NBD - Harley Benton TB-70 - The cheap ThunderBird Alternative

[ClassicJazz]

So got my new Harley Benton TB-70 bass! This thing is a monster! I always wanted to try a ThunderBird. But didn’t want to spend money on something I may not like. But for $179, got me a new beater bass. This puppy has some good weight to it being all Mahogany. And yes, it has horrible (that’s an understatement) neck dive. Also with that reverse head stock, reaching that E tuner is a bitch! Actually playing a low F on the E string is a reach!

So how does it play? Actually not bad! Lol The truss rod needed some tweaking, put on a fresh set of strings and wham! Plays pretty damn good with low action. Decent fret work too.

Sound wise it definite has a honk to it. It’s active with a weird control setup. There a bass and treble control, volume but no pickup pan. The volume is a push pull. Pushed in both pickups are active. Pulled out I think puts it in passive mode and only the neck pickup is on. Definitely weird! Can’t wait to try it at a gig. If anything, it looks good on the stand! Lol

 

[calypsocoral302]

Looks pretty nice!

 

[bassist4dalord]

Congratulations! That looks great.

 

[ClassicJazz]

Well got the neck dive issue pretty much solved, easy fix. Moved the front strap button to the back of the body right where the neck joins the body. Saw another post about it and it actually works! I still need longer arms though to reach that E string tuner! Lol

 

[C Stone]

Nice looking budget bass. Enjoy!

 

[Wombat408]

Yup, mine arrived a month ago from Thomann. Pretty well playable right out of the box. Great sound going through an Ampeg SVT 200T and Ampeg SVT 410. I've just added a Ampeg 115 to the stack and despite the (debatable) dire warnings of mismatch between the 410 and 115, the sound is awesome and booming.

Now here's my puzzle, the push/pull volume switch appears to have no effect on the sound at all. I mean zero effect. I've written to Thomann on this 2 weeks ago, no response yet. And yes, I've replaced the 9v battery, and yes, it's inserted correctly. Anyone else have this issue? Am I missing something on the TB 70?