Harley Benton GuitarBass VS Vintage Series Reviews

The better bass vi

I was looking to give a bass vi style guitar a shot. This is the cheapest one on the market, and I am blown away by the quality and setup of mine.

This One Will Surprise You!

I cannot over-emphasize how pleased you will be every time you play this. The hardtail, 5-position selector, 3 adjustable height pickups, and a nearly perfectly cut nut made this reliable instrument a joy to play! Sonically, it's a perfect mixture of vintage melodic bass resonance and non-baritone guitar upper register. It thrives in almost any genre you can imagine, and cuts through a mix quite well. If you're a guitar player and want to organically add bass-type color/tone to anything you play or record, you cannot go wrong with the GuitarBass VS.

phenomenal instrument

I played a version of this guitar costing 7 times as much. I would take this one. The setup out of the box, it was even in tune with itself after a trip across the Atlantic, was excellent. The sound is fine. I cannot recommend this instrument highly enough. I currently own three HB instruments. All have been excellent. Even adding on the shipping to the US it's an excellent value.

I keep on buying these

This is my second, I really like the idea and enjoy tinkering with the instrument.

Awesome instrument at amazing price

Absolutely love the playability, sound, and quality of this instrument! I can't believe what a value it is at this price.

Versatile instrument as a bass or a baritone guitar

As with every other Harley Benton I own, I'm amazed at the quality of this instrument, and not just "for the price". Fret ends are smooth, frets are well leveled, neck joint is tight, and the wiring is nice a tidy. As I'm sure many people are, I'm primarily using this as a baritone guitar for heavy music in position 2. There are however a lot of different sounds that can be made with this instrument, and I could see it being right at home as a bass in classic rock or indie music.

Great Guitar

For the money this guitar is excellent.

Plays really well out of the box, great action, fast satin neck, stays in tune.

It's my first Harley Benton and I'm really impressed.

All Around Great!

Super. Keeps tune and intonation. Many cool sounds. HB does it again!

An amazing value and great guitar

Bought the GuitarBass VS after seeing other videos and reviews. The guitar body and build is amazing. I love the fact that it is a Hardtail and Not a Trem system.

When I got mine there was some setup needed as there is with any guitar. The neck had a bow in it and had to be adjusted.

Overall this is an outstanding Bass VI and I can't wait to see the next generation!

Love to see on in Delphine Blue with white binding!!!

You get way more than you pay for with this

I play metal but not a big fan of playing 7-8 string guitars to get lower tunings like (drop E ). And I usually get stuck on bass in manny bands so my play style has adapted. This guitar is not a bass but it plays like one on that low E string. It will take a few days to get use to it and I will say fingering the frets is a bit of a battle but it’s manageable. Your picking arm is what’s gonna get tired this thing plays like a 9 string it’s work out. A lot of cool voicing with the pickups if you’re into doom surf or Shoegaze even blues. I think it’s my favorite guitar I have rn. I am modding it a bit with some P90s and locking tuners.. 9/10 it has some things I would change but that’s more my personal preference.

Harley Benton GuitarBass VS Vintage Series

Every guitarist should own a GuitarBass.

I don't use it every day, but I love the sound of it.

Very playable right out of the box.

Budget Bass VI

Bought this to replicate tic-tac bass and some other Bass VI niche stuff on recordings. Also an interesting solo instrument. For the price, it surpassed my expectations. Needed only a new set of strings (low E too floppy as most say) - bought Ernie Ball 6 string bass strings and those work well for me — and a minor setup to my preferences. Very well made. Wish it had the strangle switch like Fender but what you gonna do? For the price I am happy, but it’s probably not as nice as a squire bass vi. But for dabbling in either Bass VI or baritone territory (just a different set of strings) it’s pretty nice to have this option at this price point.

The Cure for what I was missing.

I've been seeking a Bass VI for a while now and read a ton of opinions of this online before I made my decision.

I'm so pleased I went ahead and bought this. Absolutely fantastic straight from the box, all I need is a very slight adjustment for the intonation on the low E. The low E itself however is just fine. I've read a few opinions saying it is too floppy, but that is not my experience with it.

Anyway - I had this plugged into a chorus pedal and a delay, and the sound is absolutely what I was hoping for. You will know from my review title what sound I wanted, and it delivers on that 100%. You could not get any closer to that sound.

For the price, getting that sound is beyond incredible.

The guitar is otherwise great. Excellent build quality, frets, nut, controls all as they should be and function perfectly.

The finish is perfect, it's an absolutely beautiful guitar.

Seriously, just stunning. If you are considering this guitar to get that sound, then you no longer have To Wish Impossible Things.

Highly recommended.

An excellent instrument

I was very happy to receive this. Beautifully built, intonated and plays perfectly

Very budget guitar

The idea of it is nice.

The E string is very very hard to tune. Even with the help of additional material it's intonation is still quite questionable.

Overall, a toy. For a toy - it's nice but if you would like to gig with it, then probably it's best to choose a more expensive and better quality product.

The Cure for your needs

Pros: Excellent value for money. Covers both guitar and bass sounds, everything from Surf to Goth Rock. Again, cheap. It was set-up perfect out of the box, no sharp frets, no buzzing on the frets, nice chunky neck (almost as chunky as a 50's Les Paul). Great starter guitar.

Cons: Pickups are muddy, noisy, and the cavity needs shielding and proper grounding with is issues since this thing needs to be played loud. E string needs to be a higher gauge, around 100 so it isn't 'flabby'. No strangle switch or seperate switch for each pickup as it is with a traditional VI.

Nice product

Wanted to try one, superb finish and neck /frets super level. Only disappointment is the string set supplied and the lack of volume.

Tone range is virtually nil. A good platform for upgrading - start with strings....

The best way to experiment with a Bass 6

It's hard to imagine whether or not you'll like this kind of instrument until you have one in your hands and get to play with it yourself. This model will get you to do exactly that at an extremely reasonable price, and without feeling like you'll have to replace or upgrade the instrument for something better.

It doesn't sound as beefy as a regular bass guitar because of the shorter scale length, but that shouldn't be what you're expecting with an instrument like this anyway.

The feel is excellent, hardly needed any adjustment out of the box and was able to experiment with it right away.

Another Gem

Way better than fenders similar offering…I’m a guitar player so this made sense 6 string bass! Barrel of fun.

My first HB instrument—probably not my last

I am very impressed with the Guitarbass. The fit and finish were very clean and tight. The set up was good right out of the box. I have been playing guitar and bass for over 40 years, and I have had many higher end brand instruments that were not this nice.