NBD Harmony Pbass.

[shirojiro]

I have been a Jazz bass guy for the vast majority of my life. The slippery slope to P bass playing started with an Ibanez PJ bass and now I'm charging full on into P bass-dom.

I saw a 70s Harmony P bass on Craigslist locally. I caught my eye because I have been GASing after an ash bodied, natural P bass with a maple board, and that's what this is. What caught my attention was that someone had swapped the pickups for Hi-A pickups. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remembered that those were early Bartolini pickups.
I couldn't resist and I went and bought it.

The neck is the classic baseball bat of my youth. It reminds me of countless Fender clones by Hondo, Kent, Greco, Aria, etc. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's hefty. The neck was straight and the action is decent. The headstock doesn't have the notch that later models had. It has the requisite brass bridge from the 70s as well.

The strings are pretty dead, but when I plugged it into a GK MB150s, it sounds amazing. It's crisp and snappy and growls like a P bass should. These pickups are warmer than the ones on my Aerodyne P bass that I've been playing recently, but they're clear and articulate, and man this bass sounds good.

Pics or it didn't happen!

 

[shirojiro]

These Hi-A pickups are amazing.
Searched a bit to read about them but there's not a lot out there.
Maybe I DO like Bartolinis?

 

[BlueNorth44]

That bridge is interesting, looks kinda chunky. Do you like it, will you keep it?

 

[shirojiro]

The bridge? I was planning on leaving it in place unless it broke. It’s dirty though. I was thinking of cleaning it up a bit.

As for the bass, I’m keeping it for now. It scratches my itch for a 70s ash and maple P bass. It sounds much better than I expected. It nails the P bass tone and feels vintage.

I don’t think it’s worth that much because Harmony doesn’t command that much, but they did a nice job on this bass.
I suspect the pickup is helping the tone a lot. Either way I’m digging it!

 

[BlueNorth44]

The bridge? I was planning on leaving it in place unless it broke. It’s dirty though. I was thinking of cleaning it up a bit.

As for the bass, I’m keeping it for now. It scratches my itch for a 70s ash and maple P bass. It sounds much better than I expected. It nails the P bass tone and feels vintage.

I don’t think it’s worth that much because Harmony doesn’t command that much, but they did a nice job on this bass.
I suspect the pickup is helping the tone a lot. Either way I’m digging it!

Yeah, I meant the bridge I should have been more clear. It would be interesting to see how it cleans up, it just looks a bit unusual but not in a bad way, just a style I don't think I'd seen before.
I really like the natural look of the whole instrument and if those pickups sound good I would definitely be hanging onto it, very cool bass. I wish I had that kind of luck finding stuff

 

[shirojiro]

Yeah, I meant the bridge I should have been more clear. It would be interesting to see how it cleans up, it just looks a bit unusual but not in a bad way, just a style I don't think I'd seen before.
I really like the natural look of the whole instrument and if those pickups sound good I would definitely be hanging onto it, very cool bass. I wish I had that kind of luck finding stuff

Thanks for posting!

I know what you mean - on TB it seems that many people find incredible deals all the time, but part of it is j hearing from a large population and the other part is perhaps some embellishment?

I looked on the standard sites and found this Ibanez brass bridge that appears to be the same as the one on the Harmony bass.

https://reverb.com/item/69736315-1980s-ibanez-roadstar-ii-or-iceman-bass-bridge-gold-brass

The brass bridges that I remember from other Fender copies had large square saddles with large holes in them.

This is from an ad here on TB

High mass bridges were all the rage in the 70s and 80s. I remember replacing my bridges with Leo Quan Badass bridges and having to cut slots in the saddles. It seems that this is still going on these days as well. I really never could tell the difference in sound to be honest.

 

[bassfreakah]

Cool P bass!!!!
If the bridge works ride with it.
Have always loved P and PJ, also jazz. Guess just like fender style. Anyway good find.

 

[Z-Bass]

Very cool find! And a really good bass. A Harmony P bass was my first bass. A friend of mine sold me his for $50. Still have it but my son uses it in his band sometimes. He stripped and refinished it a while back and changed the pickup to a Seymour Duncan QP.

Regarding the bridge, it's substantial. Just a huge hunk a brass. My son wanted to change it as well but I told him no need.

 

[shirojiro]

I think I’m realizing that some of the budget instruments are pretty decent despite some shortcomings.

This Harmony Pbass has the typical Fender-style dead spot at the 7th fret of the G string.
I’ve had others with a dead spot around the 5th fret at well.

On a slightly related note, I played a SX fretless Jazz bass with a jazz combo last night, and sounded great! It totally exceeds expectations.

I do want to try it with an outboard preamp though. I think it will sound great with the Aguilar db925.