Harley Benton Beatbass VS Vintage Series 5-stars Reviews

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

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!

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.

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

The electronics are wired all wrong compared to Höfner.

The switches do not do the same things a on Höfner

Fabulous

Lightweight, great sound, great feel. looks nice

best bass for beatles covers

i really love it! great sound ,best price!

Very good Product

Great quality of sound and product.

Best Beatle Bass for the money hands down

I was very pleased with Bass . It was flawless in finish . It plays better than I would have expected . I don't know how they can make such a nice guitar at such a cheap price . I have has UniVox , Epiphone, and other Viola Bass guitars over the last 50 years and this is as good as I have ever had .

Casepoint

Intonation tricky but once done super, slight scuffing on neck edges but dead straight , good sound but need a decent amp for volume tuners do the job beside scuffing on neck, the finish on this bass is beautiful, fantastic for price.