Harley Benton Bass Guitar Kit J-Style Reviews

Much higher quality than expected.

I've been wanting to have a bass and thought assembling this kit would be a fun way to add one to my collection. Straight out of the box, I was surprised at just how good the parts felt - the neck feels nice and smooth and there were no sharp ends to the frets. The body also is good and heavier than what I expected (doesn't feel like it has that much neck dive because of this). If there is one complaint I would have is that the screws were all mixed up together so it could be confusing for someone, but common sense and patience helps here. Overall I think this is a great way for someone to get started with basses. I will definitely be trying the other kits in the future too.

Great Kit!!!

Sounds great. Still needs some adjustments, of course. The shipping was slow (thanks to Moldova Post),but it was worth it!!!

Very good bass for beginners

Assembly went good. All holes were at good places, maybe few part of millimeter off but it did not impact assembly. Signal output from this cheap bass was louder and clearer compared to my Epiphone bass :) One slight annoyance is the bass pot - when turned, feeling is like it scrapes on something inside :( However, it does not impact output sound. Cable included with bass is thin and cheap but it somewhat cancels noise better than my other cable. Conclusion - I think this is very good and cheap bass for beginners - for little money and some effort you get a solid instrument.

Insane quality for the price and straightforward build process

I recently had the pleasure of assembling and playing the Harley Benton Bass J-Style DIY Kit, and I must say, it exceeded my expectations in every way. As a budget-friendly option, the kit offers insane quality for the price, making it an excellent choice for those curious about DIY projects.

The build process was straightforward and incredibly enjoyable. The kit comes with clear and concise instructions, making it accessible for those new to DIY instrument projects. The provided components are of impressive quality, and everything fits together seamlessly. The body and neck materials are sturdy, and the precision in the pre-cut parts ensures a hassle-free assembly. The body is ready for painting which comes out pretty good even with a spray can.

What truly sets the Harley Benton Bass J-Style DIY Kit apart is its surprising tonal capabilities. Once assembled, the bass delivers a rich and versatile sound that is, again surprisingly, impressive for rock, punk, and metal. The pickups provide a well-defined and punchy tone, with a surprising amount of clarity in the midrange and a robust low end. Whether you're laying down a funky bassline, rocking out with power chords, or diving into metal riffs, this bass handles it all with ease.

Considering the affordability of this DIY kit, it's a fantastic option for musicians on a budget or those looking to add a unique touch to their collection without breaking the bank. The Harley Benton Bass J-Style DIY Kit combines value, quality, and tonal versatility in a way that is hard to beat. I highly recommend it to anyone in search of an affordable yet high-quality DIY bass experience.

Great fun

I received this kit as a Christmas present and had a great time building it. The kit was easy to assemble so is within the reach of most people. If built as is, I could get the guitar up Andy running within a couple of hours. I spent a lot of time shaping, spraying, and adding bits sourced from eBay and it now doesn’t look out of place hanging next to my Squires, Epiphones, and Danelectros.

The pickups are a bit tinny, but I will swap these out at some point for something more vintage sounding. All in all, I think I have a new hobby/obsession!

Bass Kit

Well, how suprised was I! what a fabulous guitar kit this really is! Everything you need is all there, it goes together very easily and presented no problems whatsoever. This is really a fabulous way to get into building your own guitars,the finish of the neck and body were both very impressive, excellent stuff! Once built up and plugged in it sounded very good indeed- How do they do it for this price?? We were going to paint it but it looks so nice as it is, easy to upgrade and paint at a later day, great fun. Will definately be buying more....

Good bass, bad instructions made for a frustrating building process.

I'm a simple Scandinavian man, I buy Ikea and follow the instructions. I was expecting a simillar experience with this build, boy was I in for a ride. The instructions are so bad that I had to resort to finding a video of a guy putting it together and even then I had to guess in many places which screws go where because they don't do the simple thing where they tell you which screws go where. So I started screwing a couple of screws in the wrong place, and when I tried to take them out their heads broke off so now their stuck in there.

If you can deal with that then I can recommend this build, it's a fine instrument once it's put together. But boy do they need to update the instructions.

A reasonable kit for the price

I bought this kit because I had some Seymour Duncan NYC 4 pickups that were originally going on another bass, but this never happened. It was never planned to use any of the kit hardware, just the body and neck.

As the NYCs were both shorter and wider than the original Jazz Bass pickups, I had to fill in the bridge pickup cavity with wood and then rout it out to the correct shape. The neck pickup rout is hidden by the scratchplate, so that just needed to be expanded, but I had to make the scratchplate from a blank. I cut the original paddle headstock with my own slimmer take on the traditional Fender outline.

The guitar body is finished in Sonic Blue nitrocellulose paint, and the neck in a mixture of amber tinted and clear nitrocellulose lacquer. The scratchplate is 3-ply mint green. My first attempt at spraying it saw the nitro react with the standard pore-filler, so I had to sand the body back to remove that.

The original plastic nut was replaced with a bone one.

Tuners are Hipshot ultralights, with an Xtender key (to allow an easy drop D via a lever) for the E string. The kit ferrules for the tuners were missing (not a problem for me), and the holes for the tuners turned out to be slightly wider than standard, so they were filled and redrilled to get a good fit.

There's a Hipshot string retainer in place of the standard round button and staying with the Hipshot hardware theme, the bridge is a Hipshot Kickass unit.

To make full use of the pickups, whilst keeping the general visual look of a Jazz Bass, the controls consist of a stacked volume and tone control, a blend pot, to mix between the two pickup outputs (rather than a 3-position selector switch), with the remaining two knobs being 3-position rotary switches, allowing selection of parallel, series and single coil mode for each pickup for maximum flexibility.

I used the jack socket hole on the control plate for the second rotary switch, so the output jack has moved to the bottom edge of the body.

I levelled and re-profiled the frets and removed some sharp fret ends. The neck feels good, and the bass plays with a nice low action. Sounds good as well.

All strung up, the bass weighs in bang-on 4kg (8.8 lbs), so is at the light end of typical Jazz Bass weights.

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good kit

i'm glad i took that kit. Nice woodwork, good instruction, good tuners and pickups. Will buy another kit. Maybe guitar

Turns heads, not stomachs

I bought the kit as a pastime during lockdown. I wanted to try some different finishes and ended up with a washed out forest green wood dye. Everything fitted correctly, I was able to cut a new headstock design, finished the body with Danish oil, even used the stock strings. For the money I was delighted. Theres a lovely sharp attack to the sound, tuning gears are good, it stays in tube for weeks. I can't fault it and plays better than guitars costing way more. Going for the jazzmaster next

A great optiom

This has been my first Diy kit and my first bass guitar. Built quality is and sound is fantastic. Nothing difficult and the result is great. I wouldnt be more sattisfied if i bought a ready made- fender bass guitar. I Suggest it for anyone who are willing to shape his own bass guitar

Had tonnes of fun building this with my 8 year old son. The bass came out surprisingly nice considering the price; the fretwork is good and the neck is really nicely finished. Im a guitar player but it sounds good to my ears too. Very very happy with it.

Outstanding quality for that price

Outstanding quality for that price. It is also very easy to assemble. I only changed the strings with something more suitable to my needs. The instrument can be easily improved, if needed, with different components.

Worth it!

Full disclosure: I did immediately replace the plastic nut with a bone one before even beginning assembly, but aside from that I built this kit as stock (with the addition of some shielding paint, which it would have been nice to include by default).

The result? Well I'm no professional bassist, but I find it more than satisfactory. Feels good, sounds decent. The pickups and pots might be worth upgrading at some point in the future, but even as they are they're absolutely usable.

If there's on point of criticism I might offer it's that the routing in the body could use some smoothing, there's a bit of splintering I had to clean up. But for this price I can't be too harsh.

Great Hobby Material

If you are bored in lockdown and if you are searching for something to get yourself busy this bass is worth it.

I am looking from that aspect of this kit, it was very fun to build but you shouldnt have too much expectations from its sound quality.

Natural grain of the wood was good(luckily) so I made a natural finsih on it, It looks great and there was narrow holes in mine too as other comments mentioned it, with a help of screw you can solve this problem too...

overall Its worth every penny you spent to this kit 10/10 recommending

Really enjoyable project:

I bought this in December as a project to complete during the lockdown and was not disappointed at the level of quality.

I've had no previous experience playing bass or guitar of any kind as I am predominantly a Saxophone player. Never the less the experience of assembling, finishing and learning to play the bass was extremely enjoyable.

Pros:

-Pre made high quality parts

-Very easy to follow instructions (in both English and German, nice touch)

-Thorough guide on how to finish the bass to your own style without damaging the kit

Cons:

- one of the pre drilled holes for the screws in the head of the bass was a little too small but was easily rectified by slowly tweaking the screw in and out before fitting the tuning pin

This bass is not intended as a professional grade instrument but with care and attention could quite easily get there. The 'modular' aspect of the kit makes it more than easy to upgrade any parts you wish to in the future. I would definitely recommend the kit to anyone who wants to have fun building their own instrument or a high quality starter kit to upgrade and tweak.

Very nice bass kit

was good to screw it to get it ready for playing. i think sound is good. I use it with some programs which makes sound more richer, so for the price its very good.

Bass kit ok

The body and neck is as advertised. The tuners are are awful.

Surprised.

Absolutely amazing kit - especially for that low price. I will buy p-bass kit as well.

Ready to go!

All you have to do is assemble this bass kit which could probably take an hour for the average person and it would be perfectly and readily playable. I decided to remove the finish off the body and stain it a dark wood colour but I was perfectly happy with the neck straight out of the box and didnt want to touch it except reshaping the headstock.

The plug in pick ups mean that no soldering is required and they sound great.

would reccomend.