Harley Benton JB-75MN NA Vintage Series Reviews

excelent for the price you're paying

Apart from high frequency hiss when recording through audio interface and cheap, weak metal quality tuners, this bass is superb for the price. Played couple of live shows with it and no problems, sounded great.

Absolute bargain!!! But...

Use

I bought this bass guitar to improve my creative workflow. Straight out of the box, this thing played amazing! It was set up very well, and it was even in tune (almost, but still a big thumbs up!).

Plugged this thing straight into my AI, and it sounded just like a Jazz Bass should. I'm a guitarist, so I might not have enough experience to really give this thing a fair judgement, but it does its job very well.

If you are on a budget, I'd recommend this over other contenders in the same price range.

The only downside is that this thing is super heavy... I wouldn't want to play shows with this. Luckily, I bought this only for home recording purposes, so I won't have to bear any back pain :D

Great job, Harley Benton!

Amazing instrument for an amazing price, especially for a beginner!

I will preface this by saying I am a 100% Bass beginner - so take that as you will.

I love this instrument. It is absolutely beautiful and is very comfortable to hold. It is quite heavy, but I am experienced in playing heavy instruments suspended from my body, so for me hasn't been much of an issue.

Out the box needed a little tuning, but sounded okay - however when I set it up and switched out the strings for some trusty basic strings from my local music store, the sound quality shot up dramatically.

The only issues I have was 1) the shipping box had much damage and luckily no damage to my instrument and 2) that the protective plastic on the pickguard and around the pickup knobs was INCREDIBLY hard to remove and there are still bits of plastic under my knobs and stuck UNDER my cable input socket that even the music store tech couldn't remove. Also, there are a few screws that have quite a bit of sawdust smooshed into the hole which has caused some of the screws to not be completely level. I would probably be more upset if I were a more experienced player.

Overall, as a beginner, the instrument is well worth the price and I am in love.

Best bang-for-buck bass out there

After being a guitar player for 14 years this is the bass that has possibly converted me. I am unbelievably impressed by it, the reviews on youtube do not lie to you at all.

Very easy to play neck as a guitarist, I've adjusted the truss rod and bridge a fair bit and everything adjusts properly and with a quality-feel to it.

The tone died off about 4 months after I bought it as I played it to death, I was contemplating getting new pickups but after restringing it, it's alive again! Instead of upgrading to another bass, I will just change the pickups in this one when the time comes. If I still love it as much then I may upgrade to a hipshot bridge too because the body, neck, electronics and hardware on this model are exceptional.

Cheap bass that sounds and plays as if it were 3x more expensive, definitely worth upgrading the pickups at some point but again, they are exceptional at this price point and I expect the overall quality of this bass will be raised substantially by new pickups. You will not be disappointed.

You couldn't ask for more

Nicely made, sounds very well. Is very heavy, but you knew this already. For the price it's an awesome bass!

My first bass

Just the right dimensions, good sound, some clearance on the pickups, don't understand why, you can just push them deeper. Unbalance soundwise between the strings. I'm happy though at this price.

Schöner Bass für beginner

Sauber verarbeiteter Bass für wenig geld, perfekt für gitarristen, die mal etwas Abwechslung brauchen.

What a nice purchase

If you already own (or have owned) a P Bass with rosewood fretboard and want something brighter, something for slapping, something for disco and funk, this guitar is for you. It is noticeably brighter, fits in well and finds its place among the other instruments. Slightly heavier than a few other bass guitars I've had in my hands, but it will not hurt your back.

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.

Great Entry Level Bass

Im not a bass player, but wanted a bass to lay down ideas and to record at home with. This bass was perfect. It needed very little adjustments out of the box but thats just me being picky. Its fine to play right out of the box.

Would reccomend.

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!

Impressive Price-Performance-Quality

This is the first bass I bought about a month ago.

As a new bass player I had low expectations for this price range and I am not experienced enough to notice every detail.

So considering this, I would say I am very pleased with my purchase. Here are some of the things I noticed so far.

- Sound is good (for the price) and strings are OK. I expected major fret buzz, I am glad I was wrong.

- It seems well made with only a few minor wood/paint spots that can be easily overlooked.

- Some of the brass saddles became discolored already. I am not sure if they are brass or just brass-plated but I know brass-plate wears off with time.

- Pick guard gets scratched way too easily but maybe it is just my play style.

- It is indeed a bit heavy, about 6 kg.

Also, I would like to mention that it was packaged very carefully, protecting the bass and the strings !

To sum it up, I doubt there is a better bass guitar at this price. I highly recommend it, especially to new bass players like myself.