Harley Benton MS-60 VW Vintage Series Reviews

Great Guitar

Guitar came set up out of the box and plays and sounds great.

I play at home for pleasure and don't like to spend a lot on guitars. This is a great guitar for the price.

She's ruined my other guitars with her sweet quack and chime

I'd like to objectively rate this guitar and it has faults to be sure but I find them increasingly charming the more I play it. I watch 60 cycle hum on YouTube and was physically ill when a horrid cheap lunch tray replaced the beautiful pick guard it came with. Seriously I'm actually thinking of ordering 2 more to do mods on as like Billy Joel I wouldn't change a thing on "this 1" my baby. I can't believe how cheap this adorable little and to me fabulous sounding guitar is ( O like single coil pickups and surf rock). For those of you who aren't as easily smitten she did come in with a couple of dark smudges on the top pickup, some un-sanded spots on the neck and head stock. I only wish I looked and sounded as good as she does with such little maintenance since she stays in tune despite the tremolo. If your baby doesn't you can always watch 60 cycle hum and order replacement bridges .... Please don't deface this beauty with a badly cut lunch tray though you've already saved a fortune on a treasure in my opinion.😉

Great for the price

I love this take on the Duo Sonic, had to perform a couple of tweaks , polish frets, file the nut slots but nothing major, I changed out the bridge for a mustang copy, helped with the tremolo action, Pick ups are good at the price, a great guitar.

It's a good beginner guitar. I heavily modded it for my taste and I like how it sounds now. I got rid of the two single coils and added a Lindy Fralin noisless P90 pickup. The neck is short 610mm, that makes it easy to play, but it's not the best choice for downtuning. The tuners stay in tune and the bridge is ok, but the body is pretty heavy.

Value for money ! No surprises unfortunately.

I should have sent it back, I suppose. Maybe mine is an oddity, but there are quite some things wrong with it.

- The bridge pin slots are damaged. Due to the lower pin being completely stuck in the bridge, somebody damaged the slots trying to adjust it. I took me quite some violence to separate the two. But the bridge needs replacing anyway. It's crap !

- Hardly any sound from the guitar, even after fixing the bridge which didn't go lower while being stuck. The pickups are simply to low in regards to the strings. And even raised to the max, they are still about 3-4 mm too low. The bridge PU sorted itself when I installed a Super Distortion S, which is taller than stock. To sort out the neck PU, I had to shim the neck to lower the rear of the neck.

- The tuners on mine are, even for cheap tuners, awful. The amount of play and jerk in them, is unworkable. So they will be replaced.

- .009-.042 on a short-scale ? Really ??

- On the upside... yep, there is one. The neck and the frets are very nice and playable.

Great guitar, pickups need adjustment.

This guitar should not have staggered pole pieces? When you get the pickups close to the strings the g and d strings will give you strat idiss. These pickups are very good but you need to raise the a and b string pole piece just a tad higher and push the g and d string pole down. you have a gradual rise from the low e to the d string and a rise from the first string to the g string. The bridge pickup will not go high enough to the strings. you can remove the white cover and this will alow the pickup closer to the strings. If you want to us the cover cut off the two wings of the cover were the screw hole is sand it flush with the cover, put a few drops of super glue on top of the pickup and put the cover back on. I can now get my pickup 1/64 away from the strings and the pickups sound aw some with good volume. My model is new and i did not have to shim the neck and the trem stays in tune with the stock bridge. I have owned the squied vintage mod mustang, the Japaneses model and this the best of the 3 models. I could not believe how smooth the neck is no fret ends sticking out. my action is 3/64 at the 12th fret.

fabulous value - stunning looks

Always wanted a jaguar or jazzmaster. This MS60 caught my eye and fitted the bill. Now I have it in my hands I'm not disappointed. Flawless body and neck, action so-so (ie needed tweaking), still exploring the sound palette, but enjoying difference to my Epiphone 335, can't wait to use it in anger so to speak.

My wife reckons it's bright lemon rather than 'vintage white'

Jazz anyone?

I bought this on a whim. I wanted to try a short scale design and at the price it is hard to see how you can go wrong. To put it mildly I was gobsmacked when it came. This is a beautifully made instrument. The neck is chunky but nice to play, the fretwork is good, the tuners work well. As with all my Harley Benton's of the Fender style I changed the string trees to the Harley Benton roller trees which are much better than the bent tin design, they cost so little but improve tuning stability no end. The electrics work well, no problems and the pick ups sound good. I also fitted the Harley Benton strap locks, they are secure and it means I can use one strap for several guitars. In my opinion this is a very nice guitar at a crazy price!

Nice, but needed a little work..

I bought this guitar in order to get some 'tones; that I didn't have with any of my other guitars, it certainly does the job and allows me to get that twangy sound followed by a great tremolo system, the big issue here was the feedback due to the earthing problem, so I gave it to my guitar guy who managed to isolate the earthing and rewired it and now its just as I would want it, quiet and hum free....you have to consider what you pay for these little Gems, and a few pounds (£30 ) to be honest is not a big price to pay to iron out a few issues....lovely little guitar that works well for the propose.....

Looking for that old "Jazzmaster" sound?

When I recently heard the guitar work of both Carl Wilson (Beach Boys) on their earlier albums and that of Elvis Costello and then discovered both played old Fender Jazzmasters, I thought I'd like to try one. The original Jazzmasters were slightly unusual in that they had a dual rhythm/lead circuit feature that really distinguished them from the typical three-way switch on most jazz guitars and indeed the new Jazzmaster reissues also removed that feature in favor of a three way switch. I liked the dual rhythm/lead circuit because it has a slightly brighter lead sound but could still be muted sufficiently to produce the jazz-like sounds Leo Fender was probably seeking in the original Jazzmasters. So, when I saw that the Harley Benton MS-60 Vintage Series retained that rhythm/lead circuit and was also incredibly cheap, I went for it and have been very pleased. I use it on several songs when I'm gigging with my blues-rock band, particularly the old T-Bone Walker covers and it has the additional advantage of being so inexpensive that if a drunk happens to knock it over and break it, it can be replaced without breaking the bank. So, if your band is doing old blues or jazz covers in slightly more dangerous venues or if you just want a brighter and sharper mid range tone, the HB MS-60 Vintage Series might be the guitar for you.

MS-60 Rules

Ok so...I decided to de-mistify the idea of buying cheap guitars gets you cheap results. I bought the MS-60 and got way more than what I expected. The guitar is nicely finished, it sounds good, it was very well intonated out of the box and is very fun to play. I recommend this guitar to anyone from beginners to experience musicians that need a gigging guitar that gets the job done and takes the punishment.

P.S. I was really impressed with the sound of the Wilkinson pickups.

Nice budget version of a mustang

It's a bit strange to have the JM/Jag style trem but it works, I would have preferred the mustang style bridge to a tune-o-matic one but for the price I can't really complain. It doesn't have the in/off/out phase switches, just on and off switches.

Great Sound, but...

The box arrived damaged and torn, but thankfully the instrument was fine. I'll start with the negatives. The overall build quality is poor. There is a wood knot visible through the paintwork on the body; the neck pocket has a gap on the upper bout big enough to hold a thin pick; the back of the neck had so many dust inclusions in the finish; excessive overspray onto the edges of the fingerboard. Whoever did the qc on this guitar must have a white stick and a guide dog! Oh, and the intonation was appalling. This was soon rectified, and after a tuneup, we get to a few positives.

The sound from the pickups is outstanding! Really close to a Mustang sound. The action was also good, all the electronics work well. The "feel" of the guitar is ok, actually quite heavy for its size. The shorter scale gave me no issues, either. I was going to send it back, but it's sound won me over.. I might end up with a "looker" that plays and sounds poorly.

I appreciate that this is a budget instrument, but a bit more care on inspection wouldn't have gone amiss. Disappointing ( apart from the sounds/pickups etc).

Good value for your money but you will need to give it some love and care - once you do, it's a guitar that's worth 5 times the

So - the guitar rings quite well straight out of the box. Surprisingly resonant even without being plugged into an amp.

I like the sound of the guitar, it feels like a good middle ground between P90 and tele-single coils.

The neck was not glossy and has a minimal finish, probably one coat, which is quite nice. No grating fret ends. Some residue from the factory inside the truss rod entry - which you can clean. Rosacere is quite hard but I could still move quite fast on the neck.

This is my first shortscale and i'm astonished that I've never tried it before - it feels great.

You will want to give this guitar a good set up and some love:

Mine had a loose input jack - which I had to tighten. This happens with a lot of guitars, even when you buy it straight from a store.

I had to tighten one tuner which was not screwed all the way.

Some of the higher frets are quite un-even, depending on your desired action you might need to sand the frets down a bit. I would also recommend rounding them - as they come quite stiff.

The neck needed tiny adjusting - almost negligent, as the fret leveling was the main "issue".

Bridge, as we all know we cannot adjust the height of the saddles on this bridge - so you might need to file the metal to get the proper radius on the bridge.

Overall: good value for your money, and excellent value is you can prep the guitar.

Excellent value starter guitar

Pros

- Holds tuning surprisingly well - bridge system is decent enough out the box

- Nice shape, colour and pickguard

- Excellent price

- Pick ups have plenty of life and response

Cons

- Finish is not perfect in places

- Nut seems quite low quality

- Fretboard was very dry - sorted out with some lemon oil though

- Came with 9s which are way too spongy - stick a set of 10s on after oiling!

Overall

Great value for money. A much better option than a basic squier for someone starting out.

Not bad.

For the price it is very good. I got this guitar for alternative rock and grunge. Being comparable to a Mustang.

Pros-

Easy to play

Exactly what it is. A mustang.

22 frets.

Shorter distance between frets.

Cons-

1 major con, Buzz. From the bridge.

Sound is a little dry in tone.

If you have the money and you like playing alt or grunge this guitar is a perfect spare guitar.

Fantastic guitar !!

The size, the scale length, the sound, the color... Just love it.

I put on a bridge with rollers, and now it can take severe wiggling and stay in tune.

You will not regret buying this thing!

...short action...

...already very tiny bits of rust on the strings and on the whammy construction.. the whammy bar falls out if you lean forward... the neck is narrow and a bit rough...

the neck has a chunky feel to it as if larger than it actually is... the thin paint on the back of the neck was already coming off which I think was nice... why they glossed the neck-plate is beyond me... setting the string height was the easiest ever, just turn the little wheels under the bridge. the intonation was alright... I played this with a Vox AC10C...

the pickups work well together, switching from neck to bridge you need to adjust the volume up because the bridge pickup cannot be adjusted up nearer to the strings... even here if you tweak your tone long enough you will find a sweet spot...on their own you will soon find out that the pickups are at their limit and after a while the feeling of cheap and pretty lifeless persists when you have played more upmarket guitars or the real thing even though this looks very attractive indeed in that price-range and it is there probably without competition....but my hands are too big and my ears are too old and that is why this is not for me...

Nice guitar for the price

But you can get a better squier for a few more dollars

Great Price

Really love the finished white on this guitar ,the set up was great straight out of the box . No extra set up needed at all .The quality and finish is to a high standard all frets crowned well.The sound is good love the pick ups nice and warm on Fuzzy tones..Whammy bar works well if not over used it will stay in tune .Over all an A 1 guitar for the price