Harley Benton PB-Shorty BK Standard Series 5-stars Reviews

Bang for Buck: Little Beast

I bought this bass just to have a short scale to slap around on for fun, but man did this little monster surprise me. Aside from needing a bit of setup, this bass can jam right out of the box. The tone and volume knobs both do their jobs quite well, but I had to fix the intonation and lower the pickup before I was truly happen with the sound.

The neck feels great to bop around on and the look is classic. The tuning heads work well and I've had very little problems with it going out of tune. Put this thing through a little compression and it's more than ready for a jam session. As I mentioned, I did have to drop the pickups down a bit to prevent clipping when I played slap. Otherwise this thing sound great for under a hundred bucks.

Pros:

- Great feel, action, and appearance

- Knobs do their job

- High quality for the price

Cons:

- Quite a bit of fret buzz out of box (easily fixable)

- Clipping issues with pickups (easily fixable)

- Some cosmetic flaws (personal: large knot on headstock)

Summary: Great bass for fun or learning.

Another success from Harley Benton

I was looking for a cheap short scale bass, and this is not only the cheapest but it's half the price from the next one up the ladder, the Ibanez TMB30. Not believing the Ibanez would be double this bass I went with this one and I'm happy I did that.

The bass is light, sounds good and it's solid like any good old P-Bass. I'd recommend to anyone that wants to try a short scale bass and not to spend too much money.

Now I also have a Fender Mustang, and even though the Mustang is much better, it costs almost ten times the price of this one, and it is not ten times better!

Out of box ready to rumble!

I have bought many HB guitars and this one is my 2nd HB Bass. The first one was a JB-75NA and was a great bass out of the box. This Shorty is the same! Nothing to complain here and for the price its just amazing!

Fretwork is perfect! Polished and crowned AND rounded frets! 79 Euros!

The Roseacer fretbaord looks more like Ebony to me than the rather ugly Roseacer one get on the CST or SC model HB guitars! Very happy with this bass!

The stock strings were wrapped into oily paper to keep them fresh and shiny. Stock strings sound very punchy and will not change them any time soon.

Tuners works as they should. Body paint and satin neck finish are perfect.

Im yet to open the pickguard and look under the hood. I do get slight buzz when I take my hands off the strings so some shielding will be needed Im guessing.

All in all, fantastic buy and surely suits me well as my main instrument is a guitar (Shorty) !

Nice guitar for starting

Nice quality and looking bass.

Amazing bass for the price

Short Scale bass players will love everything about this bass. I have been playing bass for 50 years and I just switched to short scale 5 years ago. Short scale basses like this one are hard to find. Most look like a toy bass, not this bass. The fit and finish is flawless. I am in love with the Roseacer fretboard. I did not want a black and white bass with a brown fretboard.. the BLACK Roseacer fretboard makes the look POP. The neck is fantastic, I did lower the action, but the truss rod needed no adjustment. The sound is great, I play through a Behringer head, and a bit of compression gives me all the sound I need. I very much recommend this bass.

Great Budget beginner Bass's

I bought three of these for some of my younger students. Right out the box, after quick tune these basses play beautifully. Good tones available for the price. The bodies are a little heavy for younger students while sitting or standing over a long period. Frets ends were very sharp and undressed as new, so much so that I felt it was too dangerous to land over to young students. But after a quick file on each fret top and bottom, everything was good. Having said that I would still highly recommend. Well done to Harley Benton for providing such high grade beginner budget instruments. If HB put a little bit more into quality control, finish fret edges that would be great. Once that was sorted they are beautiful to play and sound good too.

An Excellent value for money, quality bass

I just love this bass. It came all set up, plug in and play. it stays in tune although it hangs out all over the house waiting to be played, spending some time on the sofa keeping the dogs off. Plugged in and played it is a dream. Easy to move up and down the neck, I can get a good heavy bass sound out of it particularly through my Harley Benton 80W gig amp. How do they do it for the price? Wizardry.

Great starter bass

Great bass for the price

A Lovely guitar

I love this guitar, it is so much more than the price suggests! I have changed the strings but have no other modifications planned.

If you want a short scale bass in a classic design I doubt you will ever get more value for money than you will from this guitar, it's awesome, so well finished, well packaged, I cannot see how anybody could ever be disappointed with this.

Fantastic bass for very little money

I got this bass last week. Played it for about 6 hours since and i can believe how good it is for the price. I picked it as i have a problem with my left wrist and full scale basses are difficult for me to play. This is an absolute joy. Really comfortable neck. It has a good enough tone compared to other budget basses an is very well put together.

Solid 3/4 bass funtastic

I bought this bass to have one at home, to compliment my guitars and for recording. I was surprised by the size and action, which was quite low. The price is great for just messing around. But to my surprise it sounded really good with my Zoom r8. I wanted the Epiphone eb0, but this can make very sound I need, and if I drop it it doesn't matter as it bounces, hehe

Recommended for those who like smaller guitars (who doesn't?)

and beginners who are scared to invest too much cash. Top notch instrument for a small investment.

Great value for money

Can't really say enough good things about this bass guitar. The quality is really top notch for a lower range instrument. It plays perfectly and the sound is good enough to gig it. It was bought as an easy to store away practice bass, but we have used it for recording, such is the great sound and playability it produces. Highly recommended if you are a user of short scale basses.

Just needs to replace the strings

An amazing bass for the price, after replacing the strings, the sound improved notoriously.

This bass guitar exceeded my expectations!

This instrument was my choise becouse my nephew want to start playing bass, but long scale instruments are too big for his small body (tested on my regular scale bass guitar).

He also don't have funds to buy more expensive instrument.

So we chose this one (I own one Harley Benton guitar and it's good, also I heard from other people, that bass guitars from HB are good for its price).

For the money it costs I didn't expected serious instrument, only something that will work good enough, till he get some experience and money for real instrument. BUT! As soon as I take it to my hands and checked the manufacture condition, settings and sound I was quite impressed. I did only small adjustment of bridge (lower the height of strings, improved tuning of octaves) and that was all. The bass sounds very good, feels good in hands, no problems with potentiometers, tuning works relatively fine.

Of course it is not comparable with expensive instruments, but as a first instrument for a student it is a very good choice.

I recommend!

Perfect entry lever bass with an eye to guitar players

I am new to bass guitars therefore I don't have previous experience on similar instruments to directly compare this product to, therefore this isn't an expert review but what I am writing here are my own impression and evaluation only based on my handling and feeling of the instrument which I hope might help other beginners making up their minds.

I already play a bit of guitar and, since I decided to learn bass I wanted an instrument which was as close as possible to my acoustic guitar, I went for a short fretboard bass which limited the transition between the two instruments when it comes to fretting hand position and fingers' stretch.

Unpacking

The bass I bought was a b-stock. It was actually flawless and the only sign of use was a hardly-visible light scratch on the black varnish. Other than that the bass is very nicely finished and I couldn't spot anything else.

Handling

Being used to a classic guitar the bass seemed heavier at first, but I soon got used to it. Especially I need to get used to the neck being heavier and pulling the bass down on the left side (I'm right-handed). I find this quite a drawback and I solutioned it with a strap which now helps me to keep it in balance.

Playing

I find it quite esy to move around the freatboard since the neck size is very similar to my guitars. I think the strings it came with are nichel wound and have that typical 'rocky' sound. I think they are OK for a start but, since I like to have a cleaner sound, I think I will soon swap them for some steel ones. Maybe the strings' play is a bit too high and I'll need to lower a bit.

Conclusion

As a whole I consider this bass as the perfect start for a beginner like me and, because of the short freatboard, with an eye at the guitar players who want to learn this very cool instrument. And Inexpensive as it is you cannot really go wrong.

A bass for guitarists

If I need to put down a basic bass track to riff over I can use this rather than a guitar and an Octave divider pedal - and this does not warble! I find that the longer scale of a normal bass guitar makes it seem like a totally different instrument but the shorter bass scale of the PB-Shorty means that I can think "guitar" rather than "bass". The sound is good enough for recording and practice so after a little while I sold my Fender Precision.

Well made little bass. Extraordinary value.

Great value for the price!

Even though is for people with a tight budget looking for an entry level instrument, this bass has a pretty good sound and very easy to play.

You'll be surprised, and can be side by side with some more expensive ones.

Built quality is good.

Absolutely not heavy to hold and handy for the size.

To start with and have fun is absolutely recommended.

Cheers

Unbelievable value

The bass came set up almost perfectly. The intonation was perfect, I only needed to lower the action by 0.2 mm and retune the strings to get an ideal setup.

There were no flaws in the finish, the frets were leveled with no sharp ends. The knobs and output jack work fine with no crackling. The pickup sounds good to me.

The guitar is a bit neck heavy, since the body is so small, but I have no problems playing it. Overall it is very light and easy to carry/hold.

I can't believe a bass this good can be sold for so little money.

Excellent Guitar

I bought one of these guitars recently, and I am very satisfied with it. I live in England, and delivery took 2 days! The instrument is well made, plays beautifully, and is exceptional value for money. I would recommend it to anyone.

Nice Bass

I bought this for my daughter who has very small hands, she has clicked with the guitar straight away. A long scale bass was never an option for her but she is over the moon with the feel and action of this guitar.

We did find one scuff on the paintwork of the body but at this price it wasn't worth worrying about, it will get plenty more in the coming months I'm sure.

Nice to have metal volume and tone controls, it does lift the look of the guitar.

For the money I can't see anyone producing anything better than this and when you add it to the other pieces I bought with the combo, the package was an absolute steal.

Great deal.