neepheid Posted October 9, 2023 Share Posted October 9, 2023 (edited) I suppose I should let the cat out of the bag now. This arrived last Thursday, but I wanted to keep it a surprise for the SW Bass Bash. So there. I was speaking to some folk on LowEndLobster's discord server and someone shared a video of some coverage of Harley Benton's stand at the recent Guitar Summit show in Germany. They were showing their prototype stuff, not set to release until next year and this semi-hollow beastie caught my eye, the HB-50. Looked nice, sounded good when the guy in the video played it. The conversation moved onto whether or not it was long scale and how it might compare to Harley Benton's extant semi-hollow bass offering (the HB-60) so I idly went on to Thomann's site to look at the HB-60. Lo and behold, listed next to it was a B-stock HB-50, only a single piece of stock, hadn't even been photographed. I quickly realised that this was Thomann selling some of their show demonstrator instruments. Long scale indeed, semi hollow, looked like a great mod platform, so... tae me! Enough effin' preamble... First impressions - Good - "light signs of usage" means fingerprints (phew!), looks great, very well made, doesn't feel cheap, fret ends are inboard of the neck binding so absolutely no sharp edges, 22 frets, uses a standard pickup shape (MM) so easily modded, tuners feel fine - turn easy with no play, plays really nice. Bad - pots are garbage (taper is dreadful, like only the last 10% of the turn does anything), pickup switching is lazy and pointless (north coil, both in parallel, south coil - the differences are imperceptible to all but the pickiest of listeners and I'd challenge any of them to hear a difference in a band mix), pickup is too far from the strings so it's a bit quiet and it won't go any higher - screws just come loose. I intend to rewire this. I think the pickup sounds fine - according to the specs it's an Artec of some kind - I wonder if the finished pieces will have their frequently used Roswell pickups instead? But it needs rewired. New pots obvs, but thinking of replacing the switch with a rotary of some kind for series/parallel options. Fixed the pickup height issue tonight - there were a few paltry squares of foam under there, but nowhere near enough to push it up to where I want it. I had spare springs from my Epi Les Paul black and gold nonsense, so I put springs on the screws, now I can have the pickup as high as I want it. Seriously, it was at least 5mm lower than this when it arrived and unable to go higher. Edited November 7, 2023 by neepheid 32 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted October 9, 2023 Share Posted October 9, 2023 Lovely... Simple with a Proper type bridge than than the business and trapeze of the HB-60... Winner! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil___lien Posted October 9, 2023 Share Posted October 9, 2023 So cool! How is it in terms of ergonomics? What about weight? And how is the sound now that U have fixed the pick-up issue?? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Dragon Posted October 9, 2023 Share Posted October 9, 2023 By the time I saw that this may be for sale you had already bought it! Do you mind telling what you paid? Would give an indication of what to expect the retail price to be. The red one looked especially nice. Well done on your purchase. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr4stringz Posted October 9, 2023 Share Posted October 9, 2023 Very nice. Has that pawn shop kind of look, what with the MM-style pickup. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted October 9, 2023 Author Share Posted October 9, 2023 46 minutes ago, neil___lien said: So cool! How is it in terms of ergonomics? What about weight? And how is the sound now that U have fixed the pick-up issue?? I like the ergonomics - it has got a chunky neck, good fret work, balances fine. Dunno the weight, scales need a new battery. Doesn't feel excessively heavy. Sound is fuller and I don't need to turn the amp/practice device up as high now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted October 9, 2023 Author Share Posted October 9, 2023 25 minutes ago, Little Dragon said: By the time I saw that this may be for sale you had already bought it! Do you mind telling what you paid? Would give an indication of what to expect the retail price to be. The red one looked especially nice. Well done on your purchase. Ahh, sorry about that! Thomann put it up for £199. What that means for a price in 2024 I don't know, all I know is that it had better be more than £199, beta testing costs money! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Dragon Posted October 9, 2023 Share Posted October 9, 2023 22 minutes ago, neepheid said: Ahh, sorry about that! Thomann put it up for £199. What that means for a price in 2024 I don't know, all I know is that it had better be more than £199, beta testing costs money! They have a Deluxe B stock up for £111 as opposed to their usual £129 so maybe expected price is under £250. Hopefully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted October 9, 2023 Share Posted October 9, 2023 (edited) Hope you added a set of those cheap HB Flats @ £13 ... if not drop em a line and say you forgot to add... and see if you can blag free postage ! https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hqs_bass_45_100_flatwound.htm? Edited October 9, 2023 by PaulThePlug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted October 9, 2023 Author Share Posted October 9, 2023 5 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said: Hope you added a set of those cheap HB Flats... if not drop em a line and say you forgot to add... see if you can pay and get free postage as more than the strings! Nah, I don't like flats - I've got a tone knob 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alyctes Posted October 9, 2023 Share Posted October 9, 2023 Are they planning a fretless, I hope? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delberthot Posted October 10, 2023 Share Posted October 10, 2023 Love it - I've been after a cheap semi acoustic for a while now and I'm not averse to tinkering with my Harley Bentons so I'll keep my eye out for these becoming available next year 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmo Valdemar Posted October 10, 2023 Share Posted October 10, 2023 A bizarre and wonderful goldfish. Looks right up your street! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted October 15, 2023 Author Share Posted October 15, 2023 Last night I sorted out my other grumbles with this bass as supplied - the terrible pots and the pointless three way switch. Never rewired a semi-hollow bass before, and with a solid centre block the only access point is the f-hole. No worries! First step - gather supplies - found some pots in my parts bin and ordered a Schaller 3 way rotary Megaswitch - so much easier to wrap one's head around than your typical rotary. Then it's time to take a deep breath and feed the guts out through the f-hole (realising that there's no way back now - even stuffing the innards back in as they are will be a challenge) Desoldered and removed the old pots and the switch, leaving only the bridge wire (taped up so it can't escape inside the bass again!) and the pickup wire. Noting the two hot wires which went to the old switch (white/green) - use multimeter to figure out which grounds go with which hots (white/black, red/green) then wire the Megaswitch using the schematic handily provided by Schaller for this very scenario (single HB, parallel/single/series) Wire up from the switch to the volume and tone pots to the jack socket (remembering to include the bridge earth wire) Test BEFORE beginning to stuff the innards back in the f-hole, then do it in order of (wired) distance from the pickup - jack socket first - easily the worst, fiddliest one - having small hands/fingers I managed to get it in the rough vicinity of the hole then used a large allen key to maneuver it into position and keep it there whilst I got the washer/nut on. Take a breath, then carry on - tone pot, volume pot and finally, three way switch (which went in quite easily - had done some testing beforehand to see what was the easiest way, found an angled approach worked best after first trying other contortions of a more twisting nature which might have stressed the wires) Finally, put the knobs on, and it's done! The chrome knob is temporary - couldn't find a chickenhead in my spares so I've ordered one. Final tests through headphones and amp revealed that it has been a resounding success - real differences between the settings (well, slight difference between single/parallel but the usual big kick going into series). Only wee oopsie (and I'm not fixing it) is that I got my coils mixed up and the single coil is the bridge coil, not the neck one as I had intended. I don't think it makes a lot of difference so I'm going to leave it. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted October 15, 2023 Share Posted October 15, 2023 (edited) Feed a length of plastic tubing 6mm ID down the pot hole, up thru the f hole... Then put the end of the tubing over the splined plopped, then pull through the control hole... Might still be able to slide the washer and nut over the tube... Can you post details or link to the switch? Edited October 15, 2023 by PaulThePlug 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted October 15, 2023 Author Share Posted October 15, 2023 (edited) 19 hours ago, PaulThePlug said: Feed a length of plastic tubing 6mm ID down the pot hole, up thru the f hole... Then put the end of the tubing over the splined plopped, then pull through the control hole... Might still be able to slide the washer and nut over the tube... To be honest, I didn't find the pots to be too bad, again, small hands, was able fairly easily and quickly get them in position and push them up from underneath. The jack socket was much more of a hassle, but with some improvised tools and a bit of swearing I got it to go where I needed it to 19 hours ago, PaulThePlug said: Can you post details or link to the switch? https://schaller.info/en/megaswitches-preamp-pickups/306/megaswitch-rotary Edited October 16, 2023 by neepheid 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted October 16, 2023 Share Posted October 16, 2023 18 hours ago, neepheid said: To be honest, I didn't find the pots to be too bad, again, small hands, was able fairly easily and quickly get them in position and push them up from underneath. The jack socket was much more of a hassle, but with some improvised tools and a bit of swearing I got it to go where I needed it to I was wondering whether the jack socket might have been got fairly close to position by feeding an old bass string through the jack socket hole and the F hole, then threading the jack socket onto it and sliding it down or using something wrapped round the string to pull the jack socket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted October 16, 2023 Author Share Posted October 16, 2023 10 minutes ago, tauzero said: I was wondering whether the jack socket might have been got fairly close to position by feeding an old bass string through the jack socket hole and the F hole, then threading the jack socket onto it and sliding it down or using something wrapped round the string to pull the jack socket. There is probably a smart way, for me, I'm convinced the swearing got me over the line 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted October 17, 2023 Author Share Posted October 17, 2023 Chickenhead arrived, and I've also been hatching a plan with a producer on etsy who makes custom switch bezels/poker chips (same guy as I used for my Les Paul DO/DO NOT poker chip for the pickup selector). Made a mockup to scale in Inkscape with what I want. Guy was happy to take some custom measurements and didn't charge me any extra for the custom order - nice! So, here's what it's going to look like (except the final poker chip will be black with white lettering) P = parallel 1 (one) = single S = series And yes, I quite like what it spells - I take the P1S every time I play the bass Will post up final pic when the poker chip arrives. It's coming from Canada so it might take a couple of weeks. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted October 17, 2023 Share Posted October 17, 2023 (edited) Chicken Head looks sweet, not sure on the Speed Knobs... maybe some thing more 'Cooker style' Couple of cheap poker chip and land rover switch bezel types on the bay... That is real nice... and one-of-a-kind wow!.. Can you get cream or white MM covers? To tie in the binding and f hole edging, nut etc... Edited October 17, 2023 by PaulThePlug 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted October 17, 2023 Author Share Posted October 17, 2023 (edited) 49 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said: Chicken Head looks sweet, not sure on the Speed Knobs... maybe some thing more 'Cooker style' Couple of cheap poker chip and land rover switch bezel types on the bay... That is real nice... and one-of-a-kind wow!.. Can you get cream or white MM covers? To tie in the binding and f hole edging, nut etc... I'm a Gibson man at heart (I slag them off these days because I care and wish they'd do better), so I'm fine with the speed knobs. Tieing in works in several ways - to my eyes, the black pickup cover, knobs and soon to be completed pickup mode selector tie in nicely with the black headstock and the dark fingerboard. So once this poker chip arrives and is fitted, I'll be calling this one done. Well, I might redo a couple of those solder joints on the rotary switch - a couple of them look a bit stingy with the solder. Plus I've never been a big fan of white/cream pickup covers in any bass and have rarely had basses which use them. Chrome, gold or black for me please! Edited October 17, 2023 by neepheid 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted October 17, 2023 Share Posted October 17, 2023 Have you thought about, if these don't get released? - and those that have fettled a HB know... 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted October 17, 2023 Author Share Posted October 17, 2023 20 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said: Have you thought about, if these don't get released? - and those that have fettled a HB know... 🙂 No, can't say that I had thought about that. I hope it is released - I think the market could really use a well made but inexpensive, long scale semi-hollow bass. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawnrazor667 Posted October 18, 2023 Share Posted October 18, 2023 (edited) Preordered it yesterday in red (only orange and red atm, no black unfortunately), should arrive within 11 to 12 weeks. Retail price is €249, pickup is Artec according to specs sent. Edited October 18, 2023 by dawnrazor667 typo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted October 18, 2023 Author Share Posted October 18, 2023 22 minutes ago, dawnrazor667 said: Preordered it yesterday in red (only orange and red atm, no black unfortunately), should arrive within 11 to 12 weeks. Retail price is €249, pickup is Artec according to specs sent. Is it up on the site? I can't find it - got a link? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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