Once more into the breech folks, I'm looking for guitar number 10 and then I'm going to have to call it a day
. Now I don't fancy a PJ for some reason, I just don't know why, The rest of my collection is MIJ P, PB-50, Yamaha BBN4 III fretless, Retrovibe 32" telenbacker, JB-75, HBZ-2005, the orange fanned fret Coliseum, the RB-404 and the little Bronco.
So one thing that's struck me is I've never had a musicman/sterling/ray type guitar. They totally confuse me, there's so many variants and I'm not paying for a USA model for something just to noodle about on. I'm taken with the Harley Benton's variants though. I hate the colours they are offering. I only know MM's from Mark King (not a slapper me) and I'm sure I've seen Gail Ann Dorcey ( one of my heroes) playing one with Bowie once, other than that I have no clue at all about them. HB make a 2 or 1 pickup variant, both are getting some damn good reviews. This one in particular looks good to me specs wise;
Electric Bass Deluxe Series, Body: Basswood, Top: Flamed maple, Bolt-on neck: Canadian maple, Neck profile: D, Fretboard: Maple, Fretboard radius: 350 mm (13.78"), 24 Frets, Scale: 864 mm (34"), Nut width: 42 mm, Double action truss rod, Pickups: 2...
www.thomann.co.uk
But I'd have to strip it down and repaint it in a colour that
I like. I also don't like the aesthetics, the toilet seat PG, the lollipop tuners, the classical guitar shape of the body, if you know what I mean, I actually think they're really not that good looking, But I'm totally intrigued by how they may sound and for less than £200, I could strip off the horrible poly coating, have it reshaped, nitro it to an interesting colour. add new tuners, get a new pickguard made.
Or for whatever that would cost me I could get one of these;
except I dunno about those big jazz pickups, I have no idea what this guitar will sound like. I have no qualms about another shorty,
Weighing it up;
Retrovibe
Pro's
Lovely colours - hits the spot for me.
I know from past experience David Konig's build quality is above and beyond - there will be no reason to mod out this guitar
Great preamp by the looks, and I'd trust him on what he says.
Meterial is mahogany it's claimed
Cons
Expensive, at least for what I'm used to paying
Unknown pickups - not sure on whether the guitar would be similar to what I already have, but I know his pickups are very good,
HB
Pro's
Never played a mm style bass before, - I'm already hooked on Roswell pickups and I believe a lot of what the reviewers are saying on the Thomann site.
A lot of adjustabilty with the 2 pickups
£159 - that's right up my alley!
Cons
Ugly guitar - Needs reshaping
Poly needs burning off and respraying
New custom pickguard that doesn't look like a toilet lid
Unknown pre - that's not really a con, most cheap preamps have always been decent on the active basses I've had
Body - basswood, the Coliseum respray was the toughest thing to do, basswood goes from very soft to having substance in places, very difficult to sand to a good base for a respray, hoping HB's wood is more consistent.
Either guitar, by the time I'm finished will be pushing £500, even nitro is £40 a tin once you've paid the courier his insurance in the UK, then you've ordered one less than you want so that's another another £50 for one tin lol.
Opinions would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers all
. Here another source for a custom pickguard (I've had some bespoke for my sons Gretsch's). His prices are pretty good too. He's based in Manchester
