Harley Benton GuitarBass VS Vintage Series Reviews

Great Baritone

I bought this guitar to use as a baritone, not as bass. THe pickups it came with are ok, have this vintage SC sound. Intonation and action in G# tuning are fine. Tuners are ok, not the most stable, I think these are "normal" guitar tuners that are not intended to hold the higher tension of 30 inch scale. In general great and affordable alternative to other 30 inch scale baritons.

Great setup, right out of the box

This thing is a winner, excellent paint, solid components, and mine even has Birdseye in the maple neck! Since I purchased this. I've played the Sq version , and I have to say, the Harley Benton is much more playable, and has better tone.

Excellent

Feels good, plays good, sounds excellent

Unique

I play guitar and bass. One band that I am in has a guitar player and a bass player. I sing, but I like to contribute on bass and guitar as well. That's where this thing comes in. I have set it up with a custom set of Kalium strings .009, .012, .018, .026 for playing in the guitar register, .076 and .102 for the bass register.

It sounds and plays great. I can thicken up a rhythm on the E and A, or whip out a lead on the rest of the strings.

It's well balanced and the neck feels great.

My only complaint would be that the tuners just don't have a high enough ratio for the .076 & .102 gage strings. I do get tuned without too much effort, it would just be better with proper bass tuners. That being said, this stays in tune really well.

Overall, I'm very satisfied.

Great instrument. Great bargain!

I have had this Bass VI for over a week and I continue to be amazed by the fit, finish, setup, and overall quality you get for so little money. The other options on the market for this unique type of bass/guitar cost a lot more and don't seem to get a lot of positive reviews, so I took a chance with the Harley Benton-- and I couldn't be more pleased.

Out of the box, the instrument is well-intonated (i verified this with a strobe tuner-- I am really fussy about intonation) and the nut was cut perfectly. Great action and a ringing resonance all the way up and down the neck.

Plugged in, the three pickups offer a wide variety of tones, but I will be replacing them with noiseless pickups as I prefer those to traditional single-coils.

This is one of the only instruments I have ever purchased that required literally zero remediation/tweaking in order to sound and play great.

10/10 Highly recommended. Unbeatable value.

great for the money but has issues

Bought this guitarbass because I wanted a bass VI. Overall the bass is good, but the tonepots failed pretty quickly. Sound is great and intonation is alright. The bridge posts were not completely vertically mounted, they tilted slightly forward. Used it successfully for a few projects but ended up selling it since I didn't have any need for it.

Awesome instrument

It's the third HB electric guitar that I bought, it's a good construction and I prefer the hard tail bridge over the tremolo of the original design

DEEP, RICH TONES LIKE JAMES EARL JONES

Harley Benton have provided an incredible, six string bass to rival the overpriced EASTWOOD HOOKY 6, which comfortably produces deep, rich tones and pleasing high-end. The factory strings are absolutely fine for your initial play through, but you may find that you need to raise the action to remove some of the fret-buzz from the high end of the neck.

Overall, I love this bass. It’s just a shame that there aren’t more colour options.

A Low Strung Six - Just Like The Beatles

I first saw a six string bass in The Beatles film “Let It Be”. I wanted to try it for myself; it is as good as I hoped it would be.

This bass is a lot lighter than I expected. It has been set up beautifully and plays really well.

I am using it to double lead guitar for my guitar instrumentals, it thickens up the sound and gives it more body.

Pros

Easy to play

Light body

Great fun

Double guitar lines

Double bass lines

Cons

Hard to put down

A different kind of riff stick

As a guitarist I'm most interested in the lower end, often tuning down to C, but as a bassist I end up playing chords like a guitar. So this is exactly what I've been looking for! Right out of the box this thing plays perfectly. The GBVS has a simple setup of volume, tone, and a 5-way pick-up selector that gives a wide range of sounds. The stock single-coil pickups & strings can be a little thin, especially if you're expecting a traditional bass sound, but the tone knob gives a lot of variety. And you could always change to a heavier string gauge or install different pick-ups. Cosmetically I have zero complaints. I love the offset body and neck shape, and the finish is great and light on the neck so it's easy to move your hand around. No frills needed.

It's an ideal rhythm instrument that has a distinct timbre from a bass or guitar that can give you massive backing tracks and low-end lines. Famously used by Peter Hook in New Order, Robert Smith on "Disintegration", and Glen Campbell in "Wichita Lineman", there's a lot of sonic possibilities available. I bet this would be killer for a 2-piece band, or a looper-based solo project!

Amazing cost benefit ratio

Amazing cost benefit ratio, very good build quality considering the price range. No flaws or issues and looks amazing live, was good to go out of the box, just needed to be tuned. Less positive point is the pickups that could have a bit more output and "punch" but not critical, they still perform well. As a suggestion for future improvements in the model, the individual on/off switches for the pickups would be a plus.

Overall fantastic product, I'm loving it and definitely was a great buy

If you are in the market for a bass VI like or baritone guitar definitely have a look at it.

A super fun rare instrument. Great for the price.

I've always wanted a Bass VI, but could never justify spending all that money. After picking up this Bass, I wish I had done it years ago. Once again, great value for the price tag!

Great but a few caveats

This guitar...wow. This guitar. I literally (no joke) dreamed about buying one of these and I finally did. It was such a cool looking guitar/bass/baritone that I HAD to have one.

First thing off, the sound: pickups are okay-ish! At least in the bridge. The neck pickup is nice and warm but the one that stands out the most is the middle! It's actually a wonderful tone for cleans and I love it. I replaced the bridge pickup with a Seymour Duncan and was very happy with it. There were a few things I did notice however. First off, this is my personal experience and not everyone will receive a guitar like this; The nut was cut poorly and had some shavings hanging off it (no biggie, just cleaned that up) but I also had lots of markings and weird blemishes around the binding on the fretboard. Also, my low E string was a bit too close to the A. Hard to explain but I think the string spacing was messed up when the nut was installed. Other than that, setting up was easy and the bridge intonated just fine! (which, if you know how bass VI-like guitars are, intonation is a big issue but not here!)

Anyway, I love this thing now. It plays pretty darn well and sounds massive. Yes, I do use it for metal/rock stuff but as a clean guitar it sounds just as good too. I love recording both guitar parts and bass parts with it. Such a cool instrument. I also recommend this!

Better than expected - tons of fun for the price

I was pleasantly surprised with all aspects of this affordable bass VI. The guitar I received looked nothing like display photo, but its got a good looking finish. Basic set-up was done before shipping to US (VERY fast!). All elecs work well with no crackles or signal drops while switching, pickups are ok for price, 5way strat switching is kind'a fun, stock strings sound ok as well. The neck is a good profile, not too fat or slim, its straight and adjusts correctly w truss rod. Its hard tail is more stable than vibrato style + slightly smaller body is comfortable to play. *VERY important to put correct strings on a bass VI - IT IS NOT A 6 STRING BASS* (Heavy bass strings will warp your neck) Realistically, buyers should expect to set-up according to preference - I do this with all new guitars so it does not affect my assessment of an instrument.

You get what you pay for

UPD, I played a little more and realized that the frets needed to be sanded and polished. Now the scale is rebuilt, but there are jingling frets and with the bends the string rustles very much about the fret. What I was counting on for this price.

I took this guitar because it is the cheapest 30 inch baritone. And I will evaluate it as an electric guitar.

In general, everything was done very well. But if you look closely, you notice signs of a low price:

- in the photo in the store there are the words "HBZ Customwound" on the sounds, but they are not on the guitar that came. Sounds sooooo weak. In the neck position, the sound is too soapy;

- frets are soft, during transportation they have traces of string friction;

- standard strings are very soft and have poor intonation even in its standard tuning;

- the nut has very rough cuts for the strings, and in order to pull the string out of the nut, you need to apply force.

But if you go back to the price, all these are mere trifles that are eliminated for a pittance in a few days.

As a base for the next upgrade, this is a great option. The closest competitors cost at least twice as much (Squier Bass VI or SubZero Rogue VI).

Fantastic mod platform

As a Loathe fan, the concept of a 30" hardtail offset was super intriguing - I checked it out and I was pretty blown away. The only slight gripe I had about it was that one of the tuners slipped a little - other than that, it was faultless. That said, I'm a total tinkerer - this proved to be a great mod platform - I've since swapped out the tuners, nut, rolled the fretboard edges, and I'm in the process of routing out the body for HH (Side note: the SSS route kinda sucks, a HSH internal routing would've been muuuuch better). That said, I can't say enough good things about this guitar.

I love this Guitar!!!!

Just received - well packed - no issues. Cant find anything wrong physically, looks amazing. Strings supplied were awful but already had a set of Ernie Balls ready to swap. Now it plays great and sounds awesome with a huge amount of tones available with the 5 way selector switch. The tone knob doesn't seem to make any difference to the tone but that's not a problem for me as I never use it anyway.

This really has to be one of the best value guitars available today. Get one - you wont be disappointed.

Great Bass

Was a bit weary of this at first because of the low price point but Ive been blown away by this bass vi! Ive only gotten to use it to jam and record with some friends but its been amazing. the neck is great, the action is great out of the box, and it looks great too. the only thing id change would be the nut and the pickups, but those are merely personal preference and I think you'd be able to get by with the stock pickups.

A very nicely made guitar

I have wanted a Bass VI for a long time but like all new things, I didn't know if I would like it or could do anything with it. When I heard about the HB GuitarBass I knew I wanted one but when I tried to order one they were sold out and didn't know when they would have them again. They finally became available again and I got one. I really like it it is very well made. I would encourage any bass/guitar player to get one.

Excellent value, high-quality instrument

The Bass VI fills a unique musical niche... bought this for my son (primarily a guitar player) and myself (primarily a bass player) to expand our repertoires a bit...

Was very pleased with the quality and playability right out of the box. Solid instrument, hardware tightly mounted and functional, electronics crisp and responsive. The supplied strings were a little tinny for my taste, but an easy swap with Ernie Balls and we're in business. There may be another one of these in our future, since my son and I keep fighting over who gets to play it...