Harley Benton PJ-75 VW Vintage Series Reviews

My new favorite

OK, so this isn't actually my favorite bass that I own, but nothing can replace my 73 fretless P Bass. But that's not the bass I want to play on most of our songs. The PJ-75 is. I primarily play it as a full P, and the sound just works for me. And then there are the times when I want to mix in the J or go for some other variation - you know, all those various sound options one wants from a passive PJ - they're all available. This isn't exactly a light bass. After our last 3 hour gig I woke up the next morning remembering that I'm a middle aged man who had a large chunk of lumber on my shoulder for a few hours. But that's hard to overcome if you to play a 5 string like this. I have noticed that after playing for a few hours the outside of my left pointer finger is calloused. I looked carefully, and I think the frets are a hair wider than the fretboard which a good tech should be able to fix with a little extra rounding and/or polishing. Considering the price, I can afford that little bit of work. One thing to know - like most passive JBs, if you turn the neck pickup to full and then turn the bridge pickup to full the overall output on mine decreases. One day I may add a series / parallel switch to give me some additional options there, but even if I never get around to it, I'm thrilled with this bass.

Excellent Bass!

Needed very little initial setup. Plays very nicely and looks great! Highly recommend.

Decent Beginner's Instrument

Unlike a lot of HB guitars, HB basses have a long way to go. To keep this short and sweet: Tuners: must be replaced immediately. This was to be expected - the tuners on this bass are laughably bad. You'd be tuning between each song if you took it onstage. Neck: straight, but fret sprout was atrocious. Took multiple passes cleaning up the fret edges before this thing was playable. Pickups/sound: Not very good. I have a passive Mexican Fender Jazz and P-Basses and, stung up with the same brand of strings and through the same amp... this thing is not even in the same universe. Sounds cheap and junky... which it is. In the case of this instrument, you're getting what you paid for. On the other hand it's affordable and it looks awesome. But you would need to do the above and then go ahead and swap the electronics and pickups to get this thing on the level of a mediocre Mexican Fender. This could turn out to be a very costly exercise on a 5-string. If you come into this with the mindset of needing to spend another $300-$400 to make this a bass you play in the studio or onstage. At that point, you're approaching the cost of a used Fender bass. I've been happy with my guitar purchases from HB, but this bass? If I could do it all over again, I'd have just saved up and bought a used 5-string Fender. Much better resale value, less hassle.

Very Good for the price

Very nice Bass for beginners, very playable right out of the box, weight is nice and light, looks incredible and if necessary, very easy to mod/upgrade with better pickups or maybe even a better bridge. No real complaints.

Really great bass!

I just bought the Harley Benton PJ-75 VW Vintage Series bass and have been playing on it for a few days. It’s feeling and sounding pretty awesome and I’m very impressed with the finish on the bass. I will say my frets were a bit rough on the edges and needed some filing , but once we did that it feels great and plays really well! Worth it for sure! Thank you guys for a killer instrument .

The best PJ you will ever have

I love this bass. The controls the tones it's perfect. This is becoming one of my favorite go to basses. Fret work was great no sharp edges after it settled in to local temp. Setup was spot on out the box. You can't go wrong with this bass at all.

Precision is precision. Enough said...

Got mine couple days ago - cannot put it down. Pretty sturdy, well-built bass with classic Precision vibe. The sound on P-pickup is warm and round, you may want to engage J-pickup for more treble and mids. For me the sweet spot is 100% tone, 100% P-pickup and 50% J-pickup volume. Got decent low-end and just enough treble even on my 30 watts amp with these settings. The instrument worth all the money paid and sounds even better than my previous double humbucker bass.

What about cons? Not so much. One volume pot is loose and some marks on finish.

Thanks for reading.

Great for the price

The pickups are a bit lackluster but for this price, you won't find a higher quality bass.

good bang for the bucks, with some qsmall quality issues

Nothing to tell about the sound, it plays well and is comfortable, but one annoying issue has been that the side of the fretboard is sharp.

generally good bass for the money!

Great playability

A great bass for the price, well balanced and great to play

Satisfied

I really appreciate the fast delivery to the U.S.

Pros: Great price! Mines look like it came with a roasted maple neck, Beautiful finish, Great sounding pickups (wish they were noiseless), Brass saddles, Good tuners (not great), Snappy strings and an Excellent feel!

Cons: Sharp fret edges, Looks like a plastic nut (not bone) and a couple of Pickup screws were slightly bent (comes from using a power tool and not a screwdriver by hand).

Overall 4.25/5, I am very satisfied with this purchase and will be ordering another Bass (or two) for myself and a Guitar for me daughter. This Bass is also an excellent MOD platform.

Appreciate it mate!

Solid but I might sell it

I got this as a travel instrument b/c I didn't want to be without a bass for a month last summer. It is quite playable out of the box. Action is a little low; buzzed out more than I liked. It is light. Lighter than my G&L 4-string. The jack holds the cable well. The knobs turn smoothly and are not static-y. Stays in tune. But it turns out that I don't really use the bottom string except as a thumb rest. The music I'm playing doesn't need a lower string.

And that is the true value of this instrument! For only ~$180, I got to play around with a 5-string and I can sell it at a slight loss and try something else. Or I can hold onto it and see if I need that low string in the future.

So close to ideal

I can't complain because what was there to complain about the frets where not totally dressed on the edges & I fixed that before I ever experienced the flaw, I am totally capable and equipped to do so,15 minutes later and the bass was ideal.

The sound was surprisingly nice. I mean that, when I plugged it in the sound surprised me and instant relief. Same as when I first held it, instantly relieved that there will be no buyers remorse. The intonation perfect, action perfect for me. Nice parts, all around Nice job Harley Benton Company. Gold Stars⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Great for recording

Guitar sound is really versatile for anything you want to record, comfortable to play for long hours at a time.

For this money, you won't find a bass better!

The sound is perfect for any style of music. If you use two pickups at once with an open tone, then the sound is like Ibanez sr305 (imho)

The tone of this bass can be very aggressive or soft.

Suitable for both a beginner bassist and professional musicians (but for studio recording, you will have to replace the pickups with some seymour duncan).

Came out of the box tuned to the scale. The height of the strings suits me as well (Under 1st fret <1mm under 12th fret 2.5mm), but maybe I'll lower it a bit because it's a little difficult to play.

The bass is in perfect condition, no noticeable chips, no scratches. Of course, if you look closely, then there will be small ones, but they will also be on expensive instruments with a price above $ 1,500.

Analogues in local music stores (in Kazakhstan) are 4 times more expensive, so this is an ideal option for all musicians.

Even if you are a guitarist, you can buy this bass for such a good price for fun.

Ребята из Казахстана и стран СНГ! Не переживайте о том что что-то пойдёт не так, всё было отлично. Я тоже сначала думал что такого быть не может - "отличный бас и за такую цену?", думал что придут дрова, но инструмент оказался отличный и по факту придираться тут и не к чему. Так что заказывайте и кайфуйте!

Great Value and beat my expectations

I'll be honest, at this price I was not expecting much at all, but the bass was actually much better than some more expensive basses I have owned.

The construction is good, no dead notes and decent action out the box.

downside, pick ups dont sound great and record worse , tuning pegs feel cheap. But these are both things I will do change anyway.

all in all very happy with my purchase

All you could ever need

Kinda shocked at the price. The build quality was excellent, seems at least to be worth of double the price. Features? It's a 5 string PJ bass, there isn't many other things a bass could have. The only slight downside is that the J pickup is kinda thin and doesn't punch through the mix as you'd expect it (P overwhelms it in a mixed pickup setting).

All in all - if you NEED that low B string in your music but don't have that much cash, this was made for you

a very good bass

I've been trying to play guitar for a few years now and I usually produce some backtracks to play along with.

I bought the 4-string model for home recording at first, but decided to switch to the 5-string, and the salesperson responsible for my order sorted it out pretty quickly. i live in northwest england and it took just over a week for the instrument to arrive. i had some problems but everything was resolved very quickly. I had very good after sales support. this is very relevant to me and i will definitely have more basses harley benton. lol

the instrument.

the instrument arrived well tuned, with a low and nice action, and has a truly deluxe finish. all very good, in my opinion, even without taking into account the price, which is a bargain. 170 pounds very well paid.

It's a good platform for mods, but I don't see any need for any upgrades, at least for now.

the bass is not heavy and the neck is very comfortable...

in short, go without fear. buy one and be happy, and if it's not what you wanted, they'll find a way to resolve this issue.

Excellent, Inexpensive Five-String

Players in the U.S. aren't very familiar with Harley Benton products. I learned about them from an online bass forum. I was looking for an inexpensive 5-string P/J to leave at the rehearsal space. Being unfamiliar with HB, I wasn't expecting much when I ordered this. I was just looking for something that would stay in tune and not hurt my hands. Granted I set the bar low, but this PJ-75 far exceeded my expectations. The fit and finish was quite good, but the sound was just great. This bass punches far above its weight class and is now my go-to bass on gigs requiring a 5-string. Comparatively speaking, I'd put this bass in the same quality category as the Squier CV line or the MIM Fender lines, but without the same price tag.

Great instrument, very surprised!

So for a while, I played one of those Marcus Miller 5 string humbucker bass guitars and to tell you the truth, I hate basses with on board eqs. I prefer the sound of a jazz bass with all the knobs cranked and letting myself shape the tone in post.

This one caught my eye and for how little money it is, it's surprisingly good. The tuning stability is remarkable, which is by far the most important aspect of recording electric string instruments.

The pickups are a tad muddy, but I've not really felt the need to replace them as they outperform what one of my clients brought in his squier 5 string bass.

The color is a little, eh I suppose. I'm not a fan of the mayonaise color, but I guess Patrick was right. All in all, I'd love to see this one in black, and I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.