Harley Benton B-35NT Acoustic Bass Series Reviews

Totally worth it.

After a month of ownership, let's leave a review. The price/value is a 5 star. The build quality and finish is really pretty good. The looks are good. The sound is ok, not very loud. It totally qualifies for the job: a practice and acoustic bass guitar that can also be plugged in. Oh, and 5 string, that was my excuse to buy it because i got tired of drop-D.

Some remarks though:

* The strings are brass round wound. They have quite some finger and fret noise. The good part: as practice guitar, you really learn to control it. Both avoid and (ab)use string/fret/picking noise. But it can be a bit too much. Luckily the 4-band equalizer is perfectly capable of making it totally acceptable in any amplified situation, and for acoustic situation it is just fine. But it is very tempting to put flat-wound strings or even synthetics, just for sound balancing.

* There is no documentation, at all. Not even a single piece of paper. Also not online. And why this is relevant is because, well, it has electronics. So, by experiment: your battery will not drain if you leave it unplugged and the tuner powered off. However, as soon as you plug a cable the battery will last for any limited time. Also, just a nice guide about maintaining, tuning, that weird extra button on the tuner, storing, using and possibly playing the guitar would be nice at virtually zero added cost.

* The logo. I happen to have another HB. And the font of the logo is totally different. Yes, somewhat similar, this fancy font but. It's a little something that bugs me. How can you have a big factory producing fine guitars, but, the logo is a knockoff. It's just a detail.

Also some positive remarks:

The tuning stays totally fine over time. In-built tuner is adequate but you hardly need it, maybe after transport or on occasion, but not daily.

I nagged about the strings but on the other hand i also like them. They play well, yes the sound is bit sharp at times but then again they provide a lot of feedback. How you pick the string has big influence on the sound.

The tuner is handy and accurate

The amplifier output is really quite. It is way cleaner than i expected an acoustic guitar to be. This is really quite useable, to the point it could actually replace an electric bass. With some equalizer. And with the feel and touch of course.

Conclusion

Are there better guitars. Sure. Does it play comfortable. Yes. Do i like to play it better than my electrical bass. Yes. Is it acceptable build quality. Yes, more than. Does it sound ok. Yes. Can i use it plugged in and out. Yes. Is it on my lap every night. Yes.

Just needed a bit of fret work

Needed to hammer down a few frets that were taller than others, was causing fret buzz, now it plays great.

Cannot beat it for the price

I love the thing.

It is quiet, as acoustic bases are. The low B stands up surprisingly well. Not crazy about the nut and saddle. The fretboard doesn't appear to be top quality, but the frets themselves seem nice. Overall it blew away my expectations.

Great acoustic bass

Great sound even when not plugged in

Great quality for the price

I had tested a couple acoustic bass and this came out not only as the cheapest but the best sounding.

You can't go wrong with it.

First bass and it's great!

I'm more used to guitars and this is my first bass but it's great. Took some time getting used to the size but it sounds good right out of the box and look's great. For this price I can only recommend it.

Now I just have to practice playing bass :D

Good

Bought it for acoustic projects. Comparing to my other guitars, it feels huge :) it takes time getting used to it's size. The low B sounds ok, but of course - I had to adapt my playing technique to get the best sound out of it.

I think it's a good acoustic bass. Is it the best? Of course not. Does it get the job done? Yes, of course. Does it sound good? Yes.

Unbelievable value for great quality

Very pleased with all this acoustic bass has to offer, can't believe the price for what I got.

Only minor fault is the fret buzz which is fixable.

Generally this instrument has a very nice construction and a grat response !

as for its sound it has a huge booming response at its lowest freqs that it can be too much at times , and there is some creaks at specific frets . these are the only two drawbacks....

i almost got rid of the freting and the very lows by adding some foam under the bridge . got an improved , smoother timbre for my tastes .

I would like to see this intrument made of better quality woods... but you know you get what you pay for .

completely satisfied with this choice !

Amazing for the price!

This bass exceeded my expectations. I'm thrilled with the quality considering how inexpensive this instrument was.

Awesome for the price!

I bought it as my first acoustic bass, curious what it's like to play that kind of instrument.

SOUND:

This bass isn't as loud as i thought, but it's louder than a 3 times more expensive Takamine acoustic bass, so it's pretty neat. The sound is clear and refined, altough there is a little fret buzz when you'll attack the string with more force. After plugging in to an amp it still has some acoustic tone, altough not as good as amplifying the sound through the microphone.

It's pretty well built for the price, altough on mine there's a little bit of tiny ditches on the side of neck, but it's ok. My biggest issue was when i removed it from the box, guitar was covered in shavings. Fortunetely after brief cleaning it's fine.

And i need to cover an issue, that some people before me noted - the string spaces AREN'T too wide, in fact, they are perfect, and I'm not exactly a hobbity bassplayer, more than orcish one.

Overal: I'm recomending that one!

good practice instrument

it sounds much better if change strings. other then that is a good instrument for practice.

Change the strings to phosphor bronze, add a sound hole damper and reduce the string height by adjusting the saddle and you have a very playable 5 string acoustic bass. The eq section is not the best in the world but by finding a balance between the guitar and amp settings, it sounds fine. The built-in tuner works surprisingly well. If you want an acoustic bass to gig for a few songs now and again, this is a good choice. If you are after an acoustic bass as a primary instrument, then spend quite a lot more money.

Tight

The strings are much too close together for comfortable playing and the low 'B' doesn't 'register' properly - change the strings;; the piezo pickup should be 'flat' instead of 'notched' - it causes problems;; I wish they would make this bass in a 'medium scale', it would be a great bass (no bridge pins);; it's suitable for someone with very long, thin fingers, not big thick fingers like mine;; I will buy the 4-string version of this bass and convert it to a low 'B', add a DiMarzio pickup in place of the piezo, which I will strip out, and turns this into a great ACOUSTIC bass that can aso be plugged into a standard electric guitar amplifier -- otherwise a good bass and great value for the money! :))

Surprisingly good value

Had this bass for a while whilst working on a project, and was surprised to find out the original cost! It plays like a much more expensive model, change the stock strings though!

You get what you pay for, and then some

Sound:

Overall sound is actually quite good. The purely acoustic sound from the body is really nice and fat and the little metallic buzz from strings and frets add a bit of sharper edge or "presence" to it.

But the bad thing is, that the buzz from frets and strings becomes a bit annoying when played through amp or PA, because the buzzing sound cuts over the top of everything. But that can be overcome by cutting the high frequencies with EQ or some high-gating, so it doesn't become that much of an issue.

Features:

Features are better than good, when compared to the low price.

To have both, plug and XLR-connections is a really nice feature.

Built-in tuner is also a very convenient, with LED's helping to tune when playing in a dark corner of a some smoky pub. The tuners display is not lit, but that is something you can live with.

Also the 5-band equalizer is really good thing to have. When playing in those pub's, where you have to do the mixing by yourself, you can make adjustments to the sound straight from the bass itself and you don't need to tumble your way to the mixer.

Only bad thing in features is, that the battery is drained really fast if left in it's socket. And when the battery is dead, so is all the electronics including the pickup. But you should always have an extra battery in the gig bag anyway.

What comes to the dimensions and measures of the instrument, that is always a personal matter. What comes to my preferences, I really like the quite thin neck profile. The neck overall felt really comfortable and "fits" to my hand perfectly. The space between the strings is a bit narrower than in my two electric basses, but that is something I got used to really quick.

Quality:

Price-quality ratio is really good in this one. The crafting and finishing is good, no flaws, no sharp ends on frets or anything. It needed no adjustments, I basically took it to a gig fresh out of box and had no troubles. Well, new battery was needed, but that was it.

Overall:

Good instrument with balanced and unbalanced outputs, built-in tuner and 5-band EQ. Well worth the price. Best for home playing and occasional live performing. When played through pickups, needs cutting in high frequencies.

Harley Benton B-35NT Acoustic Bass review

Fantastic instrument for the price. My only problem with it is the EQ on it sucks, but other than that it is perfect, and I bought it to use as an acoustic bass anyway, so it's perfect for me! I would strongly recommend this to anyone looking for an acoustic bass on a budget.