Harmonia Six String Acoustic Bass

[KrisTheLib]

I'm new here.

I'm a former bass player. Bands, dude. Paying gigs. YEARS off, dig? YEARS.

I've never heard of Harmonia. You? I recently purchased a Harmonia 6 string AEB. This thing has reminded me what has been missing in my life for over 10 years. (I put good, tapewound nylon strings on it. You'll need a drill.) If you're interested in a 6 or an AEB or trying to expand your sound or trying to get something that no one else has (an acoustic 6,) you need to hunt this piece of equipment down.

The string spacing is tight. You'll re-evaluate sins like playing with a pick, chording, and thinking like a guitarist because of the tight spacing. The sounds will be holy if you violate these closely held tenants. You'll clean up your slap/pop. (You'll have to!)

You can score one for around 2 beans.

Frets?
It's available.
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Fretless?
Also available.
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No lined fretless. This makes me have a sad.

It's Chinese. Boo.

Put strings you like on this bass. Strings are more important than any other thing about a bass. (Comfortable strings will make you want to play more. Think nylon.) The acoustic sound is impressive for an AEB, even on the low strings. You're not going to have your low B heard in an acoustic jam, but go ahead and name for me the AEB your low B is known for banging out loud.

Limitations? Sure. It's an AEB. Midrange sounds are strong in acoustic. Expand thy horizon. You will play this thing more than you think. (Acoustic lends a certain amount of convenience.) You won't find another 6 string acoustic bass without a $1,000 price tag. Try it for that at least.

****DISCLAIMER****

I do not work for any business that profits from the sale of this bass.

 

[bassbenj]

Harmonia was what what missing in your life? Your life needs help dude!

I own one. Total chinese junk, but hopefully with just enough basics to be savable.

Mine came with tuners such trash that the lengths of winding shafts were different one to another and all the nylon friction washers broke and fell out, Just nonsense. So replaced them all with a ultra cheap removed from basses tuners from Rondo for a song. Worked out PERFECT! Finish was a rough disaster so I got some 0000 steel wool and rubbed it all down and wiped on coats of minwax tung oil varnish. this now looks like a MILLION (think of all those busy Chinese fingers putting hours into the binding all over this instrument.

Next tried to play it. B string has next to no output. Discover the thing has TWO E strings instead of B and E strings. So got a set of Nylon wrapped 5er sets from Carvin (cheap!) and special ordered C string. Had to drill and mod bridge to fit a real B string. Action WAY too high. So sanded Saddle lower and eventually replaced saddle as original was cracked. B string still not working. Action way too high. So crank truss rod to max! Action still a bit high but playable Saddle and Truss rod at max so can't go any lower.

Next try to fix B string problem. Looks like hole for pickup wire is under B string position so I fill it with wood and move hole over. Doesn't fix it. I try new saddle pickup. Still doesn't fix it. Maybe trouble is in electronics? Don't know, haven't got that far yet. Still working on that POS. Also as a hollow body it feeds back like gangbusters.

Still it's a very light, interesting 6 string (mine fretless...Oh yeah, it had no side markers on the neck either, I had to add those.)

I like a LOT of things about this bass. I like the idea of it. I like the tone of it and the look of the wood an binding. But like many Cheapo Chinese products it's not really designed to be played as a bass. (Chinese attitude: If I can get this piece of crap out the door, then it's no longer my responsibility!) Buyer Beware.

No I don't work for or profit from Harmonia

 

[MD]

I might consider this as a rehab, project platform, knowing full well I may be wasting money. For an out of the box gigging 6er ABG, I'll save for a Warwick Alien.

 

[Traynor]

I'd hate to bump a thread that's a few months old, but I've gotten some interesting info on these Harmonia basses. I ordered one and it arrived broken, headstock in 2 pieces and the truss rod poking through the back of the neck.

Before UPS came to take the broken bass back to the seller so I could get a replacement, I got my dad's friend to inspect the wood used for the neck. This guy has spent years doing carpentry, and has worked extensively with various species of wood. He identified the neck wood as PINE, which is pretty alarming. When my replacement bass comes, I'm putting a super light set of strings on it now that I know it's such a soft wood.

 

[Jim H]

Hey folks,
Just bit the bullet and took a chance on one of these. It arrived undamaged, but the neck is taking a lot of struss rod adjustment. I immediately switched it to E-E tuning, using my preferred Roto Sounds round-wound strings (electric) going down to a 95 low E. I gotta say it plays decently so far, even though I haven't got the truss rod set and stable yet. We'll see if it makes it . Looks like I may want to recut the nut as it's a little high, but that really only affects playing the first few frets. The midrange tone is a little cheesy, but it sound pretty good overall. Haven't tried plugging it in, but that kinda the poin Here's the beast...

 

[HaphAsSard]

Hey folks,
Just bit the bullet and took a chance on one of these. It arrived undamaged, but the neck is taking a lot of struss rod adjustment. I immediately switched it to E-E tuning, using my preferred Roto Sounds round-wound strings (electric) going down to a 95 low E. I gotta say it plays decently so far, even though I haven't got the truss rod set and stable yet. We'll see if it makes it . Looks like I may want to recut the nut as it's a little high, but that really only affects playing the first few frets. The midrange tone is a little cheesy, but it sound pretty good overall. Haven't tried plugging it in, but that kinda the poin Here's the beast...

Long scale?
Can you measure the string spacing at the nut (and the nut width since we're at it) and at the bridge? Thanks!

 

[Jim H]

Long scale?
Can you measure the string spacing at the nut (and the nut width since we're at it) and at the bridge? Thanks!

Sure, the nut is 1 7/8", Strings span 1 3/4" at nut, roughly 5/16" spacing. At the bridge, strings span 2 1/2", about 7/16" spacing. Scale is dead on 34".

 

[Jim H]

Update: the pickup works really well. Good response, clean. Output level is a bit high, but eq works well. Important to me because I do a lot of chording.