A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

This came in yesterday, but I didn't have time to take pics or post yesterday, so here it is...


I really like the rich, dark, rosewood fretboard in contrast with the honey ash of the body, and with the pearloid inlays and binding, it gives the bass a classy look.


I was hoping for some more remarkable grain than the Harley Benton (like the pics on the Rondo site), but oh well, I've seen ash-body Fender Jazz basses that looked plainer than this. I'm just glad that the pieces are relatively well matched, and there isn't one piece that's darker than the others.


Most importantly, it's noticeably lighter than the Harley Benton. Kurt's advertised weight of 10 lbs. didn't turn out to be a lie this time. However, the advertised body thickness is... I was expecting it to be 1.5", because that's what it said on the website, and that's how thick the other Ash (painted) SX Jazz Bass I own is (and it weighs 9 lbs.), but the body on this bass is full thickness. Maybe they got some lighter Ash and decided there was no need to make the bass noticeably thinner? Ten pounds is pretty standard for a bass. Most of my basses weigh/weighed 9 to 10 lbs. I had a MIM Fender Jazz that weighed 11.5 lbs, and I thought that bass was a load. My American Standard wasn't much lighter (maybe 10.5 lbs? I never weighed it). The MIM was made of Poplar and the USA was Alder. A 10 lb. bass doesn't feel as oppressive as a 10 lb. guitar, but once you go past 11 lbs., it starts feeling heavy.

The quality of this bass is just what I've come to expect from SX in recent years... They're a lot better now than when I bought my first one back in 2008 (and that one was pretty decent). I may do another head-to-head review thread comparing the SX to the Harley Benton, like I did with the Epiphone LP Custom vs Agile 3100MCC thread on the old forum, but I can tell you right now, I've gone over both of these basses with a fine-tooth comb and they're both pretty flawless. Construction, finish, fretwork are rock solid on both basses, and the quality of hardware is identical.

Like the HB, the SX has a super tight neck pocket too:


The neck pocket of my American Standard had a gap you could fit a credit card in!

I don't see any tool marks, or signs of sloppy work on either bass. The neck profiles feel the same, and I think the fretboard radii are the same. I like the way they both feel despite the SX having a gloss neck (gloss or satin, I'm not bothered either way), they both have just the right amount of girth. I wouldn't be surprised if Harley Bentons were made in the same factory as SX. Disregarding the weight difference, it's a pretty tough call to say which is the superior instrument, but I would give the SX just the slightest edge over the HB just due to the neck. I think the Rosewood fretboard, inlays and binding give the SX a more premium look than the painted-on inlays and thin, matte finish of the HB, but that's just aesthetics and personal preference. They both look great!

In terms of tone and over-all sound, however... When I played them back to back, the Harley Benton ate the SX's lunch six days a week and twice on Sundays! It's not that the SX sounds bad, it's just that the HB sounds so much better (Roswell pickups are FOR REAL y'all!), but with a little tweaking, the SX can be made to sound really good (good enough to gig or record with), with zero mods. Unlike the HB, the SX came with cheap, generic strings, which are part of the problem, but I noticed that the bass sounded better today than it did yesterday, as the strings have lost some of their "zing" (I expect them to be fully dead by Sunday ). Also, some EQ and compression does it wonders.

I'm going to replace the pickups though... These pickups don't have enough bottom and mid-range growl for me. They're probably more suited for slapping, like all the kids are into these days... I like my basses to sound like an angry monster, so I scored a used set of Fender Custom Shop '60s pickups on fleabay today that I think will suit me better.

Congrats!

But, I'm curious what you would think of the tone of the stock pups if you put some decent strings on it first.

dabbler wrote: ↑Wed Sep 16, 2020 5:51 am Congrats!

But, I'm curious what you would think of the tone of the stock pups if you put some decent strings on it first.

They sound very similar to the pickups in an Affinity, or comparable import bass, which are good, but they're not world-beaters. They're better than the pickups you got in an SX bass years ago, but they don't come close to the Roswells, or the CS '60s in output or fundamental character.

These pickups seem focused in the highs and high mids, and I don't think different strings will change that very much. There once was a time when I was all about that bright, scooped, Jazz Bass tone. For the longest time, I barely even used my neck pickup and I used the brightest bass strings on the planet (DR Hi-Beams), but these days, I prefer a burlier, more aggressive tone.

I meant to mention in my OP that I'm going to be doing some recording this weekend, and I plan to record some clips of both the SX and the Harley Benton, so you can hear the difference. I'm going to change the strings (DR Lo-Riders) on the fretless too. They're not dead, I just want to try a set of Hi-Beams on it to see if they bring out more "mwah" and harmonics. I could put the Lo-Riders on the SX, and see how that sounds, but I'm not expecting a transformative effect.

I'm mostly interested in hearing how the Roswells compare to the Custom Shop pickups when they get here (which will probably be Monday).

Very nice. Even a plain ash body is still pretty nice compared to alder. Yours looks like its in that middle area where some of the best looking alder can start to look like ash. I started my SX buying with the alder 5 string and it had a undertone or a vibration that just drove me crazy. Kurt offered to return it but I actually whatever the problem was I was the only one bugged by it. 3 bass players who tried it loved it and the guy who bought it for retail + the price of new strings also loved it. I keep wanting to try another sx bass but I missed out on the few models I really wanted or the price point I was thinking.

nomadh wrote: ↑Wed Sep 16, 2020 12:50 pm Very nice. Even a plain ash body is still pretty nice compared to alder. Yours looks like its in that middle area where some of the best looking alder can start to look like ash. I started my SX buying with the alder 5 string and it had a undertone or a vibration that just drove me crazy. Kurt offered to return it but I actually whatever the problem was I was the only one bugged by it. 3 bass players who tried it loved it and the guy who bought it for retail + the price of new strings also loved it. I keep wanting to try another sx bass but I missed out on the few models I really wanted or the price point I was thinking.

Was it the B string that bothered you? I find there are very few 5-string basses that have a B string that's pleasing to me. Every time I start thinking I might want a 5-string bass, I go out and play a few of them and change my mind.

It's a shame that Kurt seems to have abandoned the full scale bass market. Some more basses have appeared on Rondo, but there's only one 34" scale bass among them. The rest are short or medium scale. There may be some more bass ukes too, I don't know... I stopped counting at 28.

Mossman wrote: ↑Wed Sep 16, 2020 1:06 pm

nomadh wrote: ↑Wed Sep 16, 2020 12:50 pm Very nice. Even a plain ash body is still pretty nice compared to alder. Yours looks like its in that middle area where some of the best looking alder can start to look like ash. I started my SX buying with the alder 5 string and it had a undertone or a vibration that just drove me crazy. Kurt offered to return it but I actually whatever the problem was I was the only one bugged by it. 3 bass players who tried it loved it and the guy who bought it for retail + the price of new strings also loved it. I keep wanting to try another sx bass but I missed out on the few models I really wanted or the price point I was thinking.

Was it the B string that bothered you? I find there are very few 5-string basses that have a B string that's pleasing to me. Every time I start thinking I might want a 5-string bass, I go out and play a few of them and change my mind.

It's a shame that Kurt seems to have abandoned the full scale bass market. Some more basses have appeared on Rondo, but there's only one 34" scale bass among them. The rest are short or medium scale. There may be some more bass ukes too, I don't know... I stopped counting at 28.

At least part of it was the 34" B but I think it was a number of notes on different strings.

nomadh wrote: ↑Wed Sep 16, 2020 8:15 pm
At least part of it was the 34" B but I think it was a number of notes on different strings.

Bass guitars by their nature are susceptible to dead spots. Or at least notes that are less lively. It's all about tension and mass and the vagaries of wood density/rigidity. Some say all basses have a dead spot or two on the neck, but in most cases, it's barely perceptible. Other times, it's very noticeable... You can have a note that's all fundamental, and no harmonics, or it's just literally dead... No sustain, just thud. In these cases you either learn to play around the note, or you slap a brass plate or a "Fat Finger" on the headstock to get rid of it, or move it.

Since the B string on a 34" scale 5-string bass has a poor mass to tension ratio to begin with, I can imagine there could be all kinds of issues with the physics of the neck and string harmonics... In the unlikely event that I ever buy a 5-string bass, I would never buy one sight-unseen. So far, I have yet to play a 5-string that has a B string that sounds good, or sounds like it even belongs with the other strings. Maybe in the mix it sounds good? I don't know. I've never had to play a song that needed any of those five lower notes...

Jaco only needed four strings!!

Mossman wrote: ↑Wed Sep 16, 2020 11:04 pm

nomadh wrote: ↑Wed Sep 16, 2020 8:15 pm
At least part of it was the 34" B but I think it was a number of notes on different strings.

Bass guitars by their nature are susceptible to dead spots. Or at least notes that are less lively. It's all about tension and mass and the vagaries of wood density/rigidity. Some say all basses have a dead spot or two on the neck, but in most cases, it's barely perceptible. Other times, it's very noticeable... You can have a note that's all fundamental, and no harmonics, or it's just literally dead... No sustain, just thud. In these cases you either learn to play around the note, or you slap a brass plate or a "Fat Finger" on the headstock to get rid of it, or move it.

Since the B string on a 34" scale 5-string bass has a poor mass to tension ratio to begin with, I can imagine there could be all kinds of issues with the physics of the neck and string harmonics... In the unlikely event that I ever buy a 5-string bass, I would never buy one sight-unseen. So far, I have yet to play a 5-string that has a B string that sounds good, or sounds like it even belongs with the other strings. Maybe in the mix it sounds good? I don't know. I've never had to play a song that needed any of those five lower notes...

Jaco only needed four strings!!

I don't think it was dead. It was a buzz or an undertone or a vibration. I tried to nail it down to strings or the saddle or tuners or nut. I think the 1 idea I didnt mess with was a vibration in the truss rod. Don't know if there would be anything I could do about it. But like I said I was the only person who noticed. I think I go by feel much more than others on lots of things. Cars, clothes guitars. My wife goes by texture or feel on food more than me.

dabbler wrote: ↑Wed Sep 16, 2020 5:51 am Congrats!

But, I'm curious what you would think of the tone of the stock pups if you put some decent strings on it first.

Ok, I didn't have time to do any recording this weekend like I planned to, but I did find time to take the DR Lo-Riders off my fretless and put them on the SX, and I have to admit, with better strings, those pickups sound really good! Miles better than the pickups in previous SX basses I've bought. They still don't have as much bottom and mid-range growl as I prefer (I had to really jack the mids to get it close to the tone I like), so I'm still going to replace them with the CS '60s, but that's just my personal taste... These do not sound like "budget" pickups. I wouldn't feel uncomfortable at all taking this to a gig right out of the box.

Well, I'd probably change the strings first.