Peavey NTB-6 Grind

The bass has a good basic construction with neck-through body, strings through body, 35" scale etc. Very good value for money. The finish is reasonably good, but not first class.

However, the tuners are really second class ones, I will probably replace them for something more solid.

The pickups were better than expected for the price. However, I find them a bit weak and intend to replace them.

I really like the punch from the B-string, MUCH better than most five strings. Thanks to the 35" scale.

It will be great with better pickups.

The bass was reasonably adjusted, but just enough for trying it out. The pickups were screwed in all the way to the bottom, which reduced the output from the pickups significantly. The string height was too high, except for the B-string which was too low.

So far, I've only adjusted the bridge, but I'll go for the truss rods as well next time.

My bass had a slightly misaligned bridge for the B-string. Not an issue for playability, but it does not look good.

I use this bass without backup, no problems.

The bass is robust, except for the tuners.

I've replaced the strap buttons for Shaller Strap locks.

I've never had the reason to contact Customer Support

Great value for money.

I expect it to be awesome with new pickups and tuners.

My Grind 6 (exact age unknown) is the later body style, without a scooped relief area under the treble horn, and a conventional smooth neck heel, instead of the stepped heel featured on the early models.

24-fret, 7-piece laminated mahogany/maple through neck with Imbuya body wings. V/V/T/T controls and side-mount jack, two Peavey passive soapbar pickups.

The finish is matt clear polyurethane, applied lightly and with no grain filler, giving an natural appearance that mimicks a hand-rubbed oil finish.

The body syle is similar to the Peavy Cirrus, which is to say that it's fairly rather reminiscent of a Modulus. The long upper horn (strap button at the 12th fret) gives it a nice balance on a strap, and the short lower horn eases access to the upper frets.

The saddles in the rail-type individual bridges are locked in place by a setscrew- a nice touch. Stringing can be top-load, or through-body.

Other reviewers didn't mention this, but the machine heads on mine are low-geared and exceptionally smooth. This makes for unusually easy, extremely accurate tuning.

Smallish frets are set in a rosewood fingerboard, with large plastic edge markers. The only dot markers, are at the 24th fret.

I bought my Grind off e-Bay including an inexpensive Squire SKB-style plastic/aluminum hardshell case, which fits surprisingly well and makes for a nice, light case for casual use.

I give the Grind a 9 in this area, because I never thought I'd see high-end features like multi-lam exotic hardwood throughneck construction, smooth diecast tuners, and individual bridges on an inexpensive starter bass?

As expected, the inexpensive passive pickups don't allow for a huge range of variance in tone, and the bridge pickup sounds a little thin and nasal.

Still, on most settings they give a strong, defined tone, with no unpleasant resonances.

The overall tonal character is fairly dark, as you would expect from a predominantly mahogany instrument, and the sustain from the neck-through construction is just as long, clear, and even as you might expect from a moew expensive bass.

Under fluorescent lighting, there is minor buzzing, which subsides when you touch the strings.

Adjustment was complicated by the friction-fit bridge sleds, which have to be tapped with a punch and a plastic mallet in order to set the intonation. Still, once set, the instrument intonates very nicely. Double-stops ring out clearly, with a nice, rounded, vocal character.

I would want to add shielding and perhaps a quieter set of pickups before using this bass in the studio, but the tone is great for live work, cutting through the mix nicely.

If I was going to be greedy, I would hope for a little more brilliance, clarity and definition than the passive pickup set provides. Compared to the expensively-appointed, EMG-equipped handmade 5-string I normally play, the Grind sounds a little veiled, as though there was a handkerchief over the sound.

Still, I am impressed with the evenness of tone, all the way from the low B to the upper registers. I bought this bass as a cheap starter instrument for my first foray into 6-string basses, and was surprised to find how close it sounds to my good bass.

With a basic tone this good, if I stay with 6-string, it will definitely be worth putting a pair of EMG 45CS soapbars into the Grind. I've already checked, and they'd be a straight, drop-in fit, with lots of room for the batteries in the large control cavity.

The tone is a 10 considering what I paid, or a 7 if cost was no object. I think I'll give it an 8 overall...

I bought the bass used, so I don't know what the original factory setup was like. As it arrived, it needed some work. The action was set too low and the pickups too high, which strangled the tone, and caused shortened sustain and buzzing.

Happily, it only took minor adjustments to get it properly intonated, and sounding as it should. The dual truss rods worked smoothly, and the powder-coated steel bridges, although a little finicky to adjust, hold a setup well. The tone blossomed nicely, once the instrument was properly set up.

The neck is a little flatter than I prefer, both in terms of fingerboard radius, and the shape of the neck. Still, for a 6-string, it's surpringly easy to get around on, and it has enough meat on it to preserve tone and tuning stability. To my tastes, it nicely walks the fine line between pencil-necks like the Ibanez SR series, and oversized monsters like the old Yamaha TRB sixes. After some minor sanding, I love the organic feel of the lightly-finished neck.

The tops of the frets didn't require dressing, but as reported by other reviewers, the neck had shrunk a little since manufacture, and the fret ends needed trimming. This is very common on instruments with open-pore finishes, and like the sloppy setup, it was nothing that I haven't seen before. To be fair, even my good bass needed a little buzz with a file after its first cold, dry Ontario winter...

The volume control on the neck pickup occasionally makes a little scratching noise, which goes away after a couple of sweeps. The rest of the hardware is quiet and solid.

The weakest point on my particular bass, was definitely the finish. I had to wait quite a while to find one that had nicely-matched body wings, but still, the urethane finish was gritty, with a number of bumps, runs and sags. I know it's supposed to be a matte finish, but this one felt like it had only been sanded out to about 320 grit.

To my surprise, the imperfections were all in the surface coat. After trimming the fret ends, sanding the whole instrument gently with progressively finer grits (600/800/100/1500), and applying some Lee Valley Tung Oil, the bass developed a nice soft feel and a lustrous glow that belie the bargain-basement price.

Even after these touch-ups, the pinkish, low-grade mahogany in the neck, wobbly edges on the headstock veneer and the dull-looking fingerboard on my bass betray its humble origins. Still, for the price, it's pretty impressive. From a distance, it looks good sitting next to my other instruments, which are all much more exotic and expensive.

I'd rate it a 10 for the quality of the materials and construction at this price point, a 5 for the quality of the detail finish work, and an 8 overall, because it cleaned up so nicely, without any major surgery needed.

The stout, rigid neck and solid hardware make for an instrument that should stand up nicely to the rigours of stage use. I haven't owned mine very long, but it's probably 2 or 3 years old, and the neck is still straight and true, with no fret lifing.

After years of playing active instruments, it's nice to know that the batteries on the Grind will never go flat!

The finish is typical urethane, and the hardwoods chosen are more dent-resistant than the junk that you typically see at this price point. Still, given the thinness of the open-pore finish (which is probably part of the reason for the surprisingly good tone) I wouldn't be surprised if it showed some wear under heavy use.

The nice thing, is that you can cover minor finish flaws with an application of Tung Oil, something you can't do with a conventional glossy, coloured finish.

Would I gig with the this bass without a backup? With confidence.

I got quick, accurate answers to my questions about the Grind, from a company rep on the Peavey forums.

I've never owned a Peavey instrument before, and i've only owned one Peavey amp (a Classic 30). Still, I repair amps and electronics for other people, and I've always found Peavey good to work with when it came to ordering parts.

I've been playing bass for over 40 years. I mostly play live, so unlike your typical studio guy, I tend to find one instrument I like, and stick to it. I've had a lot of basses over the years, but my main squeeze for the last 13 years has been a beautiful, neck-through custom 5-string in curly maple, bubinga and ebony, fitted with EMG 40CS soapbars and 18 volt electronics.

I switched from conventional amplification to a Bose L1 system about a year ago. After waiting a while to see if I would change my mind, I ditched most of my conventional gear including my beloved SWR Studio 220. The only pieces I kept, were a Fender Rad Bass practice amp, which is nice for living room jams, and my bass-pack-equipped POD XT Live, which is useful for the very rare occasions when I want effects.

I don't mind spending extra money on high-quality gear, like my Bose rig or my Radial JDI direct box. This makes it all the more surprising to me, that I'm so pleased with the Grind.

It doesn't have the eye candy of my good bass, but when I'm playing it with my eyes closed, I can't get over how close it feels and sounds to my good bass.

As reported elsewhere, fit-and-finish quality control has been spotty on these basses in the past, so like any budget instrument, you need to search out a good one that doesn't have any major finish flaws.

Still, for anyone who has access to a good repair tech, or can do the work themselves, the Grind cleaned up very nicely, and required no more work than any other starter instrument.

The jury is still out on whether I'll stick with 6-string bass over the long haul. But if I do, I can invest another $250 in a set of EMG's and some copper foil shielding, and end up with a durable, stage-ready instrument with pretty exotic specifications, for less than $700.

I consider that to be a killer deal.

Other inexpensive sixers have at least some of the features of the Grind. I looked at Dean, ESP, Brice, Rogue, Ibanez, and Yamaha, but every other competitor had at least one feature that was a deal-killer for me, whether it was a punky basswood body, overly skinny bolt-on neck, or too-short-for-a-six 34" scale.

In the end, for my tastes there really wasn't any other choice in a low-rent 6-string bass.

The above reviews should have familiarized you already with the dates, details and origins of this bass: 2002, Viet Nam, 24 frets, six strings, Dual Peavey 'buckers, passive electronics (VVTT controls), rubber-oil finish, multi-laminated neck-through, Tobias-type double-cutaway body, rail-type bridge with through-body stringing option, 35" scale, gotoh-type tuners, med-jumbo frets. treble-side body scoop makes pop/slap MUCH easier and looks really cool, too.

Many of these features can't be found an any other bass in this price range. In fact, Peavey sells this bass for so little that you can't help but be suspicious... You'll have to keep in mind that, in the context of this review, the bass was well under $500! Amazing!

The grind 6 does have a somewhat dark jazz tone, but I easily brightened it up with a few seconds of tweaking at the amp. My Boss LMB limiter/enhancer makes this bass as high-tech sounding as my much more expensive basses. The sound was much better than I expected from a passive circuit. I've used this bass already on rock, funk, top-40 and fusion gigs, and it worked GREAT in every setting. With it's inherintly dark tone, I suspect that a set of flatwounds would make this thing really mellow and jazzy. Very versatile!

Completely noiseless and hum-free. maybe I've just been lucky with the rooms I've put it to work in, but so far, it's been trouble-free in this area.

As with the above reviews, this is where my Grind gets into trouble. Although I had none of the finish and/or dead spot problems that the above owners have seen, I did have two MAJOR problems to solve before this bass was playable:

1) The bass shipped with a very bowed neck. No problem, ordinarily: I know exactly how to set a bass up to my perfect specs. But when I took off the truss rod cover and tried to torque the twin rods, I discovered that one of them had been carelessly glued into place and was frozen solid. It took a couple of careful hours with a tiny chisel to free the rod from the glue so it'd turn. Once I DID free the rod, however, I was very happy to find that there was virtually NO tension on the rods when the bass shipped, meaning that this must be one VERY stiff neck! It took only a few turns of the rods to get the neck straight. But the action still sucked with a great suckyness...

2) ...So I went to the bridge saddles next...

...before I forget, the bridge IS a little off-center on this bass. It'd be hard to notice if the beautiful striping of the neck laminates didn't provide a perfect guide, but in this case, one of the great features of the bass served to point out a flaw. Come on, Peavey, send those Vietnamese some TEMPLATES, and send someone to show 'em how to USE them!

...anyway, back to the saddles. I started to drop them down to a playable height, and discovered that they were already bottomed out! And I don't mean the strings were just a 'little too high for my personal taste', I mean those strings were LAUGHABLY high! I can't imagine the designer at Peavey holding up the prototype of this bass, with ridiculous action like this, and saying, "Yeah, that's perfect! Everyone likes their strings a quarter-inch from the frets!" Someone changed something at some point... I unstrung the Grind, removed all six of the saddles and took 'em out to the ol' grinding wheel. After grinding nearly half of each saddle away, re-seating the Allen screws, replacing the saddles and restringing, I was FINALLY able to play this bass!

I have no other gripes about the action, fit or finish of my Grind. THe pickups were adjusted perfectly, aligned correctly, and tilted nicely. The fret ends were dressed well, clean and free of high/low-spots. The controls were prefect and smooth.

Peavey's rep is stellar where durability and longevity stand. Of course, this is not an American Peavey: It's a Vietnamese bass based on a Peavey design. It FEELS very solid and has a high-quality vibe to it, so I think it's gonna be with me for a long time. I love the finish: It's feels tough, but not sticky or gummy. It feels like wood! I'd use it with no backup anytime.

Peavey wrote the book on customer support. It should be every manufacturer's goal to be just like Peavey in this area.

Been playing for 22 years, own a roomful of basses. I'd definitely replace it if it were stolen. I love the neck most of all - incredibly stiff and stable, yet slim and fast under the hands. Feels like a Tobias, but I could buy three more of these before spending whjat I would on a Toby. Worth pointing out that Peaveyt made the control cavity large enough to accomodate a preamp, should I ever decide to add one.

Update for review that started "I'm writing this long review because..." Some of my initial impressions of the bass have changed since spending more time with it. On this second bass from Musicians Friend the body wings matched and this is a very nice looking bass and the bass arrived in the factory packaging. The bridge sections look like ABM parts and would cost at least $150 to buy if they are original parts. I weighed the bass. 11 lbs. Whew. All other specs the same.

The more I play it, the more I like it. Through an Aguilar OBP3 preamp this bass really sounds great. Even without it, the sound is very good with highs that are a little soft.

Right out of the box this bass had a chipped headstock, off center truss rod cover, control knobs unevenly spaced, 1 scratched tuner and 1 scratched volume knob, the bridge was mounted off center, a 3 inch line of glue at the 24th fret I removed with a chisel,and 2 quarter sized dull/white spots on the front of the lower body wing that could not be cleaned off, the fret crowns were not dressed on either bass. I gave it a 5 because this bass is actually playable. Sometimes hand-made is not a good thing. Would somebody please give these guys some templates! The string spacing is a little too narrow for fast slapping.

This is one solid hunk of wood.

Peavey needs to start checking these. The quality is not on par with their other basses.

Both of these basses had defects that never would have gotten out the door of other manufacturers. The only thing consistent is how sloppy they put them together. I stripped the hardware, sanded the body, relocated the hardware, refinished it and reassembled it. Now this is a nice bass. I wouldn't recommend buying this bass sight unseen. Most people would be better off getting a Yamaha or Ibanez. IMO they won't sound as good but the construction will be more consistent.

I normally wouldn't submit a review for something I haven't owned for a while. I only had this bass a week, and sent it back - but i was inspired to write this based on the previous review. If I didn't get the same bass he returned, I got one with near identical issues!

To add on what has been said, this bass has a 35" scale, and offset position markers (not dots in the center of the neck). It also has 2 truss rods (two seperate rods).

Other than the issues that I will get int later, this is an excellent bass, with great features for the price.

This is a decent sounding bass, with a darker, warm sound. It's can't get a trebley high end sound, but this may be due to the lack of active electronics. It makes no noise at all.

For the price range, the sound on this is pretty good. To me it reminds me of a warwick, nore than say a P or Jazz bass. As the previosu review said, it doesn't get that fender sound. To me, it would be best suited for Jazz or something needing a mellow tone.
I think it would take some work to get a really good slap sound out of this bass, and not sure how good it would be for metal.

Well, as I mentioned above, this bass has similar issues to what the previous reviewer said. The E string was totally dead on the 3rd fret.
Strange, because all the other strings/frets were fine. Some truss rod tweaking fixed this (like I said there are 2 rods). The finish was worn off the top of one of the knobs, and there was a dented area on the top body wing. NOTE - I bought this on scratch and dent, so flaws are to be expected and not held against peavey.

I have to say that when I took this bass out of the box, my jaw dropped. It was great looking, and I mean great looking in a $1000 bass type of way. Beautiful wood, but as the previous reviewer said, the top and bottom body wings didn't match. On mine, the top wing had a pronounced flame figure, and the bottom wing was darker in color. I don't really care abotu that, if I had spent $1000 or so I would, but at this price, I don't feel it needs to match exactly. Don't let the fact you have never heard of the body wood scare you off, it is great looking, reasonably hard.

I have heard that the fingerboard on these is "indonesian rosewood". To me it looked like Pao Ferro, and either way it was fantastic looking!

There were some small, pencil point areas on the body that had been filled in with plastic wood or some sort of filler. Very small, and hard to notice, but still there were a few.

Despite these flaws, and taking in to account the scratch and dent nature of the purchase, I still have to give this bass high marks. The feel of the neck, the action (once the issue describe above was fixed), and the overall look makes this bass pretty good in my opinion.

Seems very solid to me. Since the neck is multi laminated, I doubt the headstock would break easily (something I'm scared of on the neck throughs). There isn't much finish to speak of, I believe it's just oil, but that is fine for wood that looks like this.

I didn't deal with Peavey on this (just musicians Friend). I have dealt with Peavey in the past, and they seem like the type of company that will really try to help out and please the customer. I think they are one of the best out there for this, base on my other experiances. You can get a feel for a company if they really care about their customers or not. Peavey does.

Because of that, I'm giving a high score here.

Been playing 20 years. Own lots of stuff that you don't care about.

I bought this bass on a whim, because I thought a 6 sting would be neat. It isn't for me, I barely use the 5th sting on my 5 string, Although the extra strings are cool, I prefer a 4 or maybe a 5 string.

NOTE - that's really why I sent this back, because it was a 6 sting.

I'm seriously considering getting one of these basses in 5 or 4 string. I had to think hard before sending this one back, these was a lot about it I really liked, despite the dings.

The thing I liked best was the looks, to be honest. Also, the sound was very different from the other Fender style basses I have, so that was very cool. One thing I didn't like so much was the "sculpted" lower horn, I would have prefered a rounder more traditional look (I didn't really need that high fret access! :-) ).

In short, I really liked this bass, and would by another one, only not on scratch and dent, and not 6 string.

I'm writing this long review because there is next to no info about this bass on the web. Made in Vietnam, 6 string, 35 inch scale, 2" nut, 3 1/4" at the 24th fret, 5/8" spacing at the bridge, 3 1/8" total spacing at bridge, dual truss rods,6 individual bridge sections, string through or bridge mount strings, passive dual humbuckers each with volume and tone, 3 piece mahogany neck with 4 maple stringers, imbuya wings and probably headstock veneer, oil finish. The fingerboard is uneven in finish and does not appear to be rosewood. I can't tell what it is. The Imbuya wings look kind of like a cross between Koa and Walnut and smell a little spicy. The wings on mine didn't match which irritates me, but I have seen some of these that are beautiful. The fret markers appear to be fake pearl. (not sure)

The tone is modern with deep voicing. There an emphasis on the low mids that give it a growl but not like a jazz bass. Not Fenderish at all. To me it sounds like smooth jazz on the radio if that helps. There is plenty of low end and the signal is fairly hot. I find myself boosting the highs more than usual but really prefer the deeper voicing. Very good slap tone and good for chords too.

Oops. This is where things go kind of bad. The G on the E string totally frets out. I mean dead. This bass has the potential to have a fast neck. I have smallish hands but can still get around the neck well. It's not too wide or deep and the string spacing suits me. I think with more setup I could really cook on this thing.( I'm very critical with setup. I rarely find a guitar set up fast enough from the factory but no one would accept the dead G on this bass.) The spacing is a little narrow for slapping but is still very usable. The scallop at the end of the neck is nice and makes it feel more open. More fun to play than work, unlike some 6 strings I have tried. The other defect is someone sanded through the 1/8" veneer on the headstock down to the mahogany. They had to lean on it to do that!

This bass must be durable considering how poorly it was packaged for shipping. It still came through OK. The wood/oil finish won't dent with a fingernail. It's a pretty hard wood and aside from the defects seems like a solid bass. The tuners feel smooth enough. I haven't had it long enough to assess its long term reliability. It's going back for an exchange. I'll do a short repost on the second bass to let you know if I just got a bad one or if they are all bad.

I've never had a big gripe with Musicians Friend, unlike some others. But... This guitar came in a single box with the cd player I ordered in a blister pack resting against the guitar which was only protected with a plastic bag. When the package arrived, the headstock had punched through the top of the box (just a little) and the box was pressed flat. The only damage to the guitar was some of the finish was rubbed off of the volume nob from rubbing against the cardboard. The cd player was broken. Come on guys. That ain't right and I told them so. But, as usual, they sent me a free fedex mailing label and made everything OK. A 5 for not doing it right in the first place. An 8 for not giving me a problem about it.7

If this bass came with good frets, matched wood, and a good box, I think it would be a killer $400 6 string. I'll let you know.

As previously stated in my 3/17 Review- Highdesertdweller

As previously stated in my 3/17 Review- Highdesertdweller

As previously stated in my 3/17 Review- Highdesertdweller

As previously stated in my 3/17 Review- Highdesertdweller

Here is where I post my addendum to my 3/17 review of this bass. I was very pleased to see that Peavey was extremely responsive to my concerns for repainting the headstock on my new Peavey Grind NTB-6. Peavey has a Customer Service Forum at their website for which they provide immediate responses to their customers. Once I obtain advice, I sent the bass back to their repair plant in Mississippi. I was able to communicate with their customer service manager and repair manager and they were very helpful in letting me know the progress of the repairs. They re-painted the headstock, and even though I did not ask, they replaced the strings and the bass even looks like it was oiled. The bass never looked so good! I can honestly say Peavey Customer Service is truly outstanding! Kudos for Peavey in this area!

The outstanding customer service for my issue with the bass necessitates I give this bass a higher overall rating.

2002 made, I believe its made overseas in Vietnam? it has 24 frets and six strings. Its got all natural wood body and neck through design, with 2 passive soap bar pick ups. The pick up configuration is like a jazz bass- two volumes and two tone pots. Its 35 scale.

Suprisingly this bass sounds VERY good. Its rich and the tone is very usable. Full spectrum range sound. The pots are unfortunately subject to hum when playing near a source of light (the pick ups may be single coils, not sure if Peavey's site provides any detail). The sound is overall very good, not quite a Cirrus, but for the money its good.

This is were the bass lacks. I bought it 'new' and the headstock had dull haze swirls that could not be rubbed out. I sent the bass back to Peavey for evaluation of the headstock. It is clearly a quality control issue that I will comment again once Peavey addresses my complaint with this aspect of the bass. The nut is plastic, another indicator of a budget bass. The wood choice for the body wings is the most appealing aspect of this bass's appearance. The neck is great, just like a Cirrus but the bridge is cheap looking and obviously another area of weakness in quality. The tuners appear to be fine (quality wise). I am rating this portion of the bass down because I had to send the bass in for the headstock problem

As mentioned earlier, the tuners appear fine, but the bridge looks cheap and the nut is plastic and appears to be glued on. I suspect the nut and bridge will be the first areas to have problems. The headstock as previously mentioned was defectively finished to start with. The finish on the headstock had several dull swirls that really made the bass's headstock detract from the overall appearance of the bass.

I emailed Peavey's forums regarding my issue with the headstock. There is a guy who goes by 'AJ" and he is very quick to provide a reply for any concerns. Additionally the Peavey customer service manager who I emailed recommended I send the bass back to the Mississippi plant for evaluation/repair. I sent the bass on 3/13 and it is still in transit. After Peavey determines what they will do to resolve this issue I will post a second review for their customer support. At this point, their initial interest and support seem very good however I will reserve my final evaluation based upon what they do regarding the headstock problem.

Overall opinion is this is a very interesting bass that needs to be evaluated for the following: Playability - I give it a 10. For workmanship its a 4. Combined average makes it a 7. Keep in mind this is a budget bass and for what you pay, you get great playability and the tone is very usable. If not for the headstock issue I would give it a 9 because of the tone and the fast neck. If you get one of these, inspect it closely for finish flaws and select one that has a better finish than mine. Also, play it through an outboard preamp (I use an Aguilar DB924) and this bass will shock you with its tones and playability....Now lets see what Peavey is going to do to correct the finish flaw...I will post again once they ship it back.