Harley Benton Bass Guitar Kit J-Style Reviews

A very nice kit

Very good and smooth neck and solid too. The hardware is nice and the electronics are good quality for their price!

SUPER BASS

FOR THE PRICE IT IS PERFECT, YOU CAN SOMETIMES GET A SLIGHTLY THICK NECK BUT ITS WORTH THE GAMBLE. THE SOUND IS TYPICAL OF A JAZZ BASS, NICE GROWL,WORTH THE MONEY, THE BEST KIT OUT THERE IVE TRIED SO FAR, STRINGS ARE EVEN GOOD TOO, PLEASE KEEP THE PRICE AS IT IS......I LOVE THEM THEY BRING HAPPINESS INTO MY LIFE

Fun Project

I bought this for the fun of building it really but actually ended up with a half decent bass at the end. It needed a better set of strings than the ones supplied and I may swap the pickups out for some better ones at some point but for a backup instrument perfectly useable and certainly fun to build. I spent a fair bit on car spray and lacquer and I gave it loads of coats of both which added to the finish. A really fun project which if you are a musician wit a bit of a practical background you may well enjoy as much as I did.

My third kit and I'm very happy with it

Have built the T and ST kits and the bass kit is every bit as good.

I cut the headstock into a nicer shape and painted the body - might consider upgrading electrics and hardware over time but its fine out of the box.

Great as a starter kit or for seasoned kit builders

I've built many guitar and bass kits and found this one exceptional.

Great as a first time kit as there is no soldering involved just 2 pre wired plugs for raw pickups. The body is solid and flat, the neck is straight and very well finished, the hardware is comparable to top end models. Packaged very nicely and neatly, it arrived without delay and was built within the hour, fantastic.

Fantastic kit, few small niggles

This is a great kit. The wood came pre-sealed and completely smooth which was really nice, although I screwed up the paint job a little bit...

I accidentally broke the supplied bridge pickup so I replaced it with an Entwistle that I got for about £10 on ebay. The only issue was that the supplied cover's screw holes were not quite in the right place so i had to cut out the middle of the original cover (to form a continuous gap) and put the new pickup into the original cover.

Another problem is that the neck socket on my kit was not entirely flat and was also at a 1-2º angle. I installed a shim which means the neck sits properly however was unable to fix the annoying rotation; it's not that big a deal.

Overall this is a great kit and a good introduction to custom building without having to spend 25 billion pounds on a Warmoth or something.

HB J-Bass kit

The kit was well made and easy to assemble with minimal needs to set the bass up. I never tried it with the stock pickups, because I had a spare pair of Wilkinson ones. The result was fun to build and a brilliant sounding bass for a surprisingly low cost. May build another :)

Great project bass

Got this as a fun project after seeing a friend have a try and was very impressed. For the money I was quite surprised at the quality of manufacturing although there were some little issues such as the pickups not quite fitting into their housings and being a screw or two short for fixing the scratch plate in place. However, these obstacles made the project a bit more fun to do and it didn't put me off getting another.

The sound quality isn't great but is perfectly acceptable given the cost, and the fact that most people will be seeing these basses as an opportunity to experiment with gives scope to having a bit more customising fun without the fear of spoiling a top quality instrument.

I've now tried the telecaster, my 14 year old son has made a decent job of a strat, and I'll be using these as a bass for a guitar club at my school. Would definitely recommend to anyone.

Best Bass for the price

Easily upgradeable and good sounding bass. Strings will need to be replaced quickly in my opinion, but this is a great project for someone just starting out building basses or instruments in general. Not too hard to build either, so its perfect even for younger bass players wanting their first bass guitar. All in all for the price this bass surprised me totally. I even have used it in the studio, when driven through a good di/pre. I did however have some issues with the potties turned all the way up. The sound of the bass experiences some weird kinda phasing issues turned all the way up. No big deal for me, as i have other instruments, and do not need to put this all the way up anyway.

Edit: just in the process of changing the pots and mics to find where the phasing issue might be from. It is a lot more annoying than what i first thought!

Jazz Bass

For the price, this is a really good bass. All parts fitted easily, just the bridge pickup was a little tight in the slot - a minor trim with a sharp knife soon sorted that out. The screws for the tuners are not the best - one broke... Otherwise it all went together very nicely and looks and plays great. I used a jig saw to cut the headstock to shape and finished that and the body with spray matt clear varnish, which really brings out the grain of the wood. Lovely :-)

jazz bass guitar kit.

neck and body wery fine and good quality. hardware is ok, but not the best quality.

PU is bad quality. In generel far over expected for the Money.

If you got skills it CAN be a very good guitar for the Money.

Great

I got this bass guitar as a Christmas present for myself, as soon as I opened it I was really impressed with the finish of the body and neck (and I was delighted to find the neck already varnished as I was dreading that part.) I put it together for a test run and everything fit together nicely, tight,but no need to take a mallet to it. The only problem I could find was a hole for one of the screws on the pick guard was missing, nothing I couldn't handle. The pickups and the other hardware are well above the quality I expected and sound really good for this price. The last coat of varnish dried yesterday and I put it together this morning, it's sounding great and I can't wait to play some proper gigs with it. A seriously good deal.

Good bass guitar kit

I bought this kit as a challenge for myself. I found it easy to build up and the parts were all of good quality. Some woodworking is involved to ensure a good neck joint and to cut out the headstock. The sound and feel of the completed bass is similar to a Fender Jazz and it has been mistaken for a Fender.

Good product

Better quality than expected. One or two screw holes didn't quite line up, for the pick guard, but this was easy to sort.