, Kimbara, Melody and Kay. 

We had paramedics in the house earlier in the week and one of them was in a band and asked who the bassist was. It was almost embarrassing, you almost want to say, "I have some really nice basses in cases, honest."

😄

[shoulderpet]

2 minutes ago, Maude said:

I'll pull it apart tomorrow probably and give a good clean and polish. 

I'll see what's what then. 

 

I really need to stop buying 'rubbish' though. In my 5 space living room rack at the mo I have an Encore, Hohner, Kimbara, Melody and Kay. 

We had paramedics in the house earlier in the week and one of them was in a band and asked who the bassist was. It was almost embarrassing, you almost want to say, "I have some really nice basses in cases, honest."

😄

Haha, not heard of Kimbara or Melody, I know Kay are usually junk though but Hohner are actually often fairly playable

[Maude]

To be fair they are all excellent basses/guitars. There's always the pick of bunch even from cheaper brands. 

The Kay is a neck through similar to Westone Thunder or Aria SB, actually made by Cort with very nice Powersound pickups, the Kimbara is a very accurate Gibson Ripper copy in looks and sound, the Hohner is a nice Arbour Series fretless P and the Melody is a cool little bowl back, f hole archtop acoustic guitar based on an Ovation. 

 

I like an underdog. 😉

 

Edited February 12, 2022 by Maude

[shoulderpet]

1 hour ago, Maude said:

To be fair they are all excellent basses/guitars. There's always the pick of bunch even from cheaper brands. 

The Kay is a neck through similar to Westone Thunder or Aria SB, actually made by Cort with very nice Powersound pickups, the Kimbara is a very accurate Gibson Ripper copy in looks and sound, the Hohner is a nice Arbour Series fretless P and the Melody is a cool little bowl back, f hole archtop acoustic guitar based on an Ovation. 

 

I like an underdog. 😉

 

Cool, yes with cheaper basses some can be really good, that Kay actually sounds really nice, would love a Westone Thunder, also really gives you a nice buzz knowing that the bass that you paid peanuts for is a really nice bass

[kodiakblair]

1 hour ago, shoulderpet said:

That's true although I think at this price point I think it's safe to assume it will be ceramic

Given the volume of purchases by factories there is little to no difference between material costs.

 

6 alnico slugs from Axesrus cost £10.50. 1000 alnico slugs from Rongchang Magnets* will cost £20 , 8 slugs make a pickup so 16p.

 

Ceramic pickups not only require iron slugs they also need a bar magnet. Again Rongchang sell 1000 for £20 , 4p + cost of slugs for a split-P.

 

 

* Rongchang Magnets chosen at random for prices

 

Alnico pickups generally use more copper wire but there's no way I could give the cost increase for a single pickup , maybe  0.001 p 🤣

 

The Encore likely does have a ceramic magnet pickup , with JHS banking on consumers shelling out £20 more for the same bass but with the "more expensive" alnico pickup.

 

Guitar companies make a killing from what the public are prepared to pay for so-called better materials. 

 

[shoulderpet]

37 minutes ago, kodiakblair said:

Given the volume of purchases by factories there is little to no difference between material costs.

 

6 alnico slugs from Axesrus cost £10.50. 1000 alnico slugs from Rongchang Magnets* will cost £20 , 8 slugs make a pickup so 16p.

 

Ceramic pickups not only require iron slugs they also need a bar magnet. Again Rongchang sell 1000 for £20 , 4p + cost of slugs for a split-P.

 

 

* Rongchang Magnets chosen at random for prices

 

Alnico pickups generally use more copper wire but there's no way I could give the cost increase for a single pickup , maybe  0.001 p 🤣

 

The Encore likely does have a ceramic magnet pickup , with JHS banking on consumers shelling out £20 more for the same bass but with the "more expensive" alnico pickup.

 

Guitar companies make a killing from what the public are prepared to pay for so-called better materials. 

 

Oh yeah I mean the cost difference is minimal but as you say it is about perceived value more than anything else and people perceive ceramic to be inferior but the magnet is just one part of the pickup, same with cloth wires on pickups, pickup makers will state cloth wires as a selling point but they actually make no real difference at all

Edited February 13, 2022 by shoulderpet

[Maude]

Pulled it apart today and gave it all a good clean and polish. 

It's definitely a more modern one but is surprisingly well built.

 

Nice tidy routing and tight tolerances. Lovely snug neck pocket. 

I haven't shielded it, I'll see if it's noisy at all first. If it ain't broke... 

 

No clues as to age in here. 

 

Basic but tidy and no work needed. 

 

Magnets on underside of PU, so I assume they must be ceramic ones. Don't know if they are Wilkinson or not, but it doesn't matter. 

The good thing is they run on unleaded. 😁

 

Gave the body and pickguard a good clean and polish, and washed and scrubbed all the metalwork. 

The body would benefit from a wet flat, then polish, but as I've no idea how much lacquer is on it I'm not going to bother in case I break through. It's only a cheapy bit of fun and it's perfectly acceptable. 

 

Body's all built up and I'm about to tackle the neck. I've used cream felt strap pin washers to match the pickguard but black might be better, I'm not sure. Again, it doesn't really matter. 

 

Edited February 13, 2022 by Maude

[Paul S]

That's scrubbed up beautifully!

[Munurmunuh]

How does the neck feel, typical modern P? Or something a bit more old fashioned in depth and width?

 

And the pg, has it really got the creaminess that's coming across in the photos, or is just reflecting warm lighting?

[oldslapper]

Ah was that in Portsmouth or Plymouth somewhere? I was watching it, but had no way of getting to it. Good find for no money and a good cause. 😎👍🏻

[Maude]

9 hours ago, Ricky Rioli said:

How does the neck feel, typical modern P? Or something a bit more old fashioned in depth and width?

 

And the pg, has it really got the creaminess that's coming across in the photos, or is just reflecting warm lighting?

 

The neck is modern P I suppose, 42mm nut but is quite shallow, more shallow than most actually.

Definitely nothing like my Yamaha Attitude which is based on the old Tele necks and is huge. 

 

The photos are indoors, evening with the lights on so warm looking, but it really is a very creamy pearl. When buying pearl pickguards there's generally white, vintage white (or variation of) and ivory, then cream if you're lucky. This is definitely cream, not white at all, which I really like. It goes perfectly with the deep red. 

[Maude]

44 minutes ago, oldslapper said:

Ah was that in Portsmouth or Plymouth somewhere? I was watching it, but had no way of getting to it. Good find for no money and a good cause. 😎👍🏻

In Plymouth. It was collection only and £59 originally. I'm twenty miles from Plymouth and couldn't really be bothered to go and get it. 

Then my wife was taken into Derriford hospital (Plymouth) last week and I'd been in every day visiting, but only in the evening. On Friday they dropped the price to £49 and I was going in on Saturday in the day. Perfect. 

Really glad I bought it now. I know it's only an Encore but it's really nice. 

With a few hours spent on the neck it'll play really nicely I think. 

[kodiakblair]

7 minutes ago, Maude said:

Really glad I bought it now. I know it's only an Encore but it's really nice. 

Who cares about the logo , you certainly shouldn't.

 

You've got yourself a nice wee bass and its brought a bit pleasure into your life 🙂