Harley Benton PJ-4 HTR Deluxe Series Reviews

Big Beautiful Bass

I am so happy with this one. The color is amazing. The shine is deep and so is the tone. Great look and sound. I can't wait to buy more H/B guitars and basses and see what they do next

Love this bass.

I bought this bass as a beginner and love how customisable the sound is. You can use the tone dial and also choose the balance between the pickups to get your desired sound. Very good beginner bass.

Nothing (really) to complain about

I was unable to bring my 1964 Gibson EB0 or 1980s Fender Jazz or Vox AC50 and Foundation 18ins cabinet so I bought the PJ (and the 40W) combo as it was all I need and can afford and it is beautiful and I can't really fault it. Clearly I can't do a direct comparison but I don't need to.

Maybe the tuners could do with replacing and maybe the G-string doesn't have the power / depth of the other three but for what i paid it is brilliant.

I an not a fan of 5 string bases with fretboards like planks but I with probably have this modifies to B E A D for fun.

It had an advantage not many people would think of...... when a bottle of red wine is placed in front of it (with the label cunningly removed camouflaged, I don't need to share it!

Hard to beat.

I bought this Bass as my first instrument when switching to Bass. For the price I don't think you could find something better. While it required a little bit of setup when I recieved it, it continues to perform whenever I need it to.

nice

value for this amount of price ,i recommend it to begginers

VFM

I bought this as an alternative to my main bass.I Used heavy gauge strings and tuned it down to C Standard.It plays well.The electronics are not the best but definitively do the job

es un bajo comodo de usar, bonito y llego en excelentes condiciones y bien cuidado, venia con las herramientas necesarias para acomodar bien el puente ademas de un cable, excelente compra

(Mostly) great build quality, extremely playable, great sound

I bought this bass mostly for my son, as he wants to learn to play. I figured, what better place to start than a P-bass, but perhaps something with a bit more tonal flexibility for when he's older. This bass nails it - great tone, great set up, really excellent build quality for the price. I mean, that's pretty much the definition of Harley Benton, with the obvious sacrifices for those prices (nickel frets instead of steel, etc...).

One issue that was quickly cured with a rubber band of all things - the low E string tuner had a REALLY annoying rattle, like the paddle of the tuner was loose in the tuner shaft. Remedied by basically wrapping the rubber band around the joint of the paddle and shaft a few times. At some point I might replace the tuners, but it's not a huge deal as it still sounds and plays great.

Cant go wrong for the money

Does what it supposed to do and a low cost,highly recommend it,why pay more.The stars i gave reflect the price point.

Got this because I'm on quite a tight budget, and it's definitely good for the price. Came with some action and fret buzz quirks but it was an easy fix even for someone like me with no prior experience just with the included set of hex keys. Holds the tuning well, neck feels quite nice, the finish is delightful. Unfortunately the lack of shielding makes it buzz if there's anything plugged in in the same room, the tone pot is unusable if it's sharing an extension cord with something like a laptop charger, and the bridge pickup is a tad weak out of the box, but nothing that can't be fixed. After three months I can say I don't regret buying it

Great bass for little money

I was looking for a compromise between jazz bass and presision, in the end I decided to try PJ. The package arrived in Krasnodar, Russia in 10 days. Everything was packed great! The guitar looks much nicer with my own eyes than in the photo. The varnish is translucent, the texture of the tree is visible. I really liked the sound, especially the neck pickup. I recommend to everyone for a purchase!

A neat versatile beginner instrument!

First thing first, this is my first bass. I bought it in September because I wanted to learn to play bass on a tight budget. I use it mostly to play by myself and for the occasional jam session.

In short, I agree with most of the positive reviews. This is a great instrument for a beginner. It sounds in most cases really good. The bridge pickup can have too low input. That's only something I've noticed at separate times. the PJ combo is a really easy way to get a wide range of sounds. I love how the neck feels as well!

Sadly, I don't have as much control over the sound as I'd like. The tone knob, for example, is rather dull and could be more sensitive. That goes the same for the tuning mechanism, I can't seem to tune it exactly as in tune as I want it. On the other hand, it stays in-tune rather well. Also, keep in mind: the bass can be quite heavy.

To summarize: this is a great instrument to buy when you're short on cash. Just be ready to accept the eventual one or two quirks that might need fixing.

Nice feel and sound

I played a bass years ago....a nice homemade jazz bass. Was looking for something similar, but had to settle on this....not gutted though.

A nice bass tone, the guitar is comfortable to play. The J and the P give it a nice versatility. I was worried it would be the jack of all trades master of none, but that isn't the case.

The one little problem is that the gauge of stings it came with is too big for the nut cut. I would suggest dropping the string down a gauge.

A great bass for beginners

An affordable solution for those who are about to start learning bass.

Awesome Inexpensive PJ Bass

Good as the name brands costing $$$ more. Overall quality was excellent. Plays and sounds very nice. TY

Great bang for the buck!

I primarily bought this bass as a modding platform. I really like to put my personal touch on all of my instruments and this HB PJ4 has what it takes to make a great looking, playing and sounding bass.

Looks: The absolute first thing to change was the pick guard. The tortoiseshell does not work for me at all! I took it off and painted it gloss black to match the pickups. The quality of the pick guard was okay but not great. The bevel was a little wavy, so I sanded the edges straight and smooth. Even though the stock hardware is very good, I decided to change all of it (bridge, tuners, knobs) to black. Black looks really great with the transparent red of the body. I would have preferred a solid red but this shade of red is very nice. Although the wood underneath the paint is slightly visible, it doesn't have any glaring discrepancies and the transparent

red coat is applied quite evenly. I did find one flaw in the clear top coat that I should be able to polish out. Another reason that I am changing the tuners is so that I can get lighter ones from Gotoh. Even though the bass is fairly well balanced and light weight (not neck heavy), I want to favor the weight on the body side so that the neck sits a little higher. I ordered a high mass bridge for the same reason. I ebonized the fingerboard with India ink. Looks awesome! Playibility: The bass came with the action set too high and intonation off at the bridge. I was able to adjust it quite low without any fret buzz. Neck bow was set perfectly. Frets are dressed very nicely. I steel-wooled and lemon-oiled the back of the neck for an ultra smooth finish. The vintage tint of the neck is perfect. Amber in color. Not a fake yellow as on a lot of guitars these days. Sound: I read some complaints that the pickups are out of balance. This is true as far as how the bass sounded when it first arrived. HOWEVER, the pickups are completely adjustable and I was able to match them perfectly with little effort. I ended up with the neck pickups 1/4" off the body and the bridge pickup 1/8" from the strings. And they sound great! Fairly low output but clear and balanced. There is no reason to change them out at all. There is nothing that a good boost/preamp can't remedy if you need a hotter output. Oh yes, one important thing...the bass is not shielded in any way. So there is a fair amount of buzz. Might be okay for some but annoys the heck out of me. This will also be fixed with lining all the cavities with copper shielding tape.

Conclusion: For what I payed for this bass ($200US incl. shipping) it's a great bargain. It is totally usable right out of the box. BUT, if you want to make it a really great bass, you'll need to put a little more time and money into it. Even then, you can equal or exceed the quality of a bass that costs three times more. The tones from this PJ bass are varied and excellent. All the classic sounds are there. You can find good demos on Youtube and hear for yourself.

great value!

Beautiful bass, with nice sound and great build quality.

Great value for the price

Worth the price

Decent guitar especially for the price point, feels solid and plays well. Pickups above what you would expect for an under £200 bass.

It's not what you think

I would start this review with the stereotipical "it's not a Fender" thing, but I just can't. It's great.

It's easy, smooth and very well done. I wouldn't break my back playing it all night and it really doesn't need nothing more for the price.

I love the neck, which gets perfectly with the palm of my hand.

As always with budget instrument the electronics are just "enough". But, hey, you didn't buy a expensive bass, but a bass that is great choice for the money. You get more than paid.

Check the strap buttons

This feels like a good budget bass for a beginner.

However, after about one week use, the bottom strap button fell off; luckily, when setting the bass back to its stand. The other strap button was also lose and was about fall.

As nothing bad had happened, I re-screwed the strap buttons back with 4mm x 40mm wood screws (instead of the initial 3mm x 20mm).

Maybe this operation keeps the buttons from falling.