Harley Benton JB-20 SB Standard Series Reviews

Good bass for less than 100¤? YES! Unbelievable.. but so true

One day I said that I have enough doing bass tracks in my midi controller and I need simplest bass guitar to do this job. I've been playing 6 strings guitars for years but I was totally green with bass guitars. Choice was quite obvious. I chose the cheapest guitar from search browser without any special expectations because what kind of special features you can expect from bass guitar for less than 100¤?! And believe me or not or even more.. call me barbarian or total fool but for me it's absolutely great, good sounding piece of 4 string instrument with very good built quality and even nice setup! Guitar was ready to play out of the box. This bass simply do the job. That was my main purpose and I'm satisfied in 100%. If I had to write sth about the cons sorry but there is nothing to add from me. Maybe I'm playing not long enough? But wait? no.. It's been 17 years now! So probably I know what I'm saying. If I had make this choice again I would go for it again! I Definitely recommend this product.

Get the job done

Well, for the money you can't expect a flawless instrument, however it get the job done. The fret sides are sharp and you have to smooth 'em unless you want left a good amount of your left hand skin there. No shielding which means 60-cycle hum but, again, nothing you can't fix. Overall weight is nice, tuners and bridge are decent, sound is ok. A beginner's bass you can cut your teeth on..

Great value, but few tweaks needed

Needed a setup with the neck truss rod tweaking and nut filing slightly - but those are minor, for the money, great bass

DO NOT HESITATE

So, Santa brought me this bass. Is it any good?

I am a complete novice on bass but have been in bands playing drums for 40yrs, so I know how things should be.

This instrument should be rubbish. It only costs 98 euros right?

I took mine out of the perfect boxes (having had it delivered by courier to France) and not a scratch was on it.

The finish is excellent. You cannot see the joins in the body the woodwork it's so good. The paint job is immaculate. Not a ding or scratch in sight.

The sound is amazing, a real pleasure. I do get a little fret rattle but I am putting that down to my crap playing technique for now.

Played through an amp the sound is beautiful and powerful, rich and metallic, just how I like it. New strings helping there too, clearly. Without an amp, it sounds fine to play in a quiet room.

The only "issue" if you can call it that are the three knobs. I thought there were two tone controls and one volume control, but there are two volume and one tone. Not really a big deal for me at this stage. All tone control issues can be sorted using a decent pre-amp later if needed.

One of the knobs was slightly higher than the other two as one of them was different in design, but I opened up the cover and stuck an extra washer in and now they're all lined up nicely - more my OCD than anything else.

Look, just go ahead and buy this bass. Take my word for it, you will not be disappointed. So what are you waiting for???

Smooth

This bass not only sounded great but looked great also. Changed the white guard to the classic red tortoise. As bass guitars go, this one is gorgeous Plays as a Jazz bass should. I wouldn't trade it !

Incredible value for money

Got this as my first bass and although I know more about guitars than basses, I am amazed by the quality. For a hundred bucks you get an instrument that stays in tune and plays decently after a setup. This is a perfect bass for beginners.

While the overall build quality is good enough (decent hardware, a little pokey but ok frets etc), the main flaws I've found on mine are aesthetic:

- Pickguard is cut poorly (jagged edges, noticeably sloppy cutting on some spots)

- The rout for the bridge pickup is sloppy an chipped on one side. It also isn't centered but just close enough for the pole pieces to more or less align with the strings.

The only thing that really bothers me about the instrument is the not-so-great electronics. Pickups are rather low output and the tone pot barely does anything until 0 at which point it suddenly cuts all high end. For the money, however, it's to be expected.

I'll probably upgrade the electronics in the future but otherwise it is a very solid starter bass.

Good

It came set up properly, just had to tune it up. The fret ends were a little sharp so I sanded them down a bit. It's a nice bass. It looks just like a real jazz bass, impossible to tell the difference. It's balanced, stays in tune well, everything about it just works. It sounds good. There is a slight bit of fret buzz, it's most notable on the 1st fret on the E-string, but it's not problematic at all and some actually like a bit of fret buzz. Also the strings that it comes with aren't the greatest, but that is to be expected with a bass this cheap. Overall I'm happy with it, would definitely recommend

Fine Bass

I was looking for a bass guitar for my home studio but I was tight on the budget. I listened to the demo sounds of various basses and decide to go with the HB JB 20. The result is that I?m not disappointed at all.

This bass is solid, the sound is clear and noiseless

The construction is fine. Finish is ok, The neck is thin but feels Great.

Overall, this is a good deal for the price. I highly recommend this bass to those that want a bass that can do the job but are tight on a budget.

As a full-on cheapskate, I was surprisingly taken aback by the quality of this bass. A lot of bang for the buck, I believe, is the expression.

Sound wise - typical jazz. Or with one pickup on, a bit of P. A bit of distortion and upping the treble had a fairly decent Entwistle sound. Which was probably helped by the twang from the rather decent strings.

Quality - well admittedly one pickup stopped working; a wire had come off the pot which was a bit odd. No biggie but odd.

The slab of wood, not really bothered by the genus of tree to be honest, was rather nice. Underneath a lovely burst finish was a nice nicely figured grain.

Frets good, tuners good.

In fact, so taken by Mr Benton and his products, I've just ordered a Beatbass.

Great value

I simply wanted something affordable as a beginner on bass, given that I was very uncertain as to whether I'd end up enjoying bass or not. It sounds good, my only complaints are the weight (then again, it's a bass) and the buzzing above the nut, which is difficult to get rid of even after tying elastic bands around the strings.

All around a solid instrument, especially for a beginner, though I would probably.

Great for the price

I don't use J basses, but like to have one for fun and spend a lot of money. Nicely done for such a cheap instrument, the pickups can't be noisey but that's to be expected from single coils.

Very happy with the sound

I'm very happy with this basic bass. Not much fuss with it, but does the job its asked to do.

It's the best bass for this price

I needed the cheapest bass guitar for my rehearsal studio, just in case if someone forgot instrument of broke the string. So I have tried this bass and it's just a blast for 99 Euro! Sound is quite OK, it's playable, and looks like fender )) What else do you want from 99 Euro bass? Even the cheapest Squire used on Ebay is more expensive. But the sound and quality is the same. So took it if you are OK with the label, and don't de affraid if it would be broken one day (but my bass is still running and running good!)

Very Good Base guitar, the neck feels good. I love it

It sounds, looks and feels a lot better than its price suggests! It's perfect as my first bass guitar!

Great for starting to play

Allthough it's low price, you can make this sound really good. the feel is not very good, it feels pretty cheap but, when i started i loved this bass, and i still do now after 8 years.

Excellent instrument

This is used by a young musician in the church band. The sound he gets through the PA is excellent - nice and rounded with just a touch of twang for definition.

The bass is nicely made and very well finished.

I bought Fender copies back in the 70s and they were never like this; the machine head gears would eat into themselves after no time at all, bridge grub screw worked themselves loose or snapped and the pickups were average at best. The one bought here shows no signs of these type of fault. It has performed without trouble for many months.

Excellent value for money.

Great bass, beginner or pro!

I needed a nice cheap bass for some home recording and had a limited budget, so having been the proud owner of the HB TE90QM and others I decided to go for the HB JB 20, and damn glad I did too. The bass arrived well packed and on time (as always) and yet again I was well pleased with the instrument right out of the box. I had to tweak the action a hair to suit my playing but would expect that on ANY guitar. The neck is really nicely done, no bad frets and well finished. I played my friends MiM Jazz Bass last week and to be honest there is not a lot in the way they play, although have slightly different tonal qualities due to the pick ups etc. Highly recommend this bass, a good all rounder (I play reggae).

prijs/kwaliteit is dit niet te toppen.

Sounds good and looks good

I feel like the sound this guitar produce is kind of similar to an acoustic bass guitar and I kind of like it because I do a lot of covers and I prefere the natural sound than studio one.

Guitar looks good.The tuners don't look very premium but they do their job.

What it bothers me sometime is that the strings are making a sound when they touch the frets but maybe it is because being a new guitar I have to do some modifications.