Harley Benton JB-75FL SB Vintage Series Reviews

Unexpectedly good

Under-200€ JB?!?...c'mon,be serious... ...BUT.... This cheapie really DELIVERS.A happy combination between chosen woods and the rest of the hardware,surprisingly WITHOUT any neck's dead notes and,voila,fretless sound in spades! One (tiny) remark regarding the PU's,though: beside the above-than-average sound ,sweet-sounding (not so common for some "no-names"eh? - plus,they' re not very sensitive to external magnetic fields,though they're clearly singles,not humbuckers),the pole-pieces' edges are sharp enough and become uncomfortable if you raise the PUs too much and play straight upon them.Otherwise,no complain. For a cheap but efficient upgrade,I reccomend a set of DiMarzio DP123.It's a plug-and-play (dimensions-wise) replacement for the original Roswells and puts this cheap bass into entire another league (OK,Alnico-vs-ceramic is a debatable preference).Also,replace the tone capacitor with a 22nF and you're set.

Best option for the first fretless bass

I'm part of a band that was looking for a fretless bass sound, but I didn't want to invest a lot of money into one since I lacked experience with fretless instruments. I ended up choosing this bass, and I'm genuinely impressed by the quality HB managed to achieve at this price point. I had read some positive reviews beforehand, so I took the plunge, and I'm glad I did. Pros: It delivers a fantastic Jazz bass sound. The bass played well straight out of the box, just needed a tuning. The pickups produce decent sound. The tuners are reliable. Cons: It's worth noting that this bass is quite heavy, so keep that in mind before making your purchase.

Great bass for money

Only downside is this bass really heavy other than that it is great bass

Good bass

The bass itself feels and plays well, a bit on a heavier side. The fingerboard buzzes at some places, but nothing major. Pickups are sounding good and fat, a bit noisy at the stock condition but shielding cavities helped with that. Change strings to flatwound or even better nylon tapewound and you should be good to go.

good price for this quality

It's heavy but it's lovely

Chuffed and relieved.

Had a squier VM fretless with ebanol board developed a truss rod issue but still didn't quite feel or sound right.

Bought a sire v9 fretless, that was really heavy and felt synthetic + the preamp was just too much.

Stuck with an old ibanez fretless which played fab but had terrible paint job and awful electronics.

Bought this, couldn't be happier, great great tone, super quality, lovely neck, pickups are pretty hot.

At last, a fretless that lets me retire the old ibanez.

Love it

excellent in all respects

I am not a bass player, although I've been occasionally playing bass for years now. I was surprised by the quality of this product, considering the very good price. Great sound (a very "fretless sound"), great built, no flaws whatsoever. Again, I'm not a bass expert but I've had several basses over the years, and this one is the best I've had, regardless of price.

So fun to play

This is by far my favorite instrument to just play! I’ve had warwicks, modulus, yamaha and this bass gets use than any others I’ve had before. It’s just a joy to play!

Hard to believe!

I admit, I was skeptical. A bass that cost as little as this can't be very good. But I wanted to try fretless and have the option in my stable of basses. So I picked one up. My initial thought was that it was very heavy. But weight aside, it's nicely made. Finish is perfect. Neck joint is flawless. Fingerboard is nice and flat. Truss rod works as expected. Even the pickups sound good. Can't go wrong with this one!

Quality for Price feels like I stole it

Having owned many high quality bases Fender and Gibson Custom Shop models one of the fretless just to play but not spend a lot of money you would never know what this thing cost if you were blindfolded little heavy but that's okay sounds great highly recommended also have heard a lot of static about it being heavy as someone who is alive when the 75 jazz bass was out average weight was 12 lb mine is 11 piccard might be replaced tuners hold well I have no problem with this instrument

too heavy bass

It's not bad in all aspects, but 4.725Kg, I don't like too heavy bass

Unbelievable value for money but super-heavy

For the price this is unbelievable. Sounds like a real jazz bass. I personally may not be able to tell the difference hearing it on a record or live.

Everything works fine: no intonation issues, fretboard well done (I managed to achieve the same action as on a Sire V7fl), puckups may lack the bottom end of some more pricey options but they are not weak and muffled as in some cheap basses, they do their job great. The strings it came with were perfectly good.

There are two things to be aware: one is the neck, which is chunkier than a standard jazz bass, and the other, unfortunately, is the weight. 5.4kg on my bathroom scale and also a bit neck-heavy.

It is a real pity because for a lot of people, including me, this means that the bass would mostly be a couch instrument.

Harley Benton Fretless Jazz Bass

If you are thinking of getting a fretless without spending a lot of money this is a well made instrument with some minor flaws. It can do all the tones you would expect from a Jazz Bass with ease, the neck is very comfortable and easy to play. The nut was not cut properly but with a little work it was fine afterwards. In the end you get a lot of Bass with a little amount of money, highly recommended!

Amazing quality

I was amazed at the sonic and tonal quality of this fretless bass. Rich full bottom end and glistening highs. The balance of the registers is tonaly well separated.. Every bit as good as my 73 jazz bass. Maybe even better

Great deal

Great fretless for the price... It is a little heavy!

Above and Beyond

I am absolutely chuffed with this bass, only needed a quick set up with the truss rod and it plays amazingly and sounds great, lovely sustain with the roundwound stock strings, looking forward to hearing how it sounds with flatwounds. It's definitely a heavy instrument which could put some people off, but for the price and quality it's certainly worth it, even after paying a hefty import tax to the UK (cheers brexit).

Very Impressed

Really enjoying this guitar. The neck feels wonderful and mine has a lovely flamed maple back that I really wasn't expecting. Bought as a mod project and will probably swap out the pickguard, which does feel cheap, but there's really not much room for improvement otherwise. The pickups are better than I expected, but could easily be upgraded. Gears feel basic, but it holds tune fine. Truss rod needed a tweak because the neck was too straight and the fingerboard needs a bit of oil to darken and and moisturise it. Fit and finish is perfect though. If you want an inexpensive fretless bass, this is a great pick. Going to have to seriously consider buying more HB guitars...

Very good bass

Splendid construction. Plastic over the pot unit is very hard to remove without damaging the chrome or removing all knobs.

The unit had to be adjusted in terms of string length, all the strings were out of adjustment, and the A string was unplayable. All adjustment screws on all strings are almost on the limit in length terms, but were enough. As expected some very low ac noise I will correct by shielding all compartments later on. 5-star buy.