Harley Benton HB JA-60SB Vintage Series Reviews

Pleasant Suprise

Bought on a whim because of the low price, but turns out there is "something" about this guitar. It's such a pleasure to play that I pick it up up every day over "nicer" guitars. It's very loud acoustically, notes ring out clearly, and the pickups have a great sound somewhere between humbuckers and fender-style single coils. Extremely happy that I bought this guitar

Great modproject

Due the low quest and great quality of the body and hardware this is the ideal modproject. Highly recommend it when you want to upgrade this Jazzmaster.

Unbeatable for the price

I wanted a guitar that would give me a retro feel & vibe as I was filling in a role for a cover band. This hit the spot and was great for bashing out riffs with abandonment, no fear of damaging an expensive instrument. The quality is nearer to £300 epiphone, indeed if I had paid £299 I would not grumble. Good setup out of the box, and the sound is creamy and ideal for fuzz

Very nice guitar

Great value, this guitar was very playable right out of the box. I tuned it up adjusted the intonation a little and I'm off to the races. The neck and frets were good enough to make me happy. I've owned 10 different guitars this one makes me happy. I'm a hap hap happy boy.

Very nice guitar

My first jazzmaster-shape guitar

I liked it

Pros

Awesome authentic sound

Small price

Opportunity to try out the guitar shape you are interested in

Nice finish

Cons

Frets are unpolished , it is impossible to make bands ( I have not seen this on any guitar)

Deep scratch on the front of the guitar on the wood under the varnish (Yes, you can see them)

Very tight machine heads

Didn't put a sticker about saving guitars :(

More than what you pay for!

I got this keeping in mind that it would be "Just alright" but now after having used it for a little while its much more than that. Its an absolutely fantastic piece of equipment for the price.

Pros:

- Decent pickups

- Tuners are better than my more expensive Epihones and other big brands

- Very well put together

Cons:

- Fret ends are a bit rough, but that is easily solved with a small file and some time.

- Even if the tuners are alright, doesn't mean they're good. If you want to switch them out for their locking tuners, be prepared for some precision drilling.

What an incredible value, easily worth $300

Really great guitar, absolutely suitable for an intermediate or advanced player in my opinion. Looks great, pickups sound fantastic, stock tuners do their job well, I have absolutely no complaints at all, keep it up Harley Benton! 😍

Believe the HYPE!

If you do any type of YouTube search on Harley Benton guitars you will immediately know that the price has nothing to do with the quality of these guitars, do yourself a favor and buy one!... or three!

Great Purchase

I use this guitar playing in my country band. It really hits that Chris Stapleton vibe. The only downside would be the machine heads, but that is completely acceptable for this price point.

Great value for an offset guitar

This guitar came to me in perfect condition. The quality of the build and the overall setup is an incredible value for the price. For playing at home or on a stage, it is light and comfortable to play. The pickups are clear and have that smooth sound that you expect from a guitar that costs many hundreds of dollars more. I checked the straightness of the neck and the frets for sharp edges, and none were found. the only mod I will do is to put locking tuners on it.

Excellent Value

Everything about this guitar exceeded my expectations

Outstanding

This is an outstanding guitar. And I won't even say outstanding guitar for the price. Everything about this guitar is well done. And the Wilkinson P90's have an amazing vintage tone. Love it.

Nice and do-the-job

This jaguar / jazzmaster family guitar does the job with less buttons and the P-90 pickups. I use it for the blues.

Pros: price, sound, playability, visual.

Cons: maximum .11 strings (trying .12 damaged low E tuning pegs). And the color tone in the neck and hand is a little orange (could be lighter).

Fantastic Guitar for the price!

Good Hardware, Stays in tune, and a Good tone!

I was Blown away

Nice job on this one, came perfectly set no adjustment needed.

Awesome guys, you outdid yourself.

Surprisingly good

Bought this thinking it was a gamble...

Turned out to become my favourite guitar.

It doesn't play like a 1000¤+ guitar but does that even matter.

The sound out of it is killer! Used it on several recordings without any problems.

Lovely guitar

I love my JA-60.

It came with the strings to high. Why???

After adjustment of strings and trussrod the instrument is very nice.

Bad paintjob and assembly

I have ordered this guitar twice in white and sunburst. Both of guitars had same problems ? screws in pickguard cracked the deck, space behind pickguard is painted with sawdust on deck. Pickups are mounted poorly, one of them is even angled. Frets was sharp on both guitars. Belt holders not holding tight in deck. Also I was surprised that texture on deck is just sticker or something like that. Painting was uneven, tone of paint is different in different places. But the electronics done good. Sound is nice, pickups are okay.

Overall, this is good guitar for the price if you can accept that problems with paintjob and assembly.

Incredible value, but not perfect as it needed some work

This is a beautiful guitar. The pick guard seems to be a bit polarizing but I think it fits the vintage vibe. Finish on this one is near perfect. I love the sunburst finish and off-white neck binding, pitch covers and controls. The only blemish I have found is a bit of bubbling in the chrome finish on one of the tuning heads. More on those later. Playability out of the box was just ok. It needed to be setup, truss rod and intonation adjusted and have the action lowered. The frets, although having the ends finished quite well and being very well leveled,, were a bit rough and needed a mild polishing. The strings were in pretty good shape but since I had to have the whole thing apart for set up work, I put some new 9?s on it. Now it plays really well. Comfortable neck feels very similar to a vintage spec?d stratocaster. The tuners are passable. They keep it in tune, but feel a bit skippy and one is quite stiff feeling. As far as sound goes, these Roswell p-90s are very hot. Very different from real Jazzmaster pickups. They?re not bad sounding pickups, but I?ve noticed that they sound too similar to each other. I?m not sure if these pickups are a matching set with dedicated neck and bridge specs or if they?re identical to each other. I?m guessing the later. The tone pot doesn?t seem to be very usable. Nothing happens until you get down to around 3, and then it?s just all dark down to 1. This might as well have been a switch...

I have however found a couple very usable and great tones out of this. The pickups lend themselves out to do both clean and dirty very well. Over all I?m very impressed by this guitar. Be prepared to do a little work on these guitars, so it might not be the best for a complete beginner, however for only around $150, it could be a great guitar to get your hands dirty with and learn about setups, mods etc.

Buy this!

Extremly impressed with the quality for the money. I have 9 electric guitars. Original Telecasters, SG Gibsons and much more. I would use this guitars over them for the sound I want on a particular song. You can?t go wrong for a copy of Jaguar for the price of....15 beers in Norway.