Harley Benton PB-Shorty BK Standard Series 4-stars Reviews

Long term feedback, 4 years of use now

I bought this short scale bass for my son as a birthday present four years ago. Since then it has been played regularly for school bands and his own band so has seen its share of travel and use. The short scale was chosen specifically as he had small hands, being only young at the time, and it has been an excellent bass to learn on.

Out of the box there was very little set up required, other than a very small amount of intonation adjustment within the individual string lengths, which I do on every instrument anyway. Since then it has worked superbly and sounds good in the band. In comparison to a 34" Fender it lacks a small amount of tone but it is also significantly cheaper!

After four years, the bass is still in use and now sports a Seymour Duncan quarter pound pickup, so I think we've definitely had good value and I can't see it being retired any time soon.

Better Than Average

Nice bass, better than average; better than a Squier Bronco I tried in a shop, and my old Marlin Sidewinder. I was looking for a Fender P-Bass Jr clone. I tried this one and the Jack & Danny Bass guitar PB Mini. I returned the J&D and kept this one.

My first bass

I used play bass during the jams but I never really got one.

This short scale is very comfortable, it is shorter than a normal bass so it's less stressful to play, especially if you are a guitarist that approach for the very first time this instrument.

What can i say? the sound seems very clear, actually I am satisfied with the product.

OK to start learning bass on .... but that's about it

I bought this for my four year old to start getting used to the sound of the bass. Nothings says 'let's please the neighbours' than a four year old heavy plucking a bass through a 200W bass amp.

All in the all, the bass is OK. The frets were very sharp and uncomfortable so I had to file them smooth. I only heard a few people mention this so it might be a rogue quality issue, I could have sent it back, but it was only a few minutes to sort out.

Some quite different volume levels between the strings, so a few adjustments helped the situation, might be cheap pick-up issue.

Let's be realistic, this is a cheap short scale bass, good for practicing or for the 'smaller people' to learn on. I don't think I would gig it, but I don't think it was ever intended for this.

For the price, you cannot even buy all the parts separately for this price, so in that sense it is quite a bargain.

Buy it for what is intended for and you won't be disappointed. Anyway, I am sure my neighbours are starting to like it more now, they have stopped banging on the wall.

Great buy for the price, but don't expect miracles.

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Update after a few weeks: I decided to so a deep fret sorting out and filed down the sharp fret, relevelling and re-dressed all of the frets until they were a smooth a silk. It felt like a guitar where the fingerboard wood had shrunk a bit and the fret were sticking out, but I have also bought guitars much much more expensive than this with similar issues. As I said before for the price it is a good buy and there isn't really any competition in the price range. Albeit what I would charge for a complete fret levelling and redressing is probably more than the cost of the guitar, but once it was all, sorted it was a very nice playable bass guitar.

p.s. Change nut, it is really nasty cheap plastic

Cheap basguitar for home playing

I play only the guitar and HB is my first bass. I will use it for home recording. HB Shorty is good solutions.

- price is very good

- HB looks nice (colour, gloss, design)

- short scale is very comfortable for my "guitar" fingers

- it is necessary tune octaves but it is no problem for guitarist

Not bad for the money

Reasonable bass for the cash. Sound wise you get what you pay for.

Good and Cheap

I bought it for my son.

I'm teaching him Bass.

I have already an Epiphone Toby Deluxe-V Bass which I love.

To be sincere, I was not expecting much for this Harley Benton because it was so cheap, but I gave it a try.

And was I happily surprised :)

The HB Bass have a solid sound and it is easy to play, specially if you are a guitar player.

I wouldn't mind playing on this Bass in a small gig.

Of course, if you are a accomplished musician already, this is not the bass for you.

Overall, it is a very good starter and my son loves it.

For the price, unbeatable

I got this to mod up and was so impressed

By far beats my squire affinity p bass, wonderful for the money

Gave it to my guitarist friend to ask what he thought it was worth, he said at least £175

Unbeatable for the price

Great little bass with a nice neck which plays really well. The only drawbacks are the neck is sunk into the body a bit too far, making it hard to fine tune the set up, a couple of mm higher would be better and the usual complaint with cheap guitars is the strings are awful, but at this price it's completely understandable.

For a young beginner or a guitarist who can't cope with the extra stretch like, me I'd highly recommend it.

A good beginners bass.

My main instrument is guitar, so I find this scale length more comfortable than a normal bass. I got this instrument for a fellow guitarist who wanted to play bass at a ukelele band. The finish is good and the instrument was playable straight from the box.

Great for beginner/intermediate!

I bought this for my daughter as a first instrument thinking that it would just be one of those cheap poor quality instruments you get similar to the Squire guitar starter kit that everyone gets as a kid, Well I was wrong! This instrument is solid, well built and was still in tune and perfectly setup straight out of the box (shipped from Germany to UK). So happy with this I almost kept it for myself :P

Remarkably good at the price.

This is a scaled-down copy of a classic Fender bass. OK, it isn't of classic Fender quality, but is certainly equal to some of their budget models (e.g. Squier) which I've tried in the past, and at a much lower price.

After spending a couple of hours adjusting the truss rod and saddles to get the action and intonation right, it's playability compares favourably with a Fender Mustang bass I once borrowed for a few weeks.

The tone was very acceptable as delivered. Recently changing the strings to a set of D'Addario EXL220S has resulted in noticeably increased volume through the amp, together with more flexibility in tone.

Very pleased with my purchase.

Passable

The neck seems well made. Frets are smooth. Well playable.

The mechanical bits are basic but good enough. The tuners turn evenly and stay in tune. The bridge can be adjusted (for intonation and action) as expected.

The electronics are the weak point. The pickups are low in output. The tone knob crackles when you turn it quickly and it's filter isn't very musical sounding for some reason.

But hey. It works. And it sounds OK. A little woody and stumpy sounding. Not the most vibrant and dynamic tone. Not the first choice for jazz solos one might say.

The intonation required some work, but otherwise the setup was fine out of the box.

Given that it plays well, I have no trouble recommending it as a first bass for youngsters. Also works as a secondary practice bass, or even the occasional recording. Don't expect a great sound and you wont be disappointed.

Nice little Bass

Very inexpensive short scale bass i bought to initially see if i liked the shorter scale.

Well made and well put together. I did have to do some setup work to do but no real problems. The strings i thought were not the best but they do the job and kept in tune.

Surprisingly punchy pickup. Good tone.

The slightly down size body might be good for younger players, or people who just prefer a smaller bass. Although the neck is 42mm its not a very deep profile so has an ok feel. Fairly light weight although due to the smaller body it is not as balanced but i had no problems playing it sitting or standing.

Overall very good for the price.

excellent little bass

I bought this for a twelve year old who wants to learn bass.

Same size as a six string electric, so ideal for guitarists who dabble in bass now and then.

I knew at this price I'd need to do a set up, but It didn't need much, just had to lower the saddles and give the truss rod a i/4 turn, ten minute job

The hardware is better than expected, the pickups sound the way they should.

I'd recommend no problem

Harley Benton PB-Shorty Bass

Remarkable value if you want to try out a short scale bass. Build quality was good for the price, neck good and straight although some fret buzz due to high frets. This reduced when I fitted flat-wounds, but I'm able to dress frets so was not a problem for me. Very solid bridge - heavier build than Fender's standard bridge! Truss rod moved freely and responded to adjustment well. Pickup is loud (after the string change) but not very exciting tone, but OK for the price. The neck was a few mm wider that most 30 inch bases and this was useful for me, but not too wide. Nut was the correct height for the 4 strings, not always so with cheaper models. Body is well finished and light weight, lighter than Squire's short scale for example, but black is not my color of choice! would be better available in another color, I don't think black sells so well.

my harley benton bass guitar

its a good bass guitar,,good hardware and good sound also very handy t use

Good for beginners

I decided to buy the Harley Benton Shorty as a gift for my girlfriend since she wanted to learn playing basic stuff on bass. She never really liked the feel of my own bass, a 5-string bass by Ibanez. You could argue about the hand size needed to play a bass effectively...well, we did anyway. Her hands and fingers are rather small and she doesn't feel comfortable with my bass' fretboard. So I wanted to buy a short scale bass while spending not too much money on it.

I'm glad to say, that the HB Shorty was a lucky pick for us. It's not expensive looks and feels nice and is a well made instrument for beginners. I changed the strings right away and oiled up the fretboard a bit but otherwise no set tup was needed whatsoever. Overall I am happy with the quality of the instrument and it's parts. The tuners could be a little bit more reliable (tuning once every 30 minutes or so is required, at least by my standards) and you could alway swap out the P-Bass Pickups. But other than these few minor things there's nothing wrong with the HB Shorty. Especially not for the price, it's a great deal for beginners and people in need of a cheaper shortscale bass. I think you could also recommend it to children.

My girlfriend absolutely loves her first own bass. She nicknamend it "Shorty" right away and keeps butchering Red Hot Chili Peppers basslines every day.

Great value at a great price, go for it, short-fingered bass players!

A really nice product

It's a bass... It's a bass that has a great sound at a very reasonable price. Is it something you'd find the experts using on tour? No. That said, they are handy when you want to just add a quick bass line to a demo track or for when you're starting off on the bass.

Good for beginners.

Good overall bass pro beginners or occasional practice. Build quality isn't outstanding, but for the price it's actually good. Sound is ok and overall is a good product for starting in bass or just to play once in a while.