Harley Benton HB-60 WB Reviews

Great for price, does the job - issues with tone knob buzzing when turned up.

The guitar itself feels very light and very smooth to play, however the tone/volume knob when turned up is doing nothing but causing a buzzing and as a result, the tone selector switch doesn't work correctly as the pickup itself doesn't turn completely off with the volume.

Found this issue on a youtube video comment from over a year ago, so unsure why it's still an issue now.

Unacceptable and unhappy, will be contacting customer services.

If it worked, 3.5/5

It’s a beautiful bass but it’s is heavier than I expected

It has a nice tone and looks far more costly than it is my problem now is to find a reasonable price gig bag or case to protect it

Amazing bass In this pricerange

A Great Vintage Style Bass

Came beatifully made and finished! The neck is lovely, to play & quite narrow! Short scale is very comfortable.

Both pick ups sound very nice, with good definition despite its semi hollow body style based on a 50s' Gibbo, EB0/3!

A few caveats however, The frets needed some levelling T tapering, but most new guitars need some! Had it done, has a great action now.

Floating bridge is not the best, with the solid centre block HB should have used a sunk in bridge pinned thru the top into the block!

Apart from that, everything works AS it should!

A great, MUSICAL sounding bass!

Just BE prepared to do some minor work on it, but for such a build style, it punches WELL above its weight!

Recommended!

I love this thing!

It’s beautiful. It’s price is amazing! I am using mine as a project and am rewiring it and changing the tuning and all sorts of things. BUT…I liked it so much as it was that I almost didn’t change it and I may buy more!

just arrived, "passed QA" and the pickups make a huge noise

just arrived, I wonder if the fact it was the last one...

Anyway, the 3 controls don't seem to react perfectly (the tone almost cut the all volume down!) and in a couple of configurations (together with the switch) the bass generated no string sound but just a LOUD (white) noise that, of course, if I touch the strings, tends to increase or decrease the intensity. Basically the electronic is completely messed up. Ironically, it has the sticker "QA passed". Sure.

Good Sound, cheap components

The sound and playing feels nice, the look is amazing, although the components themselves are cheap. Tone knob broke a few months in, still functions just holding on by a thread. A little white noise with the tone knob, but expected with a semi hollow body. Great for showy offy stuff, not good for recording or gigging.

A Great Bass Guitar - Beautiful Sounds and Looks

This is the second HB-60 I have bought. The ONLY criticism I have is the layout of the volumes and tone control. Why are they so far away from the playing area? You need to speak to your manufacturer and get the volumes and tone controls in a straight line nearer to the bridge. This would make adjustment of volume and tone so much easier while playing. Just look the way Fender design their controls. Ergonomically great. If this was done it would be MY perfect bass guitar. The build and finish is beautiful, the action is great and the scale length is exactly to my liking. The only thing I have done is change the strings to Daddario half rounds to reduce fret wear.

Good for a project

I'm a little on the fence about this instrument.

What stands out to me about this bass:

Absolutely stunning finish, in my opinion. At this price, I expected it to feel cheap and 'plasticky', but it's smooth and glossy. I'd personally prefer it without a pickguard, but that's very minor.

The neck is great. For someone like me who's mainly a guitarist, the shorter scale really lends itself to faster, tighter playing than a regular size, without compromise in tone or feel. I can get kinda sloppy on a regular bass, but this neck is very noob friendly and playable. Strings are a little bit rough, but nothing too noticeable. Not painfully, just a little annoying.

The sound is warm and round, but be advised, it's sort of low and it straight upp doesn't work with any kind of distortion. I'm totally down with the mics for jazz, soul or indie pop, but this bass can barely be in the same room as a fuzz pedal without catching fire. Huge bummer, to be honest.

The action when I got it was SO LOW. Rattles for days. It sounds and feels fine above the 7th/5th fret, depending on the string, but below it gets muddy at best and fully dead at worst. Very limiting, and if you're not comfortable with doing your own maintenance, it's gonna cost you more money. Maybe I'm being picky, but an instrument should be finished when it leaves the factory. Light setup is fine, but this bass has unplayable frets out of the box. Big mad.

In all, it's a beautiful, cool looking and sounding instrument for the price. Honestly a little too much setup is required for me to be *happy*, but again given the price pretty worth it. Just be prepared for work. Change the strings and mics and fix the awful action, and it's gonna be way bitter than you've paid for. But you'll be annoyed at receiving a half finished bass. Final verdict: a WHOPPING 3.5/5.

Not as great as I expected

Looks wise it's a lovely looking Bass, it really has that vintage look I was after but for me that's where it ended.

The pickups were shaky which when played would buzz with the vibrations so I had to tighten them up. The sound wasn't as loud as I would expect but does have a vintage warm sound. I played this through a Fender Rumble amp so when I used the fat Bassman setting I liked the sound. I swapped out the strings for a set of flat wound strings which for me I believe made it sound better.

Cons: The Volume control was loose so I had to tighten them.

The tone control knobs were loose so they had to be tightened also.

The fret wires were sharp, resulting in me having a lot of small cuts on my index finger, but otherwise a nice Bass.

My honest opinion and I am sad to say it. if you have more money to spend on a better bass like a Hagstrom then do that.

If you are prepared to finish the guitar in the way it should have been before it left the factory then do so, otherwise it's a lovely wall ornament.

Amazing bass for the price

The only con I can think of is the saddle bridge, it comes with a cloth underneath it that you have to take off. if you aren't careful this can cause buzzing and intonation issues.

It reflects the price.

To be honest - I won't trust this bass for a gig or anything, but for the price - it's alright when you think about it. Sadly it came with some marks and missing knob, I think the quality control isn't much.

Wow...Just Wow!

Play bass and own many different basses: Fender P-Bass, Yamaha TRBX775, Sterling Ray4, a Peavey T-40 & a Foundation, Even a stand-up bass and an EUB (BSX)...Saw the pic & it was lust at first sight...For the $, I plunged in, had her setup and a set of LaBella flats put on. That was back in July and it's Nov now and I can't stop playing it. I've gigged with it, jammed with it and can't say enough good things about it. Intonation has been good, stays in tune, easy to play (first short scale bass and I may have to add more, it's that fun). I know there were some complaints about the 3-way switch; been a non-issue for me. Prior to receiving the bass (and it was back-ordered, so I had a little wait), I toyed with the idea of swapping out the stock p-ups for some TV Jones...for me, it would have been a waste of time and money...these stock pickups sound great through my Rumble 200. This is my first HB product and it won't be my last. Every bass I own, save one, was purchased used. If I had known about Harley Benton, I'd probably have a full quiver of HB basses!

Excellent!

Super fast shipping to Montana. Bass was set up perfect out of the box!

Such a lovely bass

From opening the box I fell in love with this bass. Very light and well balanced it has fantastic tones and the 3 way switch gives great options. I've used this bass at home, in the rehearsal room and live and it's never let me down. Would definitely recommend.

Decent for the price

If you're looking for the sound of the 60s, this semi hollow body does the job, especially with a change of strings - I'd recommend flatwounds obviously. You're pretty much paying the price for the look and the fact that it's a semi-hollow, but don't expect it to be top notch quality (knobs a bit loose, ...)

Absolutely perfect bass!

I got this bass as part of a multiple purchase of other guitars and didn't really think it would be that great,,,belive me I was wrong. The other guitars were forgetable but this bass was not.

I put GTS flatwound strings and muted with foam and it sounded incredible. I have several Fender full-sized basses, but I cannot get enough of the short-scale hollowbodied perfection consitantly displayed with everything I played. It definately had me reaching for it and ignoring other well-known basses.

Looks fantastic and great to play, I will never sell it...it is the perfect bass. I think everyone should take a look at it...it is a super bass!

Brilliant Bass

Been playing bass for 12 years and this instrument is truly exceptional, great sound quality and the semi acoustic is great for those moments you want to play and not wake the neighbours.

Great instrument with small defects

I bought this bass to use primarily for recording. Overall I'm very happy with the purchase and would recommend this instrument to anyone looking for an inexpensive semi-hollow bass, as long as they're willing to accept/fix some small defects.

Pros:

+ Looks great! Want to pick it up and play it every time I see it.

+ Decent pickups. Granted I'm not super picky in this regard, but I've found it to be by far the best sounding/most versatile of a few affordable basses I've played.

+ Great tuners. Easy to turn with no "dead zones".

Cons:

- Very loud buzz when turning up the tone knob. I'm not looking forward to having to investigate this, so I'm just using a noise reduction VST plugin for now.

- Intonation is tough. I know some people like floating bridges, but I wish this came with a tune-o-matic bridge instead.

- Frets are somewhat rough at the edge of the neck.

- Needed a setup out of the box (lots of fret buzz/super high action).

I think it's a great value - just don't expect complete perfection out of the box.

This is my first bass guitar.

Can't say I'm pleased.

It is only for home use.

Updade 03.03.2019

Afer 7 mounts frets are comming out of fretboard - low quality glue or poor manufacturing job.