Harley Benton PB-50 SB Vintage Series Reviews

Good.

Good but quiet. Buzzes a bit.

Excellent, not just for the price

Wonderful bass. Has a great tone, feels very solid, no finish flaws, and is overall a super good quality bass. Not just for the price, but overall! I would easily get this over Squier. Highly recommend!

Sounds and plays great

the only downside to this product is that there is nowhere that has the correct replacement scratch plate - I wanted the sunburst but with a white scratch plate.

Otherwise its a great bass that's done plenty of gigs and never let me down. It's got a very fat neck - that could be a good thing or a bad things depending on the player preference - but it Sounds like a P-Bass for sure.

That stuff is a blast

The guitar pleased me. There are a few comments on cosmetics, but in general it is excellent. The sound and adjustment are at a decent level. As the first tool, I recommend it. In its price range, the guitar has no equal.

Minor? issue

The bass looks good, and sounds good. Finish is very good. BUT my G tuner fell apart the second time I tuned it. The clover shaped part of the tuner fell off! This could be an isolated incedent, but I wasn't real happy.

Great bass for anyone who wants a vintage tone at a cheap price

This bass is extremely great value for money. Firstly the neck feels very nice and has a nice satin finish which makes it very easy to move around the neck, additionally the neck is quite chunky which is to be expected from a p bass, especially a 51/54 styled bass. However i can see this type of neck being difficult for beginnners due to how thick the neck.

The body is very nice and wasnt super light like i imagined it would be which which helps to keep the whole bass balanced when playing with a strap.

The hardware is very nice all round, the tuners are very stable and the nut is alright, the volume and tone knobs are not bad but nothing special, the pickup has a classic 50s sound with a big booming sound with a punchy tone.

The setup on this bass out of the box was decent, the neck was set up nicely, the action on the strings was quite high which isnt how i like my setup but would be fine for anyone who is starting out and doesnt know how they like their bass yet

For me this bass is perfect, in the future i plan to upgrade pickup to a seymour duncan, some cts pots and a nicer output jack

I was super surprised !

super fast delivery!

the box was packed nicely, there was no damage and the bass just plays so nicely!

not the last time ill be ordering from here, that is for sure !

best buy (single coil precision bass) for price / quality ratio

Very good craftsmanship, nicely painted and think enough lacquer to last decades (if not used).

Basswood body is a buzkill but not having any kind of moving bridge parts (tremolo or TOM style bridge) it is more than enough in this price range.

Only observation would be the neck pocket (or neck heel) constructed a bit weird, the frets in the upper register were leveled even more down probably to minimize the chance of last frets fretbuzz and making it an overall playable bass for any level bass player.

Great Value

These are great guitars for the money.

Really good project bass

Needed a bass for music production, slowly upgraded over the years! Great for the money, especially if you know how to setup/mod insturments!

The best Harley benton ive bought so far

I have 3 Harley benton instruments, 1 strat, 1 rickenbacker and this bass and the quality and feel of this bass far surpasses the other 2. So far i have nothing bad to say about this product. if you have some spare cash and want a cheap but decent bass this is the way to go

Excellent bass

I 've already had it for five years and been very happy with it. Mainly used at home for training, this is a very playable instrument. Excellent tone through my Ampeg. I recommend it for studying. The fretboard and the neck are very fast. Have never done any setup on it - factory setup very good.

Recently (after five years of banging around) the input jack has gone loose and I have to deal with it, but there is no performance impact.

All in all an excellent buy!

Very nice

I purchased this bass for my son and was very pleased with the quality, sound, and appearance. It's a very basic and simple instrument and it sounds exactly like one would expect. Neck feel is especially good.

Amazing value Bass

As a guitar player I wanted inexpensive Bass guitar for home recording, i ordered this model based on appearance and price, plus the excellent reviews seen, my expectation was only that would be functional and easy to play.

How surprised was I to have the Bass delivered in pristine condition and so well built, I cannot fault it at this price and it can stand tall among my USA Fender guitars, great action, fine Fiji’s and the tone. Control is actually very effective across its full sweep.

Don’t hesitate if you need a new Bass or are a beginner- just order one, you will have no regrets 👌

For the price i think is one of the best choises ever,heavy but not very heavy, nice smoth and fast neck. go for it

Very good and high quality. Exceeds expectation.

Certainly a good instrument. Good fret job, decent setup right from the box but out of tune maybe it's a prep work for the shipping. Sounds good, records well!

IT IS LEGAL?

Listen, I already have several instruments from Harley Benton and I was expecting another high quality and good instrument, but I really fell in love with this bass! Don't get me wrong, but there is something very special about this bass - some unique and cool tone. I have always preferred P-bass, but I am little familiar with the sound of the original bass from the early 50s, maybe this is the case - the sound is warm, enveloping, in a good way vintage. Moreover, I did not expect such a variety of tones from just one pickup - the potentiometers do change the sound a lot.

But there are also things that will be uncomfortable at first and will have to get used to - a thick neck, which is not very friendly to beginners or super-fast play, and the lack of thumb support over the pickup due to the fact that the pickup is short, but this is solved by installing a thumbrest.

This is a bass with a pronounced character and it's hard not to love it!

Surprisingly good

This guitar was delivered with a decent set up: low action, even a bit too low...

The finish is excellent, no sharp frets at all, very smooth neck, just a bit chunky (as it should be for a P-bass). The neck pocket is VERY tight, incredible! Only esthetic flaw is the fastening of the pickguard, which was screwed very unlovingly, as they say.

Weight: around 4 kg. The body's fairly light, but there is some neck dive.

The sound is impressive, very powerful pickup apparently!

The volume and tone knob work very well, tuners also do their job.

All in all incredible value for money, though for a beginner I would recommend something with a slimmer and lighter neck, such as a Jazz bass.

Great sounding vintage bass but don't expect perfection

I was impressed with the overall spec and Sunburst colouring of the wood. Seriously, the stock images don't do it justice. The strings are very twangy / metallic when playing un-Amped. One YouTube reviewer from the UK had received his PB-50 with flatwound strings and immediately changed them. When plugged in they provide the classic beefy growl of the late 70s - the string action and tension is just right and not too tight. Personally I would have preferred flatwounds as i don't do the whole slap 'n' pop vibe. Flats would be better to add more depth and flavour to the sound. The headstock had a few small dints but nothing serious. The patina on the neck is outstanding and when playing the neck, it is thick as expected but also provides fast navigation. Surprisingly it is smooth to play, especially as i always have difficulty on the bottom four frets of the E-string with my spindly fingers. One review on here says that the bridge was slightly misaligned. I checked mine out of interest and it was but not noticeable from a distance. The control pots are reversed but they still function correctly albeit slight delay.

One more thing spotted later on was that the edge of the basswood body was splintered off where the neck sits in the cavity. More care should have been taken when attaching the neck and not slamming it in! When it comes to the weight, the PB-50 is significantly lighter than my bog-standard split-pickup precision. That one is just under 4kg and this has got to be around 3.7/3.8 so nicely comfortable and no neck dive (happy face). Please be aware that the packaging does fall apart and the polystyrene neck support had broken off on delivery. The large container could do with more padding to protect the guitar.

Vintage P Bass

Overall not bad. Had to setup neck. Rounded the fret board and gave it that smooth feel on sides like the more expensive basses. Definite vintage sound! Put some flat wounds on it and play that '70s vintage tone:-)