JB-75MN Black Vintage Series : Great affordable recording bass

I bought this for a couple of recording projects, wanting to keep my costs down. At half the price of a similar Squier, the Harley Benton is a good match on quality, with some better features! The hardware quality is decent, as far as I can tell, and the pickups sound great.

The finishing leaves something to be desired: The fret crowns feel scratchy and will need polishing, but the fret ends (which are often sharp) were totally fine. The black finish had a few hairline scratches on out of the box, I assume from less time polishing, but they're barely noticeable and fine for a recording bass.

Tuners are totally stable, despite expecting them not to be. The neck feels better than the Squier Jazz bass I played recently, although is a little dry if you're used to lacquered necks. The Harley Benton also has the added bonus of brass saddles and the block and bound fretboard, which are a nice touch on a low budget bass like this one.

I've never been a stickler for bass pickup tone, so it's hard for me to compare these pickups to other jazz bass pickups, but they sound absolutely fine, no strange noise, and have quite a wide range of tones if you use the tone and volume knobs wisely.

With a little bit of work, this will be a great bass for great value.