Harley Benton PB-50 SB Vintage Series

Having been a guitarist (6 String) for about 30 years i decided to dabble into bass for a new challenge. i own a few basses, mostly i prefer short scale because it just suits what i am used to. have owned a few long scale Ps and Js but never got on with them due to finding them difficult . having taken one last gamble on a longscale i decided to choose this guitar (mainly due to price and looks). here are the findings after receiving , unboxing and playing the bass.
1. the instrument arrived before i even expected it , and it would have been less protected if it was wrapped in lead (ok slightly over egged , but it was wrapped very very well !)in a box within a box with loads of bubble wrap and polystyrene to keep it safe.
2. oh god its pretty ! its absolutely faultless as far as looks go. not a blemish, mark or defect.
3. set up is acceptable. i use the word acceptable because we all have different tastes and playing styles , so having a guitar to your liking is only possible if you have a guitar built or set up to your particular specifications or you are extremely lucky and find one that was made with your name on it from the start. My particular preference was a lower action, half a turn with the supplied allen key on the bridge saddles got me the desired action with no buzzing.
4. the sound is far beyond its price. plugged it in to my HB CBX110 amp and after adjusting the settings that i use on my eb0 bass a bit, it sounded fantastic ! warm and defined lows right through to clear but still punchy highs.
5. The neck. it comes fitted as standard with a special magic neck ! every time i look at it i see a long scale neck , but when i look away and start playing it magically seems to transform in to a nice low and easy short scale neck ! I cant even remember playing a guitar this naturally easy ever ! my fingers just seem to know the fretboard without trying.
so in short its very very good . will not tell you that its worth 5, 10 15 times more than its price , or sounds as good as a ?? because im not that experienced in bass to give an informed opinion on stuff like that. but if you are looking for a new purchase i will urge you to part with a small sum of money for a unbeleivably well made bit of kit. well done thomman 23,1.19 i will update this post . having owned this bass for 2 years now , and i will testify that this bass is still played as much as it was done when i first owned it. i now own much more expensive basses , but the sound and the playability of this bass makes it my "special one" i have since ordered another 3 harleys , and dont regret a single purchase. once again thank you for MY special bass.

First up, this is my first purchase from Thomann, great website, good communications and delivery. The guitar was well packed, box in a box padded with loads of airbags (recyclable too), thus far a very positive experience.

I have played bass for the past 8 years or so and have a couple of UAS Fenders, I wanted to learn how to fix things and set up guitars properly but didn't want to set about my expensive gear until I knew what I was doing so was looking for cheap bass to learn on. I had been looking for a 50s style P Bass for some time and came across this example. Having read the previous reviews I felt confident that this was going to be a good purchase and I can report that I am not disappointed. Everything said here is in reference to the price, just over £100, its important to keep this in mind.

The first impression on unboxing was very good, a nice shiny guitar that looked the part, the finish on the body is high gloss and without flaws, the clear coat is a little on the thick side but that is not a deal breaker, the wood is not going to be high end tone wood so that wouldn't impact the sound in any meaningful way, will most likely stand up to a bit of heavy handed treatment too! The wood grain is a photo laminate on the back and front, hides what I suspect is a multiple piece body typical of cheap guitars, not that obvious unless you look hard, this would not "relic" well so will be kept stock (I don't fancy stripping all that clear coat off either). I removed the scratch plate and control plate, to remove the protective films, and saw lots of sawdust underneath, dusted it all out and refitted, would recommend doing the same if you get one.

Hardware is fine, cheap but functional, tuners work and keep their tune well, the nut is very good, particularly this price point, far better that the standard Far East produced items I have encountered over the years. Also the bridge is decent too, fully adjustable for intonation and radius. Pots are smooth and quiet, the tone control actually does what it is supposed to do, not just add mud, a good range of pleasing tones can be produced. Strap buttons are poor, not enough of a groove to hold a strap securely enough for my liking (I have fitted straplocks).

The pickup is really good, I like the tone it produces, great lows and mids and can growl with the best of them, sustains well too. (I compared with my full fat USA P Bass, fared well - recalling the cost of the HB bass!) it seems to be quite "hot" and responds to the amp, may require less gain to calm things down a bit, but is fun to experiment with.

The neck is a peach, fat as a 50s should be, well finished in satin lacquer, I would say that a beginner or someone with small hands (child?) might find this, well, a bit of a handful, my other basses are much skinnier necked so took me a while to adjust, but this plays well. The frets came largely unfinished, the ends were ok and seemed to be crowned but zero effort in terms of polish. I set about this task with 1200 grit and then 0000 wire wool, and a couple of hour later, they were smooth and shining like new pins. They were nice and level too which was good news. The neck pocket is well routed, and importantly, is unpainted, ensuring "wood to wood" contact between the body and neck, helps with tone, you tend not to see this on guitars at this price point.

I was expecting to spend time setting this guitar up properly, however the intonation was spot on out of the box, neck relief was fine, just a tweak to lower the action at the bridge end to suit me, no string buzz or choking, really happy with how this plays now.

All in all, money well spent. I intend to continue to learn how to do stuff to this guitar and I am sure that it will become a regular player for home and rehearsals with the band. It's a fine guitar for the money, looks great and sounds good too. Maybe I got lucky and got a good one, set up at the factory by someone who cared but, given the raft of positive reviews both on this site and the internet in general, I don't think the risk of getting a dud is that high.

To make it play really well, I would suggest, as a minimum, polish the frets, take a few hours, will be well worth the effort (YouTube has tones of videos on this) set up the intonation and bridge, you may not have to do much here, and the just grab it and enjoy that fat juicy pick up.

I already own 3 Fender P basses in straight P and PJ configuations. I always wanted a '51 P bass but not at the price the big "F" is asking. I also have been VERY pleased with the 4 other Harley Benton basses I've bought. So getting this HB PB-50SB Vintage Series was automatic. I read the reviews and never even considered the more expensive Squire.
I use this for mostly punk and it just nails it. Great tone Stays in tune and looks really nice.
It's simple and elegent in it's simplicity.
As has so far been my experiance out of the box it was undamaged from overseas shipping and only needed a minor set up and tuneup to be ready to play.
At 8.6 pounds it is a full 2.2 pounds lighter than my HB Jazz bass. The neck is approrpriatly chunky as it should be for that model without being bat-ish and is very playable. All the fret work was well done. No sprout, sharp ends, buzzing or dead spots. The single pickup needed to come up a bit but right at "F" spec. I feel no need to change either pickup or pots.
All around a solid ***** star bass.
*Update Nov. !8, 2020* I upgraded the stock pickup which was fine by itself. I put in a Seymour Duncan SCPB-3 Quarter Pound Single Coil P-Bass Pickup for a deeper bottom end thump. Sound and tonewise I'd put it up the original any day.

I bought this bass to travel to the summer school of jazz in Sligo. I didn't want to travel with my other, more expensive instruments. I also didn't want to draw attention. The plan worked perfectly. It also turned out that it has an awesome tone, which works great with jazz and funk.

There were some issues I needed to sort out after the purchase:
- frets had painful sharp edges, I needed to file them down
- the nut had a sharp edge, needed to be filed down
- the bass needed a setup; I needed to adjust the truss rod, the action, and intonation (this is expected with a new bass)
- some teething problems, like the jack socket screw going loose

Once I set it up, the bass was comfortable to play, and in tune.

The pick up can be a little noisy sometimes, so I built the habit of turning the volume knob down when I'm not playing. (It's a good habit to have anyway.) It's expected with the old style, single coil pickup.

The biggest surprise was the tone. I am a fan of late 1970's Herbie Hancock records such as Sunlight, where the rhythm section was Byron Miller on bass and Ndugu Chancler on drums. Same rhythm section as on 1970s and 1980s George Duke records. I think that Miller played the '60s style (not '50s style) Precision, but the 50s style precision produces a similar tone. I enjoyed playing funk tunes with the vintage tone!

I wouldn't use it for practicing at home, because higher quality instruments teach more nuance. Then you can pick up this 50s style bass and see what you can do with it.

Overall, I'm keeping this bass in my bass collection. It'll be the one to carry when going to a jam session and look inconspicuous. If I find myself playing it more, I'll replace it with a Fender Squier just to enjoy a higher quality build with fewer rough edges.

Bought this as I needed a work horse bass guitar for my home studio, I wanted something versatile but simple and I really liked the 50's styling of this bass. I was slightly skeptical due to the low price but had read good reviews so just went ahead and purchased.

After opening the box I have to say I am so impressed by the both the looks and quality of this instrument! For me it is the perfect weight, not too heavy but substantial enough that it feels comfortable when playing. The neck sits perfectly in my hand and is definitely not a baseball bat, I have no problem sitting in the pocket or faster noodling around and slapping!

There are no sharp frets on mine and the bass had a comfortable low action straight out of the box - the tuners are perfectly stable and I love the edition of the finger rest on the scratchplate, this is such a nice vintage detail to include!

I initially purchased this with the idea that I would possibly need to do a bit of work on it to make it play nice (something I was happy to do at this price) and that I would probably end up modifying it at a later date to make it feel a bit more premium but in all honesty this will not be needed at all, all of the parts feel good and work well, the pickup is really impressive at this price, capable of plenty of low end but also has clarity within the mix.

I have to say I have owned many fender instruments over the years, a lot of which cost double, triple and ten times the price... This bass competes with all of them in terms of quality control and sound. I have bought many more expensive guitars and basses that had way worse fret jobs than this.

This bass has gone from being something I bought to do a bit of recording with, to one of my favorite instruments. If I were a gigging musician I would be more than happy to use this.

I think it is amazing that Thomann are providing instruments of this quality at this price for musicians who do not have a lot of money to spend.


lastly - Ignore the people who are snobby about what brand name is on the headstock...most of them simply do not know how to use an instrument properly and are insecure. A truly talented musician can make anything sound good.

I'd been on the lookout for an inexpensive 50s P-bass for over two years. The Squier CV/VM series had some nice models to offer, but I had my heart set on paying the lowest price, and so I searched for a used copy of the Squier. Every time I found one, it was either too expensive (close to 90% of the price of a new one), or the seller was so far away the shipping costs were prohibitive.

And then... I found out Harley Benton has a similar model, for about a third of the price of the Squier. When I checked out their shipping costs, I was pleasantly surprised at how low they were, so I pulled the trigger on the Harley Benton PB-50.

I didn't expect the world of the bass, seeing as the price was so low. What a shock it was when I realized the finish was excellent, the neck was solid, and most impressive of all, the Roswell pickup actually sounds louder and punchier than the Duncan Designed pickup I have in my Squier CV Precision Bass. I kept tring to find fault with the PB-50 made by Harley Benton, but I just couldn't. I mean, apart from a few pickguard screws which were screwed in a tad crooked, and that is in no way a deal breaker.

All in all, I would recommend the PB-50 over the Squier 50s p-bass any day, and I have no regrets whatsoever concerning my purchase. Long live Harley Benton, and long live Thomann !!! Cheers !

I arrived to Germany a few months ago and it would be a shame not to order any of this high-rated, dirt-cheap Harley-Bentons. Since I had a guitar already and was on a tight budget, I thought that buying a bass would be a better decision, than second guitar. Looked through their bass collection, and immediately laid my eye on this one. Vintage 50's precision bass design is literally my favourite bass design ever. It arrived 3-4 days later. Since it is my first bass guitar, I cant compare to any, but if you never tried other, I assure you, it will do. It will do most you could've asked as a beginner. I'm in love with Squier Classic Vibe series, but it happened so that I'm always too broke/busy to buy any of their guitar. I compared this guitar to the similar Squier CV Bass, and the only concern I had, was the tone of the neck wood. On the pictures it looks really white, and on the other side, Squier has this glossy tinted, vintage warm neck, which really attracted me. But I took the risk, because CV Bass costs 3x this HB bass. And I was never disappointed. In regular light conditions it looks really nice. Not as good as squier, but would you pay 3x more money just for a slightly warmer color-tone? Me neither. I bought this guitar, and never been disappointed. To talk about the sound quality (finally), I can't really say anything bad about it. Just a decent bass. As good as squier one, but you should be aware of some side noise due to the vintage pickups. Any other 50's era precision bass would have that, so it's not the guitar flaw. If you're looking for the studio guitar, I'd choose some Jazz bass, just to be sure that I won't get any of the noises on the record. But to hang out and play gigs, this guitar is awesome. It provides everything I expect from a bass guitar. If you're beginner, I'd definitely stick with HB basses, and won't go for more pricey squiers or fender. It will be enough. And even if you'll want to upgrade anything, you are free to go. This guitars are similar with squier one, and you can put any squier bass neck on this if you want. You can put any fender pickups on these if you want. Amazing guitar to be honest. I don't even want a Fender no more, this is SIMILAR.

I have been looking for a vintage bass for a long time to use in my band Jasper Dan and after I had a really bad experience with another company I decided to research HB. The PB-50 caught my eye. Not only for it's price but satisfaction of all the other owners.

I received my PB-50 only 8 days after the order was placed (Since I stay in South-Africa that's impressive). I was a bit concerned when I saw the state the box was in when receiving the package (probably thanks to customs) but on closer inspection the bass itself was very well protected.

The bass is beautifully build and sounds amazing! The only tiny niggles are that the tone knob was put on a fraction skew (Almost unnoticeable) and the hole for the truss-rod was machined a little rough. Other than that it's perfect.The machine heads keeps tune beautifully, The bridge is exceptionally. Bar one single fret, the neck is exquisitely manufactured. Neck is chunky but very easy to get used to. The bass came set-up near perfectly and thanks to the D'adario strings I could literally just plug it in and play. The finish is stunning and it's very light.

Doesn't matter how professional a musician you are. This is a bass that will hold it's own in any scenario.
This was the best decision I ever made. GET ONE!!!!

This guitar was delivered with a decent set up: low action, even a bit too low...
The finish is excellent, no sharp frets at all, very smooth neck, just a bit chunky (as it should be for a P-bass). The neck pocket is VERY tight, incredible! Only esthetic flaw is the fastening of the pickguard, which was screwed very unlovingly, as they say.
Weight: around 4 kg. The body's fairly light, but there is some neck dive.
The sound is impressive, very powerful pickup apparently!
The volume and tone knob work very well, tuners also do their job.
All in all incredible value for money, though for a beginner I would recommend something with a slimmer and lighter neck, such as a Jazz bass.

A short story first. After being to a ZZ Top show one of the kids in the neighborhood asked me to teach him in bass playing.
OK, no problem. I´m helpful if a young kid is more interested in making music instead of playing computer games.
He can get my old Behringer practise amp I don´t use anymore. But one of my over 30 years old instruments? No way.
So I looked around for a good and payable bass and come around the Thomann homepage.
Harley Benton? Never seen and never heard before. Oh look, there is an electric Bass with a Single coil Pickup. Wasn´t that kid being influenced by ZZ top, namely Dusty Hill? That´s it.
98,-- ?? After reading the reviews of the german Thomann page I ordered it and a few days later the postman rings and dropped a big box.

So I started it unpacking:
In that big outside cardboard box, well wrapped and padded with air cushion is another box with the bass. The bass is wrapped in a foam bag. Attached to the mechanics are tags of the strings manufacturer (D`addario) and the Thomann quality check (later I learned that they check every Harley Benton instrument at Thomann). Included in the box is a hex wrench for neck adjustment and a 3m instrument cable.
I stripped the foam bag off.

Let´s go for the optical appearance.
No scratches, no ditches. If you look to the images on the homepage, this is exactly what you get.
The bridge is more massive than the old standard Fender angled plates.
The front of the body looks like a single piece of wood, whereas on the back you can see that it is made of two parts well matching together.
The finish of the two tone sunburst is excellent. Even on the back side where others are just simple black.
The neck is straight and the frets are well rounded. No sharp edges. The neck feels like a C shape Precision neck. For me that´s what I like. With a weight of roundabout 4 Kg the bass is not too heavy.

So lets tune it. The tuners are working with no problems. But is he in tune over the fretboard? On every fret I checked it shows that it is in tune, even on the 12th fret.
The neck is well adjusted and allows a smooth playing. Wow, and that just right out of the box. Amazing. Did I already mention that the price is 98,--? ?

How does it Sound? Oh my God!
Wow, what a pound!
A punchy, Precision like tone with deep mids, good treble and bass. Not muddy. The Wilkinson singlecoil is working as expected.

Conclusion: Hard to believe that for this price as a useful, good sounding and beautiful bass is available. Including personally check and and pre adjustment by Thomann service. If I only had known earlier.
Now I have a problem. Shall I really give this one to the kid? I think I´ll do and buy me a second one.
For 98,--? you can´t go wrong. This one is for beginners as for the players who need a spare on stage. Go for it, it´s a no brainer.