Harley Benton MV-4JB Gotoh DB 3-stars Reviews

great but with a few caveats

yet another HB for my wall hangers. is this one as good as the rest? yes and no. the finish on the gorgeous daphne blue is flawless and the amount of features you get at this price point are all fantastic - so fantastic its becoming a HB cliche. i see roswell pickups i buy them.

this one came with a setup out of the box that was literally all over the place - i soon came to figure out why. the action was set to UBER MAX, the truss rod was dead in the middle with no plus nor minus. adjusting both revealed about five or six frets on the middle to upper board had all risen out of place and needed reseating. first time i had a HB needing fretwork. the strings it comes with are awful.

irritatingly the pickguard and the control plate did not line up correctly, the PG was cut too narrow, or the control plate too large, i dunno. i happened to have a spare control plate lying around that did the trick and now visually it matches up, but it was one of those things that when you see it you cant unsee it

another reviewer has pointed out the pickup spacing. it is odd indeed. its not quite 70's and definitely not 60's. i have actual fenders with both spacings, and they each have their own sound. this is quite literally in the middle. its neither and a bit of both.

a lot has been made out of the gotoh-selling-point tuners and the weight of this bass. i mean, they are tuners. and they tune the bass. does it look odd on a JB? kinda. the weight honestly doesn't bother me so much. sure its on the heavy side, but its not the heaviest and certainly not a deal breaker.

the neck isn't quite a jazz, but certainly not a P. again, compared to an actual jazz bass, its one of many little things that add up to the whole package not feeling quite right. i've played it many times now and cosmetically and features wise sure its a great deal. but its the first HB i've considered inferior to a squier. maybe.

in summary its a good bass. having said that i'll probably not keep it long, it just doesn't seem to gel in all the ways a jazz bass should - which is a shame, because with a bit more attention to detail it could have been a great bass. wait whats that? attention to detail at this price??? yeah i know i know. been spoiled by so many other genuinely great HB products