You are wise, IMHO, to use those lights. They present less of a tension load on older basses. I have Chrome XL lights on my '55 P-bass. It sounds and feels great. TI flats work well, too.
Do you play the your H22 with a pick? How do you set the switch?
The other advantage of the light strings is the difficulty of getting a heavier set of flats through the bridge holes and around the tuner posts (flimsy guitar types with plastic heads). I was able to at first, but didn't want to screw up the heavier gauge flats by kinking them at the 2 + 2 tuner positions (you can't get much wrap around the posts), so I tried the lighter ones instead.
I play it fingerstyle mostly, fairly close to the neck. Farther back you get real close to the bridge very quickly and can't sound notes properly.
I'm not a fan of the hollowbody/short scale/picked sound, but if you wanted a Chas Chandler vibe this bass would deliver, I think.
Switch open, without the choke (or whatever it is). With it engaged it sounds too thin, but might be useful for playing with amplified acoustic guitars, for example.
I'd love to hear what the two PUP model sounds like.
I pulled it out last night because of this thread, and realized again how dark the tone is, while being quite open and airy at the same time. There are a lot of throaty mids in there, too. Like I said, I just play it for fun at home (and on business trips, because I can play it in hotel rooms without amplification), and haven't found a musical situation for it yet. If I was in a blues band I'd have a blast with it. I think feedback might be a problem at reggae levels, not sure, and in any case my Jazz with flats covers that gig too well.
Rezdog, you are right about nostalgia, and you'd have to have some real rosy glasses to argue that these were ever quality basses. Tonally, on the other hand, they are unique, in a good way, but not cheap sounding by any stretch of the imagination.
But the value of any half decent instrument, especially rarer ones, from a few decades back, is not going anywhere but up in the long term, and I've never lost a penny by buying used, and then selling if I get tired of an instrument or can't find a use for it. I've even payed a bit over contemporary market value for some of them, but the market is so crazy a year eats up the difference anyway. So in the end I've been able to feed my GAS and basslust painlessly, and at the same time I'm happier with my keepers, because, well, I've kept them.
It's perfect situation, like being happily married but allowed to screw the babysitter (or in this case the cleaning woman).
I have played an old Harmony P copy, and that did sound like poo, being stepped on.
