Harley Benton PB-20 BK Standard Series Reviews

Great for beginners

I bought this bass just out of curiosity and to teach myself how to play. I already know how to play the guitar and figured out I'd start this new adventure.

The bass surpassed my expectations, especially for its price. It feels well built, the sound is good and it's, overall, pretty great. My only qualm would be with the "tone" control, which is not of the highest quality.

I would recommend it to any beginner or casual player.

Gets the job done

Nice addition to the studio. I needed a bass that didn't break the bank and this one is amazing for its price. 20 years ago cheap guitars/basses were not so great and they were even pricier but this one has a great price to value ratio. Can recommend as a beginner bass guitar.

6/10

... which isn't at all bad for this price! I'm not a bass guitar player, so I cannot judge this on playability or things like that. I just needed something to record a DI signal and tweak like hell with virtual amp sims & FX, and this did the trick

Good bass

Good fun to play. Kids love it too

great bass for the price.

Okay quality is the best quality at this pricing.

Good: PRICE, build quality, Durability, Sound quality, Weight and weight balance, PRICE!!

Great for rock and band music.

Bad: cheap P bass can never bring sophisticated bass sound, therefore not ideal for a bass solo music.

It needs some setup work out of the box.

Over 15 years of bass playing life and experiencing almost every known basses except ridiculous looking ones taught me this; there are good cheap instruments.

Cheap things give you an instant doubt. It's bad. It's never durable. It never serves the serious purpose. This bass isn't one of them disappointments.

This is well built under the right amount of quality control. P bass always gives you its inherent simplicity that allows(or forces) you to concentrate on the music, so all you need is the bass itself and its toughness as a structure. This Harley Benton bass will give you what you expect from a simple P bass.

If you expect a miracle work, you will OBVIOUSLY be disappointed. Especially for pickups, since they are the same as any microphones that can be made good or bad by using all kinds of different material and in different configuration, which requires investment to come to the reality, which a cheap instrument can't get. This instrument gives an OKAY P BASS sound. It's not horrible. But it's not great either. It's acceptable. For the price, THIS SOUNDS GREAT.

One tricky thing about any cheap instrument is the initial setup. Just like any cheap instrument, this doesn't come with an almost perfect setup. Mine did have some buggery sharp fret edges that needs sanding down, just like the other buyers or this same instrument from here. and you will likely to need the trussrod adjustment, which is a relatively simple task, and the bridge saddle height adjustment, which can be time consuming. trossrod wrench and the bridge saddle wrench come with the instrument, so I just set up the instrument to the string height to the point it won't give me any annoying string buzz.

Remember. It's a P bass with a cheap pickup. You should know it will give hum noise. If you are an experienced musician, you know you can't complain about this not being suitable for playing a bass solo song. You are not paying a Fodera money. not even a Musicman bass money.

Okay quality is the best quality at this pricing.

very good bass for the price it costs

i bought this bass a while ago. sounds good, looks good, enough said.

For what it's worth

Now, I haven't really played bass, since I'm more of a guitar player, but hear me out.

For it's price, you get your money's worth and more. I can't find anything wrong with this bass guitar. Came with a free cable, in case the bass player didn't realize he needed one (that was a joke). But therein, as I said, the bass is bare-bones - and there's nothing wrong with that.

Let me just say, 20 years ago, you couldn't get a bass like this for less than 150€. So if you're in the need for a standard bass or perhaps a platform for modding, look no further than this no-nonsense Benton.

Everything I hoped for.

Getting back in to playing bass after an 8 year bass. Delivered to NC, USA in 4 days. The finish was great, obviously needed a setup. The only odd thing is that all the pickup screws were loose to the point of falling out. Luckily none were lost in shipping.

I didn't even plug it in as it was received. I immediately shielded the full cavity and pickguard, replaced all the wiring with an upgrade kit, put in a SD Quarter Pounder P/U, and a set of good flat wound strings.

After a good setup (complete setup - Truss Rod, string height, intonation, pickup height)-- This thing plays and sounds as good as any factory $700+ instrument.

I'm ordering a JB model today, and will be trying out their amps too. I'm now a HUGE HB fan!

Best for the money!

Can't believe how good it is!

Whish I had that guitar when I was kid!Not a lot of features,but I actually like that!

Great bass for the price

We got this for our friend's birthday and she really enjoys it so far. The sound quality and the playability is really nice for the price. Of course it's not flawless and doesn't produce the same sound quality as a 600 Euro bass or something, but it's still pretty solid and for her first bass, it's satisfying to use! :)

I needed a standard cheap bass to do some home studio recording and this was just the ticket. Whatever your basic needs are for recording on a DAW or if you're an aspiring bass player, this seems to tick all those boxes. The fretboard edges could do with a sand down but apart from that it was value for money.

Good for the price

Started getting into bass with this one, for the price it's really good to get into.

The sound is decent, but I know that when I really want to get into playing bass I will probably end up ordering another one in the future.

Pros: Sounds like a P-bass, plays fine, tuners hold tune and feel solid.

Cons: Electronics aren't great, a screw snapped in half when I was removing the pickguard. Neck dives a little bit, wear a strap.

Pretty good for the price. It's a P-bass.

After three months use - Very playable for the price

TLDR: Recommended for someone moving from another instrument. Great quality for the money. Output very low.

The neck quality is spot on here, no issues with frets or neck profile. The bass is very playable and sounds pretty decent. Tuning is easy and stable and intonation was pretty quick to achieve. String action is great after I lowered and intonated.

The only issue I could find with this bass is that the output is very very low. Moving the pickups closer to the strings results in the pickup screws just falling out. There doesn't seem to be a way to fix this as yet. Turning up the input on my audio interface solves the low output, but still..

Overall, for the price of this bass, I am very happy with the quality. I've been playing it now for just over three months and it certainly satisfies my needs at present for home recording. I'd definitely recommend this bass for beginners, and those moving over to bass from another instrument for the first time.

Pretty Good

For the price this bass is great. The stock strings sounded surprisingly great (that bright fresh sound), I bought this in July and they still sound pretty bright (but I haven't played it a huge amount).

At first I found that it played pretty well but after a few weeks/months I noticed the action was too high. I need to get it adjusted, it feels hard to play.

I had to get used to the weight of it because I had been using a very light Encore bass in the same price range for like a year before it (it was loaned to me). The Encore also felt much smoother to play but I'm sure after this bass gets a proper setup + new strings it will feel smooth enough.

My first Bass Guitar

I ordered the Harley Benton PB-20 as my first bass guitar. The bass guitar plus the amp I ordered came well packaged , after unboxing the guitar , a friend who is an experienced musician looked over the PB-20 and confirmed it was sent fully set up and the action be set and ready for play straight out of the box. As of now 9 months later , I have had no problems but starting to notice the sound of the strings rattling against the fret board , my musician friend will be looking at it and suggested it could be the strings need changing . It could be the action needs to be set or truss rod adjustment, which he said is normal at this 9 month period.

Great for the price

I was surprised for its quality is unmatched for its price range, top purchase.

Great P-bass for starters!

I got this bass like 2 years ago. It's perfect for someone who wants to learn how to play bass. Sound is OK, build quality is OK. For that price tag it is a steal!

Excellent!

I bought this instrument to record bass sounds at my home studio. I was a little tired from the MIDI bass sound. This bass is really good. I recommend it 100%

It does what it's supposed to do

I'm a guitar player so I wouldn't know a 5000 bass from a 80 bass from the sound. But this bad boy is super cheap AND does what it's supposed to do: add a bass line to your song in the DAW. Haven't had any problems with it.