Harley Benton Jazz Bass kit build

[Simon Barden]

I'd had £350 worth of pickups (2x SD NY-4) and tuners (Hipshot) left over from my aborted attempt to build an ESB-4 (which Jim C took off my hands and finished). So I thought I'd fit them into a Jazz bass. I was obvioulsy thinking about a PBG one, but with delayed shipment and order backlogs it wasn't going to happen before late Autumn/early winter here (after which no building would occur), so I was going to wait until April next year. And then I needed to order some cases from Thoman and my hand slipped and I ordered a Harley Benton JB kit. Body is boring basswood, but I've got tons of Daphne Blue left over from my Jap Strat refinish, so it was always going to be a solid colour job.



Its one feature that the PBG JBs don't have is a proper JB-style narrow width nut.

Almost all the hardware will be discarded. Thought I'd found a cheap but nice and solid locking bridge but it's got 19mm spacing and this has a standard JB 20mm. 3mm width is a lot to lose and will probably mess up the pickup alignment. Well, no-one said this was going to be a cheap build.

Body has been pre-sanded (well on top/back, but a bit rough on the contours) and sprayed with a sanding sealer, so there's minimal work to do there.

I'll need to rout out the bridge pickup cavity and the pickguard for a wider soapbar-shape pickup (The JB NYs are like two JB pickups stuck together). But the top's flat, so far less daunting than routing on an arched top like the ESB-4.

It's a shame all the holes are pre-drilled as I was intending to fit my Hipshot Lite tuners, but to do so I'll need to fill all the pilot holes for the bigger kit standard elephant-ears. I do have a 2+2 set of Hipshot standard-size tuners, but unlike the Lites they aren't reversible, so I'd have to buy two new tuners if I wanted to not have to hole-fill. I suppose I could do a solid-colour headstock back, but I'm not keen on that as I want a standard natural wood face. About £50 for two tuners if I don't want to hole-fill. Hmm. Plenty of time to think about it.

All being put to one side as I do need to finish my other builds - just waiting for the weather to pick up again.

[ThatCluelessGerman]

Cool, following! Curious how the quality of the Thomann kits turns out. Have been eyeing that super cheap strat....

[kuanjb]

I had an itchy finger and almost bought a PRS style kit from them. Somehow I ended up buying an ES-350 style kit from Haze instead.

Good luck with the build.

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[Simon Barden]

Body and neck fit together very well, so I’d assume they are CNC routed and drilled, so should be less ‘interesting’ than some Pit Bull kits. Hardware is about the same quality. Pickups come with connector blocks, so no soldering is required.

Body wood is plainer, and I’d say if a lower visual quality. This body wood has lots of small black dots in it, so looks a bit dirty. Not something you’d want to display. So it’s fine for solid colours, but nothing you’d really want to simply clear coat, and you’d need to sand off all the sealer if you wanted to stain it (checking for patches that need more sanding like you'd check for glue spots).

[JimC]

Could you not use the excess bits of paddle as hole filling

[Simon Barden]

An idea, but they are very small pilot holes, so it may not be particularly easy. Coloured filler may be just as effective. I’ll have to have a better look once I get going on it.

[king casey]

Pre-drilled headstock holes don't hold me back.

Maple veneer over the top and voila.
The tuners tend to cover any issues on the back.

cheers, Mark.

[Simon Barden]

The front face of the headstock won't be an issue, it's just the rear where all the holes will remain uncovered.

[JimC]

Ah, wait, I understand, you mean pilot holes for the tuner locating screws, not pilot holes for the tuners themselves. Yes, that is awkward. There's not much conventional you could do to hide it other than filler and crossed fingers. I suppose, he said thinking aloud, you could inlay maple veneer over the lot, but it would be hard to get neat. Cut circles maybe, but easy for cure to be worse than disease. Entire point was to use the already paid for tuners, so good to think of something.

[kuanjb]

Could you not use the excess bits of paddle as hole filling

Or you could make some sawdust with that excess bit. Mix it with timbermate or glue into a paste.

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