Harley Benton JB-40FL 3-Tone Sunburst Reviews

Best Bang For The Money

Set up was perfect and not a single blemish.Electronics and pick-ups are above ravage. Arrived in the US with no issues. In fact the products were so good i have placed another order for more items.

Amazing value and build quality

Having seen many reviews on YouTube I decided to give this a try. For once the hype was justified, it is quite simply a fantastic bass for the money. The build quality is on par with Fender Squier, but at a third of the price. The neck is a work of art and is comparable to my Dave Ellefson Jackson V, both in terms of quality, comfort and ease of use. The only negative thing I can say is it didn't come with flatwounds, however the D'Adarrio's it came with are excellent, and will be used elswhere. My only regret is I didn't buy this sooner. Buy it and you won?'t be disappointed.

I wanted to try fretless

This guitar blew me away when it arrived, it is totally perfect, I cannot find anything bad to say about it.

The only thing I have done is put some flat wound strings on it, sounds great, looks great, very happy buyer!

Great Value for money

This is Bass is great considering the price tag! It looks gorgeous. The neck feels great and plays beautifully. I just had to do a set up on it and I changed the stock strings to nylon tapewound strings and it sounds great. Tuning pegs are not off high quality and my low E tuning peg doesn't wind comfortably but then again for this price tag I can't really complain cause obviously they can easily be changed. Overall I'm quite happy with it.

Very nice fretless bass !

A very nice fretless Jaco Pastorius bass with nice finish and smooth neck with very nice sound wich worth all the money and looks like a 1500 euro Fender bass ! I recomend it !

Very good for the price.

The tone is perfect .

The action is too high ,you need to re-adjust it.

Too heavy , and the neck is thick , it is noisy while release your fingers (while not playing).

The shipping took a month from Germany to Netherlands.

After using it for almost 3 years I love it!

I purchased this bass almost three years ago so am basing my review on having used this bass for some time. In these years it has been used regularly for rehearsals, live and studio work, excelling in both! I cannot recommend this bass enough!

Regularly at rehearsal spaces/studios or at gigs people would ask me who built my bass and expected based on the look and sound that it would be a bass costing over £1000 pounds! You can imagine their reaction when hearing how much it actually costs!

I always take two basses into the studio or for gigs and most times it is this bass and my Fender jazz bass. The build quality, tone and playability is on a par with the Fender and have found myself on many occasions picking this bass over the Fender!

Since buying this bass the only part of the specification I can see that has changed is they no longer come with Wilkinson pickups but it sounds like the new pickups are just as high quality.

Yes this bass is not perfect, but neither is my Fender! For me this bass is a no brainier for anyone wanting a good quality fretless jazz bass without busting the bank! I highly recommend trying one!

Great fretless bass for the price

I bought this because I wanted to try a fretless bass but didn?t want to spend a lot of money and it works well, sounds good, but it doesn?t have too much ability to shape the tone. I do not regret buying it and I think if you want to try one try this one before spending a bunch of money only to find out it?s not your thing!

Excellent fretless bass for the price!

I bought the B-Stock option of this model and I have to say it is amazing value for money. There were a few small signs of use, but nothing to worry or care about, almost new condition overall.

The bass is well made with a reassuring weight and is certainly not too heavy. The bass has a great finish on the body, a comfortable and well attached neck/fingerboard (tight pocket, no gap at all) and the Roswell passive pickups are even better than I had heard and read about, very impressed with them. The bridge is solid, made and attached well, the tuners are not the best ever but hold tuning well and are functional enough.

Pros:

- Amazing value for money

- Construction is solid

- You can get the classic fretless jazz sounds out of this bass

- Works well with Nickel roundwounds (more zingy and even more mmmwwaahh) and Flatwound strings (upright sounds & warmer/punchier sounds)

Cons:

- Some people will find it too heavy, personally I don't mind a bit of weight to a bass.

- Tuners could be better but are functional enough

Overall oustanding for the money. I have given it 4 stars, but really it should get 5 stars for this price range. It is a compliment to the bass that my 4 star rating is a result of comparing it against my other much more expensive instruments (Classic Musicman Stingray, 1997 Warwick Streamer Stage 1, Lakland 55-02, Marcus Sire V7, SB-MusicMan sting-RAY35.) Excellent.

A surprisingly nice instrument.

It's very very good choice if you need fretless bass for little money.

I ordered this bass because I wanted to have a fretless, but could not pay much. It sounds exactly like you can hear on the records and videos of the leading fretless bass players.

In the hands it feels like a professional level bass. Yes, this bass is heavy, about 5 kg but heavy weight is typical for ash j-basses.

It was almost perfectly setted up out of the box. The alnico pickups perfectly gives the tone of the instrument.

I'm not sure about the fingerboard hardeness - it already has traces from strings winding. But so far it does not cause any issues, and if the traces will be progresses - it's easy to fix.

Tuning machines, bridge and electronics are obviously cheap, but I can not find any claims yet - works fine. Some screws are screwed inaccurately, but it does not critical.

Pros: sound (!!!), ash, comfort, ergonomics, alnico.

Cons: cheap accessories, inaccurately installed pickups and strap buttons.

It's ok, I guess...

Lots of people say Harley Benton can take on instruments costing two or three times as much, but with this particular bass I have to say the hype is somewhat exaggerated. The finish of the body is really nice, but the fingerboard was in terrible shape. It was dry like desert sand, and the fretlines protruded past the edge. Really sloppy work. The (chunky) neck was nicely finished though. Electronics are ok, they do the job but it's nothing special. The tone control doesn't have much influence on the sound, the knobs feel really cheap. The setup was pretty decent. A tad too high for my liking but very playable right out of the box. The bass sounds too polite for me, and with the sloppy fingerboard it made me use the return policy. If you want a really cheap bass for just fooling around with then this one should do the job nicely. If you want anything better than that, don't expect this ¤149 bass to sound like a ¤400 bass. It just doesn't.

really nice

The Harley Benton JB-40FL SB at 149 euro is amazing, the neck is wonderful, the fret board ( or should that be just ..board) is blackwood which I've not played before, its not black and it has some very nice details.

The finish is perfect and it sounds great.

The only change I made was to fit flatwound strings and get the action down to almost nothing and now its a joy.

The only thing I'm not so keen on is the pickups are not adjustable, doesn't matter that much, I just like to have adjustment in case I change a bridge or fit very light strings.

lovely thing, If you wont to try a fretless this is the one it even has fret lines that seem to be set in material, not drawn on. jaco would approve!

An affordable way into owning a fretless bass

Bought this bass as I was curious if a sub-$200 AUD bass could be playable. Not only was it playable, it holds its own with basses 4 or 5 times the price! I am very happy with this bass, it has all the punch, growl and mwahh that a fretless Jazz bass should. It's a little hefty, but I like that, as it gives it good sustain. Only downside is that the pickups are a little nasal and quiet, but nothing that a bit of amp fiddling can't fix. All, in all - highly recommended!

Amazing instrument

I want to use this bass in gospel band.

From my first impressions that is what i was searching for.

My bass has body from three pieces (hard to find the wood crossing), well build - nice sunburst and lacquer.

There are only some minor imprefections on fingerboard (not influence the sound or playability) , but for this price are absolutely acceptable. Neck sits perfectly in my hands, little thicker than my Squier JB, but well well playable.

Sound of pickups (whole instrument) is on my ears midrange "saucy". Little hum when one of pickups is preffered, yes thats normal single coil phenomenon. Tunners OK, bridge plate is more robust than Squier. Pots knobs are cheap, but thats no problem to change it for several bucks.

Tone control works nice.

I have no real cons.

Amazing and inspirative instrument for this price.

Forget on DIY defretting some old bass but buy this one.

Best buyer

I bought it for a second fretless bass. Very good sound and quality. I haven't expect as good. It is the best buy for the money.

The only con is the edge of the fingerboard was a little bit sharp, but it is easy to fix with a scraper or sandpaper.

Lives up to the reviews

As soon as you pull this bass out of the box, you are impressed, you would be for twice the cost.

I don't think it's as heavy as some are making out, it's certainly nicely balanced and the neck is superb, fast, slim, nicely finished, very comfortable and curiously short without the shortcomings of a SS bass.

The strings are a little bright for my taste, obviously in easy fix, in my case with some Rotosounds, so be prepared to replace them.

The action, tuning and general set up was pretty good out of the box, all told, if your looking for a workhorse fretless, this is probably impossible to beat in terms of value for money.

For the money... just buy it.

Always wanted a fretless bass... could never justify the expense.

Saw this for £130... thought what the hell. That's less than a good night out.

Amazed at the quality, finish, sound. Just unbelievable for the price. Needed a bit of setting up out of the box to lower the bridge saddles a smidgen, but the neck is pretty much perfect.

I've read reviews that moan about the fret dots being in the wrong position, but this is supposed to replicate a fretted bass that has been converted (as played by a certain guy whose name rhymes with Paco Jastorius) so you have the "fret edges" to let you know where to put your digits.

My only concern is that this thing is insanely heavy! Not a problem for me, but if you're buying this for a skinny 12-year old, you might want to look elsewhere unless you want to deal with spinal injuries. ;o)

Overall... if you ever fancied having a footle about with a fretless, you'd be crazy not to try this out. It's £130! That's just nuts.

I'm not sure it will ever become my no.1 gigging tool, but I don't think I''l ever need to replace it.

Peace

Fretless surprise

I bought this as a starter fretless because I wasn't sure that I could play it in tune.

As it turned out the tuning was not a problem at all - but the most surprising thing was the general build quality which was fantastic. Even the pickups are top class.

Normally I play a '70s Fender J bass but since having the fretless the J bass has stayed in it's case. I've used it on 3 sessions now and on each one the producer has loved the sound and not a single engineer whinged about buzzs, etc. I am seriously thinking about getting another one in case they discontinue it.

Great value for money

It's quite astonishing that you can pick up a more than acceptable fretless J-bass at this price. Yes, it is a bargain but it's not a Fender or Squier so you're not going to get that level of quality, but then again it costs far less.

The sound is sweet and everything works fine out of the box. The only trouble I had was a buzz at the top of the neck (where fret 1 would be) but this was sorted out quickly and cheaply at my local guitar shop.

Really great value for money.

Love this bass!

I've wanted a fretless Jazz Bass for ages but could not justify spending too much money on one. This bass answered all my dreams! I played it straight out of the box and everything was almost perfect, I just had to raise the action a little to my preferred playing height, and it has been hard to put it down since. The finish is really exceptionally good, not just at this price point, but at any price point. The ash body is made of what looks like two extremely well matched pieces, the join is almost imperceptible. The wood glows beautifully through the sunburst finish. The neck is perfect, well crafted with a slim fast feel, just like a Jazz Bass should be. The hardware is also extremely good for the price, just a little bit more lightweight than my 'professional' bass, but nothing to complain of. The pickups are also exceptional at this price, providing all the classic JB sounds but at a fraction of the price of a genuine Pastorius style bass. I really recommend this bass to anyone who wants to experiment with fretless.