Harley Benton JB-75MN NA Vintage Series Reviews

Very nice bass

I didn't really know what to expect with this instrument but I knew that I wanted something cheap that I course use just for simple recordings. For the price I was absolutely stunned! Very easy to play with and enjoyable and good quality for the price! I would totally recommend to people who want to play bass and they don't want to spend too much money.

Surprisingly Good for the price.

Luckily enough I was able to test the sound out against fenders and some other mid to high-end basses and to my surprise this little guy held its own.

The build quality is solid and you can really feel it in the weight and finish work compared to other basses in the same price range.

It far out shines anything I've heard in that price range also.

The down sides are the pickups which I would recommend changing.

But all in all for the price its probably the best blind buy I've made to date.

Amazing value for money!!!

I am a guitarist and I needed a low-cost bass to do my demo song recordings. When I saw JB-75NA I said this is it! Beautiful, amazing vintage style-looking! And I was pleasantly surprised to its sound! And well built too! I highly recommended it!

Amazing!

Although the quality of the material doesn't seem great at first, this bass has a beautiful sound. It's not too heavy, the pickups are great, the neck is very easy to play in and it holds in tune very well. A definite keeper and a real "bang for the buck".

Great looks great price

Had a real one over 40 years ago but could not believe by playing this bass i would remember the same feeling and pleasure of the sounds.

A solid beautiful bass

Arrived perfectly intact and very quickly. This is a lovely looking guitar. The build quality is pretty much flawless and feels very solid in your hands. Set up and tuning was pretty much spot on out of the box. Sound wise it is quiet punchy but you can easily get many other tones out of the pickups. For the money I don't think you could expect a better bass guitar.

bargain

sounds great, plays well! Compared it to my mates' fender bass, although they sound different, the harley benton definitely still sounds as good as the Fender believe it or not! only problem is that the fender pickguard doesn't fit on the harley benton, would be nice if they starts selling pickguards for their basses.

Better than the ones it looks like!

I play guitar in the main and wanted a 4 string bass to mess about with and do some tracking etc.

I have had a couple of basses in the past i had a £600 odd schecter p j bass, yes the finish on that was second to none but i know subjective but this to me feels so much nicer in the hands. I'm sure money no object instruments would feel better, but blindfold not sure you'd know this or the real deal Fender in feel.. yes i think you would in sound but i like the sound of this .. a lot

For the money i paid it really cant be beaten, no faults that i can find stock pickups where to go soon after i brought it .. but i wont be doing that they are far better than i expected, hardware appears like its going to last, finish is gorgeous and the neck feels great.. so much so that im finding more and more time playing the bass and less and less the guitar

Nice bass, good price

I originally bought it as a donor for a DIY project. But eventually just kept it as it was!

It plays great after a decent set up, low action without buzzing, and it really feels like a decent instrument. The finish is nice, the body is made out of nice wood, and the hardware all feel very solid. It is a bit heavy though. The stock PU?s aren?t that great, and the pickguard looks and feels a bit cheap, but those are components that are easily adjusted and replaced!

If you want a nice jazz bass to play with at home, or you?re looking for a nice starters instrument, this is the way to go!

Nice bass for the price

This weekend I received my JB-75NA. I wanted to get back to playing bass and this seemed to be a good way to start. I have never liked the big necks on P-bass style guitars, so naturally I decided to go with a J-bass style. Shipping was fast, and I had the bass to me in a week (Germany to California). The fit and finish of the bass overall is very good. The only cosmetic issue I found is a chip on the back of the headstock. The packaging wasn't damaged, so it must have been a blemish from the factory. Since its on the back, I can live with it. Aside from that, everything else looks great. The ash has a nice grain to it, and the poly finish doesn't seem to be too thick. I like that they went with a satin finish for the neck, it makes it feel very smooth. The frets appear to be level and there are no sharp ends. Sound wise, its about what you would expect from a J-bass. The pickups sound good to me, I have no intention of replacing them. I would recommend this to anyone looking for an inexpensive bass that plays well.

Amazing for its price

I still can not believe I own this brilliant bass for the price. Well made natural 3-piece body, great feel fretboard, very balanced and sounds just great! Unfortunately it has no cable just in order to plug in as soon as possible to try the bass. But its all right. thanks.

Nice bass, and not just for the beginners only

the goods:

+ build quality: wood, frets, neckpocket,...

+ playabilty

+ sound, these are well balanced pups with lots of dynamic

+ looks

+ strings

& the bads:

- block inlays are painted, en some are a bit sloppy

- the action was a bit too low, too much fret buzz but it's easy to adjust.

- the schielding could be a bit better

- like most harley benton guitars the pickguard should be cut out with more precision.

Overall:

I would buy this bass again for this price, I like it. Once the bass is properly set-up it''s a great player.

I've seen a lot worse built quality on other low & mid range basses.

How can they sell this for this price.

I bought this bass just to play around with as I'm mainly a guitarist. The quality and feel of the instrument is amazing for the price. The hardware feels solid and it sounds pretty good to me. The only downside I can see so far is that the pots aren't of a great quality but if you are handy with a soldering iron that's a quick and easy job to replace although ti be honest i'm not sure i'd bother. This can easily compete with basses double the price!

Fantastic!

Amazing for the price. Nice quality materials used. Very nice piece (or pieces?) of wood for the body. Nicely grained and looking very glossy and great! Similarly for the neck.

Neck required no adjustment, but some fret edges were sharp. I needed to adjust string height as at bridge end they were far too high. Once that was done it played very well. Wilkinson pickups and the control knobs offer excellent variations in tone. All chrome well solid and bolted down, brass saddles look good. Overall, Exceptional value for the money. It is a bit on the heavy side, but that's fine with me.

Good but needs some work to be done

To get a nice bass I was forced to do:

1. Cavity shielding

2. Nut Filing

3. Springs added under pick-ups screws

5. Pickups height adjustment

6. String height at the saddles adjustment

7. Proper neck relief adjustment

8. Bridge re-alignment

And Then enjoy nice instrument Will say better than Indonesian Made Squiers...

Wilkinson`s pickups are really good!

Excellent

There is nothing I can fault with this bass guitar, particularly where price is considered. It really is an excellent instrument, perfectly usable in any scenario where a jazz bass is required. Pickups are excellent, punchy and provide for a wide variety of sounds. Tuners smooth. Nice, fat satin neck, plays a dream, quick to play. Volume and tone controls fluid and linear. Really, I would be happy to play this anywhere. Astounding value.

Great for beginers, but not only

Well, let me start by saying that judging this instrument only by the price is just plain wrong.

This is a standard JB type of bass, the body material is ash (heavy ash), neck is maple.

When the bass arrived in my hands, although for minor setup, the instrument was ready to go. The hardware is really ok, the pickups are good. There were minor flaws in the instruments finish (thicker lacquer on the body's neck pocket side), although in this class of instrument they were insignificant.

The bass was bought as a modification platform, therefore some hardware was changed. From the playability side these modifications were not needed.

What is the most important feature of this instrument is the sound. The sound is focused, the notes have definition. The instrument has a lot of punch.

The fretwork was ok, action set 2,5 mm at the last fret. No need for dressing out of the box

Great Bass - Amazing Value

This bass is amazing value - 3 piece ash body is well joined (roughly proportioned 15%, 70%, 15%) joins are virtually seamless. All frets are level and well fitted, action out the box is near perfect. Pickups sound great - very fat when needed with lots of top end on hand as well. Tuners are great - work very well. Fret makers are applied well as is painted neck binding. Every inch as good as the Squier VM equivalent for a third of the price.

Great bass for "fiddlers"

Really wanted a 4 string fretted to go with my Warwick Rockbass fretless. J bass or P bass? Why not both!

Saw the HB basses and read the reviews. So given the money back guarantee I thought why not.

I had played a £300 Vintage V74 bass so knew what to expect (that bass was dreadfully setup and the output socket imploded when I tried to plug it in).

This HB was completely different. Solidly built (1, possibly 2, piece ash body), good maple neck with skunk stripe and maple fretboard. No major complaints. The machine heads work but there was a little wiggle room for retuning, but not bad if your in one tuning for a while. Nut was a little high, the relief was a little too much, the action was a little too high. Having said that much better than that Vintage bass. The pickups are Wilkinson (cloth covered wire, looks vintage). Only problem with the pickups are that the pole pieces are a little proud of the cover and I tend to "dig in" a bit when fingering and with a low action I was shaving the tips of my fingers off on the pole pieces. Nice bridge with brass saddles. After a setup including setting the truss rod and action the bass was perfectly playable. Could probably do with a fret level, crown and polish to get super low action and the nut cut down a fraction more, but nothing wrong for what you pay. (I would think most basses from the far East would all need this treatment, not just the sub £100 ones!)

Would I upgrade it? Probably not, the bridge is OK (I like the rapid loading Warwick bridge, but it's cheaper to buy a second bass to set up for flats or drop tuning than buying an expensive top loading bridge). The pick ups are fine (may put in a DPDT volume for series pickups. It's only the machine heads that could do with an upgrade if you slam the bass around a lot and knock it out of tune.

truly excellent

I am a guitarist of 20 odd years and have a number of guitars from the maker this bass is based on (no pun intended), and have to say this is a truly excellent bass and not just for the money. There is a great range of tones to be had, the playability is top notch (after a small tweak of the saddles), comes fitted with decent d'addario strings, and on a more shallow note it looks beautiful.

I am extremely happy with my purchase and glad I chose this over any of the other basses in my price range, which was up to 3 times what I paid for this beauty.