My First Bass Guitar

That's a nice bass. I like the matte finish. 

EMG35-sized soapbar pickups make for easy customisation.

@LionAquaLooper  Thankyou. Quite heavy too.

Funkfingers said:

EMG35-sized soapbar pickups make for easy customisation.

Thanks. Good to know. I like the sensitivity it has. It can clank the top end a bit harshly but I've got plenty to learn about how to play it. Fairly easy to keep an even volume tho.

Now that I've had the machine a while I've found all it's problems. Luckily, none of them are to do with the wood work.

It's down to the detail of setup. Not that Harley Benton are alone in this. I've bought a new SG that had very little setup and finishing work done, it didn't have glue spilled in the bridge screw thread tho.

I needed to hammer home the bridge screw parts in the body. I put an old screw post in and gave them a strike with lump hammer and they all went home nicely. Then I noticed the bridge string holders were fitted in reverse. So put them right.

The two fat strings are too fat for the groves in the bridge because the string has more winds near the ball end so it's thicker and doesn't fit.

Also the nut is too high. With the strings off, the neck looked like it bowed back a touch. Oh dear. So I relaxed that and it went back nicely. I think some clever spark tried to adjust the nut height by yanking the neck back.

I have some round needle files on order to file out the nut and bridge and it will be perfect. I enjoy tinkering but it would be quite expensive to hire a tech relative to the price of the bass, which is worth bearing in mind if you're buying from the stock of guitars bought during lockdown, now on sale never having been setup.

Al_Nico said:

@LionAquaLooper  Thankyou. Quite heavy too.

Your not kidding....it seems to have caused some subsidence issues...

I don't know why this is in two threads but it carries on here:

My First Bass Guitar - Bass Discussions on theFretBoard

I don't think I'd be able to reach the tuners!

prowla said:

I don't think I'd be able to reach the tuners!

Tuning is very dangerous. Letting go of the neck and stretching for the tuners causes violent neck dive with enough force to destroy coffee tables or injure animals and children. Same happens when adding or removing headphones.

The trick is to apply downward force with the right elbow onto the body and open the shoulder to bring the tuners closer, which counter balances the 12k neck thus freeing the fretting hand to make tuning adjustments ,with right hand in position to pluck. Not clumsy at all.

Al_Nico said:

… injure animals and children.

Humans are animals.

Funkfingers said:

Al_Nico said:

… injure animals and children.

Humans are animals.

Some more than others :-) 

I came across an old Break Wind and Fire track 'September' that takes me back to school discos, lip gloss and other things I now regret. Anyhow, the bass line is just silky. I play it making little staccato nibbly fingered plucks bringing out the mid tones, like the bass is giggling. I'm enjoying the bass guitar.

I worked today with a bloke called Noel. He claims to have recorded The Farm - All Together Now, and I was impressed.