Harley Benton JB-75MN NA Vintage Series 4-stars Reviews

You get what you pay for...

Actually, in this case, you even get a bit more than what you pay for. I will start off by saying that this bass plays really well, holds tune great, and that there is no way that you can get anything better, or even as close to this for this amount of money.

BUT, you should be aware that this is not an expensive bass, and therefore it's far from perfect. When it arrived, it had a small ground problem, so it would get a bit noisy if you completely take your hands off it. That wasn't a huge deal for me since I am a DIY kind of guy, so I fixed it myself.

I also wanted to take pickguard off because I like how that looks, Jaco Pastorius style. First, I had trouble taking it off because it was cut poorly around neck joint and it dig into the neck a bit. After I managed to take it off, I saw that neck pickup cavity was really huge and it didn't look pretty, so I just put the pickguard back.

Overall, I really like it even if it had these small imperfections and I would definitely recommend it.

Good..

Is fone in tone...

Well worth the bucks

Bought a B stock option. to record a DI bass signal for my music. >

Pros

.shipped fast

.good tuning keys

.no fret buzz

Cons

.there is a black blemish on the backside of the bass but it is small and has no effect on the sound.

Great sounding bass, needs some fret work.

This is a great sounding bass, the roswell pickups do a great job creating the jazz bass sound. The looks of the bass is also quite good, and the inlays do look quite the part.

Pros: Good pickups, d'ddario strings from factory, looks.

Cons: weight ( it's quite heavy, maybe 1 kilo more than a fender/squier), fret tops needs some fine sanding (it was quite dirty, so bends feels scratchy.

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.

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, 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.

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!

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

Good solid bass.

The first thing to take into account with this particular instrument is that it costs €122, so whichever way we look at it, it's a bargain. I recently decided to start seriously learning the bass. As a professional guitarist all my other instruments are of high value and cost around ten times the amount of this bass, but they're certainly not ten times as good! As I lifted the bass out of the box when it delivered, the first thing that struck me was the quality of the woods. Yes the neck is made with a capped fretboard and yes the body is made from multiple bits of wood, but generally the factory has done a very good job at matching the grains, so unless you're looking very closely you can't see the joins. Further to that, the general fit and finish of the bass is very good, close to that of my much more expensive guitars. The only comment I would make is that the bass was poorly setup straight out of the box. However viewing this as a budget instrument, it would be perfect for a beginner, and after a little bit of setup work makes a very good working man's bass. In my opinion this is one of the best basses under £500!

Jazz bass

Generally an exceptional buy considering the price against what you get for your money. Not totally happy with the sound though, mainly use this for recording and it lacks a little something that is hard to describe. Comparing this to a fender precision recently, the fender was much more full in sound. I have to work very hard on EQ and use various techniques to get an acceptable sound.

Excellent for the money

I bought this as I have an expensive 5 string jazz bass and was missing the feel of a thinner 4 string neck.

I was surprised at how good this bass was when it arrived. The neck is a nice, thin jazz profile which is what I was after so it's nice and comfortable to play.

I had to lower the action a bit as it was slightly too high for my tastes when it arrived but allen keys were provided so this was an easy task.

The wilkinson pickups are nice. It sounds like you'd expect a jazz bass to sound. It could do with some shielding in the control cavity to avoid fret buzz but this is not a difficult job.

I'd recommend this as a first bass or to anyone who wants to try a jazz bass out.

Absolutely insane bang for that buck!

Quick summary: Use 10€ for a new pickguard for this and adjust this properly: absolutely insane bang for that buck! Tools included!

If you want a cheap bass to start or to mess wildly with, you really should not be afraid about this Harley.

_____________________

First of all, I have to say that i'm glad I bought this. I bought this months ago and i still don't regret buying this.

For the price, body is finished really well. And the body isn't any basswood crap. American ash underneath that beautifull high-gloss finish looks just stunning and there isn't really anything that would reveal that it costs just barely over 100€. I just love the way this thing looks.

Sound is fairly good considering that original mics are cheap ones. (What could you expect with price tag like this?) It sounds a bit plastic and muddy. Atleast i'm fine with them since bass isn't my primary instrument I play with, but if you changed the mics with better ones, I can promise that this bass is going to sound awesome!

About quality: I needed to readjust intonation, string height & truss rod, but other than that, it was ready to roll. All tools to do those easy adjustments came with the bass and they performed well for their purpose.

All metal parts are firmly attached and do their work really well (That's rare for this price range.) Tuners feel surprisingly accurate and smooth, I have no intention or need to replace em! Bass keeps itself tuned really well, even with my "hammer that b****!" kind of approach. No need to tune after every jam session.

Pickguard though was made from some cheapo plastic and it was so soft that it turned looking ugly pretty fast. I replaced it with general JB replacement part (<10€) and wow; it looks more awesome than it was directly from the box!

(Later on, I had to tidy up some frets' sharp ends due Finlands widely changing temp and humidity, but that's something what happens on top-end guitars and basses too.)

Superb 70s style J Bass

First of all this bass is excellent value for money, the hardware alone is well worth the price.

You get excellent pickups, great quality woods and wonderful playability all with great 70s retro styling.