Harley Benton HB JA-60SB Vintage Series Reviews

Surprisingly Good!

This thing plays surprisingly well! I can't believe the price, honestly. The neck feels thick-ish, but not uncomfortable at all. Neck has sort of a satin finish, so it feels and plays well.

I would LOVE to hear some Lollar pickups in this, but these stock Roswell pickups are real decent. If you want a trem, just attach a Duesenberg les trem II and there you are. The tuners aren't bad either, For a 'cheap' guitar you get a lot for your money.

great value for very little money

My 4th HB in 2 months and this stands up well to the standards set by the previous three ,,,,although the headstock and tuners have a noticeably budget look and feel.

Having said that, the body finish is flawless except for a tiny cracks in both back corners of the neck pocket, suggesting the neck fit is a little too tight. I have no problems with the appearance of the scratchplate which others have objected to.

The neck itself is chunky but certainly not excessively so,( and I have small hands)......I had to bed down one fret with a tack hammer and dress one other, and redress the nut slots to get the string height correct at the nut ( which is made of a very, very soft plastic suggesting problems from string wear over time.)

The Roswell pickups sound good and controls work smoothly and well. No noisier than any other P90's I've encountered.

Overall a good guitar at this price point...?..I can't award 5 stars because of the work required to the neck which was easy for me to correct but could have seen a less experienced buyer returning the guitar or paying a luthier to set up.

Little Gem

I have been a proffessional musician for over 30 years, was in well known bands in the 80's and 90's and a song writer signed to major publisher also a producer for all this time as well....still am, it's my job :)

I ordered one of these almost just for fun as I simply liked the look of it!

I now often pull it out 1st from my collection of guitars from Gibson / Fender / Ibanez / Gretch etc etc etc as I just know it will be:

1. Almost PERFECTLY in tune even after sitting on the stand for a month or more

2. Dead easy to play (OK had to set to up and pop new strings on when purchased) but now it's such a joy to play

3. Sound good immediately, without issue, in fact I have used it on some big recordings last year, you know laid down the guitar parts on it intending to re do them with another instrument but the parts remained on and ended up on the records :)

What more can I say, it delivers what is needed

Really nice P90s guitar for the money.

I didn't have a guitar with P90s so this filled a gap. It will rock out and go soft and gentle if you use the neck pu position. It feels small, so it's easy to handle if you are sitting down to record. Neck quite chunky, which I like, and controls are nice and simple - which stops you fiddling about to find tones.

Thoroughly recommended for the money.

My new surf guitar

Lately, I've been digging some gnarly surf guitar classics. Pipeline, malaguena, etc. The ja-60 sb fills the bill, save one thing. First though, fantastic looks, the finish looks so good it has thwarted my desire to relic it, maybe temporarily. It is very playable, stays in tune, sounds good, but not as good as my Squire vintage modified tele, which also has 2 p-90 pups. The one thing that is missing, for surf music, is a vibrato, which I will add. The neck is good, looks killer, I have gone over fret ends with a file, but that is common practice. All in all, a great value for the money! I do not regret making the purchase.

Another winer

I bought this guitar because I wanted one with P90 pickups. This is a very cool looking guitar with very good paint job and finish.

Weight wise it is light and well balanced. The tuners are replicas from the vintage ones and work perfectly with a good feel.

The strong point of this guitar is the sound. Those P90 sound great and are exactly what I was hoping and, as good as the sound you get from guitars that cost several times this much.

For me, the tortoise effect of the pickguard looks a little ?fake?, but it may not bother you and is purely aesthetic.

Out of the box, the setup was good, with a nice low action and perfect intonation.

Although the neck feels very good, without sharp fret edges, it had some solvable issues. Out of the box, it looked dry and had some glue residue, especially on higher frets. The frets needed some polish and some of them were not perfectly leveled. Those issues can be easily fixed or if you are not comfortable doing it yourself, a guitar tech will do it easily (choose your guitar tech wisely). If you are not as picky, as me, those issues may not bother you at all.

After taking care of the neck, I shielded the cavities, put some roller string trees and a new nut (BlackTusq), this guitar became perfect for what I intended. Great sound and perfect playability.

Every guitar I own, even much pricier and from top brands needed those mods and a setup to bring up their full potential.

There?s no guitar with similar characteristics in this price range. This is a must buy.

Looks nice - but only that

Very nice looks, the build quality for the first glimpse is about the same as the Squier Affinity range. I bought mine as a project guitar, so I disassembled it. The neck pocket is horriblebut still not unuseable. The sound however is very bad. Clean it is so-so, but lacks warmth and definition. Somehow muddy and ear-piercing at the same time. Distorted even that very little deifinition the clean has is gone. Just a big noise :( Since I have ripped mine already open I have decided to check the pickups. Neck 11.5kOhm (!), bridge 7.7kOhm. Like someone has mixed them up. I thought let's dig deeper, take a look under the hood of the pickups. And there you go: mine had the cheapes ceramic bar magnets, not Alnico 5 as advertised. No wonder it sounded shit. I'm still thinking what replacement pickups I should get. The original one of these had the Wilkinsons, those have a good reputation (I had them in my Vintage Gold Top LP, there they sounded good).

Some other bad points:

-Unpolished frets

-Dry fretboard

-Tuners are tough to turn

My advice: stay away from these unless you are ready for some serious upgrades.

zeer goede prijs kwaliteit

Ik was op zoek naar een gitaar die optredenswaardig is maar toch niet zo veel kost aangezien mijn budget beperkt is.

Het geluid dat uit deze gitaar komt is magnifiek!!!

goeie pick ups en mooie afwerking. Blijft lang in tune.

Het enige nadeel is dat er na 1 maand gebruik een strap button los kwam. Dit valt makkelijk te repareren

dus over het algemeen het supergoeie gitaar

Amazing build quality

I have now owned this guitar for about a year. I fully understand that this is an inexpensive guitar. The single coil pickups are actually very good. The Volume and tone controls are the small diameter variety, but work fine. Tuners are very serviceable. The neck is good quality and well finished and the set up was good right out of the box. If I had paid twice the price, I would not be disappointed. At this price (even including shipping), I am delighted.

My only concerns were the size of the body is slightly reduced from a Fender Jazzmaster sized body. I do bump the pickup switch sometimes while strumming chords, but I have quickly adapted. I may experiment with a switch that has a smaller control handle, maybe a slide or rocker switch.

My good experience with this one was VERY much why I have just recently ordered another Harley Benton Guitar.

Three year update: This guitar is holding up very well, I have loaned it to students and it has needed no repairs or modifications, the action has been very stable, and I am even more satisfied as time has proven it's durability.

Good for the price, required some work

When I plugged this in after receiving it, I found that the pick up selector switch wasn't working for the neck and middle position. I opened it and discovered one of the wires was completely disconnected from the switch so I had to resolder, and that fixed it. Next was the 6th fret on the A string, completely unplayable due to fretting/buzzing so have to fix that next. Also on the 9th fret there is very noticeable scratching, and the rosewood fretboard is almost fake looking. Other than the above.....you get what you pay for. Lovely looking guitar, but the basics need to be checked before delivery..

Great guitar

Really happy with the service - I got the guitar very quickly and updated on its progress thanks to the tracking service.

Very happy with the guitar, have always wanted a Jazzmaster but found the price tag too expensive for what I wanted - this is the ideal replacement.

Great condition and no faults with the finish, I don't have a problem with the faux tortoise shell it looks fine to me.

It sounds really good on all settings and the pick ups handle

clean and distorted settings with ease.

Would recommend for beginner or pro - wish my first guitar had been one like this..

All in all a brilliant guitar for a very cheap price.

Practice Jazz quietly

I use this through a MicroCube at home to practice Jazzy stuff. I can make a good amplified Jazz tone using the front pickup at a sound level markedly less than that of my Joe Pass Signature played acoustically!

The bridge pickup is fine for crunchy Les Paul Junior stuff.

The frets do not need levelling.

It is well made and plays and looks good.

There are a couple of minor issues but at this price for such a fine instrument they cannot deduct from a full 5 stars all round.

If you want to bend strings the frets are a bit scratchy but a couple of hours with a cloth and some brasso would fix that.

The scratch plate pattern is weird but does not bother me.

Exceptionally good value.

Great VFM

I wanted a budget jazzmaster.

This guitar looks like jazzmaster but obviously lacks lot of jazzmaster features. (tremolo, switches)

For the price is great. Really good looking and great quality.

I would pick that again for jazzmaster replica.

A LOT of guitar for the money

I bought this having read a few reviews, but still not expecting too much. Coming out of the box the strings had a bit of corrosion, so it has probably been in storage for a while before being shipped.

The guitar was playable right out of the box, but I still gave it some new strings and some very basic setup. Intonation and pickup height needed some adjustment. The plastic protection on the pickguard was applied behind all the electronics, meaning I had to unscrew the pickguard, the jack input, switch, and pots, to remove all of the plasic.

It plays great. Its no shredder, but thats really not what you should expect from this type of guitar anyway. Sounds good too. Nice and warm neck pickup, with a bit of bite to the bridge pickup. The lack of individual tone knobs is a bit of a drawback.

It is clear that this is not an artisan, handcrafted, several thousand dollar guitar. Only the things that need to look nice will look nice. Behind the pickguard the finish was cracked around every screw hole. A mixture of what I think is woodchips, dust, and paint was found in the electronics compartment behind the pickguard. With that being said, everything thats out in the open looks really good. The finish is spotless, everything is nice and clean where it needs to be.

So far I absolutely love it. Its dirt cheap, and still a great guitar. No, its not a top of the line model, and if thats what you want, you're going to have to buy something different, but for the price, this is fantastic. Hell, even if it cost twice what it does, it would be a great deal, on a great guitar.

How do they do it?!

£100 this cost me... I've had pedals that cost more! Insanely good value for money and certainly a gig worthy guitar.

Plays and looks great.

Only niggle is that th fretboard was a bit dry. Easily fixed with some oil though.

Intonation was perfect out of the box. I lowered action to taste.

Brilliant.

Dew back in (HB JA 60 SB)

I had this in My Wish list for 2 Month waiting for it to come Back in stock ,this is a great guitar Well finished Good sound & Plays Great & stays in tune was not disappointed in waiting for this guitar

would suit any one starting out to the gigging player

the only thing that lets this down is the scratch plate

look a little false

Very good guitar

At the beginning, I must say that the guitar is really nice. I was amazed, when I unpacked it from the box. Out of the box the guitar was pretty well set. It was necessary to make only minor adjustments in tuning. The pickups produce well defined and nice warm sound, personally I really like it. The guitar is well made and is comparable to more expensive ones. With detailed inspection of a guitar you can find some minor flaws in painting, but at that price it is totally insignificant. I recommend it.

Excellent quality for the money but...

The HB JA-60SB is a very nice guitar for the money. However, the one I received had tarnished frets and the beginning of fret oxidation. The strings looked old and oxidized. This means the guitar was sitting in inventory for a long time. All this can be corrected with a fret polish and new strings. However, the biggest issue I had with the guitar was the fret leveling. Starting at the 4th fret virtually all of the frets across the neck required some degree of filing and re-crowning. This was surprising since the HB-35, TE-20, TE-90 and HB 12 string electric I bought required little to no fret work (bravo!). Since I know how to do this work I was able to get the guitar where it should have been the begin with. But beware... fret work can be costly if you need to send off to a repair shop. The Wilkinson P90 pickups are fabulous.

great guitar

I am very happy that I bought this guitar. I always wanted a Jag-body guitar, without having to pay a fortune for it.

It is easy to play (no adjustment was needed after outboxing) and the workmanship is to my surprise flawless.

The sound is great too. Cleans are not as sparkly as my Hamer Srat, but it beats it easily when disorted.

The only con in my eyes is the pickguard, lets face it, it is ugly:) I might change it later...

But all in all it is a great guitar. And the price... ridicolous! I would still be happy with it if I payed 2 or maybe even 3 times the price!

Harley Benton HB JA-60SB Vintage Series

Amazing quality for the price. The set up out of the box was perfect, two minutes to tune and this guitar sounds very good. Never had a guitar with P 90's, not the versatility of a strat but some unique sounds. Again first class service. Thanks Rob.