Harley Benton PB-50 SB Vintage Series 4-stars Reviews

good for starters

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

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.

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.

Never mind the price this bass sounds awesome

Just took delivery of my pb50. Was intrigued by all the positive reviews online so figured I'll take a gamble on it as its only just over €100. First impression are the bass sounds fantastic. 1 slightly dead fret but I can fix that quickly. Other than that highly recommended. A little TLC and this bass is a humdinger (never mind for the money) it's a really good bass.

Good for the price

Bought this to just use for bassline ideas, but actually been using this in productions. The sound is pretty good for the price, even though it has an annoying plastic sound sometimes, but with mixing u can remove that. So might not be the best if u buy for live performances purily. Plays good also. IMO the best beginner bass / bass for this price range.

Great vintage feel and amazing value

Great vintage look and feel to this bass, with a deep sound and great playability. Very well put together with a quality feel. So much bass for the money!!!

Great product at this price range

This is my second PB-50, they are well built, solid and sound pretty good with the one pickup. Roswell Pickups are a well made brand, all in all this is a deal too good to pass up. I have a half dozen HB guitars/basses and love them all.

a really great instrument for the buck

I got this because I wanted a 50s P-bass without the outrageous Fender price and it's quite good. a bit on the heavy side and the neck is rather thick, but it's easy to get used to. the pickup sounds surprisingly good and I had a great experience as far as fit and finish go. highly recommended

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

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.

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!

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

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:-)

Excellent value for money

As I've written in the headline, the PB-50 bass guitar is an excellent value for money product.

It is very well built and I was exceptionally surprised by the elements where usually "corners are cut" on this price "bracket" of musical instruments ( I would like to note specifically that the tuners have a premium feel to only add to the worthiness of this guitar)

Sweet bass

Very nice bass for the price, it's definitely better than any competitor I ever tryed at the same price level. Perfect if you wanna start to learn bass in style or if you play guitar and sometimes you wanna go low. The electronics is what it is, a little bit of its Achille's heel I guess. The pick up brokes after a couple of years, so I had to replace it, but the neck is sweet and I have lot of fun with it, Now it belongs to the music school I was teaching at.

Very nice bass guitar...

However, I decided to sell it because it was not what I wanted in my collection.

Great Bass

Years ago I had a Fender Precision which I loved and regretted selling ever since. While this is NOT a Precision, for the money it's unbeatable