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Brice HXB2 -- who has one?

#21
I should have mine Tuesday, but I don't think it's the older active/passive kind like I used to have. It's got a switch on it the last one didn't have. I will say that I regretted getting rid of my old one, it was a great bass. I sold it for a Boss effects pedal. Should of kept it.
 
#22
blue4 said:
I should have mine Tuesday, but I don't think it's the older active/passive kind like I used to have. It's got a switch on it the last one didn't have. I will say that I regretted getting rid of my old one, it was a great bass. I sold it for a Boss effects pedal. Should of kept it.
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This one is a bit non descriptive, as the description says that switch is a pickup selector, while the wiring diagram says it's am active passive switch. Here's hoping for active/passive.
 
#25
Greyplaysmusic said:
That's going to be a bummer... But that color though.... drool
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To be honest, the only weak point of the Brice I had was the active/passive. The preamp wasn't very good, and the passive setting was very quiet. I'm hoping they decided to pick one and improve it.

But really if they have at least maintained the same overall quality level the HXB is well worth $300, even with less then stellar pickups. I would rate the build quality of my old one at about the same level as an Ibanez SR505. Pickups excluded, they were on par with an Ibanez GSR level instrument.
 
#26
I noticed that Rondo changed the address of the webpage for this bass, and I can't edit the original post (I guess there's a time limit for editing your old posts?), so here's the current link:

Link Removed

I assume the switch is an active/passive as shown in the wiring diagram. There's a blend knob and the pickups don't appear to offer internal coil selection so here's hoping that the switch is active/passive.
 
#27
bobcruz said:
I noticed that Rondo changed the address of the webpage for this bass, and I can't edit the original post (I guess there's a time limit for editing your old posts?), so here's the current link:

Link Removed

I assume the switch is an active/passive as shown in the wiring diagram. There's a blend knob and the pickups don't appear to offer internal coil selection so here's hoping that the switch is active/passive.
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That's exactly what we were talking about! I hope so too, as active/passive is more useful to me than just a pickup selector.
 
#28
Greyplaysmusic said:
That's exactly what we were talking about! I hope so too, as active/passive is more useful to me than just a pickup selector.
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Here's that wiring diagram:

HXB2.jpg

To me it's important that the battery and additional preamp circuitry have zero effect when the switch is set to passive and I can't tell if that's the case from this diagram. The first thing I would check is whether the pickups work when there's no battery present. Thanks to you guys for being the guinea pigs for this bass! :thumbsup:
 
#29
bobcruz said:
Here's that wiring diagram:

HXB2.jpg

To me it's important that the battery and additional preamp circuitry have zero effect when the switch is set to passive and I can't tell if that's the case from this diagram. The first thing I would check is whether the pickups work when there's no battery present. Thanks to you guys for being the guinea pigs for this bass! :thumbsup:
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I'm lost on that too. Never done a NBD review, so we will see what happens. Mine should be here Thursday night, so Blue4 you're up first.
 
#30
Well, no worries you guys you are correct. It is an active/passive switch. Switch forward, active. Back passive. No battery required. Personally I like the passive setting best, in fact I thought it was noticeable better. But that's with stock strings and no real setup, so grain of salt with that. The pickups and preamp are a little better than the old models version, but I think eventually I'm going to upgrade them.

Fit and finish is pretty good. The neck wood is a little darker than I expected, but still the looks are pretty good. Neck pocket is excellent, the neck is straight and feels like the last one. That's good, because the last one you could have used as a medieval battlefield weapon and the neck wouldn't need adjustments. It rarely went out of tune. Fretboard looks good. The tuners are decent, nothing to write home about, but nothing that needs replacing. It's lighter than the last one, not bad at all for a 5 string bass.

Overall first impression.....I'm very pleased. I think it's more bass for the money than most hanging in GC and the like. I have a feeling that once I get new strings and set it up it's going to punch above its price point, so to speak.
I hope you guys have the same results.
 
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#31
blue4 said:
Well, no worries you guys you are correct. It is an active/passive switch. Switch forward, active. Back passive. No battery required. Personally I like the passive setting best, in fact I thought it was noticeable better. But that's with stock strings and no real setup, so grain of salt with that. The pickups and preamp are a little better than the old models version, but I think eventually I'm going to upgrade them.

Fit and finish is pretty good. The neck wood is a little darker than I expected, but still the looks are pretty good. Neck pocket is excellent, the neck is straight and feels like the last one. That's good, because the last one you could have used as a medieval battlefield weapon and the neck wouldn't need adjustments. It rarely went out of tune. Fretboard looks good. The tuners are decent, nothing to write home about, but nothing that needs replacing. It's lighter than the last one, not bad at all for a 5 string bass.

Overall first impression.....I'm very pleased. I think it's more bass for the money than most hanging in GC and the like. I have a feeling that once I get new strings and set it up it's going to punch above its price point, so to speak.
I hope you guys have the same results.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the initial impressions...sounds like a keeper. I'm especially glad to hear the passive tone is good. Got any pix? :)
 
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#32
Good to hear that the active/passive option is there and the passive tone is good. I'm gassing after the fretless shortscale version. It's unlikely that the B string will be any good on that, but I can always string it E-C, which has special advantages on a fretless.
 
#33
bobcruz said:
Thanks for the initial impressions...sounds like a keeper. I'm especially glad to hear the passive tone is good. Got any pix? :)
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20160913_123540.jpg

20160913_123448.jpg

20160913_123642.jpg

First pic shows the difference in neck shading. The pic makes it look worse than it actually is.

Second pick is the quilted maple top. Not too shabby.

Third pick is the difference in neck width between the Brice and my SX jazz bass. As you can see, it's a stout piece of wood.
 
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#34
Temcat said:
Good to hear that the active/passive option is there and the passive tone is good. I'm gassing after the fretless shortscale version. It's unlikely that the B string will be any good on that, but I can always string it E-C, which has special advantages on a fretless.
Click to expand...

I bought the SS fretted. It's better than you think. Just get new strings and go above .135 it should be fine. No dingwall but adequate.
 
#35
blue4 said:
View attachment 948909
View attachment 948913
View attachment 948917
First pic shows the difference in neck shading. The pic makes it look worse than it actually is.

Second pick is the quilted maple top. Not too shabby.

Third pick is the difference in neck width between the Brice and my SX jazz bass. As you can see, it's a stout piece of wood.
Click to expand...
Whoa, that's a stocky neck. The specs at Rondo say the neck is 15/16" thick at the 12th fret, the same as their 5-string jazz Ursa 2--an obvious misprint. I don't know if I could get along with such a thick neck. :unsure:
 
#37
bobcruz said:
Whoa, that's a stocky neck. The specs at Rondo say the neck is 15/16" thick at the 12th fret, the same as their 5-string jazz Ursa 2--an obvious misprint. I don't know if I could get along with such a thick neck. :unsure:
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Yeah I'd say that's not even close. The 30"scale I have it's not bad, but the 35" scale version IMO would take a man with large hands. The upside, again going by the previous one, is that its a set it and forget it neck. 50 degrees, 95 degrees outside, you're good. It never budged once.
 

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