Harley Benton JB-75MN NA Vintage Series

I'm a singer/songwriter and producer. My main instruments are guitar and piano, plus the singing. I was on the market for a cheap bass to add some bass lines to my recordings — nothing fancy, since I'm not a bass player by any stretch of the imagination. I was split between this guy and the Harley Benton PB-20BK, but ended up getting this one because I thought the jazz bass would be more flexible for my use case. Plus this one looks better, which isn't a big deal for me, but it's always nice when the instrument looks good.

I have to say I am ABSOLUTELY BLOWN AWAY by this bass, and I just can't put it down since I got it. It has exceeded my expectations in all possible measures. It's on par with any Squier with similar features and materials, while costing at least 100EUR less. It came well set up from the factory, so I didn't even have to mess with that. The strings it came with are pretty good as well. And the tone is really exceptional for what it is — a sub-200EUR instrument. Obviously it will never beat a proper Fender Jazz Bass in that regard, but I really believe that if I replace the pickups down the road, it may indeed give said Fenders a run for their money. We'll see.

What impressed me the most is the fit and finish. The attention to detail from Thomann's quality control is exceptional here. Everything from the fretboard inlays (which are plastic, but look great nonetheless) to the black binding on the neck, to the fretwork — which is perfect from the factory — to the beautiful ash piece they used for the body — this really looks and feels like a much more expensive instrument in that regard. No crappy woodwork, no frets sticking out, perfect tolerances and fit across the board. Congratulations, Thomann!

I don't know if I can complain about an instrument this cheap with this much quality, but for the sake of completeness, I have to say that the tuners and the bridge are really nothing special, especially the tuners. They feel really cheap, even compared to my Harley Benton acoustic guitar (which was cheaper but has much nicer tuners). I might replace the them eventually, but for now, they get the job done.

Overall, if you're like me, and are on the market for a bass to get started or just to lay down some bass lines in your tracks, this is a great purchase. You'll be very satisfied. 5 stars across the board. Thank you, Thomann!

I have an expensive and rare Spector bass and I bought it for three reasons.
1. I needed an easily accecible bass to have it laying around and throw it around without thinking about damaging or anything else as I am with my other bass.
2. I normally prefer PB setup but wanted to have a JB configuration to explore the sound. But I did not want to spend a lot of money at this time.
3. I wanted to by a Harley Benton instrument and see for myself what it is all about. Few very bad reviews, Many great reviews and many people are amazed about the value for money and not only.

It is one of the best purchases I have ever had. The bass is great just out of the box. Sound is decent, hardware is very good, woods are very nice, finish is excellent. Pots are real, factory fitted strings are ok. It is definately not an instrument of bad quality and yes I do care a lot if something happen to it. Surely it is not in par with my Spector in terms of sound, playability and exclusivity and surely a American Jazz Bass is another league, but I really love it A LOT for what it is!.

Cons.
All issues below are not something that worries me, not the slightest though of regreting my purchase and not a deal breaker in any case. For the price, you have to have a flaw. However, these flaws are often present to all other brands' more expensive models.

1. A bit heavy but It does not affect me that much as I read other reviewers which to them that seem to be a great issue.
2. Action is a bit high, however, I have not tried to set it up yet as it is not a major issue yet.
3. Frets are a bit sharp, but I will not bother to sand them. Playability is not affected, feel is ok.
4. The block inlays and stripes at the fretboard is some short of paint application. I hope it will last, otherwise i do not think that it would look nice if it start to fade.

Highly recomend for a new player, or an experienced one (if you need it).

I only have it for 3 weeks and did not have the chance to play with my mates yet. Will provide feedback.


Very happy with my purchase. Thank you Thomann

To begin with, I initially bought this as a back up for my Fender Geddy Lee Jazz bass.

My first thoughts were, how can they sell a natural '75 style jazz bass with D'addario strings, Canadian maple neck and, in my case, a two piece maple body with a join so good I thought that it was a 1 piece body for this price?

To put things into perspective, I use a Radial Tonebone for tone shaping and DI which cost twice as much as this bass did.

Out of the box I found that the fit & finish was excellent for a bass at this price point. I have found over the years that the main difference between a low priced bass and a high priced one is the attention to detail in the finishing process. I had a couple of frets that were protruding ever so slightly as can happen with new basses many times the price of this one but less than 5 minutes with a small file and it was sorted. The tuners hold the bass in tune and the bridge is the usual familiar style but with brass saddles which is a nice touch. The body has what I imagine will be a tough poly finish and I can find no flaws in that either.

The neck is very well made with a very smooth satin finish and I actually prefer it to the very thin neck on my Geddy. It's still slim but feels a bit more substantial front to back.

The bass balances well on a strap and is very comfortable to play for long periods (90 minute to 2 hour sets at a time)

I play in a wedding/function band entertaining anywhere from 200 to 2,000 people and made the mistake of using this at a gig shortly after buying it. The mistake being that I enjoyed playing it so much that my Fender Jazz bass is now up for sale and I will be using this bass for all future gigs.

I see ads all the time where people have bought a cheap bass and sell them on due to having upgraded to a more expensive "name brand" bass. Over the past 30 years I have owned and played over 140 basses from one that I got for nothing to some costing over £3,000. This bass is good enough to use professionally and the only change to this bass I have made is that I prefer D'addario EXL165 strings over the EXL170s fitted to this one as I like a heavier A & E string.

I get the impression that this won't be my last Harley Benton branded bass if this one is indicative of the quality.

I bought this bass as I already have a classic vibe p bass and wanted to try a jazz bass with its skinnier neck and different tonal options. I should point out that I have been playing guitar for 22 years and over the past year have started playing bass. In that time I have learnt what a good guitar and a bad guitar feels and looks like. I can only speak for the bass I received but it's an absolute gem! Straight out of the box I let it sit and warm up and then tuned it, nothing else needed adjusting. Nice low action with no fret buzz or high frets (Being really picky, could probably do with a little filing on a couple of fret ends, but they aren't sharp and perfectly playable) The nut was cut perfectly and no cosmetic imperfections at all and the tuners feel smooth and hold tune. No complaints with the electrics. I always look to change the pots on cheap guitars anyway, no need to just yet. And the pickups sound pretty good for this style of bass. For the price, I was expecting to level a couple of frets, adjust the truss rod and cut or replace the nut. And I was certainly expecting a couple of cosmetic blemishes at this price point. The guitar required none of these things! Cosmetically it is finished better than my classic vibe p bass which is double the price. Well done Thomann and the guys putting them together in the factory. If, like me you were dubious about the glowing youtube reviews then don't be. It is a great solid bass that punches well above its price. One final note is that the bass it a little heavy but not obnoxiously heavy, a wide padded strap will do the trick. This was my first Harley Benton purchase but certainly won't be my last.

I've been playing bass on and off since my early teens and I'm now 61 - I hasten to add not for all that length of time as marriage and kids took over and I stopped playing for about 25 years. During a mid life crisis about 5 years ago I bought a Fender MIJ P-bass which cost me at the time around £1600. I've added a couple of more basses to my collection since then, a Yamaha fretless and a HB RB-414. My latest acquisition the JB-70 has simply blown me away though. Unbelieveably I've never played a Jazz Bass before, either original or a copy so I wasn't sure what I was getting, or even whether I'd like it but for £149 I thought I'd have a go.
First impressions on unboxing was that this was a very high quality guitar. it's beautifully made and the body appears to be one-piece. I have seen other reviewers with this same model which shows the body as a 2 piece, joined down the centreline but even they look good, but I simply cannot see a join on mine, perhaps HB have decided to use a single lump now, I don't know.
The neck and fretboard is pure class as well, wheras the body is gloss, the neck is more of a satin almost matt finish which for anyone with sweaty hands hard gigging will appreciate. I just feels so nice you don't want to let it go. The fretboard is well finished with no sharp frets at all and the whole look of it is just pure peng.
Out of the box there is no need to set up at all, everything is perfect. Action is beautiful, no fret buzz anywhere on the neck at any string or fret. Whereas on all of my other guitars I've had a little play with the truss rods, bridge and nut, I feel absolutely no need to do anything to this guitar.
Playing it through an Orange Crush Bass 50, I cannot believe the tones that I'm getting, and the playabilty of the instrument is gorgeous. The pickups are superb and the tonal range is excellent. The stock strings are really good, and while I've restrung all my other basses when I first got them, I'm not going to bother with this one. To be honest, when I placed the order for the bass I was half thinking I'd use this as a platform to mod, but no way now I have it, it's pretty well staying as it is, and it's already become my favourite bass so far.
A couple of minor niggles that have been pointed out by other reviewers, the machine heads aren't the best quality so I'll probably swap out for some Gotoh's when I get round to it and the scratch plate is a bit cheapy so I might update that. But these are really minor niggles and won't spoil your enjoyment of this fantastic bass, and for £149 well, throw as much money as you want at the scratchplate and machine heads and you will still not be paying as much as you would do for a Squier and IMHO you've got a better instrument by far.
So I'm going to heap praise upon praise for Thomann. They are amazing at producing very good quality instruments at budget price. All this can do is encourage young musicians everywhere that quality doesn't have to come at a price, and affordable instruments do not mean they're unplayable, in fact the opposite. Gone are the days of the big brands asking big money (for sometimes flakey products as well) and pricing poorer people out of the market, Thomann are encouraging people of all budgets to pick up an instrument and follow their hearts. This can only be great for music in the future. Thomann - you've got a customer for life here, and I'm already eying up my next bass, some pedals another amp...

I have to say that I've been reading and watching reviews about this bass online quite a lot! and there a few things that I never found..

One of them is that it seems that no profesional bass player go and try to buy a bass so cheap as this one!, all that I find is beginners and guitarist who want to have a bass.. and that was my only fear before buying the bass.. because I've been playing bass for more than 10 years but I've been moving around the world and I haven't got that much money to buy expensive gear, so , I have to say that it is way better than I expected!!

I got the oportunity to test it against a
Fender SQ affinity Jazz Bass and
a Sire marcus miller V7

And I must say that the building quality is incredible. it is better than the Squier Affinity and almost as good the Sire. the sound is very very similar between the 3 (the Sire in pasive mode) after this comparison I went to a rehearsal and it stay tune playing for 2 hours.

well.. not all is gold and roses, there are a few things that I have to mention, but for paying 140¤ these are very minor..

the biggest one it is the weight, it is heavier than a Squier but very similar to the Sire. I have a hand luggage Scale and the Harley Benton Jb-75 weight 5.1kgs with the strap . so for some people this might be a problem but it is not to much difference between similar basses. and for the price is very acceptable.

the second things would be, there are a few minor parts that seem very cheap, as the Strap holder, the pick-guard the nut. but you won't be spending much changing these parts.

the last thing is that out of the box it came very dirty, and it needs a few adjustments.

I take it apart, clean it, put it back together and now it's beautiful, adjust the truss rod a lit bit and the saddle and now you can say it worth more than the double!

if you are a gigging musician and don't want to be always worried about transporting your gear in the proper way , or if it get lost in some venue, or get damage. get one of these! it worth it 100%

This bass cam to my collection today. To be honest I did not expect much more than a playable, mediocre bass, but OH BOY was i surprised!

I have been an active bassist since the -80,s, and have owned a number of Fenders and Sadowskys. Now I play a Devon JB 5, but wanted a 4 sting. I decided to get a cheap bass which I could do some upgrading to. Since the pandemic has reduced gigs to the absolute minimum I could not spend a lot of money, so I took a chance on this Harley Benton.

I was immediately stunned by the building quality. Very nice 3 piece body that at a glance looks like one single. Smooth & thick C neck. Dead straight out of the box. Very fast! Good pots and surprisingly nice pups. sound very close to a late 70,s Fender Jazz. The bridge seems to work OK.

Some small cons: 2 frets are buzzing and needs some care. I play with a very low action, so others that play with higher action won´t notice this. Also, the frets are a bit rough. Easy to polish with some steel wool. Some fret ends needs to be fixed. The bass is heavy, but has good balance. There is no shielding of the electronics, so there might be some hum. Will fix this with some copper foil. The nut is of rather poor quality, but does the job so far.

This bass is a total surprise for a few bucks! I don´t think I wil do any mods on this one as I planned, except for some of the issues I have mentioned. It sounds and plays sweet.

What more can I say? I am deeply surprised!

Sorry for my English. I played at home through a mixer and sound card using VST amp plugins, but I had nothing to compare with, because I'm a guitar player and this is the first bass.
I liked the sound very much, but the full sound was revealed at the rehearsal when playing a good bass amplifier. Compared to the similar Japanese-made jazz bass of 30 years ago, Harley Benton's sound is clearer and more powerful, and the price is 2 times less.
Of the minuses, I can note (although this is nitpicking):
1) Not glued frets (can come out over time) in places a little ringing. Solved by adjusting the string height
or in extreme cases, by adjusting the anchor and grinding. Although overall for this price, the neck is excellent. Frets well trimmed do not scratch the hand.
2) There was a small but noticeable background, because no shielding of the grooves of the potentiometers and pickups. For an hour he himself glued with a self-adhesive foil. Noise has become at acceptable levels for single coils.
3) As everyone has already noticed - the weight of the guitar. However, there is solidity and a real tree)
4) The black inserts of the fret markers are made, it seems to me, of a thin polymer film deposited on the surface of the fingerboard. I hope that it will not peel off over time.
From the pros:
1) Price-performance is amazing
2) You can play right out of the box and not bother with the minuses that I described above. Everything works fine out of the box.
3) As the first bass, and maybe even the only one is a great choice! Cosmetic investments and it will be on par with much more expensive bass in terms of sound and playability.

Special thanks to the Thomann team for the packaging! Upset the strings by removing the tension before sending to the cold part of the Earth and wrapped the strings with special paper with bags of silica gel.

I got the bass about two years ago on a whim to see what's all the fuss about with Harley Bentons.
When I got it, out of the box, it played and felt good. Tuned it up and was ready to go. Setup was done well, so I didn't have to do much. I noticed right away that the bass is noisy, but it is a jazz bass copy with single coil pickups, so I knew what was I getting into. The pickups are Roswell, brand I've never heard of. Probably Thomanns house brand, not the best out there but not the worst either. OK, sounding but nothing to write home about.
It held tuning pretty well and was stable enough to play in rehearsals.
Where it really shined was the looks department. It looks amazing with that ash body, maple neck, and fingerboard.

Now, fast forward two years, I decided to modify it. I replaced the tuners with Shallers, the stock bridge with a Gotoh, new strap buttons, and string retainer. Then, the time came to replace the pickups. I went with an EMG solderless passive set because I didn't feel like routing a battery compartment for the active ones. I took the time and shielded the electronics with copper tape as well.
When I plugged the bass in after modifications, the difference was very noticeable. The pickups made all the difference. Like I said, the original ones were not that bad, but compared to EMGs, they are really lacking. The bass is now dead silent, holds a way better tuning, and is much more stable overall. The pickups are higher output than the stock ones, so the bass has a pretty nice growl.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to bash Harley benton here. All of those modifications would not be possible if they didn't build a good overall skeleton.

I must say the best feature on that bass when it was completely stock is the neck. It is very stable, doesn't move a single bit, and even after all that surgery, I did a setup and found that I didn't have to adjust the trussrod at all. In its stock form, this bass is a very good beginner instrument. I got it with modifications in mind. And for that, you won't get a better platform.

The bass itself was around 170€. I put another cca 350€ of modifications in it and got a pretty nice mid range instrument. So now we are talking 520€ which is the price of a new higher range Squier, which still doesn't have Shaller tuners, Gotoh bridge, EMG pickups, EM shielding, and tend to be noisy so people modify them as well. The price of a bass with all that from factory and made from the same woods would be much higher.

So, in conclusion:
1. Wood construction is top-notch. You won't get a better moding skeleton for the money anywhere else.
2. From the get-go, it is a good beginner bass that won't set you back a lot of money.
3. Stock electronics were not the best out there but not the worst either. I've heard waaaaaay worse than that. It is a completely usable bass in its stock form. It shoots way above its class, considering the price
4. Neck is the best feature on the bass overall. I own instruments that I have to set up every season change. Not this one.
5. It is body heavy. Which is a good thing because there is no neck dive. If it had a lighter body, that huge headstock would tend to dive the neck.
6. For moders. All the parts have more or less direct replacements. I had to drill new holes for the Shallers (two were lined up per tuner, and two had to be redrilled). A 7 mounting hole Gotoh bridge fit 90%. I had to redrill the upper two holes, while the bottom 5 fit perfectly. EMGs solderless passive set fit perfectly. There is no need to redrill the holes or to route the pickup cavities. I think they build those basses knowing very well that people are going to modify them.

This is it. After watching a bunch of youtube reviews (both objective and subjective), I ordered one. Man, I'm impressed. Pickups aside, this is a much, much better bass than MIM F. Fret ends are not rolled but not rough (I won't file them down and won't be bothered by them). Neck is smooth. Tuners not rough.

Sound-wise? Good. But I think the pickups are way too strong. Slap tone is just jazz bass sound, which is good.

I won't complain about cosmetic stuff. I buy instruments to play, so unless something really visible, I don't mind. I don't see any defects (well, the pick guard's edges need to be cleaned up).

One minor thing I don't like: the knobs. They are cheap plastic and I guarantee they will break in the future. They're also inserted haphazardly so you really don't have a sense of where you are just looking at them. But this is a small problem since they're cheap to replace.

Currently, I just use the pickups as they are. I may replace them with DiMarzio Area J if I feel like it in the future. But these are already pretty decent. In fact, they have less noise than my Fender vintage pickups.

Wholeheartedly recommend it.