Harley Benton JB-75 SB Vintage Series

First of all, I was blown away by the quality of this instrument. I heard very good reviews about it before but I was still a bit skeptical...BUT it was JUST as I had heard it would be.

The hardware on this is really worth much more than how much I payed for it. Wilkinson pickups and bridge?? wow.
Great quality stuff there.

The looks on this bass...well you be the judge of that. Doesn't it look great??
- 70s style block pearloid inlays (you won't find this kind of look for this kind of money)
- lovely 3 tone sunburst on a quality American ash
- Harley Benton(thomann) really killed in the looks department on this one, in a good way ofcourse.

It sounds great! I did an AB with a Fender Mexican Jazz Bass and I personally thought this was on par if not better than the Fender!! unbelievable! There is also a good response with the blend knobs.

I had this for about 1 and a half weeks and I couldn't really find much fault in the build of the bass. The frets are nicely trimmed on the sides so it doesn't hurt your hands, and it came setup very well! All I had to do was maybe adjust the saddles to intonate it a little bit but even that was very small. It also seems to be very durable so it should be fine when going on stage as well as on the road.

The only 2 cons I found about this instrument was the pickguard and the weight.

The pickguard doesn't really look like a genuine turtoise shell pickguard up close. Looks a bit "cheap" but that's nothing you can't fix by changing it.

The heavy weight can be both a pro and a con.
It's heavy because it's made of American ash body and that actually contributes to the resonance of the bass as there is more material and mass BUT for a guy like me who isn't "bulky", this might be a problem as it's too heavy to play long hours on stage.
SO my fix on this was buying a good quality strap.
I got a Mono Cases "The Betty Strap" which is doing a miracle work for me. It balances out the weight of the bass and has paddings to relieve the stress on my shoulders. So get a nice strap! I recommend the Betty Strap.

All in all, Great instrument! Great Price! Great Service!
Kudos to you Thomann!!

What a glorious bass. I'll say it again . . . what everyone else has been saying . . . I seriously cannot believe I got this great sounding of a bass for $138 dollars. I have played for 30+ years. I played professionally for several years, and have some mid-to-high dollar basses. I have not played an “inexpensive” bass in years. Maybe decades. And I’ve NEVER bought a bass this cheap in my life. But what a surprise this bass has turned out to be. It's fantastic. I’ve wanted a bass with this blocked/bound rosewood board look for a long time. And it scratches that itch on the cheap.

The HB is surprisingly comfortable to play. The neck is straight and smooth, the body is solid, paint and finish look great. The satin neck is fantastic and easy to slide around on. I took it down one star because the fretwork is a little lacking. But I would by no means complain about that at this price point. I’ve played worse. I love the blocks and binding. The neck is a bit thicker (front to back) than the jazz neck on my Lakland, which I like. I need a little more meat for my big garden rake-sized hands to hold on to, and the HB fits the bill. It is a little heavy, but not as shockingly heavy as I expected it to be based on many reviews and comments I’ve read. I don’t have a scale to confirm this, but just holding one bass in each arm, it feels a little heavier than my Lakland 5-string jazz, but not overwhelmingly so. It plays great sitting down. Maybe just a liiiitle neck dive. Some lightweight tuners might change that. But it’s not enough for me to worry about.

The pickups pack a ton of punch and warmth. When I first got it, the bridge pickup was way higher than the neck pickup, and it sounded thin and weak. Once I evened out the pickups, it sounded warm and full. Interestingly enough, so far they're dead quiet. I live in an old house with ungrounded wiring where I practice, so everything buzzes. Passive/active/split/single coil. It doesn't matter. But the HB buzzes less than my Lakland. And the single coil Roswell pickups don't have the same 60-cycle hum I was getting out of the Lakland pickups. It's fascinating. When I solo one of the pickups on my Lakland, even just a little, I get some hum. It's to be expected from single coil pickups and is part of their inherent tone and charm. But when I solo one of the Roswell pickups, even all of the way, I get no hum at all. Maybe they're wired to somehow defeat the hum. I don't know. The only negative tone-wise is that I do find the bass to be a very “clanky” with the pickups and tone knob on full. Way too much high end coming through. I have to roll the tone knob down quite a bit to calm the clank, but once I get it dialed in, it's perfection. And it makes my Tech 21 YYZ pedal absolutely sing. Of course, it's no Lull. That would be silly. But it will likely kick my Lakland (a bass that costs about 10x as much new) off the top jazz spot in my arsenal. I am thrilled with the purchase.

My only other complaint is not about the bass itself, but the shipping process. I do intend to let Thomann know that the box was completely destroyed in places when the bass/case arrived. The bass did not escape unscathed. But there was surprisingly little damage compared to the utter destruction of the box. Just a chunk taken out of the top of the headstock. Not enough to return the bass for, but certainly enough to be frustrated by. Especially given the number of complaints I’ve read online about their basses being damaged by overseas shipping to the US. They have GOT to start packing them better. It will save them money on returns. The bass had poked through both the top (by the top of the headstock) and bottom (by the strap pin) of the box, damaging the top of the bass. There was little to no padding inside, despite being double-boxed. I decided when I ordered it that if I liked this bass, I was going to order another, but I don’t think I will now, because I don’t want to risk it. If you’re local, or at least on the same continent, it would be far less of a concern.

I have been wanting to get a jazz bass in these colors for a while but since I don't play bass very often, I didn't want to spend the money. While surfing the internet, a video showing a Harley Benton bass caught my eye and I started looking at this model and I read the reviews. At this price point, and with the outstanding reviews, I thought it was a good gamble so I placed an order on June 2.

On June 29 it arrived via DHL and USPS. It was in excellent condition. The bass was pretty well set up and ready to play after I stretched the strings and tuned it. The only issue I could find was that one of the inserts on the fretboard will eventually get a little glue as it's rising up a hair on one corner. The neck fits snugly in the pocket. The frets and edges are smooth and the fretboard looks great with the binding. The hardware and electronics work very well. The Sunburst finish is gorgeous!

I already have a Fender Player series model jazz bass that I love so I couldn't wait to compare the two. Through my inexpensive practice amp, this bass sounds about the same as the Fender and may actually have a little more output. The Fender weighs 9 pounds, and I'd estimate that the HB is about 3-4 pounds heavier. The fret edges feel a little bit better on the HB bass than on the Fender. Due to the extra weight of the HB, the Player series bass is more comfortable when I stand up to play, but otherwise, I'd have to say the HB is pretty much on par with the Fender.

Well look at that! A bass with all the bells and whistles for less than 140 euro! As always there is a catch, but let me start with the good things (and there are many):

The materials used are way ahead of all the others at this price point and even higher
-The body is made out of ash (much better than basswod)
-It has a beautiful grain and it is made out of two pieces that were quite well aligned. You wouldn't really see that it is a two piece body without looking very closely
-The maple neck is one piece of solid wood and it has binding (a very rare sight at this price point)
-The pearloid fret inlays look great. I expected them to be just chunks of white plastic but they aren't much worse than the ones on my Les-Paul.
-The pickups sound great and the electronics work flawlessly
-Brass saddles (very cool!)
-Tuners work well
-Overall, you get so much "stuff" for your money that it's quite hard to believe.

Now to the bad things:

-Craftsmanship is generally speaking quite lacking. This is obvious especially when you look at the neck. The fret ends have not been hammered in properly and are higher than they should be (It's as if they were "peeling off"). This results in a lot of fret buzz. The fretjob is in general the worst thing about this guitar.
-Straight out of the box, the neck is covered by some dust, as if they didn't clean it after sanding. This is however easy to get rid of.
-The fretboard is not sanded properly and small scratches from the sanding paper are visible
-The paintjob is very good, but there are three tiny left out dots on the corners of the neck joint, not a big deal and they are barely visible.
-The fret metal is "smudged" on the neck's binding; it goes off after a while of rubbing.
-The pickguard looks as it looks, more unfortunately it has a small drop of black paint on it (it's 3-ply though).
-The nut is made out of some cheap plastic, it doesn't look splendid but gets the job done, its just that all the other hardware is much better quality.
-The neck is quite thick but this is a matter of preference. Also the fretboard wood has an unusual woody grain unlike rosewood.
-The strings on my guitar were terrible, they sounded dull and one of them even snapped when I was tuning the guitar for the first time.

All in all, it is obvious that these guitars aren't being made by the world's finest luthiers who take their time to do everything perfectly. There is actually quite a lot of work left to be done, so let me guide you through the steps to finish it off:

-Add the 5 euro Harley Benton bass strings to your order and throw that stock abomination away :)
-Hammer the fret ends in to prevent fret buzz.
-Use some fine sand paper and go over the frets once more, on my guitar they were levelled but not really fine-sanded.
-Polish the scratches on the fretboard (perhaps by your dremel's fine polishing wheel).
-Take some oil and clean the fretboard, it is going to look much better. You can use lemon oil but even wd-40 will do just fine.
-Adjust the truss rod, action and intonation.

Do all of that and you have an incredible guitar for a ridiculously small amount of money; whether you can do it is something to consider before buying, but the piece that you get might be better made, you never know.
Besides, Thomann's outstanding service has your back and you can return it, in case you don't like it. I also have to give them special credit since they've sent me the new strings for free.