Practice update: The H-22 did a really nice job last night at practice. Of course it helped that I'm getting better at managing my amp based on the bass I'm using. It has a tone and sound reminding me of a EB-0. With the original rounds on it, it wasn'y as muddy, but it sure has that nice thumpy full HB tonality to it. It could easily do an entire gig of all of our usual tunes. It was comfortable to wear. It's slightly neck heavy, but my usual leather strap counteracts that with no effort. The short scale is perfect for me. The neck isn't chunky and was comfortable to play. Since the fret job, it plays smoothly and is really intonated well, even with the funky wood bridge. Playing "All Right Now" up in the octave register way up the neck was right in tune. I was really surprised by that! The pickup is plenty powerful enough but has a bit of a hum if you turn toward the amp too closely. A single coil of very simple design. It had nice output across the 4 strings and I was surprised by this evenness. The baritone switch does work, but the difference in tone is minimal, but perceptible. I preferred the treble setting.
The key to making it sound good and stand out in the noise of our band is my learning to use my amp better. I have discovered that my Mesa M-Pulse is a beast to be reckoned with. A tube driven preamp, a huge EQ section and a compressor circuit. Thankfully, all of the features can be turned off with a switch. I tried the amp with just the preamp controls: gain at 11 o'clock, bass, mid and high full on. Plenty of output and it sounded great with the e-string a bit louder that the others. Flipped on compression, dialed in just a little and the output evened out and it sounded really sweet. Flipped on the EQ and everything went to hell. The EQ on these amps is particularly complex with freq settings and gain levels for a full range of Hz. I'm realizing that for my needs, the EQ is way over the top and really not necessary. Especially when I take a different bass every week and the EQ is totally in need of a reset every time. Not a good use of my time! Honestly, I'm realizing that the preamp, EQ and compression are wonderful, but you need to use them all together and individually in a judicious manner.
So, bottom line is the bass is great for the price and handled classic rock without a problem. Glad I snagged it.
