Harley Benton PB-50 SB Vintage Series Reviews

AMAZING - simply ah. maze. zing.

I was blown away by the quality of this build! The pickups are super punchy. The body, tuners, and knobs are very solid feeling. The only thing that really needed adjustment when I received it was the strings and nut - the stock strings did not have the sound I wanted so I put some DR Low Riders on, had to file the nut slightly to accommodate for them. This bass sounds seriously good - so much GROWL!

Well, what can you expect for that amount of money?

I bought this just by curiousity, and I can’t say I was suprised. Frets were sharp and undressed, some of them were even loose. Neck feels rough, and the truss rod was not very cooperative. The tuners were bad. Two of them were defect. The pickup was raised too close to the strings, and produced a heavily distorted sound. When lowering it, it lost too much volume and lows. I replaced the neck with a cheap, unbranded one from ebay, replaced the pickup with a Seymour Duncan, replaced the bridge with a Fender two-saddle string through body bridge, got better tuners, and original Fender pickup and bridge covers. Fun project, which turned out very nice, but ended up at 5 times the cost of the bass itself. Straight out the box, it wass useless.

Great bang for the Buck!

Not everyone’s favorite… great for recordings. A lot of character.

PB50

Excellent quality for the price, shipped in adequate time, nicely packaged. Sounds better than expected.

This is worth triple the price

I've never been a Fender-style bass guy, and I warmed up only recently to the idea.

I thought i would be getting a mediocre bass with this but QUITE THE OPPOSITE!

It's a beautifully solid piece, perfect for pop punk and punk rock.

The neck is smooth, and the tone is mindblowing.

Couple it with a decent stomp box and you have a bass that is worth easily triple his price!

Wonderful vintage precision sound and action at a fraction of normal prices wonderful workmanship frets needed a little work as

If you are looking for a nice playing bass that sounds vintage and correct finishes flawless very pleased with their products

good for starters

the tune controls are cheap and the frets wear off a bit fast but very good sound for the price

very satisfied

very satisfied using this bass, there are almost no complaints while playing in the room or on the big stage. this is good bass. cheap and very good

Classic Rock and then some...

I've been playing guitar since the 60s and then picked up bass during Covid. I have about six basses so far, some high end and some very inexpensive ones. I have built a few kits so far and I am aware of "fit and finish". Anyhow, this is actually a very good bargain for both a beginner and professional. The only thing I have done is change strings to my liking and adjust string height at the bridge with a radius gauge. The fret ends are smooth. The pickup output is astonishing. There is no hum or line noise at volume. I totally enjoy picking it up and pounding away on it as it is quite comfortable and consistent up and down the fretboard. It's like your favorite jeans that feel just right.

Masse for pengene

Vanvittig mye for pengene her👍

How you can get a bass of this quality for this money is beyond me

I've tried quite a few HB guitars and basses and this one is by far and away my favourite, and my favourite bass I've owned full stop.

It looks incredible, it sounds great, it feels nice to play and the quality is fantastic. It looks so much better than the pictures too.

HARLEY BENTON DOES NOT MISS

I had got this along with a TE-20 SB to match. It was the most reasonable price I could afford for a ‘51 P bass, it is gorgeous and plays like a beaut. Everything works as it should.

Great for everyone(it will do everything you want to)

I arrived to Germany a few months ago and it would be a shame not to order any of this high-rated, dirt-cheap Harley-Bentons. Since I had a guitar already and was on a tight budget, I thought that buying a bass would be a better decision, than second guitar. Looked through their bass collection, and immediately laid my eye on this one. Vintage 50's precision bass design is literally my favourite bass design ever. It arrived 3-4 days later. Since it is my first bass guitar, I cant compare to any, but if you never tried other, I assure you, it will do. It will do most you could've asked as a beginner. I'm in love with Squier Classic Vibe series, but it happened so that I'm always too broke/busy to buy any of their guitar. I compared this guitar to the similar Squier CV Bass, and the only concern I had, was the tone of the neck wood. On the pictures it looks really white, and on the other side, Squier has this glossy tinted, vintage warm neck, which really attracted me. But I took the risk, because CV Bass costs 3x this HB bass. And I was never disappointed. In regular light conditions it looks really nice. Not as good as squier, but would you pay 3x more money just for a slightly warmer color-tone? Me neither. I bought this guitar, and never been disappointed. To talk about the sound quality (finally), I can't really say anything bad about it. Just a decent bass. As good as squier one, but you should be aware of some side noise due to the vintage pickups. Any other 50's era precision bass would have that, so it's not the guitar flaw. If you're looking for the studio guitar, I'd choose some Jazz bass, just to be sure that I won't get any of the noises on the record. But to hang out and play gigs, this guitar is awesome. It provides everything I expect from a bass guitar. If you're beginner, I'd definitely stick with HB basses, and won't go for more pricey squiers or fender. It will be enough. And even if you'll want to upgrade anything, you are free to go. This guitars are similar with squier one, and you can put any squier bass neck on this if you want. You can put any fender pickups on these if you want. Amazing guitar to be honest. I don't even want a Fender no more, this is SIMILAR.

Not bad at all.

For a bass that cost $100 plus shipping it's great value.

The good: Great finish. Nice sounding pickup. Serviceable bridge and tuners. Good fretwork. A useable tone knob!

The bad: The neck is a chunky beast! Not for beginners. But is does have a good finish and feel.

In all I'm happy I bought it.

Amazing bass

So thought I'd have some time with this bass then come back and do a review on it. I've played 3 shows with it now and man this bass is so good it holds tune it sounds sick the tone Is so nice and warm I'm so impressed the pickup honestly is so good it has done everything I've asked of it. Ive played punk rock even a few metal covers it down tunes well and slap funk it will do it all and really well. It came well packaged and was flawless in terms of looks no sharp frets nut was perfect I did lower the action touch but thats just my preference but aye out the box its playable well after a tune up even came with decent strings. what you see on the website is what you get. I'm over the moon with it I play her alot I can't put it down. If you want a solid bass that has them classic looks and will stand its own ground just buy it trust me its amazing.

Shockingly great!

I ordered this during quarantine to have a bass at home, as we weren't going to our studio. Bought it just as a cheap bass to have around, but fell in love with this! I play it for live shows and everything now! Great sounds, solid neck, simple design. What's not to love?!

Thought I'd try a non b-stock

Not one for paying full price and don't mind the odd blem so usually go b stock. Love the look of the bass and the quality is great. Disappointed to say that like most budget HB's the set up is terrible. I've bought around 30 HB's now and a good few needed to have the nut and frets sorted, which I can do. It must be so crushing for a new player to have to put up with a high action in order for it not to choke or rattle!

I'll be getting the tools out soon to sort it out and I dare say, it will be great.

Amazing for the price!

I bought this guitar after seeing a review on Youtube and I was amazed.

The neck and string height needed to be adjusted slightly, at least for my preference (I like the action pretty low) but other than that, everything feels tight, feels great to play. I play a 5 string Ibanez and I wanted something vintage-feeling to play around with and couldn't be more happy. I've had it for 6 months now, still great. Highly recommend for anyone who wants to have fun with a vintage sounding bass.

Simple bass with a great sound

I bought this bass to travel to the summer school of jazz in Sligo. I didn't want to travel with my other, more expensive instruments. I also didn't want to draw attention. The plan worked perfectly. It also turned out that it has an awesome tone, which works great with jazz and funk.

There were some issues I needed to sort out after the purchase:

- frets had painful sharp edges, I needed to file them down

- the nut had a sharp edge, needed to be filed down

- the bass needed a setup; I needed to adjust the truss rod, the action, and intonation (this is expected with a new bass)

- some teething problems, like the jack socket screw going loose

Once I set it up, the bass was comfortable to play, and in tune.

The pick up can be a little noisy sometimes, so I built the habit of turning the volume knob down when I'm not playing. (It's a good habit to have anyway.) It's expected with the old style, single coil pickup.

The biggest surprise was the tone. I am a fan of late 1970's Herbie Hancock records such as Sunlight, where the rhythm section was Byron Miller on bass and Ndugu Chancler on drums. Same rhythm section as on 1970s and 1980s George Duke records. I think that Miller played the '60s style (not '50s style) Precision, but the 50s style precision produces a similar tone. I enjoyed playing funk tunes with the vintage tone!

I wouldn't use it for practicing at home, because higher quality instruments teach more nuance. Then you can pick up this 50s style bass and see what you can do with it.

Overall, I'm keeping this bass in my bass collection. It'll be the one to carry when going to a jam session and look inconspicuous. If I find myself playing it more, I'll replace it with a Fender Squier just to enjoy a higher quality build with fewer rough edges.

Looks great, needed some help...

I understand this is a very affordable bass, but still a little QC would have been great. I'm pretty sure this neck should not have made through given the fret work as well as the truss rod.

Had about a mm of overhanging frets on about a dozen frets. Several frets were not properly seated into the board properly, needed to be reseated and then leveled/crowned/polished.

Nearly impossible to get the neck straight. Had to remove it and clamp it in a back bow position, then tighten the truss rod as far as it would go to get it to straighten out with 45-105 strings, and even then it wouldn't hold in that position.

Ended up putting on 40-95 Ernie Ball cobalt flats, which had lower tension than the Diaddario 45-105 round wounds.

It took some work, but now it plays as good as it looks. The stock pickup sounds amazing!!

If you are ready/able to do some work, it can be a good bass. Or maybe I just got a bad example.