JB-75MN NA Vintage Series : Surprisingly good for the price!

I already own a Harley Benton PB-20 which is the worst bass I've ever laid my hands on. Truly horrible in every way. But these cheap Harley Benton basses seem to get good reviews so I decided to give them another chance. Quality control probably isn't the best in this price range so I expect instruments can vary a lot in quality. I figured maybe I would have better luck this time. I decided to step up one level from the PB-20 "Standard series" to this slightly more expensive "Vintage series".

I'm glad I gave Harley Benton another chance because this bass is in a totally different league than my PB-20. Even when unboxing it I could tell the level of craftsmanship was much better.

The fit and finish is absolutely top notch! The neck pocket couldn't possible have been any tighter. An absolutely PERFECT fit. The finish is flawless. The body is a beautiful two piece ash with such a nice selection of wood that the seam is practically invisible on the front. It's slightly more visible on the back but still as good as I would have expected from a MIA Fender. Very beautiful wood, nice patterns.

The pickguard is perfectly cut. Very nice! I've read some complaints about poor quality pickguards on these basses, that they get easily scratched and ugly but it seems like decent quality to me. I deliberately tried scratching it with a pick and it left no marks whatsoever. Maybe they've changed to a better type? It's certainly a LOT thicker and sturdier than the poor quality, flimsy junk they used on my PB-20.

The block inlays look a bit like they are painted fakes due to some VERY slight smearing along the edges but a few of them are actually slightly recessed into the fretboard which would suggest they're real inlays? On a top quality bass there wouldn't be such a noticeable edge along the inlays but it's a VERY minor flaw and nothing that will have any practical significance whatsoever.

The binding is definitely a painted fake though but it looks nice. One strange thing I noticed is that the fretboard is a glued-on slab of wood so I don't see why they couldn't install the truss rod from the front rather than having the skunk stripe on the back? I guess it must be cheaper that way. This is not a problem whatsoever though, just an observation.

The neck profile is surprisingly slim. A very nice and comfortable C-shape. Many of the reviews say it's very chunky but it's not bad at all. It's slightly chunky compared to most Jazz Basses but compared to a typical P-bass it feels very nice and slim. I was expecting it to be a lot chunkier based on my Harley Benton PB-20 which is more like a U-shape and EXTREMELY chunky front-to-back, even for a P-bass.

The hardware is ok but not great. The tuners feel a bit cheap but far from the worst I've seen. Unlike many other cheap basses they don't feel like they will break anytime soon and that's a huge positive. They work perfectly fine and tuning stability is good. In this price range I would say they are as good as anyone can reasonably expect.

The bridge has brass saddles which is a nice touch but they don't line up perfectly because there's a slightly too wide gap between them. It looks a bit crooked, like they're slightly the wrong width for the spacing of the adjustment screw holes in the baseplate. Not a big deal but it looks a bit messy. Other than that it's just your typical vintage style Fender bridge. Nothing fancy but easy to adjust and does the job.

The setup was actually half-decent, which I didn't expect at all. No worse than with many MUCH more expensive basses. The saddle height was more or less perfect but the truss rod needed to be loosened quite a bit to get rid of severe lower fret buzz. Out of the box the neck had no relief whatsoever. I often experience this with much more expensive basses too and it's to be expected in a factory fresh bass that has traveled across half the world so it's no big deal.

The fretwork was slightly below average though. Even with a perfect setup there was still some fretbuzz around 5th-10th fret on the A-string and 6th-7th fret on the G-string when digging in. With soft playing it was ok. I often play rather aggressively so I will have to level the frets to get it perfect for my playing style. But I didn't expect any better in this price range. In fact, I had expected it to be worse.

The sound is really impressive for this price range. It sounds exactly like a Jazz Bass should and definitely sounds nicer than the slightly more expensive Squier Affinity. Not quite as nice as a top quality MIA Fender but at that point we're obviously in a completely different price range. The pickups have strong output, tight lows, nice growly mids and reasonably smooth highs. The sound is perhaps just a tiny but strident and "hard" compared to more expensive basses but the pickups in those basses will cost as much as this entire bass! Plus the sound might mellow out a bit when the bass has seen some more use. Factory fresh basses often feel a bit "stiff". And don't get me wrong, this bass does sound pretty good. Amazing for the price really! Just not QUITE as nice as a top quality EXPENSIVE Jazz Bass.

It did help a bit to get rid of those nasty, clanky sounding D'Addario strings. I personally can't stand them but some people like them so this is just my subjective opinion of course. The D'Addarios are certainly a million times better than the no-name junk strings they put on the Harley Benton PB-20 so it's not like the bass was useless with the D'Addarios, just a matter of personal taste.

I haven't opened it up to have a look at the electronics but the pots feel really nice. They have just the right amount of resistance and feel like good quality pots. A very positive surprise!

This of course also means that I haven't had the chance to check for shielding inside the bass but based on the amount of noise this bass picks up (except when running both pickups at full volume of course) I'm pretty sure there is no shielding whatsoever. It will definitely need a bit of shielding to be usable in locations with much electrical disturbance (you know, like on stage or in a recording studio...).

I've seen many complain about the weight of these basses but mine wasn't THAT heavy. I mean, it's definitely heavier than your average Jazz Bass but compared to 70s Fender ash Jazz Basses it's pretty much spot on. This is after all a "JB-75". But maybe I got lucky and got one of the lighter ones? Weight will surely vary a lot with cheap ash basses.

I don't understand the design of the headstock though. I don't mind the actual shape but why does it have to be so big? It looks like a severely oversized Sandberg headstock. The bass could definitely lose some weight right there and look nicer too.

So, to put things into perspective:

-Out of the box without a proper setup it was unplayable with severe buzz below 5th fret on all strings.

-After a quick setup it was decent enough that I could easily have used it for live performances in a pinch but not good enough for studio work due to some fret buzz and noise.

-After shielding the bass properly and leveling the frets I'm sure it will be very, VERY nice. I might change the pickups at some point but decent pickups will cost more than the bass itself so it does seem a bit overkill when the stock Roswell pickups are perfectly decent. If I didn't have any other Jazz Basses I would probably have left it stock but I've got better sounding (expensive) Jazz Basses so unless I upgrade the pickup this one probably won't see much use. And it's far too good not to be used.

To sum it up:

This is a VERY impressive instrument for the price. You know that feeling when you pick up an instrument and it just "speaks" to you? Well this one does, even with it's minor issues. If you're looking for an ultra-cheap J-bass and can accept that it may need a little bit of work to be buzz&noise-free I can HIGHLY recommend this bass. There's really no other basses even remotely close to this quality in this price range. With some minor fret leveling and shielding this will be a very, very nice bass. With a pickup upgrade too it can easily compete with pretty much anything out there.

Of course it remains to be seen how stable the neck will be over time and with varying seasons. This is often the weak point with cheap instruments. But so far so good!