Harley Benton HB-60 WB 5-stars Reviews

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.

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.

Another Excellent H B guitar

Although the guitar sounded fine straight out of the box, I put tape wound strings on mine to complement my fretless and P bass. The build quality is great and the pickups give a good fat sound with a well defined bottom end. On 2 sessions now the producer and/or engineer have preferred the HB to my venerable and extremely expensive Fenders.

A couple of warnings -

The bridge is not fixed so will need adjustment if you change strings.

There is no protection for the selector switch in the box it comes in so with the inevitable rough handling that happens in transit, it can easily be damaged. This may explain some of the other revues.

If you are looking for an unusual bass, I highly recommend you give this one a run.

Great Bass for its price

After a set up and changing stock strings, this bass really comes to life! I put Labella flatwound strings on it and it sounds amazing! Especially the neck pickup. The only thing I should mention is that the scale length is not exactly short! it's medium. I tried putting D'Addario chromes short scale strings on it and they were too short for it!

Excellent bass once set up...

I wanted a short scale, semi acoustic bass to use in a sixties influenced pop / rock trio. This HB-60 was drawn to my attention by a friend who has recently purchased a couple of HB instruments and forund them value for money.

The bass finish is much darker than it appears in the catalogue photograph. Nonetheless it is an attractive instrument and the quality of finish is good, save for one (very minor) blemish near the upper F-hole. Whilst not the heaviest bass I own (a Peavey T-40 holds that honour) this is a solid feeling instrument and I have no qualms about taking it to reherasals.

Once tuned up, the bass was playable, with a reasonably low action (approximately 3mm) at the 12th fret. There was no relief in the neck and consequently open strings rattled when played hard. I restrung with Fender 9050L flatwound strings (.045 - .100) and loosened the truss rod about 1/2 a turn which solved the problem.

The neck is comfortable, and I had no problem swapping between this and my long scale basses.

Sound unplugged is full and rich. Loud enough for quiet practice. Through a Line 6 Bass Pod it is possible to obtain a range of useable tones. The 'Sgt. Pepper' tone in particular is quite convincing! I play fingerstyle, but this bass also responds nicely when played with a pick.

No problems with electronics so far, all work as they should and without noise.

The only con is that the bass is too large for most cases, so the Hagstrom Viking bass case is the only one that will fit. It is a nice, retro looking, case, but relatively expensive.

It probably helps if you are confident enough to perform a basic set up, but that goes for most guitars. So far, I am very pleased with this purchase and consider it good value for money.

stunning for the money

Wow this is a gorgeous looking bass!

It's more of a deep wine red than the pictures suggest but still lovely. Sound wise it's great, loads of different tones with a real punchy warmth. Neck is nice with no obvious fret issues.

Has a floating bridge which comes out the box with a small piece of fabric between the bridge and the body. I know it's there to protect the body but it looks a little messy, suppose I can slacken the strings and pull it out though.

All in all 10/10 for the money, can't be beaten

Stunning - Cannot speak highly enough

This was my 3rd Harley bought, and as with all previously this Bass is exceptional for the cost.

I always wanted a hollow body bass, and rather than drop £500 on a bass i may or may not like the sound of, I went for the Harley, and to be honest, I will now not bother with buying a more expensive hollow body because this is so good!

As always I was blown away with the value for money. More people should get into these Bass's!

Shopping now for my 4th Harley!

HB-60 WB

i'd wanted one of these for ages, i love love love them, everyone i've told about it or shown a picture of it ha gone "oooh, yes, get one". so i did!

plusses: it's beautiful, the finish is flawless, the balance is just right (i have an aria ABG and it suffers badly from neck-dive), the neck is smooth and after a bit of practice it felt just right (i usually play 5s, so the smaller neck felt a bit lost until i got 'into it' and then mm-mm-mmmmm), the hardware compliments the woodwork perfectly, little touches like the shark-fin fret inlays, the body binding, everything, cosmetically and aesthetically it's perfect. and the sound, oh my stars, through an ashdown MAG 300 1x15 it's lovely, thick, warm, creamy, i love it.

cons: pick-up selector switch. it's a bit loose and not properly connected, so the bridge pick didn't work on first playing but the neck PU was fine. after some jiggling and crackling i got them both working, then neither, then the neck only, then both, then nothing. it's not the end of the world, i could dismiss it and say it worked loose it transit, but it'll be a nightmare to get fixed without opening the body up or someone being a real whizz with hollowbodies. disappointing, means i can't gig it, but it'll look beautiful on the stand for now.

but i would still recommend the bass, for what it is it's beautiful, if you want one for a different colour on gigs or as a on-off only-use-it-once-in-a-while it's the absolute business, if you want one for a main bass go mental and spend two or three times the price, it'll do the same thing but it'll cost you, for my money this one's perfect. apart from the switch.