Harley Benton JB-75MN NA Vintage Series Reviews

An awesome bass for a very good price!

When I got this bass I instantly fell in love!

First off, the looks. The bass looks stunning (especially for the price), the body is made out of 3 pieces, but the pieces are beautifully matched and if you told me it was a 1 piece body, I would have believed you. The finish is great and the pickguard looks decent too. The neck looks great too. The inlays and binding look like they're painted on, but you couldn't really tell unless you took a very close look. I love the satin feel of it too. The pickups have a great variety of tones and sound great and chunky. The tuners are surprisingly great too. The only thing coming close to a con for me would be the weight. I don't play standing up so it's no issue for me, but I can see that if I played a gig with it standing up, my shoulders and back would get a bit tired.

The only thing I'm going to do to improve this bass is applying some shielding paint in the electronics cavity to reduce the amount of noise the single coils make when only one of them is on.

Amazing bass for the money

I play guitar and write tv soundtracks and was just looking for a cheap bass to noodle around on for writing. But the JB-75 MN bass exceeded my expectations on all counts. The wood is beautiful, the frets were clean (no sharp edges!) and the intonation was perfect right out of the box. Open strings and harmonics at the 12th fret were dead on with my tuner. No adjustment necessary. And it's such a pleasure to play. It totally brought out my inner Larry Graham! It's incredible that you can get an instrument of this quality for the money. The UPS customs clearance was no big deal either. $11 Cdn extra for brokerage, delivered to my door. The only problem with instruments this good at this price point is that it's very hard not to keep wanting to add to your collection. Absolutely would recommend.

I use it to record bass for my demos. Works well, cheap, nicely built.

Excellent

Quite possibly the best budget bass I have ever played. For the price, the neck is exceptional and the build quality is excellent. The only thing I would change would be the pickups but they are still very good for the price. Would highly recommend this bass.

Great if you can take the weight

Looks, sounds and plays great.

My only gripe is the weight. Mine is 5.4 kg which is definitely on the heavy side. With a fancy Neotech strap I can stand for max an hour before my shoulder complains.

Edit: after two years of use, I'm still loving this bass. Since I've begun gigging, I have also bought a nice lightweight Fender which was five times the price, but I still play the the Harley Benton regularly. My original plan was to sell the JB-75, but in the end I could part with it - partly because it has such a rich, growly tone that my Fender can't recreate. So I've put flats on the Fender and still have the original roundwounds on the Harley Benton which together give me a nice selection of tones.

Bought as a present

.. and I'm not a bassist. But as a guitarist I was very impressed with the build quality of this instrument and it's looks too. The setup was spot on - which surprised and disappointed me as I was looking forward to making some intonation and height adjustments. The biggest complement came from a bassist friend who checked the instrument out - "..I should have bought it myself" he remarked. So a great buy and smiles all around.

Very impressed!

I've tried a few Harley Benton models now. There's a hit and miss element for QC that is widely acknowledged. The one I received is amazing. Sounds exactly as you'd want a Jazz Bass to sound.

Excellent bass

This is a very good instrument for the asking price. When I brought it to a local luthier for a proper set up, he couldn't believe that it was sold for such a low price. Well, perhaps the bass could use a pair of better pickups, but honestly, the default ones are pretty good as well. Playability-wise, no faults, love the feel of playing this.

When it arrives, either spend time properly setting it up, or, if you are like me, have a professional luthier look it over. You get a lot of value with this guitar. Would recommend to virtually anyone who wants to play the good old 4-string J-bass or at least have a backup 4 string.

This is very good quality instrument

I am a guitar player and i am using it as bass for home recording through vst.

pros :

- intonation is perfect

- action is good

- frets are good

- sounds very good

- no issues, no breaking parts, no malfunction

- best value for money

cons

- nothing

Amazing Bass.

The bass is for my personal use, recordings, gigs, overall for everything.

The bass for the value is amazing, not only the build quality is incredible, the looks are fire. tuners are solid, knobs are not cheap, the pickup is cool, the only one thing that is disappointing but fixable is something that is said about this bass a lot. the buzzing, there is buzzing of the strings on the frets, but some adjustments in your local guitar store will fix it, overall amazing.

2 years old

Its just over two years since i purchased this bass.

It was my first bass so i didnt want to invest to much incase it wasnt 'right' for me.

I was amazed at the quality of it when it came out of the box, it has a lovely warm vintage j bass sound and has plenty of adjustment to tget the tone you want.

I still have the orginal strings on it ( i did change them, but put them back on as i thought the sound got too bright for me) it does need adjustment to the action quite a bit as it moves with the weather but that seems normal. I have a 1989 mexican fender telecaster that needs more attention than this.

I've tried a few other makes (fender, ibanez, yamaha) and types of bass but this holds it own and I really enjoy playing it. Maybe I just cant get over my first one :)

Its still looks as good today as when it came out of the box and to me sounds even better.

I will purchase a Squire P bass soon just to have both options, but as a first basss that you will want to keep around I would really recommend this one.

Just a cheap bass

This bass is good for its price, but it's not the great deal everyone is talking about. It's a cheap quality bass, it sounds bad and it's super heavy.

Probably better than other bass on the same price range, but not a miracle bass. I would have been happier if I bought a second hand bass for the same price.

yes yes yes

it's incredible!! the feel, the sound, the price, the looks...

LOVE IT!

Much better than a squier :P

very happy

Great for the price you cant go wrong for a cheap Bass thats made really well abit on heavy side on weight but if want to Learn on a budget i would recommend you wont be Dissapointed

Superb quality for the price!

This instrument is excellent. The tones from the pickups respond in the way you'd expect from their 'jazz' configuration and all the 'Jaco' to 'Marcus', sounds are very well-represented. The build quality is of a very high standard, frets dressed nicely. If I have a criticism, it is that the nut wasn't smoothed off but worked as it should. I'm being picky; something that I sorted out myself within minutes.

The hardware is cheaper but functional; tuners holding pitch fine. The bridge is fine with 'brass' saddles. The bass wasn't quite 'in-tune' but again, once I had adjusted the bridge, no problem. The neck has a kind of 'D' profile, so don't expect the 'modern' jazz here - it is a 'vintage' model. However, I love the dimensions and the neck itself is very comfortable and solid. There is probably a finish on the back of the neck but essentially it's 'unfinished', meaning that it's very easy to get around. This is a very playable bass!

If there's a drawback certainly for me, it's the weight. The body is a three piece ash (American?) and is too heavy for my (older) frame and that's why, most reluctantly, I am returning this truly fabulous instrument. This has been a hard decision and I would encourage HB to come out with a lighter body version as at this price point, aimed at the beginner - they would benefit from an instrument that doesn't weigh them down (me too!).

I have been a professional bass player for many, many years and I was looking for a cheap bass as a project to play around with, perhaps replacing the hardware and experimenting with different pickups - obviously, I wouldn't be playing around with one of my vintage basses.

In conclusion, I would recommend this instrument with confidence. Don't be put off by the name or the crazy low price. This instrument represents a 'bargain'; the weight just didn't suit me. I would happily play this on a gig - I'm not a 'label' snob and I would challenge anyone to tell the difference between this and say a Mexican Fender at four times the price? However, it's all subjective but I would suggest that if you're looking for a 'vintage-style' jazz, this has got to be on your list.

Exceeded my expectations!

This bass really exceeded my expectations!

I was looking for а low budget 4 strings J-bass for recording the bass tracks of my tunes at home, so I didn't want to invest in some high class bass, but I also didn't want to compromise on the sound and playing. After reading some reviews and friends opinions I decided to go with Harley Benton because this bass fit to my budget, and frankly speaking I didn't expect too much. However, this instrument totally exceeded my expectations!

After directly unpackaging and plugging the instrument, without any tuning except the strings, I was very pleasantly surprised because:

- the intonation is perfect

- the action is perfect

- frets are perfect

- the sound is very good

- no issues, no breaking parts, no malfunction

- this is a Professional instrument,

- probably the best value for money!

Cracking Jazz bass

Sounds great, looks great. Quite a back-breaker and electronics came loose a few times needing soldering, but all in all a solid bass.

My Favorite

Absolutely the BEST Value out there, I own Fender, Gibson, and ESP basses all great but this Harley Benton speaks to me when in my hands. Get One Now.

Great Jazz bass

Excellent for the money. Can't be beat. However the bass is VERY VERY HEAVY, should consider a different wood for the body.

Amazing JB-75MN

The Electric Bass arrived very gently and clean.

The sound of it, is amazing, mixing with all different distortions sounds really good.

About to play, is really comfortable, easy, and you can not stop to play and rock.

I am really happy with this Electric Bass, quality/price.

The only thing I could complain is, The Electric Bass is a little bit heavy, and it is tired to carry it to much time, but for using on the studio, it is perfect.

Thank you! You should buy this one!