Back to Rants and Raves
Harley Benton GuitarBass - My Mods
By Sammy of Stone Marmot
Nov. 4, 2024
I bought a new Harley Benton GuitarBass (HBGB) a couple months ago, which cost less than $300 including sales tax and shipping. I've been very happy with it and use it a lot. But it is not ideal. Hence, I made the following modifications to approach a more ideal instrument.
One issue I mentioned in my article reviewing the instrument is that it difficult to find strings for it. The reasons are: 1) It has a shorter (for a bass) 30 inch scale length, 2) It needs fatter and lower pitched bass strings, 3) The tailpiece expect strings with guitar-sized ball ends, not the bigger ball ends used by basses, and 4) The tuners aren't big enough to accept standard bass strings and the tuner spacing is such that bigger bass tuners won't fit. There are at least a six different sets of strings to choose from the Fender Bass VI and its equivalent. But these instruments have vibrato (Fender mistakenly calls it tremolo), which requires strings about 2.25 inches longer than what properly fit on the HBGB.
The easiest solution is to move the tailpiece at least 2.25 inches further from the nut to allow it to use the more common strings made for the Fender Bass VI and its equivalents. There is enough room on the body to allow this.
You need at least 35.5 inches from the string end of the tailpiece to the low E tuner post to allow Fender Bass VI length strings to be used. My original tailpiece posts were about 31.5 inches from the nut. After factoring in the distance between the nut and the low E tuner and the width of the nut and tailpiece, I determined I needed to install new tailpiece mounting posts 2.25 inches further from the nut on my instrument.
Be sure to measure your bass to see if it has the same dimensions as I don't know how consistent Harley Benton is in manufacturing these instruments. Your tailpiece, tuners, etc., may be located a little differently than mine. You are responsible for assuring the dimensions are correct for your instrument and strings.
Drilling the first hole for the threaded insert for the mounting post isn't too hard. First put some masking tape on the bass where the hole in going to be drilled. This tape gives you something to mark on for where the hole should be and also protects the bass finish so you are less likely to scratch or chip it while drilling. When marking for the new hole, make sure it is as in line as possible with the original post. A little off to the left or right is OK and will be compensated for by the bridge. But too much shift to the left or right could cause your strings to pop off their bridge saddles as you play.
Tailpieces are relatively cheap, so I just bought a new tailpiece which included the mounting posts and threaded inserts. My threaded inserts required a 13/32 inch diameter drill bit for the mounting hole. Yours may be a little different. Just drill through the masking tape. But don't drill the big hole all at once. Start with something much smaller, like 1/8 inch, and gradually increase the drill bit size until you get to your final size. This allows for more accurate positioning of the hole and reduces the chances of chipping the bass finish.
It is best to use a drill press to get good vertical holes. This can be done with a handheld drill, but it is much harder. The holes for my inserts needed to be about 1.0 inches deep. Controlling hole depth will also be a challenge with a handheld drill.
I installed the threaded insert with bench vise. I first screwed a bolt with some washers all the way down to the surface of the threaded insert, as shown in Figure 1. You could damage the threads of the insert if the bolt is not screwed down flush with the top of the insert. Put a backing board about the size of the bass body against the one jaw of the vise to distribute the load so you don't dent the bass body. Put some soft cloth between the backing board and the bass body so you don't mar the finish. Then put the threaded insert with the bolt head against the other vise jaw so it aligns with the hole. Slowly screw the vise closed, pushing the insert into the hole, until the top of the insert is flush with the top of the bass body. Then remove the bolt and washers.
Figure 1 - Threaded Insert With Bolt And Washers Screwed In
Figure 2 shows the first insert installed with the second hole drilled. This second hole is a lot harder to drill as the two holes need to be precisely spaced for the tailpiece to fit. I achieved this necessary precision by screwing the tailpiece in place in the first hole after first installing some masking tape, as shown in Figure 3. I found a metal tube, a circuit board spacer in my case, that fit in the opening for the mounting post. After making sure the distance was correct, I drilled through this metal tube with a drill bit the size of the hole in the tube. Then, after removing the tailpiece and metal tube, I progressively increased the hole size as I did with the first hole until it was the right size.
Figure 2 - Tailpiece Holes With One Insert Installed
Figure 3 - Tailpiece Temporarily Installed With Drill Guide
If you can't find an appropriate size tube, you could just drill through the tailpiece mounting post hole opening with an appropriately sized drill bit. This will probably mar the finish of the inside of this mounting post hole opening. But no one will probably notice, since the overhang of the mounting post will probably cover this marring. But YOU'LL KNOW and be haunted by it FOREVER!
Figure 4 shows both inserts installed. Figure 5 shows the new tailpiece installed. Note in Figure 5 the three bass string ball ends sticking out of the original tailpiece, which is sized for guitar string size ball ends.
Figure 4 - Tailpiece Insert Installed
Figure 5 - New Tailpiece Installed
The second issue was I needed a bridge with more intonation range. Some have solved this problem by using shims to change the neck angle where it attaches to the body. Others used a Tune-O-Matic style bridge with a little more adjustment range, such as the Gotoh GE103B. This gives a little more range, but not much more.
Gibson used something frequently referred to as a harmonica bridge on a lot of their guitars in the 1970s. This bridge had significantly more adjustment range. Schaller originally made it, but it was discontinued by the late 1980s. Recently Kluson started making a version of this type of bridge.
The Kluson harmonica bridge, model number KHBSC, is not cheap. I paid about $125 plus tax for mine. It has the same mounting post thread size and spacing as the Tune-O-Matic style bridge. So, to install it, all you do is unscrew your Tune-O-Matic style bridge posts, screw the Kluson harmonica posts in their place, and drop the harmonica bridge on its posts.
Figure 6 shows this harmonica bridge installed. I did have to file the grooves in the saddles a little deeper for the A and low E strings to keep them from popping out of their grooves. Notice I also left the original tailpiece mounting posts in place to fill in their mounting holes. You could just screw appropriately sized bolts into these holes or just leave the holes open.
Figure 6 - Harmonica Bridge Installed
Notice I used almost all the available range to properly intonate the bass. I probably play a bit more aggressively and with higher action than many players. If you have a softer touch and lower action, you probably wouldn't need this much intonation adjustment range.
Also note that the bridge mounts through holes in the pickguard. This is a really strong negative aspect of this bass as it requires you to remove the bridge if you need to lift the pickguard to do any work on the electronics. This is the only instrument of the approximately 18 guitars and basses I've owned over the years that has had this issue. This is more support for my belief that few designers ever actually use the products they design.
Figure 7 shows the area around the nut and tuners with La Bella strings made for the Fender Bass VI installed. Note only the narrower silk ends of the strings go through the tuners and no strings had to unwound to fit the tuners.
Figure 7 - Headstock After Mods With New Strings Installed/p>
The rest of the mods have to do with the electronics, which will be discussed in a future article. These electronics mods were done before the strings were installed because of the above mentioned bridge mounting over the pickguard issue.
Back to Rants and Raves
© 2024 Stone Marmot Enterprises, all rights reserved.