Harley Benton PJ-5 HTR Deluxe Series Reviews

Great value bass

This is a great bass for the price, I am a guitar player and just wanted a cheap bass for home recording, this bass is perfect for what I needed.

It's so good and so cheap

It's not a boutique bass costing $$$, but it exceeded all my expectations. It feels like a decent bass, plays like a decent bass and I love the tone, the pickups are fine, lots of middle lows. It doesn't have the slap snap sound like a jazz bass, but I can get it with EQ.

I've had none of the issues mentioned earlier. I adjusted the pickup heights and all strings sing perfectly. The headstock weight is fixed with a leather strap. It's not too heavy btw. The best thing is the neck, no sharp frets, no lumps, just nice quality.

The only minor 'cheap' things about it are the pickup poles are slightly out of alignment, makes no difference to sound. The pickguard is horrible, but I've already made two really cool ones out of blank sheets using the old one as a stencil, black and brown tort. You could even just spray it another colour. There are some minor polishing omissions on the fretboard and body, but hey??

I got a great bass to get me into 5 string, no regrets at all, get one.

Pleasantly Surprised

The materials, workmanship, build, setup and sound is just fantastic for a bass in this price range. I could not have been more pleased about this purchase.

Amazing for the price

I myself am i metal and rock bass player and needed a 5 string for that low B. It came perfectly setup and was almost in tune. the only problem i have would have to be is that the G doesn't sit exactly in the position for the pickups. But overall can't complain.

A really decent instrument for a reasonable price

I bought this bass to record demos at home. I'm a guitarist rather than a bassist, so I can't give a full-blown review. But I found this instrument to be quite playable, even for a beginner. With the P-J pickups, it's possible to get a wide range of tones. The construction seems to be pretty solid and the quality overall is very good.

One worthwhile side note: older reviews mention this model having a really cheap-looking, unattractive pickguard. The bass I received appears to have this problem solved. It's a pretty good looking instrument.

Very good for the money

Bought this bass only for song writing purposes and for the money, it's a bargain. Sounds good, palyability is really good. Overall, I'm quite happy with it.

What you see is what you get

With a price tag like this one, I was expecting a few flaws to be glaringly obvious, but I must say I am very very impressed with the overall quality of this 5 strings bass. It plays well, sounds good, stays in tune, looks good.

I've had none on the problems mentioned in a few other reviews.

I'm glad I decided on buying this and I'm now thinking of having a go a a guitar or two from Harley Benton.

The unbeatable bass for the price

This bass is very nice for the price. It has a nice weight to it, not to heavy, all frets are easily reachable and plays very good. The sound is amazing for this price. I would play this bass, and if if would broke, i would immediately buy another one or two. Really, Harley Benton, thumbs up for this one!

The only con for me is actually the color. I would prefer it in any other color than red, including pickguard, its not very nice from close viewing.

My other car is a Ferrari

Remember those bumper stickers? Bought as 'placeholder' bass for a few gigs whilst my regular bass was indisposed. Replaced strinds immediately, sounded great, more than held it's own in live environment. Looks the part too.

When I think of the cost of those lesser basses I had learn on all those years ago.. Buy with confidence, fantastic value for money.

Unbelievable value

I bought this as a cheap 5 string to leave at my girlfriend's place so I can practice when I'm over there, and she can spend some time learning on a reasonable bass - thought I'd kill two birds with one stone, and finding a secondhand 5-string at a decent price was proving difficult.

I can't believe just how good this bass is for the money - I was expecting a slightly cheap-feeling bass with lots of rough edges. Didn't find any of that. The neck feels great (yes, it's a little thicker front-to-back than my usual Jackson, but it's no baseball bat, unlike some of the reviews here have made out) - the frets are well fitted with no rough ends. The finish is immaculate - couldn't find a single flaw - and the HB logo is much nicer than the ugly 'brush script' font in the pictures. It sounds good - typical P and J sound, which can be blended however you want with 2 separate volume controls, and the controls work as you would expect, and have a 'heavy', quality feel to them. Hardware is nicely plated, simple, functional, and works as it should. Setup was pretty good out of the box.

I'd gig this bass in a heartbeat. Considering playing it for a TV show I'm doing next week, I'm that happy with it!

Excellent value for an excellent bass!

I would have given 5 starts if the bass had been fully set up. But I am fortunate to have a friend who is good at setting up guitars. He made it as playable and good-sounding as my Fender Jazz bass. I realize it's not economical for the company to spend its profits on setting up inexpensive equipment.

Surprisingly good

I admit I was very doubtful about this instruments, as with all cheap ones. This revealed to be a surprise; the bass delivers a sound that, though not incredibile, is nonetheless very good and balanced and suitable for a great variety of genres.

What struck me, though, was most of all the extreme playability of the neck that confirmed a build that far exceeded the expectation in this price range.

very nice bass for price

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Unbeatable for the price.

I bought this bass as a recording bass, I do a lot of home recording and needed something to flesh out my riff ideas. I'm primarily a guitarist. This bass meets all the criteria I needed it to. It's comfortable to play, it's a decent weight, and it sounds lovely. Out the box, it arrived almost perfectly in tune, with strings feeling new and fresh. The setup was impeccable - no dead spots, no buzzing, no sharp fret ends. Blown my expectations out the water and I couldn't be happier with it.

The pickguard did show some manufacturing defects, as it had straggling threads of plastic coming off in multiple places, but other than that, cosmetically, the bass looked fine. If I were to change anything about it, it'd be the bridge. It feels light and low quality (I had to remove it to drill a hole to fit a .135 gauge string).

Overall, I'm very impressed with this bass and would strongly recommend it to anyone looking to either purchase their first 5 string, or any guitarists looking to buy a bass.

Good bass for a beginner or as a back-up

I use this in my home studio. I am a guitar player, but I record bass parts for my music. For the very reasonable price this bass offers basic bass tones. Please note: pickups are very low output. I can only record it hot enough with preamp or booster. Also, the neck seems unstable - I had to tighten the rod twice. I hope it remains fixed now.

Amazing

How can you make a bass cost 129 euros so that is playable out of the box?! That is the question I still cannot figure out for HB guitars/basses. It is amazing bass to be honest. First I did was replacing the strings because the stock ones are just crap. After some slight neck/bridge adjustments it plays amazing! I am suprised how this can cost so little and be a full playable instrument with great sound quality. I own a 90s japanese made quality bass and I prefer this HB over that one. However, there are some downsides. Fret finishing is not that great. Frets ends definitely need filing. And the bass had some inteferences with other electricity, so I insulated the cavities with copper tape. That did the trick. If you are in for some DIY stuff, don't be afraid of this bass. It delivers a punchy sounds and good playability for some minor DIY work. For the price point, it is unbeatable. If you are just starting up or you are a professional player, try this. You will be amazed how good it is for the money.

A great bass for a small price

This is a really great instrument for the price tag. Construction is very good. I had a bridge screw not tightened all the way but i'm not going to complain much about that. The bass is a little neck heavy, but nothing i have to fight. The overall tone is far better than basses of a higher price point.

Great sound for the price

I can't complain due to it's price. Sound quality overall is pretty decent and enough to have some bass lines recorded at home but... There is a lot (but really a lot) of mass noise coming from the instrument when raising up the volume of the single coil pick up... Instrument came very well calibrated and with a nice feel and weight... I'm pretty impressed.

Excelent cheap bass

I've been looking for not expensive, 5 string backup bass with Fender Precision pickup layout.

That's why I've gave a chance to Harley Benton.

I'm using it since few months together with "theoretically" better guitar, PRS Kestrel. After this time I can say that this is a great cheap bass with good sound, very comfortable neck, but it requires some work/fixes. It is also a great base for modification because wood, build quality and fret work is OK.

Pros:

- really good sound. It is a cheap instrument but electronics, pickups, pots are very OK.

- good fret work, it will let you to setup pretty much low action.

- neck is very comfortable, well fitted into body, nice satin finish.

- great paint work

- low B string sounds very deep and powerful.

- nice rose wood on fingerboard

- great packaging.

Cons:

- when it arrives, fingerboard was very dirty, but it was possible to clean it up.

- frets were a little rusty, I've polish them using steel wool.

- electronics doesn't have proper EM shield. Without that pickups will be noisy due to power supply's and other source of EM turbulence. No big deal, I've fixed it myself using copper tape. Now they are deadly silent.

- pickguard is awful ;-) I've paint it with black paint. Now it looks very good. Also pickguard is a pretty much uncommon so it will be hard to get drop-in replacement.

- head dive heavily. Leather strap helps. I've also change a bridge to Fender HiMass to add some weight to body. Hint: Fender HiMass bridge fit perfectly, you don't have to drill new holes.

- bad factory setup. It was completely unplayable, strings were lying on frets. I have to make whole setup including setting of truss-rod.

- tuners are not so great, they are very loose. I will probably change them in future

Overall I'm happy with this guitar. If you have a basic luthier skills and you can fix some slips then it is a great choice. I convinced that Harley Benton makes affordable and good products.

Great bass for the price

This bass has amazing build quality and value for the most part except for one major design flaw. The bass feels and plays great, build quality is solid, but the pickups don't match the string spacing of the bridge.

I bought this bass so I can make demos of my songs at home without having to ask other people play bass tracks for me. I'm not really a bass player even though I enjoy playing bass. This is the first bass I've owned (although over the years I've played quite a few) so I can' t really comment if this sounds better or worse than other affordable bass guitars.

Good thing about this bass is how it feels. The neck is nice and smooth and plays well. There are no pointy fret ends and the electronics and hardware feel solid. Nothing instantly feels cheap about the bass. The setup was almost bang on out of the box. I only had to adjust the intonation of the higher strings and it was ready to go.

Then the bad thing. The pickups that were put on this bass do not line up with the string spacing. The string spacing is too narrow so the outer strings don't line up with the pole pieces. And the G string is completely outside the P pickup pole pieces for the string. I was able to make it a little bit better by putting coins between the saddle pieces thus spreading out the strings at the bridge. Still the G string is not even close to being where it should be. But I don't really use the G string that much so it's not a big problem for me.

Another minor issue is that the pickup output on the two lowest strings is noticeably lower than on the others. Might be just a matter of adjusting the pickup height. I'll have to look into it later.

Overall I'm happy with the purchase and I may look into replacing the pick guard along with the pickups to make things sound better. Everything else about the bass is so solid that even if the upgrade ends up costing 3x the price of the host instrument I think it still will be worth it.