Harley Benton Bass Guitar Kit J-Style 5-stars Reviews

Great DIY project

Such a nice experience to be able to put together your own instrument at the comfort of your home. Was only a bit disappointed with the instrument body since it's made of two distinct types of wood but as an overall experience you can't go wrong with this one. Would totally recommend it to new players.

Great project

Bought this a hobby project to do in my spare time. Great product that was fun & easy to put together. As a playable instrument I was pleasantly surprised too.

Very good kit - you will need to do some work but that's expected

This is a very good kit to work with and with a bit of effort, will result in a very usable bass guitar.

I've built HB kits before so I knew what to expect. True to form, it was well packaged, delivered very efficiently, and everything was there. The components were all wrapped carefully and everything was complete. It's a kit so I knew I'd need to do a reasonable amount of work on it. You could just build it as is but you get a better result with some effort.

The body was fairly well finished but there were some rough patches and a couple of marks from the sanding so it was sensible to sand it down to 400. Although it didn't need a primer, I applied one anyway because I was going to give it a gloss acrylic finish. After the initial cleaning up and painting the body I checked the neck. Very straight, frets perfect and there were no rough edges. It would have been fine to use straight out of the box but I shaped the headstock and then prepared and painted the neck too - don't forget to mask the fingerboard :) .

Once painted, I assembled the whole thing in about an hour but there were some little irritations on the way. The plastic plate was not cut accurately to fit the neck and needed a fair bit removing with a Dremel. Not difficult but surely it could have been cut accurately in advance. The screw holes for the plate were positioned accurately though they were drilled a little deep so the screws were loose once inserted. I just dipped the ends in wood filler and they settled in fine. These are very trivial irritations.

The bridge was positioned perfectly and once the strings were on I set it up. The truss rod needed only a quarter turn to set the action though getting the action right at the bridge meant the bridge was lowered virtually to the plate. That tells me that I'd have to put a shim under the neck to recover the adjustability. Something the width of a credit card will do the trick. It's not a deficiency of the kit, simply something we need to recognise and deal with for all bolt-on necks. A note in the construction booklet in future might be useful for others.

The pickups and controls were easy to install and everything works fine, both pickups giving a good signal and the tone control has a reasonable range. The downside is that these are cheap pickups and seem quite noisy. Given that the pickup and control cavities are not screened from EMI and since they are both single coil, noise is inevitable. I decided to disassemble the bass, put a shim under the neck join, and replace the pickups with Fender Jazz Bass pickups (from here) and also to line and earth all the cavities with copper tape which should all but eliminate noise. The strings provided are fine but I'm putting flats on for even less string noise.

First time round it played very well and comfortably and there's a good balance between neck and body. Even with the stock pickups, there's a good range of sounds available and it records well straight into a USB mixer. I'm playing mostly jazz and not gigging with it but even through a standard guitar amp, this gives plenty of rich bass tones. Once it has the Fender pickups in it, it'll sound even better.

As with every kit, you'll have to do some work but with a bit of patience and a modicum of skill, this kit gives you a very nice jazz bass at very low cost. Recommended.

A good kit for a good money

I created a fretless bass out of the kit and with extra purchased flat wound strings the sound of the bass is above my expectations. Good value for such price!

Summary (+/-):

- few stains on the wooden body (some extra puttying needed)

+ good quality of all the other components

+ detailed manual attached

+ easy and logical assembly

+ good sound

+ feeling of "creating" my own bass :-)

A good base for upgrades

A good kit to approch the art of guitar/bass building.

The wood of the body has a weird grain so a natural finish is not the best option, I finish mine in fiesta red nitro and the result is stunning. Body needs to be carefully sanded on some spots that are rough to grant a good final result.

The neck is quite good, I did a level-recrown-polish job to the frets as I did with all the low cost instruments, fretboard with a good soak of wood oil (I use the red one but there's plenty of choices) reveals a beautyful dark tone.

I can't judge the stock PU because I changed it with a pair of Di Marzio's DP123, electronic is the standard chinese stuff you find in low cost intruments, it works, for sure can be upgraded with quality part for a few bucks if you want.

Assembly is easy, the coupling neck-body is tight.

With a quick set up the finished bass is a good, playable instrument, soundwise my rating is influenced by the fact that I installed PUs that costs more than the kit but even with the standard ones you'll have a light bass with a confortable neck with no dead spots that you can think to upgrades later

Great value for money

You can't beat getting a good quality bass guitar for the price. build quality is good. Very easy to assemble. great investment for home recording studio and learning.

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!

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.

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.

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 :-)

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.