Harley Benton JB-75MN NA Vintage Series 5-stars Reviews

Putting low price aside, simply a quality instrument

Many have already commented about the affordability of this bass guitar. So, I'll mention the playability factor instead.

I'm a guitarist with an interest in bass playing for recording purposes, and I'm very happy with my purchase. It's going to take a while to get used to the absence of a pickup selector switch, since it's just two pickups at the same time, and you can mute either/or.

The action was low from the box, no adjustment needed, and it even came with a guitar cable which was very nice and unexpected.

excellent bass ,but not for live .... its to height

Fantastic value for money

I have a lot of fun with this bass. Beautiful, great sound

My first bass

This is my first guitar bass. I'm no expert on bass but I love the guitar!

This bass is awesome!

DISCLAIMER: this review is from someone that is mainly a guitar player. This is my first bass i ever bought so for the real bass players take this with a grain of salt.

With that out of the way

PROS: - For the price this bass is just great

- The material used is sturdy and strong

- Neck is good and feels great to play (as a guitarist i am used to small and thin necks compared to a bass neck)

- The sound is just insane for the price. Altough it might not be THE best pick for a studio session, i have played some with my Harley Benton. The other musicians just couldnt believe that this bass was only €160. I recieved great compliments from musicians as well as producers.

CONS: Right out of the box, for some Bass nerds there might be some adjustment needed to the neck. I fixed the neck to my taste and found that the original was not fixed greatly.

First bass, quite happy

I occasionally play some guitar. So here's the pandemic and I decided to give da BASS a go.

I remember playing only one song on a bass about 30 years ago. That was the only time I touched a bass. And you don't call that experience, right? ;)

I wanted a four-string bass that was simple to take care of, but something to be good enough to live up as (possibly) my only bass. After weeks of research I ended up choosing the JB-75.

When I took the instrument out of the wrapping, I noticed an irregularity in my breathing. The MN NA was gorgeous!

Out of the box, it didn't play nicely, though. While many buyers claimed that their instruments needed no setup, mine did need some work.

The trussrod needed about 3/4 turns that I applied over three takes (first bass setup), which took me three days. as it was suggested to leave the neck to settle, overnight.

To be fair, my city, Yerevan, has a different climate and is about 1000 meters higher than Burgebrach, so some truss rod correction should be expected, I guess.

The action was like 9 mm high!! Interestingly, I also bought a guitar with the bass, and it came with even higher action, almost to the top of its limit.

You'll need an extra allen key to fix the action height to your liking, as the bass comes with only the truss rod allen key.

BTW, It also comes with a basic guitar chord, which could serve well as a backup.

Tuning wise, on average, 2 random strings come out of tune every day.

The JB-75 feels like a solid (and heavy) tank that should withstand quite some action. The workmanship is remarkable. I cannot say much about the sound, as I don't have the trained ears. But it sounds decent. As long as I do the muting correctly :)

Thank you, Harley Benton team!

Great Budget Bass

You really can't complain for the money.

It's quite heavy, then I don't mind that, as I'm only ever going to use it at home. I knew that prior to purchasing it.

I'd recommend this HB brand to other people for sure

Thanks

This bass can go up to 11

I haven't played bass in years and wanted to get back into it, but didn't want to pay mad money. When I saw this one I was a bit skeptical because of the price. After looking at few online reviews I was convinced to give it a go.

Pros

The bass arrived in perfect condition. There was no need to make any adjustments and it was ready to play straight out of the box. It sounds like a dream and you feel like you're playing a high-end bass. Great value for money.

Cons

It's not really a con for me, but it weighs a fair bit, so it might be a bit off putting for younger players starting out.

Punches above its weight

I'm mainly a guitarist but brought this for home recording to replace an old broken Squier P-Bass. I was blown away by how good it is, especially considering the price. It completely outshines the Squier.

The body is made up of three pieces, and on mine the grain is well matched. The rest of the finish is flawless as well.

It arrived well set up out of the box, with zero fret issues and low action. It's one of the most comfortable basses I've played (admittedly I've never touched any high end basses but they were all more expensive than this).

The Roswell pickups sound great. A little more mellow than I was expecting but I think this is more due to pickup height (Around 4mm when fretting the last fret). I haven't been bothered by this enough to try adjusting them yet.

The tuners feel a little stiffer than I'm comfortable with but hold tune without issue and are perfectly up to the job.

Weight-wise it's only slightly heavier than the bass it replaced but not to the point where I'd consider it an issue.

In conclusion, this is a seriously good bass. When switching from my guitars to this I never feel like I'm picking up something nearly £400 cheaper

Great 1st or 20th bass!

I've been playing for 31 years in various bands doing everything from recording to playing up to medium sized gigs. I do all my own setup and modifications. I can find nothing really wrong with it. A little touch up on the fret ends. Truss rod and bridge adjustment and a set of my favorite strings and I think I'll have a winner! I've had a mid 90's made in Japan Fender (about $1000) and the Squier Vintage Modified ($400) and this is just as good if not better than those basses. It has a great vintage "growl" coming from the Roswell pickups that I'm insanely impressed. Nothing on it feels cheap. Body is solid and has a perfect weight to it. I have bought and sold tons of basses but this one will stay.

Negative... the plastic coating on the control plate is a little hard to take off??? Ha!

Can't beat this bass for the money

I was so surprised when I received the bass, plugged it in and started playing. It sounded really good! I put it on the bench, adjusted the truss rod and lowered the action on the bridge. Voila! Now it plays as good as it sounds. Don't get me wrong, it's no Sadowski. But I'd put it up against any Squire Vintage modified series Jazz Bass selling for over double what this bass costs. Well worth every dime.

Superb quality bass

Very nicely built bass. No manufactured defects. I especially like the neck a lot and it is very smooth. The ditch for the G string on the nut is a bit shallow and I think I need to replace the nut with a new one. Overall This is a 9.6/10 bass.

Surprisingly impressive

Even as a first time bass player, I was genuinely impressed by the quality and playability of this bass guitar. Just one small issue is the nut is a bit low prevent even action across the fret board.

5 Stars

Good bass for bedroom production

Rock Solid

I love this bass.

Love Harley Benton! Great bass.

As a singer-song writer/guitar player who write and records my own music in my home studio, I absolutely love this bass. It sounds great, has a really balanced response, feels really nice, is heavy but not too heavy, and looks great!

Excellent bass

I haven't been playing bass very long, but this one strikes me as being of excellent quality, robustly made and handles well.

Build wise it compares well with other instruments I own from Squier, Gretsch and Harley Benton.

The only thing I needed to do was tweak the action slightly.

Possibly a bit heavy? Otherwise excellent

Great bass for the price

Absolutely lovely tone, everything on this bass is the right ingredients. The only thing that separates from the expensive ones is the finishing touch on the frets. Otherwise, really good bass. And it is heavy too, like more then 10 kg for sure

Very good value and great sound

The bass look great, well built and sounds great. it does have on defect, it’s SO heavy but I guess for the price is still excellent value.

Awesome Jazz bass

As good as Squire or better. Sounds and plays superb. Can't beat the quality for the price:-)