Harley Benton JB-75MN SB Vintage Series Reviews

only thing i can say its REALLY heavy!! but as are most Jazz Basses

Good for price

My fifth Harley Benton guitar i guess. Some fret buzz on a A string, fat neck.

But for this price - very well instrument.

I've had one for 2 years now. Mainly used it at home for practice. The sound is quite good although I feel the pickups are not that loud.

Overall the build quality is not bad at all, however the output jack did start going loose after a few days of use in the beginning and there were a good amount of sharp fret ends. Nothing a quick luthier run couldn't fix. After that, used it at practice and at a few shows and it was a very decent player.

Not quite sure I'd call them "better than Squier Affinity", as I own one of those too (elbeit modded, but I remember how it was stock), at least not the one I got, however I can definitely say that it is a much bigger bargain.

A friend got the same one and it was much much better than mine. So I guess it's a hit or miss, but I do recommend for anyone looking for an instrument on the cheap.

Amazing bass guitar for the price!

After playing guitar for ten years, I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere due to a lack of interest in technique practice, and after years of listening to jazz and funk, I felt like I can't really play all that well. So I bought a bass to try and spark a renewed interest in playing, and I found out that playing bass is so much more fun than guitar!

This bass seems sturdy enough for home playing. I'm actually surprised about the build quality after seeing some budget guitars barely staying in one piece. The bass looks good, sounds good, the strings play well, all the knobs work properly and the pickups don't buzz like on most "low-end" guitars I've tried. This is actually a quality instrument for the price. The only problem is that my fingers are bleeding from playing it non-stop.

Great retro bass for very little money

Pick ups are really great. ash body is heavy, but sounds fantastic. neck is chunky but good, and the brass bridge is an incredibly nice. Sunburst finish is not great, but for the money it's an incredible bass.

Flawless

I’ve bought these before, so I knew it wouldn’t be bad. Means they’re consistent over the years for sure. Mine had Wilkinson pups, I see they’ve changed that now, not sure if that’s an upgrade or not.

It’s a real heavy bass, really heavy. But use a wide strap and you’re fine. Everything was perfect out the box, tune and go. Really can’t fault it.

Only con is I action quite low and after a studio recording noticed a slight fret buzz on one note, annoying but not a deal breaker. Can’t notice it live at all. For the money, get it, use it and don’t worry about it, I’d buy another if I needed to play bass again in a band

Jazzbass by Harley Benton

Not bad at all! Nice neck, fretjob pretty good straight out of the box, almost no buzz. Electronics dont impress, the pickups themselves have a good solid sound, but had to take a look at earthing because the soldering was quite crappy.

Solved that in 2 mins, so no worries.

All in all a great bass for the money and comes pretty close to playing and sounding like a real Fender JB.

Pretty Good!

Decent sound and quality, I got this bass out of interest in learning to play a song (Dean Town by Vulfpeck). I didnt want to spend a lot encase I didnt like playing bass, but after a few little adjustments its a lovely bass to play and now I cant put it down.

In all, I think it has converted me from mainly a guitarist to a bassist, so now I think I will be looking at getting something more delux.. *cough* fender bass.. but this is a lovely gateway bass if your interested and dont want to break the bank.

INSANELY good instrument, especially for it's price. Looks absolutely stunning, no flaws on the fretboard or on the body, very smooth satin neck and surprisingly good fret job. Beautiful wood grain on the body, very nice burst finish, comfortable body shape with a cutaway in the back. Setup was done pretty well (I had to adjust the intonation just a little bit).

The pickups sound very nice, the pots feel really smooth (no cracking, no sloppiness).

Very comfortable to play, nice thin neck with a satin finish, good strings, good action. Some people may find it a bit heavy, but I like it that way.

Overall really good instrument, I would be ready to play 3x more for that kind of quality.

Very good Jazz Bass. I bought it as a back up bass, but it is definitely a perfect first option.

If you are looking for a standard vintage version of a Jazz passive bass you have found it.

A great guitar, but some issues

The guitar is generally very well built, and the tone is amazing for the price. However, there does seem to be an issue regarding the socket on this bass. I have had issues since I bought it, and recently the whole socket has fallen into the guitar. However, assuming this issue is a one-off, It is very good value for what you get

Bought 2!

I already own two of these basses and meeen they are good!

Many things have been here already said so all i can add is:

BUY IT!

Perfect crafstmanship, perfect sound! Worth 5x times more!

Great Bass

I bought this bass for my friend drummer and we had found with an amazing price/performance! We expected lower quality for this price, but this HB bass caused us a big positive surprise. The maple fret board with the black inlays looks beautiful. Heavy, but acceptable. Good action and good sound. Perfect for first bass but with a better pickup can be a nice piece to have for advanced players too. This is our first bass ever and it's awesome!

5 years later: i still love the sound

Looks not cheap at all, but it looks like $1000+ bass!

Vintage sound.

Great bright tone because of the maple neck. Excellent for slapping/plectrum. Just how i like it.

The bass was build very well, it has no sharp fretts or anything.

I had a hard time setting this badboy up.

I like low action, so i had too adjust the bridge and the truss rod.

It took me a while, before i got rid of the stringbuzz.

Also when replacing the tuners to gold tuners, the nut fell right off.

The nut was not glued at all, it was just loose.

Great Bass to Transition

I love this bass. Not only is it very affordable. Its fidelity to the original "design" is very "respectful". It sounds clean..stays in tune and overall really fun to play, to the point my Ibanez AS93 Artcore and my Harley Benton Nintage White MS-60 are getting very jealous!

amazing value.

Amazing value. The body is real ash (heavy). The finishing on the body is great. The neck plays nice and smooth. The electronics are just ok, but again great value. I've never ever seen (or heard) basses this cheap to be this good!

Pro: Amazing value

Con: Did I say it was heavy? Well, it's too heavy. Do you want to gig or practice with this for several hours. You really should think about getting a bass that is this heavy. So be warned....

Better than my Squier Jazz Bass

Looks great. Playability very good out of the box, and even better with a minor tweak to truss rod and action. Roswell pickups are surprisingly good. Satin neck feels very nice (I don't like gloss necks). The only two drawbacks for me are the weight (probably the heaviest bass I've ever owned) and the volume pots, which act more like switches than pots, with all the volume adjustment in a very small part of the knob's rotation. I was kind of expecting that to be honest, I usually swap out the electronics on lower end guitars and basses.

Harley Benton JB-75MN SB Vintage Series

very heavy bass, no issues

Great for the price

Its a great bass to play. Sounds great and looks great. It is really heavy though so it might start to hurt the shoulders if you're more used to lighter instruments. Also, the plastic sheet was a bitch to remove. But aside from that it sounds almost as good as a lower priced fender or a squire for less than a fraction of the price. Obviously it can't be compared to pricier basses, yet it still is definitely worth buying whether its your first bass or not irregardless of price (though its cheapness does add to its pros). My bass came almost perfectly intonated mostly with a good fretjob, though you may get unlucky, probably should expect something like that with any guitar around this price point though so its not really a con. Overall, definitely a bass worth buying, I most certainly recommend

A nice bass well worth the money

The problem with all bass's and guitars is to get something 10% better, you need to spend 100% more. So The Harley Benton range is always going to be great for the money.

Having done a sound comparison test with all 9 of my bass guitars, I can say that there is little difference between this and my most expensive £650 bass. There is a difference in build quality but considering the low cost of this bass, the components are very good and well finished. I now own 3 Harley Benton bass's and very pleased with all 3. The main thing I have noticed is a bit of inconsistency which you might not get with the more expensive brand names, so be prepared for some minor adjustments and differences between models. On this occasion, the neck is very slightly out of line and also requires shimming as the bridge saddles are very high. The other 2 Harley's were spot on. The fret ends need a file but that is to be expected. Otherwise, this bass looks and plays above it's price tag. The fittings used are reasonable quality. It's very heavy so a wide strap is recommended.