This is the best example of how much the sound is coming from pickup and its placement. Totally different woods and even construction and it still sound like stingray. Love it! 👹
It does sound like a passive StingRay, but it can't do that full-bass, full-treble thing that active StingRays do. Unless you throw it on a preamp of course.
@@alphagt62 what im trying to say is that pickup type and placement are core for sound of any electric guitar/bass. If you would put this pickup on anything it will sound like stingray. Same with p pickup, or j etc. Of course there are nuances always. And of course this doesnt sound like active stingray since there is no preamp 🤷♂️
@@domizidortonewood debate should be over by now. The relevant aspects of the sound in a electric bass (or any guitar) is in the electronics (preamp, pedals, cabinet, pickups etc) and pickup placement. I like nice woods in a instrument because they look nice not for their sound
@@gerbassman well, Im sure this debate never ends 😀. Manufacturers need to convince customer that better sounding wood is part of more expensive instrument. Look im not saying there are any differences but to me, they are so small its not worth it consider them as important. There are other things…
me: "BTW can't possibly make me buy another bass, I don't even like semi hollows" Gregor: "I think this switch does nothing, so if you get one tell me if your switch does anything" me: *checking wallet*
I almost bought the prototype of this, which was exactly the same as the one in this video, but I wanted a 30" scale. I contacted Harley Benton, and they told me that the release version was going to be 30" scale, so I waited for the release. And they lied.
there's good and bad apples. One tho-Mann from the drums department told me: beginners don't need a working hihat xD left me speechless, but not for long...
I bought this exact bass back in November. I was amazed as I'd known about these models for well over a year and religiously searched the model whenever I was on Thomann's site. November it returned a result. 1 solitary result for the Orange version. I was stunned! Not actually expecting a hit as I'd done the search for what seemed like forever with no results so it became just routine. Dogmatic. Now I was like a scientist who got a reply from SETI. I quickly placed the order and searched for the HB-50 again. This time ZERO results. There had in fact, only been one available at that time. Now if that was because they had an entire cargo container and this was the last one or whether this one had been squirrelled away in a back corner of the warehouse, I have not Idea. But I was stoked! I'd have preferred a 30"-scale or a 32"... but hey a semi-hollow EB-2 style bass with a modern MM humbucker and NOT a crappy Gibson/Epi style 3-point bridge from hell, or a floating Hofner-style bridge and trapeze tailpiece? I'm all about it! So, yeah it was wired with the coils of the MM humbucker as if they were individual single-coils. So middle = both coils in parallel and flipping the switch each way gave you one coil or the other. But there was to my ears about ZERO.ZERO ZERO tonal difference. So, that was stupid. waste of a 3-way LP pickup selector switch. It would have made more sense to wire each coil to an individual Vol pot and either 2V + 2T GIbson-style or 2V 1T Jazz bass style so you could dial in each coil proportionally as you liked. But never being timid about re-engineering a brand new instrument to make up for the obvious lack of either vision or common sense, I had a better solution!! I yanked the 3-way LP selector and using a grommet and an ON/ON/ON mini-toggle switch I re-wired it to have a exponentially more useful series/single-coil/parallel 3-position mini-toggle! IMHO that is how the bass should have been designed and shipped. So, the criticism that the HB-50 is simply a semi-hollow Stingray could still perhaps be valid. But it's no longer a 1-trick pony! You can get some tonal variety out of it. And I prefer the MM form-factor because there are a lot of good name brand pickups made in that form factor. Also a lot of cheap & dirty ones too. MUCH better than being stuck with the mud-bucker / mini-bucker Gibson combo or some proprietary weird filter-tron semi-buckers that you can't fit anything into their cavities unless you route it out. So EMG makes the MMTW which is TWO active pickups: a humbucker and a single-coil in the same housing that you can switch between with a push-pull or a mini-toggle switch. That provides more voicings. Kent Armstrong makes a good MM pickup, passive with 4-wires so you can do the same series/single//parallel... Aguilar, Bartolini, Nordstrand, Seymour Duncan, Di Marzio, etc. etc. And there's nothing stopping you from installing an active preamp in the semi-hollow. Oh yeah, you'll learn the joys of wiring through the F-holes and you'll become adept with using floss, straws, grommets, silly putty, lil rubber sticky hands outta 25cent gumball machines... you'll contort your arm & hands, your shoulders will rotate in strange ways. You'll develop the sense of touch of a blind kung-fu master. You will curse like a fkn sailor if he were rapping for 2LiveCrew... you might even end up missing a tiny piece of the tip of your tongue so don't say I didn't warn you!!! But even if it's "just a semi-hollow Stingray" to me, that's a pretty compelling thing to go all mad scientist on and see what I can do with it. I say Bravo Thomann... well except WTF with the LP 3-way pickup selector. And MAKE A 30"-scale version already! Everyone wants that. Yes, I know the HB-60 exists already... but that's a copy of the Eastwood? Eastman? I can never remember but it's like a Behringer copy of a vintage style semi-hollow with all the annoying proprietary features I described before. No. I want a short-scale version of this modern semi-hollow Stingray. How about a fan-fret Multi-scale version??? How about a flat satin black or some cool finishes and not fkn orange??? okay and enough transparent cherry Gibson-inspired kill me in my Hawaiian shirt, jorts, dad sandals and tiny Boomer pony-tail already... have a new idea. Try a new color (other than orange!) Be Edgy. Pretend it's the 90's. And how about a backside electronics hatch access??? or will that allow all the gooey semi-hollow tone to escape? Okay, I rant. I digress. But hopefully you get where I'm coming from... or maybe not. Am I a solitary unique voice screaming into the void, never to receive validation? Emotional, psychological, spiritual. Not Parking. Let me know in the comments. Like, comment, Subscribe and I have a Patreon available if you wanna just give me money too.
The 3-way switch is a coil selector. The two coils of the humbucker are wired to it as if they were two pickups, so in position 1 and 3 you have either coil by itself, then position 2 is both coils in parallel. This is weird, but it's vaguely similar to how some passive Stingrays work-- though usually in that case, each coil will have a volume knob.
I added a very similar (ceramic) MM style pickup to a bass recently and used a DPDT on-on-on switch to have parallel/single/series and it really helps match with a J pu in the neck position. The difference between series/parallel should be noticeable so this bass is prob wired stoopid.
@@thierry18That's exactly what it seems to be doing, yes. I'm convinced that his is broken. On mine, it makes a significant difference. There seems to be a super high failure rate with this switch, though. there's a lot of videos where it works normally and at least the same amount of videos where it clearly doesn't do anything
I asked Harley Benton back in September about the 3-way toggle. Their response was "Coil split" and then followed up with "There's a mistake in our sheet, we'll double check and get back to you." Contacted them in October and there was no response. So it's both interesting & peculiar to know that it practically does nothing. I wonder why they even added it in the first place? Seems like an ok bass regardless.
I'm fairly certain it switches between both coils, and having a humbucker mode in middle position. Given the pickup position, I just don't think it makes for a lot of difference in a bass. And that is why you can't really hear a difference.
@@dododingus3787 That was my first thought when I first saw the bass advertised a few months back. Reached out to HB to ask as I thought it may be something a bit more unique than just coil splitting. Still perplexed that they weren't even sure about their own product! But yes, I'd agree with what you've said. Good point.
Series, single, parallel would be a useful option, although in my experience with a bass I no longer have with a passive MM pickup in the classic location, there isn't a huge difference between parallel and single, certainly less than series and parallel, and that's with evening out the volume difference.
I would think that the switch splits the pickup. Up and down are one side or another of the pickup, and center is the humbucker position maybe? Choosing one side or the other of the split pickup should give you a slightly different tone.
It's likely the switch isn't hooked up correctly. There is another review on UA-cam where you can hear the difference, I had a simillar issue with my Harley Benton entry J bass. The Tone knob didn't do anything so I opened it up and found that they had soldered the wrong terminals together, I fixed that and know it works.
That 3-way switch...possibly coil neck alone - both coils parallel - coil bridge alone? You could measure that with an ohm meter I think. I have a HB MB5-SB, the 5-string-version of a stingray "copy" with originally one volume control for each coil...pretty much the same except it's adjustable then. Wasn't satisfying for me so i changed that to a switch for coils parallel or in series (which I prefer mostly!) which really makes a big difference, one volume and one tone.
I owned one of the prototypes which HB showed at Guitar Summit 2023. The switch gives you front coil, both in parallel and rear coil. Yes, it's utterly useless. I replaced the switch on mine with a three way rotary switch to give series/single/parallel - much more useful.
The difference between parallel and single is subtle. It would be better wired series, parallel, single. I had a bass like that and tended to use it in series mode at least half the time.
I almost bought your prototype on Facebook, the only thing that put me off was the scale length. When I emailed Harley Benton about it, they told me it was going to be released in 30" scale, so I held off buying yours to wait for one, and then it transpired they had lied.
I wouldn't have looked twice from the pics on the thomann site, but in this video it actually looks orange and awesome. goes to show that one should always order everything that looks only close to their favorite color and produce a lot of returns until something is right. lol
Honestly, for the price, just get it and mod the heck out of it. That is a great sound by itself, but throw a J-bar down there, or even a wider PJ set-up around the stingray... that's a pretty sick base-bass to work with.
When I use the affiliate link Thomann tells me this bass will be in stock in 12-15 weeks. This is the second time this happens to me. I don't think the tracking cookie will last that long so you loose the affiliate sponsor money. I put it on my wishlist on Thomanns website and will come back in April. But this is unfortunate for you guys. I guess you are very popular so everybody heads over to Thomann right away and buys this bass. Perhaps you should talk to Thomann about this.
Is anyone interested in what the switch does after a li'l adjustment? It is rewired in the old Stingray configuration. No additions, no subtractions, just a flip-sizzle-n-boogie. It's certainly no "Producer Switch". (If enough people are interested, I'll make a video.) (all credit to:) ☆Mod was done by the Reverb Tech Wizard's shop: Wayward Guitars☆
I’ve always wanted a stingray but there just too heavy for he so a semi hollow stingray sounds like a great idea. Any idea roughly what the weight was? Thanks!
To me the whole point of a bass like this is get that vintage thump you hear on so many songs from the 60s and early 70s. For that sound you need a short scale bass with at least one pickup as closer to the end of the neck. For example, a Guild Starfire, Gibson EB, Gretsch, or Höfner.
My switch has three distinct tones. This may be a wiring error or they changed it. Great bass for the price. Wish it came with at-least a gig bag though.
Hmmm, good upper fret access, 34 inch scale... Is there a fretless version and do I have space. I have a Stingray but don't really like the sound for fretted, though.
Harley Benton makes the HB-60 which is the HH version. In that case, the switch would be a pickup switch. Either they just left in on the single H model, or it may be a coil tap that switches it from dual coil to single coil.
I love the look of a semi hollow, but honestly it isn't the sound I am looking for. I am however I do believe if a P bass isn't the right choice ( Your probably wrong ) the stingray is the only other option haha. So this might find its way to my gig bag in the future.
I almost bought the prototype of this bass, which was exactly the same as this one, but I wanted a short scale so I emailed Harley Benton direct and they told me that the release would be a 30" scale bass. So I put off buying something else, and waited months for the release, only to find that Harley Benton had lied about it.
@@Bass_Bea_R Quite possibly, but I think if they'd done their homework a bit they'd see that there's definitely a market for a short scale version; the Epiphone Rivoli hasn't had a reissue since the 90s, prices on those are into the £1000 price point and above. And the Gibson EB-2 and EB-2Ds are into crazy money! I think people are tired and bored of the "Hofner copy" as the token semi-hollow short scale, as offered by almost every manufacturer these days! A Rivoli-style short scale would definitely be very popular.
@@EddieG1888 Indeed. But HB actually makes such a thing: the HB 60. Well, not with an MM style humbucker, but with its bridge humbucker (meanwhile) in a suitably similar position . Apparently a copy of some Gretsch bass.
@ They do indeed, but I'm not a massive fan of the pickups (a bit cheap), or the bridge setup. The floating Hofner-style bridge doesn't allow for particularly accurate intonation (having had one on a bass for 30 years now, I've first hand experience!😂). If they redid it with dot inlays, and changed the bridge setup to a 3-point bridge you could possibly rout for a couple of mudbuckers, and it would be a killer bass.
I think I gonna buy this one and let my local luthier guy convert it to a fretless... That was the first thought crossing my mind watching the first 30 seconds of the video.
Thanks for this! Great review. Up until now, my review has been the only demo video of this bass available (it was even a link on the Thomann website at one point!) Hopefully, they will replace the link with this video instead. It's much better. To be honest, mine is very amateur in comparison 😂 I enjoyed this bass, but I've gone back to playing my actual Stingray now. I agree about the switch. Not sure what it does. I am going to raffle my HB-50 for charity in February.
These Stingray style pickups normally have a coil split wiring, maybe that is what the swirch is for. Obviously not working on the test guitar. Sounds great though.
@basstheworldofficial I picked one up because... reasons... I guess it's weird and I like that... I don't know... Anyway, I picked one up and my switch works! It's a coil split and it changes the sound drastically. It seems to be a super common issue, though. They're are so many videos where the bass is stuck in humbucker mode and the switch does nothing. 😮
A logical function of the switch would be serial - parallel - singlecoil, but I guess they just didn't give a f. XD And yes, killer bass lines. Especially the intro.
I have it's predecessor here the HB-60 WB which has the advantage of 2 pickups but the disadvantage of having no "Acoustic" qualities to speak of. i.e. if you play it unplugged you hear nothing to indicate what note you are playing ....just like a solid body. I'm assuming this is no better?
I've just watched/listened to the Stingray video, the Harley Benson sound much nicer, one of the best bass tones I've heard. Pity Australia doesn't seem to import them.
Awesome....but you guys HAVE to check out some Atelier Z basses out of japan. I just got a 5 string, with ebony FB and it is the best active jazz bass I have ever played.
How to not be in LOVE with a bass like this 💛 I have the HB-60 but this bass is also sounding and looking sexy, btw, nice playing, love da slap👌🙏🕊 add. Wish there was a 5 string semi acoustic harley benton bass, ...
Not too bad. It's less neck dive, than light (large area) body with a chunky neck. If you try to get it to neck dive, you can. But if you settle in with the strap set to your preference, it's just there. At most the neck is 51% to the body at 49%, if that makes sense. I have no basses with neck dive, just to be clear. It's a new feeling and I don't know the vocabulary of the phenomenon.
If they were copying a Stingray it should be a coil split and one way is series and the other is parallel… I had a Stingray and aside from the hum in single coil the only way to tell any difference between series and parallel to my ears was to turn on a drive pedal, one gave out a little more oomph.
HB guitars have been analyzed critically to excellent reviews. See Spectre Media Group, Gary Fricker, who loves them. I suspect basses are easily as good. Price is great. I am considering getting their 5 string fretless, very reasonable price.
That opening bass line is great!
True story!
Kai Lemke 😊
its awesome
This is the best example of how much the sound is coming from pickup and its placement. Totally different woods and even construction and it still sound like stingray. Love it! 👹
It does sound like a passive StingRay, but it can't do that full-bass, full-treble thing that active StingRays do. Unless you throw it on a preamp of course.
It’s a bass guitar! I mean it has guitar like tones on the higher notes, and nice round bass notes in the bottom. Sounds different, in a good way..
@@alphagt62 what im trying to say is that pickup type and placement are core for sound of any electric guitar/bass. If you would put this pickup on anything it will sound like stingray. Same with p pickup, or j etc. Of course there are nuances always. And of course this doesnt sound like active stingray since there is no preamp 🤷♂️
@@domizidortonewood debate should be over by now. The relevant aspects of the sound in a electric bass (or any guitar) is in the electronics (preamp, pedals, cabinet, pickups etc) and pickup placement. I like nice woods in a instrument because they look nice not for their sound
@@gerbassman well, Im sure this debate never ends 😀. Manufacturers need to convince customer that better sounding wood is part of more expensive instrument. Look im not saying there are any differences but to me, they are so small its not worth it consider them as important. There are other things…
I'm impressed by this instrument. That intro was great. It also helps it's done by Kai. He's my favourite reviewer on this channel.
Kai Lehmke - the bass lines he plays as an intro - just brilliant!
Soooo... A Semi hollow stingray!?
2024 was a wild year indeed
Very similar to the Reverend Dub King
me: "BTW can't possibly make me buy another bass, I don't even like semi hollows"
Gregor: "I think this switch does nothing, so if you get one tell me if your switch does anything"
me: *checking wallet*
Looks like you use the switch by putting a neck pickup on it yourself...
It's the Leland Sklar "Producer Switch"!
same though! xD
i think the same xDDD best switcher in music industry :D
Thats what Greigor said, if you slow the video down to 25% you can hear him!
Wow, that was some amazing playing by Kai.
I almost bought the prototype of this, which was exactly the same as the one in this video, but I wanted a 30" scale. I contacted Harley Benton, and they told me that the release version was going to be 30" scale, so I waited for the release.
And they lied.
there's good and bad apples. One tho-Mann from the drums department told me: beginners don't need a working hihat xD left me speechless, but not for long...
Makes me want to break out my 00's Ibanez AGB 140, with the 34" scale and the big humbucker. Definitely the inspiration for this bass.
Definitely is.. as soon as I saw it I thought Ibanez ABG 140
I bought this exact bass back in November. I was amazed as I'd known about these models for well over a year and religiously searched the model whenever I was on Thomann's site. November it returned a result. 1 solitary result for the Orange version. I was stunned! Not actually expecting a hit as I'd done the search for what seemed like forever with no results so it became just routine. Dogmatic. Now I was like a scientist who got a reply from SETI. I quickly placed the order and searched for the HB-50 again. This time ZERO results. There had in fact, only been one available at that time. Now if that was because they had an entire cargo container and this was the last one or whether this one had been squirrelled away in a back corner of the warehouse, I have not Idea. But I was stoked! I'd have preferred a 30"-scale or a 32"... but hey a semi-hollow EB-2 style bass with a modern MM humbucker and NOT a crappy Gibson/Epi style 3-point bridge from hell, or a floating Hofner-style bridge and trapeze tailpiece? I'm all about it!
So, yeah it was wired with the coils of the MM humbucker as if they were individual single-coils. So middle = both coils in parallel and flipping the switch each way gave you one coil or the other. But there was to my ears about ZERO.ZERO ZERO tonal difference. So, that was stupid. waste of a 3-way LP pickup selector switch. It would have made more sense to wire each coil to an individual Vol pot and either 2V + 2T GIbson-style or 2V 1T Jazz bass style so you could dial in each coil proportionally as you liked. But never being timid about re-engineering a brand new instrument to make up for the obvious lack of either vision or common sense, I had a better solution!! I yanked the 3-way LP selector and using a grommet and an ON/ON/ON mini-toggle switch I re-wired it to have a exponentially more useful series/single-coil/parallel 3-position mini-toggle! IMHO that is how the bass should have been designed and shipped. So, the criticism that the HB-50 is simply a semi-hollow Stingray could still perhaps be valid. But it's no longer a 1-trick pony! You can get some tonal variety out of it. And I prefer the MM form-factor because there are a lot of good name brand pickups made in that form factor. Also a lot of cheap & dirty ones too. MUCH better than being stuck with the mud-bucker / mini-bucker Gibson combo or some proprietary weird filter-tron semi-buckers that you can't fit anything into their cavities unless you route it out. So EMG makes the MMTW which is TWO active pickups: a humbucker and a single-coil in the same housing that you can switch between with a push-pull or a mini-toggle switch. That provides more voicings. Kent Armstrong makes a good MM pickup, passive with 4-wires so you can do the same series/single//parallel... Aguilar, Bartolini, Nordstrand, Seymour Duncan, Di Marzio, etc. etc. And there's nothing stopping you from installing an active preamp in the semi-hollow. Oh yeah, you'll learn the joys of wiring through the F-holes and you'll become adept with using floss, straws, grommets, silly putty, lil rubber sticky hands outta 25cent gumball machines... you'll contort your arm & hands, your shoulders will rotate in strange ways. You'll develop the sense of touch of a blind kung-fu master. You will curse like a fkn sailor if he were rapping for 2LiveCrew... you might even end up missing a tiny piece of the tip of your tongue so don't say I didn't warn you!!! But even if it's "just a semi-hollow Stingray" to me, that's a pretty compelling thing to go all mad scientist on and see what I can do with it. I say Bravo Thomann... well except WTF with the LP 3-way pickup selector. And MAKE A 30"-scale version already! Everyone wants that. Yes, I know the HB-60 exists already... but that's a copy of the Eastwood? Eastman? I can never remember but it's like a Behringer copy of a vintage style semi-hollow with all the annoying proprietary features I described before. No. I want a short-scale version of this modern semi-hollow Stingray. How about a fan-fret Multi-scale version??? How about a flat satin black or some cool finishes and not fkn orange??? okay and enough transparent cherry Gibson-inspired kill me in my Hawaiian shirt, jorts, dad sandals and tiny Boomer pony-tail already... have a new idea. Try a new color (other than orange!) Be Edgy. Pretend it's the 90's. And how about a backside electronics hatch access??? or will that allow all the gooey semi-hollow tone to escape? Okay, I rant. I digress. But hopefully you get where I'm coming from... or maybe not. Am I a solitary unique voice screaming into the void, never to receive validation? Emotional, psychological, spiritual. Not Parking. Let me know in the comments. Like, comment, Subscribe and I have a Patreon available if you wanna just give me money too.
Very nice! Reminds me of the Fender Coronado bass they put out about a decade ago (along with the Starcaster). Love the tone on this!
The 3-way switch is a coil selector. The two coils of the humbucker are wired to it as if they were two pickups, so in position 1 and 3 you have either coil by itself, then position 2 is both coils in parallel.
This is weird, but it's vaguely similar to how some passive Stingrays work-- though usually in that case, each coil will have a volume knob.
Kudos to Kai on his playing!
HB has never let me down. Guitar or bass, I just love them. Great value for money and they get better all the time 😊
Wow! Kai is awesome. The bass sounds great, too. The Sklar switch is a great addition. I want one.
The opening bassline sounds so good - I think it's all down to the chosen 3-way switch position ;)
Kai bringing us some very tasty licks again.
That thing is BEGGING for some flatwounds
Great playing!!
I added a very similar (ceramic) MM style pickup to a bass recently and used a DPDT on-on-on switch to have parallel/single/series and it really helps match with a J pu in the neck position.
The difference between series/parallel should be noticeable so this bass is prob wired stoopid.
The switch doing nothing is hilarious considering the website literally just describes it as a "3 way switch"
It actually goes down, middle, and up sooo… yeah it’s 3 way
Oh boy… I can’t believe I just wrote that 😂
Probably front coil, rear coil, and humbucker mode, but the distinctions are limited by low quality electronics.
This switch can even be set in one of the three possible positions.
It's there because it looks cool?
@@thierry18That's exactly what it seems to be doing, yes. I'm convinced that his is broken. On mine, it makes a significant difference. There seems to be a super high failure rate with this switch, though. there's a lot of videos where it works normally and at least the same amount of videos where it clearly doesn't do anything
I asked Harley Benton back in September about the 3-way toggle.
Their response was "Coil split" and then followed up with "There's a mistake in our sheet, we'll double check and get back to you."
Contacted them in October and there was no response.
So it's both interesting & peculiar to know that it practically does nothing. I wonder why they even added it in the first place?
Seems like an ok bass regardless.
I'm fairly certain it switches between both coils, and having a humbucker mode in middle position.
Given the pickup position, I just don't think it makes for a lot of difference in a bass.
And that is why you can't really hear a difference.
@@dododingus3787 That was my first thought when I first saw the bass advertised a few months back.
Reached out to HB to ask as I thought it may be something a bit more unique than just coil splitting.
Still perplexed that they weren't even sure about their own product!
But yes, I'd agree with what you've said. Good point.
Series, single, parallel would be a useful option, although in my experience with a bass I no longer have with a passive MM pickup in the classic location, there isn't a huge difference between parallel and single, certainly less than series and parallel, and that's with evening out the volume difference.
I have a USA Sterling and the three way switch makes a huge difference. Could be because this bass is passive that it doesn't do much.
Alter Schwede, wie gut klingt dieser Bass denn bitte?!? Wahnsinn!!! ❤👍
I have the PB50 in sunburst and absolutely love it. I must admit , that HB50 is seriously nice
That bass player is one of the best ive seen on yt. wow.
I would think that the switch splits the pickup. Up and down are one side or another of the pickup, and center is the humbucker position maybe? Choosing one side or the other of the split pickup should give you a slightly different tone.
I've watcned that bassline like 80 times
I'm gonna do that too, and hopefully by then I can play it!
Wonderful bass Line , great bassist
I love your playing!!
It's likely the switch isn't hooked up correctly. There is another review on UA-cam where you can hear the difference, I had a simillar issue with my Harley Benton entry J bass. The Tone knob didn't do anything so I opened it up and found that they had soldered the wrong terminals together, I fixed that and know it works.
That 3-way switch...possibly coil neck alone - both coils parallel - coil bridge alone? You could measure that with an ohm meter I think. I have a HB MB5-SB, the 5-string-version of a stingray "copy" with originally one volume control for each coil...pretty much the same except it's adjustable then. Wasn't satisfying for me so i changed that to a switch for coils parallel or in series (which I prefer mostly!) which really makes a big difference, one volume and one tone.
I owned one of the prototypes which HB showed at Guitar Summit 2023. The switch gives you front coil, both in parallel and rear coil. Yes, it's utterly useless. I replaced the switch on mine with a three way rotary switch to give series/single/parallel - much more useful.
The difference between parallel and single is subtle. It would be better wired series, parallel, single. I had a bass like that and tended to use it in series mode at least half the time.
I almost bought your prototype on Facebook, the only thing that put me off was the scale length. When I emailed Harley Benton about it, they told me it was going to be released in 30" scale, so I held off buying yours to wait for one, and then it transpired they had lied.
@@EddieG1888 ahh well, it's in France now!
Boy can play! Great job!
I wouldn't have looked twice from the pics on the thomann site, but in this video it actually looks orange and awesome. goes to show that one should always order everything that looks only close to their favorite color and produce a lot of returns until something is right. lol
lol
Wow. Waaay better sounding than I would've expected! Harley Benton ups their game!!
Ups their game? Their shit has been solid for years, just like the Behringer brand.
Honestly, for the price, just get it and mod the heck out of it. That is a great sound by itself, but throw a J-bar down there, or even a wider PJ set-up around the stingray... that's a pretty sick base-bass to work with.
Good Lord, that TONE is killer!!!
Nice chops!
Kai 👍🏻🤓
The promovideo on the Thoman site shows the red one. Here you can hear a huge different in tone by using the switch. I guess Gregor got a brocken one.
Nice reaction ! Danke schön
😊👍
When he plays he pulls the faces and everything!!!
Nice recipe between long scale hollow and stingray hot bridge pickup … a lot of string clarity and aggressive. I like it a lot
When I use the affiliate link Thomann tells me this bass will be in stock in 12-15 weeks. This is the second time this happens to me. I don't think the tracking cookie will last that long so you loose the affiliate sponsor money. I put it on my wishlist on Thomanns website and will come back in April. But this is unfortunate for you guys. I guess you are very popular so everybody heads over to Thomann right away and buys this bass. Perhaps you should talk to Thomann about this.
Well, it seems that Kai has has his Tony Oppenheim slap lines down pat!
Is anyone interested in what the switch does after a li'l adjustment? It is rewired in the old Stingray configuration. No additions, no subtractions, just a flip-sizzle-n-boogie. It's certainly no "Producer Switch". (If enough people are interested, I'll make a video.)
(all credit to:)
☆Mod was done by the Reverb Tech Wizard's shop: Wayward Guitars☆
Sounds awesome!
Good god Kai is such a monster
I’ve always wanted a stingray but there just too heavy for he so a semi hollow stingray sounds like a great idea. Any idea roughly what the weight was? Thanks!
I think it was a bit under 4kg. But I’m not sure if I remember correctly. We made this video 2 months ago
What a beastly sound!
To me the whole point of a bass like this is get that vintage thump you hear on so many songs from the 60s and early 70s. For that sound you need a short scale bass with at least one pickup as closer to the end of the neck. For example, a Guild Starfire, Gibson EB, Gretsch, or Höfner.
My switch has three distinct tones. This may be a wiring error or they changed it. Great bass for the price. Wish it came with at-least a gig bag though.
2 questions:
does it sound louder by air?
and maybe the switch changes the tone pot response?
My guess with the body shape, humbucker position and 3 way switch is that it's their take on the popular but way more expensive Jack Casady signature.
Hmmm, good upper fret access, 34 inch scale... Is there a fretless version and do I have space. I have a Stingray but don't really like the sound for fretted, though.
Add a gold foil pickup at the neck, restring with flats, wire the toggle to the 2 pickups = winning
Or just buy another bass 😅 in this case.
That's a cool bass. I love the look and it sounds great!
Harley Benton makes the HB-60 which is the HH version. In that case, the switch would be a pickup switch. Either they just left in on the single H model, or it may be a coil tap that switches it from dual coil to single coil.
The HB-60 is a rather different model. And it has the switch above the upper cutaway.
I love the look of a semi hollow, but honestly it isn't the sound I am looking for. I am however I do believe if a P bass isn't the right choice ( Your probably wrong ) the stingray is the only other option haha. So this might find its way to my gig bag in the future.
That is a really pretty bass. And $206!! Now, if I only had an extra $203 laying around...
Kai is a killer!
that really does sound amazing!!! looks great too - what a bass...
Whattt???!! I did not expect it to sound (and slap) like that.
if it was a shortscale it would be a really cool bass.
I almost bought the prototype of this bass, which was exactly the same as this one, but I wanted a short scale so I emailed Harley Benton direct and they told me that the release would be a 30" scale bass. So I put off buying something else, and waited months for the release, only to find that Harley Benton had lied about it.
@@EddieG1888 They probably see a bigger market for the long scale version.
@@Bass_Bea_R Quite possibly, but I think if they'd done their homework a bit they'd see that there's definitely a market for a short scale version; the Epiphone Rivoli hasn't had a reissue since the 90s, prices on those are into the £1000 price point and above. And the Gibson EB-2 and EB-2Ds are into crazy money!
I think people are tired and bored of the "Hofner copy" as the token semi-hollow short scale, as offered by almost every manufacturer these days! A Rivoli-style short scale would definitely be very popular.
@@EddieG1888 Indeed. But HB actually makes such a thing: the HB 60. Well, not with an MM style humbucker, but with its bridge humbucker (meanwhile) in a suitably similar position . Apparently a copy of some Gretsch bass.
@ They do indeed, but I'm not a massive fan of the pickups (a bit cheap), or the bridge setup. The floating Hofner-style bridge doesn't allow for particularly accurate intonation (having had one on a bass for 30 years now, I've first hand experience!😂).
If they redid it with dot inlays, and changed the bridge setup to a 3-point bridge you could possibly rout for a couple of mudbuckers, and it would be a killer bass.
I think I gonna buy this one and let my local luthier guy convert it to a fretless... That was the first thought crossing my mind watching the first 30 seconds of the video.
Thanks for this!
Great review.
Up until now, my review has been the only demo video of this bass available (it was even a link on the Thomann website at one point!)
Hopefully, they will replace the link with this video instead.
It's much better.
To be honest, mine is very amateur in comparison 😂
I enjoyed this bass, but I've gone back to playing my actual Stingray now.
I agree about the switch. Not sure what it does.
I am going to raffle my HB-50 for charity in February.
It’s a heavy bass though, right ?
@WyattLite-n-inn feels about the same as my Les Paul guitar
@ That’s HEAVY! Thanks …
These Stingray style pickups normally have a coil split wiring, maybe that is what the swirch is for. Obviously not working on the test guitar. Sounds great though.
2:35 for the love of the money... 😂
My first Bass was a semi hollow Zim gar bass.
That's Leland Sklar's famous producer switch.
LOL Slapping a semihollow that sounds epic!! WOWEEE
Give Kai a broomstick with shoelaces on and he will sound amazing
@basstheworldofficial
I picked one up because... reasons... I guess it's weird and I like that... I don't know... Anyway, I picked one up and my switch works! It's a coil split and it changes the sound drastically. It seems to be a super common issue, though. They're are so many videos where the bass is stuck in humbucker mode and the switch does nothing. 😮
God that bass looks lovely 😍
I play guitar and hate semi hollows. And I want it.
This bass looks like the lovechild of Markbass & Orange amps!! That yellow orange color 🟠🟧🟠
Can't you borrow a dmm to check the switch ? Probably series parallel
Is that a short scale?? It's very nice...
Nope, 34 inch scale
Nah, somehow it feels longer than that. I had to measure. Sure enough... Same as any other 'standard' bass.
A logical function of the switch would be serial - parallel - singlecoil, but I guess they just didn't give a f. XD
And yes, killer bass lines. Especially the intro.
Wellllll.....shit. It's a "stingray", it's semi-hollow, and I want it. Thanks for emptying my wallet! 😆
Kai will make anything sound great, so this doesn't mean much to me
I have it's predecessor here the HB-60 WB which has the advantage of 2 pickups but the disadvantage of having no "Acoustic" qualities to speak of. i.e. if you play it unplugged you hear nothing to indicate what note you are playing ....just like a solid body. I'm assuming this is no better?
I've just watched/listened to the Stingray video, the Harley Benson sound much nicer, one of the best bass tones I've heard. Pity Australia doesn't seem to import them.
Awesome....but you guys HAVE to check out some Atelier Z basses out of japan. I just got a 5 string, with ebony FB and it is the best active jazz bass I have ever played.
That's a weird bass. I dig it!
It looks like a Maton Sapphire Bass model from the 60’s
Sounds amazing
This looks like a similar concept as the Ibanez Artcore AGB140-TBR from the 2000s, a hollow body bass with a stingray style pickup.
How to not be in LOVE with a bass like this 💛 I have the HB-60 but this bass is also sounding and looking sexy, btw, nice playing, love da slap👌🙏🕊 add. Wish there was a 5 string semi acoustic harley benton bass, ...
Oh man that Leland comment! That's some great history
How's the neck dive?
Not too bad. It's less neck dive, than light (large area) body with a chunky neck. If you try to get it to neck dive, you can. But if you settle in with the strap set to your preference, it's just there. At most the neck is 51% to the body at 49%, if that makes sense. I have no basses with neck dive, just to be clear. It's a new feeling and I don't know the vocabulary of the phenomenon.
That has a great tone
Honestly reminds me of something Peter Hook would use
Nice smooth even tone.
If they were copying a Stingray it should be a coil split and one way is series and the other is parallel… I had a Stingray and aside from the hum in single coil the only way to tell any difference between series and parallel to my ears was to turn on a drive pedal, one gave out a little more oomph.
Ok, this is strange. But cool. I have to admit harley benton is not another cheap guitar brand, but something interesting, at least sometimes
I'd very much like a fretless version of this.
HB guitars have been analyzed critically to excellent reviews. See Spectre Media Group, Gary Fricker, who loves them. I suspect basses are easily as good. Price is great. I am considering getting their 5 string fretless, very reasonable price.
Glenn Fricker. Not Gary.
This bass is like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I was like, ok here comes the nice and warm bass with flats tone…but nope! I like it.