Alright I'll play as well. I now have 10 guitars
which is a bit stupid because I can only play one at a time.
Left to right main pic,
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upper row;
1. Harley Benton JB-75 Frankenbass - new body, as the stock body was just too heavy 13 lbs
and pearloid pickguard, Schaller tuners fully shielded full rewired with CTS, Orange Drop and Switchcraft Jack socket, kept the Roswell pups as they sound...nice.
2. Harley Benton RB 414 modded to destruction, Hipshot Rickenbacker replacement bridge, aluminium shim under bridge, Retrovibe "Slim Jim" bridge pickup, Roswell Filtertron neck pickup, Schaller tuners. Fully Shielded, CTS pots, Orange drop cap, Switchcraft selector switch & jack socket rewired to Rickenbacker configuration, stock RB is wired the weird
à la Gibson
3. Fender MIJ Midnight series P bass bought new in 2016. Untouched, I'm not goin' there. Only thing I did was change the stock roundwounds to Roto flats.
4. Harley Benton HBZ 2005 - an underrated little playa. No upgrades on this just finely sanded/polished with 0000 and oiled with Osmo Polx. Fully shielded of course and a hand made polished aluminium rear cover as the stock one was just cheap black plastic. Why,? because I was bored and because I can
I'm hoping to sell this soon as I have another 5'er now..
5. What's this? It started as a G4M 972 5'er.
G4M 972 Fanned Fret 5-String, Blue Burl Burst - G4M I didn't like the pickups placing of the original guitar - far too close to each other. I also really didn't like the original's 'metal' themed body, cheap multiscales should be available to us all not just the metal genre. Can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear tho', took it to a mate who specialises in guitar bodies. I'd had the neck pup on a mule and found the sweet spot for me, he moved the pup and we shaved off some of the 'bumpy' bits of the original. Finally a nitro finish of RAL 2009 a Clockwork Orange theme with a posterised decal of Alex' eye in the famous shot, on the headstock. As usual, fully shielded, Glockenklang 3 band pre, aluminium shims under bridge pieces, Warwick tuners.
lower row;
1. My Little Pony, or Bronco if you will. I love this little guitar. I bought it for my son way back in the early noughties hoping to inspire him to follow in his dads footprints, but his interest waned and it went through 3 house moves and stayed in the garage(s) until I re-discovered it when cleaning out the garage in Summer. After a good polish with a light car cutting compound, a fret job, crown and polish, I had a cracking guitar. Unfortunately the white PG was too far gone with yellowing with age. I was surprised that the pickup was a 6 string strat pickup so looked about for a new one. I settled on a McNelly Broncomaster, with white cover. Had a BWB pickguard made up, wanted some new tuners, a bloke on TB PM'd me to say he had some Gotoh's but black. I bough a cheap Sung Il black bridge and the white cup cake knobs. As usual, fully shielded, CTS pots, Switchcraft Jack and as a change Tube Amp Doctor mustard cap. Roto flats. Reminds me of one of those plastic pretend kids guitars you used to see in toy shops except this is real and even cuter
2. Yamaha BBNF4 iii. I bought this on Ebay a couple of years ago for £200 - they saw me coming. It was a bit battered and scratched but no real dents. I always wanted a fretless. Modded to fully shielded, new wiring CTS pots, OD cap S/C jack the usual. I decided to sand the old 'natural' finish off and apply Osmo clear matte. It's feel is gorgeous now and all dinks and scratches gone. You've caught me with my pants down with this, I will be selling this soon ( tried but can't get used to fretless) but because I sanded the headstock I need to apply the Yamaha Logo again. I've printed the logo onto decal paper and took the tuners off in anticipation.
3. Sire V3 a crazy guitar that punches well above it's weight for it's price. I was after a cheapo MM type and was interested in the Harley Benton range but didn't like the colours. A guy on the 'I Own A Harley Benton Club' here on TB told me I'd be better off investing in the Sire V3. I payed a little bit more than I wanted to but he was not wrong. TBH when it first arrives it was utter S***e, it buzzed everywhere on each fret on each string. I was going to send it straight back. But I thought lets give it a setup first. Sire had shipped my guitar with the truss rod fully tightened. You could not dial it up even a whisker. I slacked it off, went for a coffee with Mrs Teesee came back, gave it a good setup and..OMG what a beast! That Pre! TBF passive sounds great too. It's one of the nicest sounding basses I've ever played. I'd have loved the black sparkle - that looks gorgeous - but I already have too many black basses. There's a shell pink now but that wasn't available as I bought one of the first to come into UK, by now they're becoming easier to get. I hear good things about the V5 too. What I don't like - the gloss neck. I won't be scrubbing the fret board or head stock on this but I may give the back of the neck a good sanding. Mods? None as yet.
4. Harley Benton PB-50. Fully shielded, usual CTS, OD cap etc. Headstock cut to old Fender Tele type. This is another guitar even stock, that punches well above it's weight. I paid £100 (+£10 shipping) for a brand new P bass from Thomann. This little marvel, I don't know whether I like this or my MIJ P bass
You see my MIJ has flats, this has rounds. This is loud and proud with the 'vintage' single coil. I think it's a Wilkinson - correct me if I'm wrong? Neck is wonderful to play, very quick but there's one hell of a sound from that little pickup, one hell of a sound. How do they do it for the money? I love the retro look after adding a tug bar and the chrome covers. If you've ever played Fallout or watched the series - think Red Rocket. Too cool for school.
5. Retrovibe R32 Telenbacker. David Konig the proprieter of Retrovibe describes this guitar something along the lines of the love child of a Rickenbacker and a Telecaster. He imports bodies and necks from Korea or other places in the 'Far East'. When they arrive at the UK, that's where the magic happens. Here's a guy who spends weeks turning standard components into something special and I suspect for not a lot of profit. In his online shop he sells a lot of pickups too. There's no bones they're made in Korea (which is a bad thing?) but he specs the design himself based upon his years of experience. I'm not sure a set of MIA pickups would sound any better especially as they'd cost 6 times the price for a bit of magnet and a mile of copper wire. Back to the guitar. It's a medium scale 32" but my god has it presence? It's a kickass or maybe badass all wrapped up in in it's own strange little world. I love to play this bass when my stubby little fingers get fed up of long scales after 3 hours. I wanted to mod this bass sooo much but David has beat me to it. There's nothing I could do to it to make it any better. Not too happy with him for leaving me with nothing to do. Here's my teardown of the 'Telenbacker'.
https://www.talkbass.com/threads/chow-down-chowny-retrovibe-bass-club.1399116/page-36#post-27939486
That's it, all my 10 guitars. if you've stayed the length - well done to you! You won't get TDLR or TLDR? from me, if I can say it in 10 words it'll take me 100 words, did any of you also notice no tort?
Here's the rest of the pics broken into Barney Style chunks.
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