Any brand that doesn’t have the Sire headstock works for me
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Harley Benton
- Thread starter weekend warrior
- Start date
I bought an MSB 5 out of curiosity about multi-scales. The neck was amazing. I deepened the nut slots and it played really well, easily as good as some of my boutique (ish) 5's. Electronics were a bit noisy but not unusable at all. Great feature set. Push-pull active/passive, etc. Finish was pretty nice, a couple of spotty bits around 2 of the inset neck screws. I am selling it only because I learned I'm just not a fanned fret guy.
BBB
BBB
I've got three Harley Bentons. Two JB-50s and a JB-75.
The JB-50s are excellent basses for any price. One I , a Fiesta Red one I highly modified it into a tribute to Dusty Hill, and the John Bolin Peeler P. I did the vinyl wrap and Seymour-Duncan Custom Shop 51 P Bass Stack (aka, Stinger) and custom pickguard as was done on the original. I stripped the neck, reshaped the headstock and refinished it with a light grey stain, Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil and Gunstock wax (feels fantastic!). I installed similar style hardware and reliced it. The tuners are stock, just reliced and oiled for smoother operation.
The other one, a Sunburst, is straight forward vintage accessorized. I did replace the pickup with a Bootstrap Palo Alto for '51 P Bass. This pickup is a little more vintage voiced, but just slightly warmer output. The Stock Roswell is a fine '51 P style pickup, just a little too high output for what I was after with this bass. I put the stock white pickguard off the Fiesta Red/Peeler P. Otherwise, it's stock.
My other Harley Benton is my JB-75. It's one of their mid tier/higher tier models of the Jazz bass copies. The only thing I did to it was replace the single ply pickguard with a three ply BWB pickguard. I'm primarily a P bass player, but still wanted a good Jazz style bass. I went through a couple of them, including swapping pickups, trying to find one I liked. I got the JB-75 and I'm satisfied with it for a Jazz Bass for me. The stock pickups have the grit and bite I wanted in from a Jazz. Not quite the same, but similar to Geddy Lee's Jazz pickups.
In my experience, the Harley Bentons in the mid to upper level tiers are outstanding instruments, as good or better than many mid tier bass from the major manufacturers. Their basic, low end models seem like fine versions of other cheap Chinese manufactured models.
The JB-50s are excellent basses for any price. One I , a Fiesta Red one I highly modified it into a tribute to Dusty Hill, and the John Bolin Peeler P. I did the vinyl wrap and Seymour-Duncan Custom Shop 51 P Bass Stack (aka, Stinger) and custom pickguard as was done on the original. I stripped the neck, reshaped the headstock and refinished it with a light grey stain, Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil and Gunstock wax (feels fantastic!). I installed similar style hardware and reliced it. The tuners are stock, just reliced and oiled for smoother operation.
The other one, a Sunburst, is straight forward vintage accessorized. I did replace the pickup with a Bootstrap Palo Alto for '51 P Bass. This pickup is a little more vintage voiced, but just slightly warmer output. The Stock Roswell is a fine '51 P style pickup, just a little too high output for what I was after with this bass. I put the stock white pickguard off the Fiesta Red/Peeler P. Otherwise, it's stock.
My other Harley Benton is my JB-75. It's one of their mid tier/higher tier models of the Jazz bass copies. The only thing I did to it was replace the single ply pickguard with a three ply BWB pickguard. I'm primarily a P bass player, but still wanted a good Jazz style bass. I went through a couple of them, including swapping pickups, trying to find one I liked. I got the JB-75 and I'm satisfied with it for a Jazz Bass for me. The stock pickups have the grit and bite I wanted in from a Jazz. Not quite the same, but similar to Geddy Lee's Jazz pickups.
In my experience, the Harley Bentons in the mid to upper level tiers are outstanding instruments, as good or better than many mid tier bass from the major manufacturers. Their basic, low end models seem like fine versions of other cheap Chinese manufactured models.
FWIW, that wasn't my experience with my RB-414, but I wasn't switching it with another for comparison, just using it alone. Now I'll have to go check it against my other basses.
I got my first Harley Benton's back in 2015 and all three are still going strong. First was a TE-30 that I converted to a Esquire tele, then came the game changers. A PB-50 & a JB-75, The PB-50 is my most used bass(the only mods were fender flatwound strings, a reshaped headstock and a vintage correct wiring loom) it didn't the wiring changing but I already had it in my parts box.
Since then Harley have been my goto for certain style of basses, in the past ten years I have acquired a nice collection of Harley Bentons
BZ-5000 NT
JB-75 MN NA
MM-84A
PB-50 SB (2015 Wilkinson Pickup version. the bass that re-ignited of love of bass)
PB-50 FR (2019 Version with Roswell Pickup and Thinner contour Neck)
PB-50 FR LH (Right Hand Conversion, Roswell pickup, slightly different neck shape than the other two)
Like @MadJack I wanted to pay homage to Dusty Hill and found a picture of Dusty playing a left hand bodied in red with cream pickguard and pinstriping and decide to copy that one, The bass wasn't in stock at the time but luckily for me @kodiakblair had a spare one he could spare, thanks Davie. 2 years on the pinstriping still hasn's been done (having too much fun playing it) - the f-hole is a sticker till the pinstrips get done
TB-70 SBK (This one had it's electrics changed to 1 volume, 1 Balance & 1 Tone)
Instead of buying new pickguard's I just buy the coreect colour sticky vinyl and cut it to shape - a lot cheaper and easier to replace if I fancy a change
Since then Harley have been my goto for certain style of basses, in the past ten years I have acquired a nice collection of Harley Bentons
BZ-5000 NT
JB-75 MN NA
MM-84A
PB-50 SB (2015 Wilkinson Pickup version. the bass that re-ignited of love of bass)
PB-50 FR (2019 Version with Roswell Pickup and Thinner contour Neck)
PB-50 FR LH (Right Hand Conversion, Roswell pickup, slightly different neck shape than the other two)
Like @MadJack I wanted to pay homage to Dusty Hill and found a picture of Dusty playing a left hand bodied in red with cream pickguard and pinstriping and decide to copy that one, The bass wasn't in stock at the time but luckily for me @kodiakblair had a spare one he could spare, thanks Davie. 2 years on the pinstriping still hasn's been done (having too much fun playing it) - the f-hole is a sticker till the pinstrips get done
TB-70 SBK (This one had it's electrics changed to 1 volume, 1 Balance & 1 Tone)
Instead of buying new pickguard's I just buy the coreect colour sticky vinyl and cut it to shape - a lot cheaper and easier to replace if I fancy a change
I briefly had a MM SB 84A. I am convinced that Harley Benton has an army of covert advertisers to push their products. My bass was not made well. There was a pretty big gap on the treble side of the neck pocket and the output jack didn't work very well. It was also just not ergonomic. I sold it used to a local music store which proceeded to resell it for much more, so who knows?
I can't speak to their other models. But if you want a Stingray-style bass, and you want to spend less than 1000 USD, buy a Sterling.
I can't speak to their other models. But if you want a Stingray-style bass, and you want to spend less than 1000 USD, buy a Sterling.
Yeah, switching between treble and bass pickup there was a very noticeable volume drop between the 2 soloed but obviously in the both pickup position you could balance with the independent volume pots, I believe @LowEndLobster noticed this too on their review a few years ago. I eventually swapped out the treble pickup with a retrovibe slim jim 8k which was far more balanced. The stock bass pickup the Artec mini humbucker was an absolute tonemonster though, proving that the pickups Harley Benton choose are very capable.
Hmm... I doubt it. People just say what they think about any product they buy, happily for the people that have spoken positively about HB products most are very impressed with what they end up with especially a such a low price point.
Naturally as with any other manufacturer QC can slip on occasions it looks like you had a bad one, you could have returned it to Thomann but if you live in the States I'd accept that this may be more trouble than it's worth.
Incedentally, I too were eying up the MM series at one point and when I asked over at the I Own A Harley Benton Club whether their MM series were good I was advised to probably go for the Sire Z3, a little more expensive and on that advice I did not regret it.
This kinda tells you that even the most hardcore HB fan will say that some models have failings, so no we're not all blind HB robots.
In the most respectful way, I challenge you to find a better constructed vintage style P bass other than the PB-50 that you can buy new for $115.
I will bear this in mind the next time I am looking for my first bass.In the most respectful way, I challenge you to find a better constructed vintage style P bass other than the PB-50 that you can buy new for $115.
They are really great instruments for the money you pay for them.The MV line in particular are mega great. The tuners are serviceable and I've noticed, they make revisions of some of the lines as time passes.
I recently got one of the pro line instruments and I absolutely love it. Its effectively a copy of a Sandberg but it plays and sounds great, same tuners that are found on Sires and other indo made instruments, great bridge, pickups are great, only thing id mark it down for is the preamp isn't the best, but i have a plan for that.
Here are my 2 MV's and the New Pro (I also have 2 JB-75's too)
View attachment 7378364View attachment 7378365View attachment 7378367
Oh yeah, I have a pair of pro lines too. I also have a fretted and fretless progressive series, but I only have a picture of the fretted:
I think I need to get the Jazz model too! I'm loving the P bass model. Its just such a well built bass. Lovely basses mate!
I actually am a J kinda guy, so I got that one first. I liked that the switch allws you to put the bridge pup in single coil mode. But I still modded mine so that I can use either coil I choose. It's only humbucking for one of them, but I don't care, I like the tonal impact. It's like having a bass with both 60's and 70's spaced pups!I think I need to get the Jazz model too! I'm loving the P bass model. Its just such a well built bass. Lovely basses mate!
