Harley Benton PJ-74 VW Vintage Series 5-stars Reviews

Before buying this I hadn't played bass for years. I was looking for something simple, solid and easy to play with a great tone.

This bass was recommended to me by some amazing musicians during a Gearhead University live stream. I am so glad I went with their suggestion.

This is an incredibly well built and great sounding bass that is an absolute joy to play.

A very nice and beautiful bass.

I had to do nothing (apart from lowering just a bit the saddles) when i got this bass. The sound is rich, the looks are gentle, simple and elegant. Keeps in tune. Just a small thing: i prefer to see at what point the knob's are and though the metal knobs look cool, they are not helpful from this point of view (but it's just a personal choice and they're easily replaceable and quite cheap). Copper saddles - a nice touch. While still searching "for the right one" i took it to a few stores (with covered headstock) to compare it with other basses and all people who played and heard it thought that it was a Fender bass (~1000$).

For me personally the spacing of the strings was too much, i feel much more comfortable with spacing (and neck) like in Jazz bass (and i don't want to start a bass collection - it is not healthy and i am not a bass player, and i have many guitars already). That is the only reason i said "Goodbye" to this bass and sold it to a friend (without making any extra money, of course).

If you're looking for a juicy bass with nice looks and PJ neck (almost like in P bass), this one is definitely a great option, especially considering such a nice price.

I love this bass! What a bang for the dollar/euros I play in a rack band and wanted a rock bass and this fits the bill. I love the neck,pick ups are very good, love the color and matching headstock. For the money it’s a no brainer if you like this style of bass.

Good build. Great value.

I tend to read the negative reviews first so was ready to reach for the toolkit when opening the box. There was no need. The only changes I've made to the bass is to add a slight concave bow to the neck using the supplied tool and lowered the bridge a few notches. No problem with frets or the rest of the guitar build. The pick ups allow a good variety of tone from smooth runs to heavy growl. The action is nice and low. Fantastic value of this price.

Astonishing Value

I have bought harley benton previously. I have a rosewood veneer jazz style bass which is excellent although pretty heavy and I bought my son the "thinline" tele with the P90 soapbars. This again is a tremendous guitar. I just fancied trying the PJ style pickup layout and this Pj 74 OW looked really nice on the website. I struggle to say how good this bass is. When it arrived I could have gigged with it straight from the box. It was still in tune. I always fiddle about with my guitars so I expected to have to adjust the truss rod and string height...but everything was perfect. The finish is flawless and the colour, olympic white, is beautiful. It had the typical jazz problem with the two volume controls...with both vols on full it actually gets quieter but that is solved by backing off the bridge vol slightly. I wanted to do the series pickup mod anyway which I did with a push pull vol pot. It is good but really it sounded good with the standard VVT setup anyway. I did lower the strings at the nut but not by much. I didn't have to do it. I have gigged with it twice in a week. We all have Fenders and Gibsons in the band and the rest of the crew were amazed at this thing. This is a £150 bass. If it had fender written on the headstock and cost a £1000 I wouldn't be disappointed. OK..I play through good gear..TC RS Cabs and Hartke heads but my main bass is a 1987 Ernie Ball Stingray and I also use a 1973 Precision.......but I just prefer using the HB. It really is just as good. Maybe I just got a good one but I don't think so. This thing really is astonishing value.