Harley Benton JB-75FL SB Vintage Series

Hoe is het mogelijk om deze kwaliteit te leveren voor dit bedrag? Prachtige bas die ook nog eens netjes is afgewerkt. Afstelling was ook naast intonatie van een enkele snaar niet nodig.

In de repetitie ruimte deed hij qua sound het heel erg goed tegenover mijn Fender P en eerlijk gezegd heb ik met verschillende nummers liever deze bas in de handen.

Het enige minpunt is het gewicht. Deze bas is zwaar en dat merk je heel goed als je een normale strap gebruikt. Ik heb een brede strap geprobeerd en dat maakt hef stukken aangenamer.

Deze bas is dus een dikke aanrader!

Decided to give a fretless a try for the first time and have read generally positive reviews about Harley Benton so thought it made perfect sense to give one a try.

Everything about the purchasing experience was excellent. Thomann does it right. Excellent communication and I received the bass 3 days after purchasing it. The bass was packed extremely well. Double boxed, plenty of foam packing, the fingerboard was protected, the pickguard, chrome cover-plate and pick-ups were also protected. I was genuinely surprised how well it was packed.

The action was very low out of the box and I've kept it that way. Had to do some minor saddle adjustments to get the intonation right and the bridge is definitely a place where an upgrade would probably be worth it. Its not terrible but the saddles are a little sticky . But I was able to get spot-on intonation without having to adjust the truss rod so a bridge upgrade isn't a priority for me.

Playing a fretless for the first time was pretty awesome. Should have picked one up sooner. Took a little getting used to but in a cool way as I immediately started liking how easily I could manipulate pitch with my left-hand. The pick-ups on the Harley Benton are pretty lively, seem a bit hotter than my Geddy jazz stock pick-ups. Pick-up volume and tone pots are all smooth and responsive. Love the overall sound of the bass and the neck is smooth and easy to play.

The bass is heavy (mine is about 12 pounds) so a wide, padded strap is helpful. It plays unbelievably well given this price point.

Bottom line, the Harley Benton impressed me completely. Extreme bang for the buck. Its almost hard to believe how good this instrument is for this price. This was also my first purchase with Thomann and I'm completely satisfied with the purchasing experience. So satisfied in fact, that I just ordered another bass.

Having never owned a fretless, but having played bass guitar for almost 40 years, I was very late to the party in picking up a fretless bass for the first time. I already owned the HB MM 5-String Deluxe so I knew about the generally excellent quality and value of HB guitars. Thus, it was a no-brainer to pick up this fretless to plug the gap in my library of sound options.

I specifically wanted a few things:
- Jaco-like sound, thus a fretless JB was the only choice
- Fret markers vs a plain fingerboard (from a practical pov, not aesthetic)
- Reliable build quality
- Low price point to meet a budget

- Good review ratings and customer service are also an added factor

Honestly, this ticks all of these boxes. Will it sound exactly like a 70s beaten-up old original JB that Jaco plied his trade on? No - but it's loads of fun to try out and you get moments where that unfretted, trebly growl cuts through; it's essentially that well-known-brand's template anyway, with decent pickups and a nice heaviness to it. (By the way, I have no idea why people are mentioning how heavy it is. It isn't - I have a handmade JB that is heavier, plus a 1975 original JB that is heavier still).

If you read any review on HB guitars people seem really impressed with how "ready to go" they are straight out of the shipping boxes. Yes, the same is true here. Apart from some buzzing somewhere up the fretboard (so maybe the action needs a little fiddling), mine only needed a tuning correction and that was it - ready to play.

The finish is excellent and the build quality is great, so that obviously is well done before packaging. I think I would have preferred solid colour options rather than the typical tobacco sunburst but the colour finish is the least important thing in my use case, which is home recording - it might matter to you if you are a gigging player.

There are nice HB-branded machine heads that haven't slipped (they don't really on bass guitars anyway) and a nice bridge with brass saddles. Tone pots are fine, no crackling, and there is no buzz at all when amplified so the bass must be well shielded and grounded.

One minor criticism is that I don't think the black scratchplate is 3-ply, or of very well-constructed plastic. It marked incredibly easily after a few minutes of test play. I think this must have been from where I thumb-slapped to just try out what that sounded like on a fretless (hit and miss, BTW), but my nails have marked the scratchplate. Since this is most likely replaceable with something better, this isn't the greatest issue, and we are paying waaaaay less for these instruments vs anything else, so no stars dropped for that.

Really, if you want to try out a well-built and great-sounding fretless for something different in your bass playing, this is the ideal place to start.