Harley Benton JA-Baritone BK Reviews

More than just a great value — This is simply a great guitar

Here’s the nitty gritty: in a sound test, this guitar fooled colleagues. I re-recorded songs I had originally done with a custom Kiesel 7-string on this Harley Benton baritone, and no one could say with any certainty which recording was the $3,000 guitar and which was the $200 guitar. Do you know how absolutely insane that is? Here are the notes broken down based on recording, and notes on the guitars: Custom Kiesel 7-string: 26.5” scale, Fishman Fluence pickups. That’s the difference. HB JA-Baritone BK: stock, tuned down to drop G# Listener blind notes on the Kiesel recording: - More clarity and shimmer in clean passages - More note separation, slightly less “mud” in chords utilizing GBE strings. - More fizzy midrange in heavy passages, not pleasing to ear Listener blind notes on the HB Baritone recording: - Cleans sounded a bit “flatter” - Heavy passages had way more balls/grit/drive — overall listeners really liked the bite offered by the P90s - More sustain — one song had guitars ring out at the end, and it was noted that the Baritone rang out for nearly two measures longer, roughly 6 bars in 4/4 That’s kind of it. I love how it feels and how it plays and how it sounds. The 30” scale takes some getting used to, and if you deal with hand/wrist pain already, this may not be the guitar for you. That being said. This is a $200 guitar that, in a blind test, competes with a $3000 custom guitar. I can give it no higher praise than that. I will also note that playing down-tuned music *feels* better on the longer scale length. I actually tune it all the way down to F# now without needing to get thicker strings. Those wanting to tune down to E or Db will need to get thicker strings. Whenever I want to put money into it I will likely get higher quality tuners. The only part of the guitar that feels “skimped” on is the tuners, in my opinion. Still, a 5-star instrument all around.

Stunning value for money

I'm going to start by saying I've never been so impressed by any instrument relative to its price tag. The build quality is great, the neck is fantastic, the bridge is solid and adjusts smoothly, the pickups are clear and punchy and the whole instrument looks like I paid five times as much. the frets could do with a tiny polish but I'd be pleased with the shaping and ends on a guitar costing far more. The pots are smooth and clean, and the tone control is probably the most useful I've ever had across its entire range. I've brought the action down to 1.5mm bass side and 1mm treble, and there's not a hint of buzz anywhere, which is astonishing. I did have to put a bit of extra tension on the truss rod and discovered that it's already cranked to the max, which is worrying but hopefully something I won't have to touch further. I haven't had any issues at all with microphonic pickups or grounding so I presume that was an early thing. The only things I would note are that the selector switch feels very notchy (even though it works perfectly) and the tuner heads don't inspire confidence, especially with this amount of tension. No problems as yet though. Get one, but book time out because it's hard to put down.

insane quality to price ratio

arrived in decent setup, i was going to swap to 24-84 guage strings anyway so didnt mind much. the new set fit perfectly and after a quick setup which took 10min (since the guitar had no flaws) the guitar was playing as smooth as butter. if you are looking for a 30" baritone look no further.

Great Baritone

After returning to being in stock it arrived very quick to the US! Guitar is great quality, the neck and frets feel good. The pickups were okay but unfortunately they did start to get scratchy and eventually they stopped working, which was fine because I ended up swapping them out for EMG's. Holds tuning really well and intubation is on spot, even with the plastic tuners. Would absolutely recommend!

More than what I expected

The guitar is awesome. The setup was good, no sharp frets, no buzzing sound, no grounding issue and the cosmetic is also top notch.

amazing design, two complaints though

one of the things i didn’t like about it is the tuners. they’re plastic and couldn’t hold tuning very well. it also came with sharp fret edges. all that being said, if you put in the work and work on it, you will be rewarded 👍

A great instrument for a great cost

Influenced by YouTube, I bought myself this guitar as a gift. And what a gift! If you want a super tight B standard guitar, it does it out of the box. I dropped it to a Low E Standard and it chugs! I find myself lowering the gain as it doesn't require a lot to cut through the mix and chug. It does however require you to work with your tone knob to get a humbucker-ish gain sound, but you get used to it. The tuners are a bit meh, and fretboard had some filler, but what can you expect at this price range? Middle and neck are great for clean, I was surprised how well the p90s sound. Tip for using - make sure that when you buy strings, they are long enough to fit a 30 inch scale guitar. Not all 8 string sets work, baritones do.

JA-Baritone Killz It!

The JA-Baritone is pretty much my favorite guitar. Stays in tune, perfect fret-board feel, quality materials, solid construction. The only thing that lacks is the pickups, replaced with Fishman Fluence Richard Z, good to go! Thank you Harley!

For the money? No brainer.

A 6 string baritone is something everyone should play around with at some point. But to own one with these specs and at this price, do your self a favor and pick one up, or three like I did. They serve as an amazing starting point for wild mod platforms. I made one of the headless and regret nothing. The P-90s introduce many fun ways of playing the guitars as iv never had a guitar with them before. Love it. 9.7/10

A Beast!

What can I say more.... Fat tones!!! Such a ling neck you can drop the guitar very low. I love it!!!

Of course, not a bad choice to change the tuners. They are cheap but hold my low tuning (G) pretty good.

Fantastic quality and at an amazing price!

I stumbled across this guitar and IMMEDIATELY bought it without any hesitation and that was one of the best decisions I've made and it has been my go to guitar since I've got it; It gets grabbed over some of my more expensive guitars too. Aesthetically it looks phenomenal and I love the weight. Heavy without being TOO heavy, (unless you're drop tuning this thing) Though it is a heavy guitar (musically wise) it is also versatile with the P90s and I can play the smoothest jazz to the most filthy death metal and everything in between. The only thing I would say is a "CON" would be the tuner pegs but they turn smoothly and the guitar holds tune quite well. It can be a bit noisy but P90s in my experience have always been a bit hot but they're still very dynamic and pack a punch. Overall this an awesome guitar and it's without a doubt worth having in your arsenal! 🤘

4,7 kg!

Was besonders an dem Instrument ist, ist das Gewicht von 4,7 kg. Ich kenne immer noch Musiker, insbesondere Bassisten, die glauben der Basssound käme aus dem Body, je schwerer umso besser. Und dann füttern sie das Signal in die DAW oder den digitalen sound processor.

Die Mechaniken haben kleine Knöpfe und sind deshalb schwierig zu drehen und gehen sehr schwer. Die könnte man vielleicht mit ein bisschen Arbeit ersetzen. Sonst fällt an dem Instrument nichts auf.

Ich ziehe short scale Bassaiten auf und habe mit einer tune-o-matik Piezo Bridge meine Möglichkeiten erweitert. Verrückt - oder?

Ich würde das Instrument vor allem wegen des horrenden Gewichts nicht nochmal kaufen.

Work it!

This thing is nasty. Just what I was looking for

How can this be?!

Bought this thing to tune down super low and play some heavy riffs. Low expectations for the price point. Heard about terrible fret ends, awful tuners, nightmare setup/action. NONE of these things were issues for me. This neck is absurdly comfy, pickups sound amazing in drop f for heavy riffs, fret ends rounded beautifully. I feel like I stole this thing at the price. Unreal.

good intro to baritone

as mentioned it is good for anyone looking to dip their toes into the world of baritone, i do have a minor gripe and that's that the tuning machine heads are made of plastic and while entirely functional they do feel a bit cheap

great guitar

just an overall great instrument.

Very good guitar

First of all - the guitar is beautiful. Looks very nice.

The sound is also pretty descent. And yes I've read some comments about pickups - that they are humming to much. Well i don't have this problem. First of all - there is no humming on clean sound.

With overdrive a little bit of humming appears. But, not more than any other single pickups. And like any other single pickups this problem can be solved with simple noise gate.

P.S. Yes the middle position is the best :)

Its OK

The baritone is ok had it for about a month now so finally got over the new guitar excitement. Pickups are okay I can get some decent sounds out of it. Sounds better in a DAW w/ plugins as you can fine tune better. Neck is good fits nice and snug in the pocket. File marks almost the whole way up the neck where they rounded the fretboard edges and frets, could have been cleaned up better. Purpleheart fretboard was drier than the Sahara when it arrived. And mine also had the annoying loud buzz whenever the smallest amount of Gain was introduced **Ground Issue on Mine**. Didn't play well out of the box definitely needed a setup sounds like that varies from JA to JA. All in all you get what you pay for as inexpensive as it was I didn't mind taking care of the issues myself but if your someone that doesn't have guitar luthier knowledge I wouldn't recommend this or someone that flat out wants a 100% functioning guitar out the box...Would no recommend. My SubZero had less issues than this JA.

Baritonelyyyy :)

The electric guitar is fantastic. It sounds quite threatening and powerful. A bright representative of baritones. There is no better guitar in this price range. There are some complaints about the quality of fittings and painting. The black guitar has many small scratches and polish residue throughout the guitar. This is a bit unfortunate. But in general, the instrument is the highest top.

Awesome baritone!!!

This thing looks, feels and sounds amazing.