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The Official Brice Club
- Thread starter bstringkyle
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You should be able to tell if the bass is not plugged in. With my Graph tech nut I get a lot more brightness and overtones
I've heard that before.
I should have had to have really paid attention to get a before and after comparison.
But that was not my goal in switching the nut from plastic to brass.
The original plastic nut slots were too deep.
Especially the G string.
Plus,my Tune fretless has a brass nut.
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My latest Brice:
A good value, but as fan frets go, I'll take my Defiant over this. I'm not really being fair though as this one still has stock strings on it, but we'll see.
A good value, but as fan frets go, I'll take my Defiant over this. I'm not really being fair though as this one still has stock strings on it, but we'll see.
That's a beast! Looking at your video collection... Are you sure you wouldn't be happier playing an old P Bass?
That's a beast! Looking at your video collection... Are you sure you wouldn't be happier playing an old P Bass?
LOL. That's just one section of my videos, but as regards a P, sometimes I do!
How are you liking this bass a month later? As far as know, it may be the only multiscale headless on the market, and I am intrigued.
Actually other things have prevented me from concentrating on it. I am still getting acclimated to it and as a result, I have not played it out yet. Here are my observations to date, however:
1. This is trivial, and honestly a nit because it has nothing to do with how it plays, but I am surprised how off-balance it is when I carry it around the house. I typically carry my basses in the house with my right hand grabbing it where the neck connects with the body and my other basses sorta balance, but the body end is noticeably heavier when I do that with this bass.
2. I am still getting used to the tone, as it is not like any of my other basses. I do not try to force one specific tone out of my basses, but rather find a tone that I like within the natural tones the bass produces. This bass has a different low mid tone than most of my other basses that the mid tone control doesn't totally remove. It's not a bad tone, but different.
3. Since I practice sitting down, I actually can't say anything yet about how it balances on a strap. Important, I know, but I haven't gotten around to that.
4. I really like the quality at this price point. And where ELSE can you even GET a headless, fan-fret, active bass at this price?
5. I like 35" B's, but don't yet know how I like the 32" G. I can say that of my 2 fan frets, right now I definitely like my 34-37" Defiant bass more, but this is a VERY different bass all around from that one (different pups, and the Defiant is passive [plus I've modded mine to be VVT] and neck-thru with a normal headstock).
None of my observations are enough for a person to decide for sure if this is a bass they might want, sorry bout that, but I WILL say that if you are curious, this bass is a good way to check out the fan fret headless "thing" for a reasonable amount of coin.
Well, a clip or a video could be enough for a person to decide. Wink-wink.
OK, I'm done with my Pawnshop Brice HXB 406. Oddly enough it has a 34" scale neck and the fretwork is amazing. Also string spacing is 16.5mm and not 16 like lited on Rondo's website. I bought the bass for 275.- just because of that neck. The electronics sounded like crap. I put in EMG 45 JX reverse pickups I moved the neck pickup forward so the pickups are in the mid 70s fender Jazz position.Installed the EMG BTS circuit 18V Made a new nut from Graph tech material. Bigger screws to hold down the bridge. Reshaped and refinished the back and the front edge where I rest my forearm to get rid of all the sharp edges to make it more comfortable. Adder a couple of pieces of wood one to fill the hole from moving the pickup, the other to reduce the distance from body to string, makes it a lot easier to slap.
I have a bunch of really expensive nice J type basses including a 74 Fender, this one is so alive sounding, fat great B string and still sparkle on the top end, great action. Neck feels really good. I'm totally thrilled I took the chance on that one. I think it will be my main bass from now on.
I have a bunch of really expensive nice J type basses including a 74 Fender, this one is so alive sounding, fat great B string and still sparkle on the top end, great action. Neck feels really good. I'm totally thrilled I took the chance on that one. I think it will be my main bass from now on.
One more question: I notice on the webpage it says there is a blend knob AND a pick up selector switch, which seems a little redundant/nonsensical to me. I am thinking maybe the "pickup selector switch" is really an active/passive switch; perhaps you can confirm/deny this for me?
OK now that I have played my modded Brice for a bit I'm a little less enthused about it.
I don't know if it is the rosewood neck or the light body wood, but the strings go dead in a matter of days on that bass. I have a bunch of other basses and on all of them the strings stay fresher sounding much longer.
Maybe I should replace the bridge with a Hipshot brass?
I don't know if it is the rosewood neck or the light body wood, but the strings go dead in a matter of days on that bass. I have a bunch of other basses and on all of them the strings stay fresher sounding much longer.
Maybe I should replace the bridge with a Hipshot brass?
I'm holding you Brice guys responsible for my latest purchase.
I've been wanting to try a 5er, so I searched and read all your reviews here and went with an HXB-2 405 short scale, natural quilt maple finish. From all the reviews I read, I knew three things going in. 1. Very easy on the wallet. 2. The Brice is a well crafted great playing bass beyond it's price tag. 3. For many, the PU's and pre left a bit to be desired, not bad, but not necessarily great either.
Well, it arrived yesterday. Woo hoo! I must say, I am very pleased. All the reviews were pretty spot on. I got a great looking, very well built instrument that plays pretty darn good right out of the box. I don't care for the stock strings, I'm more a flats/pressure wound guy. Once I order and change strings, I will give it a set up more to my liking. As far as build quality, I can't see a single flaw. I think the pickups sound good, but the pre is kinda it's weak point IMO. Doesn't sound bad, just that there are better sounding preamps out there. I will roll with the stock electronics for now as they do sound pretty good, but most likely will swap out them out for something more of my flavor down the road. It's just what we do.
Enough of my crap, picture time.
I've been wanting to try a 5er, so I searched and read all your reviews here and went with an HXB-2 405 short scale, natural quilt maple finish. From all the reviews I read, I knew three things going in. 1. Very easy on the wallet. 2. The Brice is a well crafted great playing bass beyond it's price tag. 3. For many, the PU's and pre left a bit to be desired, not bad, but not necessarily great either. Well, it arrived yesterday. Woo hoo! I must say, I am very pleased. All the reviews were pretty spot on. I got a great looking, very well built instrument that plays pretty darn good right out of the box. I don't care for the stock strings, I'm more a flats/pressure wound guy. Once I order and change strings, I will give it a set up more to my liking. As far as build quality, I can't see a single flaw. I think the pickups sound good, but the pre is kinda it's weak point IMO. Doesn't sound bad, just that there are better sounding preamps out there. I will roll with the stock electronics for now as they do sound pretty good, but most likely will swap out them out for something more of my flavor down the road. It's just what we do.
Enough of my crap, picture time.
