Harley Benton JB-40FL 3-Tone Sunburst

The good: this bass- even including the $80 initial shipping, is a good value. The pickups sound decent, the neck feels good and is straight. The bass looks good. It is heavy and solid. Feels as good as, or better than, the competition at a lower price.

The bad: it arrived with a large chip in the finish. The outer box wasn’t damaged; it was due to poor packing on the inside I’m sure. The styrofoam was too thin and sparse.

The bridge pickup wasn’t installed correctly; three of the screws weren’t tightened at all, it was uneven in height.

Observations: the bass had a QC tag hanging from it- that guy whose name is in the tag didn’t pay attention to this bass. I know it is a budget bass, so my expectations were low. Still, these things are obvious and basic, and shouldn’t have been overlooked.

The basics are fine- heavy, solid bass that works and has a decent neck. It’s the QC and the details that need work.

I’ve contacted service to see what they will offer.

Lots of people say Harley Benton can take on instruments costing two or three times as much, but with this particular bass I have to say the hype is somewhat exaggerated. The finish of the body is really nice, but the fingerboard was in terrible shape. It was dry like desert sand, and the fretlines protruded past the edge. Really sloppy work. The (chunky) neck was nicely finished though. Electronics are ok, they do the job but it's nothing special. The tone control doesn't have much influence on the sound, the knobs feel really cheap. The setup was pretty decent. A tad too high for my liking but very playable right out of the box. The bass sounds too polite for me, and with the sloppy fingerboard it made me use the return policy. If you want a really cheap bass for just fooling around with then this one should do the job nicely. If you want anything better than that, don't expect this ¤149 bass to sound like a ¤400 bass. It just doesn't.