Harley Benton PJ-5 HTR Deluxe Series 4-stars Reviews

Impressed with this awesome instrument, but super heavy.

I am blown away by how good this bass looks, how affordable it is an sounds great. I only use it in my home studio because it being so heavy, much heavier than my 1979 Fender P., but it plays well and sounds great.

Good for the price

Been usin' this bass for all kinds of stuff from surf rock to gothic metal. It does the job perfectly. The pickups produce a slight hum, but it isn't that distracting. Looks and feels great.

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.

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.

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 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.

Outstanding for the money

This is a really solid bass which is well built and plays well.

The pickups are not fantastic, but they are not terrible either - they are perfectly useable.

The neck is chunky, but I think that helps with the overall sound. The tuners hold well enough.

I play in a covers band, and I was looking for a backup bass to my Yamaha 2025x. This more than does the job, I would happily gig with this instrument as is.

for just over a hundred pounds, you will not find a better 5 string p-bass. Worth getting to upgrade the pickups and bridge.

The only downside is the hideous scratch plate . Oh, and the unorthodox splitting of the precision pickup. (backwards to all other 5 string p-basses!)

Good for its price

Its a bit noisy but feeling when playing is quite impresive for the bass which costs as much as case for guitar. I bought it to try 5-string bass and to start to play 5-string bass. I will replace pickups to get rid of noise.

A decent bass at an awesome price

For the price, I don?t think this bass can be beaten. Even taking the price out of the equation this is a solid instrument that can be set up pretty much however you like. I have the action super low and it holds up totally fine.

The pickups aren?t fantastic, but they do enough to handle the low B and have decent clarity.

I?ve managed to get a pretty wide range of tones from this and it handles high gain quite well, the neck is extremely comfortable and the frets came well-polished and with no sharp edges.

There?s quite a bit of neck dive, which is probably the biggest issue I can find. Pretty minor when compared with other basses in this price range.

Nothing fancy, but works

Basic bass; just works. Required some bridge setup when arrived, but otherwise no problems. One thing -- not critical but very annoying -- the bass is covered with some plastic film for protection, and to remove it is hard, because it's *under* all the pots, so one has to take them off to remove the plastic.

Good Bass for the price

I'm primarily a guitarist, but I play bass while tracking demo's at home as well, for the money this is ideal. It's not the best bass in the world, lets get that over first. It does however cover a necessary gap in the mix and would serve well if you want to play it live. I purchased this towards the end of 2011 and I haven't had any 'major' issues with it yet.

The neck pickup sounds very warm, I tend to have this quite high and feed the bridge pickup in until I get the rounded sound that I'm looking for. The neck pickup does pick up the low B string in a 'nicer' way than the bridge does. Maybe that's just personal preference.

The beef I have with the bass are the machine heads. They just seem to not grip that well. If you want to tune you can't make any fine adjustments especially on the low B. You can get it in tune and it will stay in tune, just be cautious when you are tuning it.

If I was to purchase a bass again, I would think about getting the Harley Benton HBZ 2005 instead.

Unpretentious 5 Stringer offering decent bangs for the buck.

Bought this as my beater Bass for Open Mics and Jams and did not have huge expectations from it. However, it really does what it say on the tin and once I've shod it with some flatwound strings, am sure it will be even better!

I don't know if I was just unlucky or out here in the sticks the Couriers regard musical instruments as the " devils tools" and treat them badly but I've had 2 of these in quick succession having had the initial one replaced.

My first one I'd say was on the verge of being too heavy, this newer one is a tad lighter. Decent quality Tuners, the ferrules are a little lumpy under the chrome but hey this is a cheapy Bass. A couple of cranks on the truss rod and the neck plays pretty well, and like I say, with some flatwounds it will play and sound even better.

Usual controls, volume for the Pbass pickups, volume for the rear Jazz pickup and an overall Tone control. People talk about upgrading these low price point Basses but really all the hardware is fine, the tuners stay in tune and it's a decent solid wood body. The Lacquer is semi translucent and you can see the wood grain through the red colour. The neck is a satin finish and actually narrower than a standard PBass or JBass neck. This is not an issue for me and I have large hands and fingers.

Luckily no tortoises were killed in the making of the scratch plate and from a distance it looks reasonably authentic

OK, the Bass does not totally sound like a genuine F Bass but in a band situation at the Dog and Duck on a rainy night no-one is going to notice.

Would be ideal for someone dipping their toes into 5 String water too.

Awesome Bass guitar!

Would suit anyone looking for a 5 string bass on a budget. Needed a little setting up. Once this was done it's a little monster of a bass! I've just finished recording some material with it and it performed really well. A variety of tones can be created with the PJ pickup configuration, which is very useful, as I play different styles of music.

It looks sexy too! I can't pass it without giving it a quick twang!