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Belman
Classic 5 String Bass Reviewer: George Urbaszek Distributor: Belman Guitars 03 9464 4277 |
Belman Guitars (www.belmanguitars.com) has been making guitars, basses and associated electronics out of their Melbourne workshop since 1986, becoming a formal entity in 1994. This is their official 10th year in which some rare anniversary models will be made. I ordered a 35-inch scale "trial" model with only a few custom features.
The first thing that struck me about the Belman Classic 5-String Bass was its uncluttered and streamlined look. The body is made of lightweight swamp ash, the neck is flatsawn maple, and the 22-fret fingerboard is quartersawn maple with a pretty crossgrain and large black dot inlays.
Picking up the bass provided a pleasant surprise in weight and balance, both being perfect. There is no neck dive whatsoever, partially due to the Hipshot ultra light tuners. The headstock is about 1mm thinner than the average. The ‘3 plus 2’ tuner configuration works very well, providing the B-string with a 7cm run-off between the well-cut, rounded brass nut and the tuning peg. This design allows for a simple yet effective straight-across, bar-type string clamp.
The fret wire is narrow and low. This feature ensures a less ‘clanky’ sound as well as getting the strings potentially closer to the fingerboard. The fretwork is excellent with no unevenness whatsoever. The fingerboard edges give a played-in feel and the slightly pitched neck has a smooth satin finish.
The body, about 4mm thicker than standard designs, has a high gloss finish. The bolt-on neck is attached with six allen machine-cap screws fastened into threaded inserts. That is one strong connection! The stainless steel truss rod is easily accessible from the body end.
The plastic cover plate for the electronics compartment is screwed down with only three wood screws making the cover slightly loose on the longest edge. The inside of the cover is shielded with alfoil and the compartment itself is thoroughly shielded with copper foil. Within the tidy compartment is a separate section, snugly housing the 9-volt battery. An internal trimpot enables fine tuning of the pickup gain, suitable for varying requirements of players and amplifiers. The input socket is side-mounted. When a straight jack plug is inserted, I found the bass could not be standing on the floor without pushing the jack plug sideways.
Of course, using an instrument stand or an angle jack will prevent damage, but a better solution could be to move the socket a little further to the side of the body.
The pickups and active preamp are Belman’s own design and manufacture.
A ‘jazz’ style neck pickup and a tappable bridge pickup offer a wide variety of tonal settings. The controls are master volume, pickup blend with centre detent, treble boost, bass boost, a three-way toggle switch for parallel, split and series coil configuration and an active bypass toggle switch (a custom feature). The pickup covers have nicely rounded edges providing a great-feeling thumb rest.
The Badass bridge has a string-through-body option (another custom request). Despite what people say about the same tension yet only slightly different feel of strings, this proved to be useful in an unexpected way because the A and E-strings rattled when top loaded and no longer rattled when strung through the body. It is good to have the choice. The tuner tension, neck bolts, truss rod and bridge saddles all have different sized allen keys, none of which were provided with the instrument.
The string spacing at the nut is 9mm and 18mm at the bridge. This feels very comfortable to me, although slappers might prefer a slightly wider spacing at the bridge. Due to the carefully chosen fingerboard radius and neck profile, this bass is eminently playable. The lap balance is good and comfortable. Because of its great playability, the bass inspired and encouraged me to play 4-5 hours a day for about two weeks. I played the bass through many amplifiers, recording setups and at gigs. The electronics are extremely quiet, even with treble and volume on full.
The B-string is the best feeling, most focussed I have played so far – all the way down. This is no doubt (at least in part) due to the 35-inch scale (the B-string in fact being 35 _ inches). The sound is rich and integrated into the bass as a whole, not at all separate as with many 5-strings where the B sounds very different from the rest of the instrument, either too dull or too thin. All strings have an excellent mid-range punch, all the way up the board. The sound is slightly compressed, which sits well in the mix. The 35-inch scale feels really good on all strings and I must wonder why not more manufacturers are taking this path. Getting used to the slightly larger fret spacing does not take long at all.
The treble control provides enough boost without becoming harsh. The bass control is probably the most powerful on the instrument, giving well-rounded thump when needed. With the pickup blend and coil tap options there are plenty of sound possibilities, from midrange honk to reggae thump. No matter what setting is chosen, the bass still retains its own voice and character, being neither completely modern nor completely classic. I believe the Belman Classic 5 provides the best of both worlds and will be seen in my hands for many years to come. At a price of around $2600, and especially when compared to similar USA models, this is exceptional value.
Options for colour, finish, choice of woods, electronics, scale length, etc., are available on several models including the ‘standard’ and ‘custom’.