So here’s the promised review of the Bach BTH-1 TRD LH. Sorry for my terrible English writing. I will try to keep it somewhat readable.
Doing business with Roman at Bach is OK. Friendly questions get you a friendly reply and he is patient. His Englisch is a bit limited but good enough to communicate. Not all my questions got answered though so i advise to send a reminder or ask for a confirmation if you really want to be sure about things.
My first impression straight out of the box was that they did not use the best looking woods for this particular instrument. The Sipo they used on the body has a couple of big knots in it and several smaller ones. Its mostly an optical issue but in my opinion they better not have used this on a transparant finished bass. But i love the colour! It is slightly darker than my transred Stingray. The neck is made out of some very nice looking Mahogany. The laquer goes right up to the upper edge of the fretboard, maybe i am going to sand that off in the future. A weird thing on the neck: they drew a pinstripe with a black boardmarker along the length of the neck where the fretboard is glued on to the neck wood. Totally unnessecary IMO. I don't know if they have done that to mask something or out of esthetic reasons but on the E side the line stops around the 7th fret... Very sloppy! Its underneath the laquer so i cannot restore this myself. On the G side of the neck the pinstripe is ok. Frets are fine, no Sharp edges. The edges of the nut are a bit scharp and some strings sit a little to high in the nut but that is a easy DIY job with the right tools. The bass needed some adjustment on the neck because it was dead-straight and therefore had some stringrattle. Intonation was spot on. I gave the trussrod half a twist but it still needs some more relief.
The bridge is wide enough to have sufficient intonation travel. Bridge hight adjustment is a less perfect situation. I screwed it down to its max, so it rests full on the pivots only allowing upward adjustment. String hight is just like i want it right now but i still need to adjust the neck some more. Maybe i have to file down the bridge saddles.
I put an extra strapholder at the back where the neck is attatched to the body. It does not help to cure the basses neckdive problems, but it moves the bass a little to the left so the neck has better access. Also it allows me to play with the neck a little more upright and gives my left arm more room to rest on the body making neckdive much more manageable. Less heavy tuners would help but that is something i have to investigate. Gotoh Res-O-Lite´s are lighter but i don´t know if they come lefthanded.
The bass arrived Friday so i was able to test drive it in a band situation the next day. Comparing it at home, soundwise this bass sits somewhere between my Fender P and my full sounding high output Ibanez Blazer. Also a bit of the thickness of my Stingray is present because of the humbucker charactaristics. The Bach still has its factory strings on it. My other basses all have stainless steels on them.
The bass is a eye catcher! Normally my bandmembers are not that interested in my bass gear, but now they gathered around the instrument and started to ask questions about it and its manufacturer. So big points on looks.
Once i found the right position to be comfortable with this funny shaped instrument it proved to be very playable. The width of the neck at the nut is right between a P and a J bass so it feels nice and comfortable. No need to get used to it at all! At rehearsal i used my Bassman 135 head with my SWR Henry 8x8 cab. The knobs were in the position i normally use with my Fender P: all knobs on 5. With the Bach this setting sounded a little to boomy for the hardrock/metal we play, so i turned the bass down to 4 and dialed in a little mids. This bass sounds good! It is punchy, has big but tight lows and full highs and even overall response. Sustain is pretty good also. I have a set of Hanson Chisonics laying around. There’s a good chance they will end up in this bass to get a clear powerfull sound. This was the original plan but i have to say, i like it just the way it is allready!!
All in all i think it is a very nice instrument. Sure, improvements can be made in the balance and Electronics department but imo are not a absolute necessity. Once Bach gives his quality checks a little more attention, all is well. On a Dutch bass forum where i tend to waste my precious time, there are a bunch of satisfied Bach owners.
Hey, for the price i would pay for a Epiphone EB-3 i own a nice lefty NR Thunderbird!
