Harley Benton Beatbass VS Vintage Series Reviews

A DECENT BASS GUITAR FOR ITS PRICE

FEATURES - The guitar is a hollow body so its very light and easy to carry. But it also does neck dive due to its construction so it is better to put on a strap while playing and make sure to support the neck at all times. It also has a short scale so its easier to play especially for someone like me with small hands. It feels just like a guitar. SOUND - The sound is satisfactory especially if you want that Beatles early to mid 60's sound. The only thing is that it is not that versatile as it does not have a tone knob which limits the variety of sound that can be produced. Volume 1 adjusts the volume of the bridge pickup while Volume 2 does the neck. The bass and treble switches are also reversed as the Bass "on" controls the bridge pickup while the Treble "on" engages the neck pickup. The Rhythm/Solo switch modifies the tone - rhythm tends to be quieter, has lower tone and more bassy feel to it while solo give louder, brighter and adds mid-range to the tone. QUALITY - For its price, the quality seems to be ok as it has a nice finish and does not feel cheap at all. While testing, I initially thought there was a problem on some frets for the E string as it produced a strange sound. But later I noticed that it started to sound normal once the strings or probably the neck settled. I have to tune it initially as I received it with loose strings. I just find the action to be a bit high and would have preferred it a few millimeters lower. In conclusion, if you are on a tight budget and want a decent bass for practice or small gigs, then you may want to consider this. But if you are looking for a particular sound that warrants variety and versatility, I think it is better to look somewhere else.

My GO-TO Road Bass

Coming up on two years of ownership of my Beatbass I can give a realistic review. I use this bass almost exclusively when I play out and jam with friends. I have probably performed 75 + gigs that include many outdoor events and cruise ship onboard gigs. I also attend 2 jams a week so over the space of almost two years I have used this bass a lot.

Some observations: It is light weight, maybe 6 pounds. It is well made and durable. I use a gig bag and it gets loaded in and out a lot. So far no battle damage. It is not really a short scale bass as my last set of slinky's for short scale are a tiny bit too short. The truss rod is user friendly and every so often as the seasons and conditions change you might need to tweak the neck. No big deal.

Tone: This one has no dedicated tone knob, you have two volume pots and two on off switchs for the bridge and neck pups along with a switch that must cut your output slightly. You can get a very wide range of tone by varying the volumes and using the switches . I don't play much slap style but I do not believe IMHO that this bass is particularly suited.

Easy to play, easy to carry, looks great and lord knows it is affordable! But there have been two times I had to "fix" something. One time I lost signal. After checking everything I pulled the quarter inch jack out and there was a whisker of wire, one tiny hair width strand of signal wire grounding out against the jack. Snipped with a wire cutter the problem was solved. That took about ten minutes. The other was a volume control was getting loose and allowing the knob to twist the pot in the body of the bass, Another five minute deal.

So if you are trying to lighten up (remember loading up the SVT up two flights of stairs?) and want to have a bass you can enjoy a lot I don't know how you can beat it for the buck. Plus if you play for Boomers they all know about this bass as they grew up with it-that doesn't hurt the tip jar.

My other Basses are a Steinberger Spirit 5 string and a Hohner B-4 played through either GK 100 Combo, Fender 100 Rumble, or Acoustic 25. I also own other Harley Benton guitars, all with very good results!

Realy good bass for the price

The finish on the neck is not perfect, but nothing too important considering the price. It compares favorably in terms of sound to any major brand bass, and with a little more tweaking, you can get it to almost perfection.

Beatles tribute

This is a very good alternative to play and feel like the real Höfner,specially if you work with it professionally as a tribute act like myself.I playing on ships and deplanes aswell with it for more than 7years in a row.great choice with the flat pyramid strings.

Brilliant

Looks good and plays perfectly

Not what I expected

I have other Harley Benton basses which I love. In general I’d say Harley Benton is one of the best bass brands for the price.

This bass however was a huge let down. It is not the usual HB quality. It felt cheap and poorly made. Perhaps with modifications it would be playable but the bones of this bass aren’t really worth putting money into.

Perhaps I just got a bad one because my other HB bass is incredible.

Disclaimer: I don't consider myself an expert in instrument craftsmanship, this is just my view based on having casually owned a few guitars and basses in my life.

I am totally happy with this guitar. I have purchased a few guitars in my life new, or off the shelf at a standard guitar shop, and this is by far the best coming directly out of the box. I have not once had an issue with fret sharpness. I don't have the expertise to be able to tell if the frets are level but they look ok to me and fret buzz has been minimal.

Low points: intonation needs some work (tiny bit sharp on all strings at the 12th fret)

Tuners seem budget quality. Not too smooth turning, some inconsistency between tuners (some seem strong/more solid than others), but they're not properly rickety and no slipping I've noticed. I do have to tune up a little pretty much every use.

Pickups/sound I'm absolutely happy with. No neck issues. Mine is very straight and after a few months of ownership truss seems to be slowly becoming in need of a little loosening.

But this sounds and feels incredible. I have owned a comparable Rogue model in the past and this is a better instrument. The Rogue had some dead notes and shaky electronics. No problems like that here.

Beautiful looking bass

Plays a dream and looks even better.

Excellent guitar for young beginner

My 10 year old struggled with bass guitars and their weight but the Violin Beatbass is ideal.

The Amazing Beatbass

I couldn't be happier with this instrument. Ordered this bass and It arrived only a few days after I ordered it.. Great quality and it sounds amazing through my Spark amp.. One of my best purchases of 2022.

great little bass

I bought it partly to have a semi-acoustic for travelling, but mainly, of course, because of P Mc C...

Acoustically, it's good enough for a little training during insomnia.

With the amp, the sound is really good, deep and smooth (I did immediately change the strings for Höffner's flatwound), with the slight overtone of the acoustic sound giving a different color to what comes out of the amp.

The slightly smaller scale is noticeable (I hadn't realized that before I bought it), but once you get used to it, it's nice.

My only gripe with the instrument is the position of the upper strap holder, which is on the back of the instrument. This tends to push the instrument away from the player somewhat. But it's a detail.

Overall, a fine instrument, not to mention a very reasonable price.

The best Harley Benton and probably my best Bass

I've bought a few HB's over the years and this was the biggest surprise. It's not perfect, I'll explain below, but what you get for the price doesn't make sense, it's that good.

It's beautiful, it looks amazing. Let's face it, you're probably buying this for the image, it's not top of the list for 95% of Bass players. The finish is great, the binding is spot on, it's what you hope it will be.

The tuners are ok (that's good in Harley Benton language). The pots aren't scratchy, the switches are good (a little confusing at first), I had no fret sprout and the strings it arrived with were ok but will get changed in a week or two.

I knew it would need a setup and it got one. What did I have to do?

The fretboard was dry, unbelievably dry. It took me a bit of time to lemon oil it three times. Once it was done, it looks good. The end of the fretboard is roughly cut and finished and will need tidying, but it looks ok. The frets were a little rough and needed a good polish but there was no sprout so that only took 30 minutes. The intonation was ok so I marked it up, allowed for a little adjustment, and removed the bridge for a body polish. The neck was flat, way too flat, so I added a little relief which also lowered the action as it came really, really high. I tightened up the tuners although I will replace them soon although I really don't need to, they're fine. Finally, I lubed the nut (not like that) as it's plastic so a little lead is a good idea.

Once done, I tuned it up and left it for a few hours to settle. Now I can't stop playing it. There's a lot of neck dive, all violin basses do this, you'll need a strap, remember this is a hollow body bass and it's unavoidable.

I've always thought Harley Bentons were underpriced, this one doesn't make sense. It's that good.

If you can do the basics I listed above, get one. It's not even worth sparing a thought, just buy one. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Hohner move over ....

Great copy of a legendary bass ... I bought the Daddario ECB81M flat wound strings to compliment & its magic ... At the price it is unbeatable .. Trying to find the Harley Benton Ricky 12 string in Red to buy next .... Love it ...

80 year old Appreciation

Family gift for my eightieth. Used to play basic Rosetti 7. This bass s so light and so much easier to handle. Could not wish for better!

Slight buzzing

Very good price and feel, but slight buzzing sound on some of the settings

Excellent short scale Bass

I don't have the original to compare to, but for my needs as a beginner this is perfect

I put some flatwounds on it and play it through my Eden Module Terra Nova preamp straight into my recording set-up. It instantly sits well in my mixes, even before eq or any other processing. The bass has a great look, but more importantly plays very nicely/smoothly. I think it is a great instrument. Very happy with it.

So much fun

What a fun little bass! I plan to use it when my old arthritic hands are acting up. It's so light and the short scale is very comfortable. I would love to give it five stars across the board but there were a few unfortunate deficiencies.

PROS:

- overall, the look is lovely

- nice looking binding, hardware & sunburst effect on many surfaces, including sides and back of headstock

- the frets are finished nicely

- considering the thousands of kilometers it travelled from Germany to western Canada, the set-up was amazing: great action & intonation; even very close to being in tune

- the controls make serious changes to the sound

CONS;

- there are weird light markings long the edge of the fretboard, almost like someone sanded it a bit and took off the finish

- there are some tiny blemishes or uneven spots in the finish both on the wood and the chrome; not noticeable from any distance

- the only serious concern is that it ships with round-wound strings and I had to immediately put D'Addario flat-wounds on; the sound was pretty wonky otherwise

Despite the CONS, I think I will love playing this bass. The sound is unlike any other I've played. It definitely is not the sound for all purposes. It is a thumpy sound; there's basically no sustain. Having said that, the non-playing strings tend to ring a lot, especially on the "SOLO" setting. You need to be very good at muting if you switch from "RHYTHM".

All in all, I'd say this bass is all you'd need if you wanted to add that 60s sound to your repertoire.

Better than the 60's original

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I tried a violin bass and I liked it a lot. Now I have the chance to own one and this HB really impressed me. Loud enough to play unplugged. Easy action. Good sound. So light too, much better than struggling with a big heavy solid body. The strings supplied are fine, but I have some smooth wound to replace them soon.

Awesome I love it I just can't understand why the boxes had to be all smashed I'm fortunate that it didn't scratch your break anything