NBD: Frankenbacker!

[birminghambass]

Hey TB, I've been wanting a Ric style bass for a while. Bought one at a great price on eBay, turned out to be a scam. Bought a new one, then found out the wait would be almost a year. So, I decided to configure my own. I'm not looking to perfectly emulate a Ric, just the style and pickup placement. So I bought a Harley Benton RB414 with the intent to mod. It arrived yesterday. Plays really well, intonated well, I actually don't hate the bridge. I do, however, hate the pickups. Just God awful IMO. I have a set of EMG 35Js and 2 band preamp lying around so I went for it. A drill, Dremel and 3 hours later I have this:

Man it sounds GREAT! I flipped the EMGs around to put the single coils in approximate Ric position. I gotta say, with some overdrive into a Sansamps it gets some really nice grindy tones.

 

[Alphabass 89]

In the videos I have seeen of these the pickups are always replaced. For the price of these it is not a big deal for someone experienced in modifications. The beginner is another story. These basses are priced low enough to target beginners. HB makes instruments with very good craftmanship, but is the main goal not good sound?

 

[birminghambass]

In the videos I have seeen of these the pickups are always replaced. For the price of these it is not a big deal for someone experienced in modifications. The beginner is another story. These basses are priced low enough to target beginners. HB makes instruments with very good craftmanship, but is the main goal not good sound?

Agreed, it should sound good. Stock, it definitely did not. IMO this would be a terrible instrument for a beginner.

 

[TeeSee]

The biggest 2 faults with this guitar is the bridge and the pickups.
The bridge is almost unusable and if a string breaks the little saddle will fall off and probably lose itself. Setting action and intonation is a nightmare, even worse than a Tune O Matic bridge. Eventually I bit the bullet and bought the Hipshot Ric Replacement bridge, I had to make a 3mm shim up for it as the action was too low due to the fretboard being higher than a real rick.
The pickups are a bit mismatched with the treble pickup (bridge) being about half as loud as the bass (neck) pickup. I actually liked the Artec Mini humbucker in the neck, but the bridge pickup had to go and be replaced with a Retrovibe "Slim Jim" which was much better (no modding needed). I also changed the neck pickup (experimental reason only) with a Roswell "filtertron" type but had to mod the pickguard to accommodate the slightly longer new pickup, just 1.5mm each side of the length, the width was OK.
One other thing I didn't like about the stock guitar was the way it was wired, if you had the selector switch on both pickups by reducing the volume on either knob reduced the volume entirely until the signal was cancelled. I rewired mine as V/T, V/T put CTS pots, Orange Drop caps and Switchcraft Switch and Jack out.
Other than the 2 main problems out of the box it sounded very good and played really well, but to get the best out of it you will probably want to throw a bit more cash at it for mods. In all honesty it doesn't sound a million miles off a real Rick, but it has a killer vibe to it too.

 

[Alphabass 89]

Other than the shim did you need to modify anything to properly fit the Hipshot?

 

[TeeSee]

Other than the shim did you need to modify anything to properly fit the Hipshot?

Well, the holes needed to be redrilled (x5) as the original holes were in a different position and only 2 holes in the original, but it wasn;t hard to fit as long as you made sure you had your scale length set correctly.

 

[TeeSee]

oops too late to edit - I had another thought, I DID have to mod the Hipshot as the saddle screws were too short. instead of the 3/8" long screws supplied I bought some 5/8" long ones that allowed the saddles to just go the extra distance to clear the fretboard and then some.
They are 6/32"UNC grub screws. I bought them here in the UK from this place;

6-32 inch UNC Cup Point Grub Screws ASME B18. 3-2002 in A2 Stainless Steel - Westfield Fasteners Ltd

6-32 inch UNC Cup Point Grub Screws ASME B18. 3-2002 in A2 Stainless Steel. Also know as a Set Screw. Purchase in box or sachet quantity | Next day Delivery.

www.westfieldfasteners.co.uk

I've another shim I (same material 3mm aluminium plate) made when I bought my Chinabacker, but after making it when I came to install the Hipshot, it didn't need one. So if anyone wants it free of charge if they're planning on fitting the Hipshot to their RB-414 if they're in the UK mainland I can pop it in the post if they PM me.