Harley Benton

[isteen]

Anyone Got one of those cheap HB basses?
Thinking of getting a really cheap (half price of the Squier) Harley Benton fretless jazz bass, and replicerer tuners and perhaps pickups. Any first hand experience with them?

Edited March 11, 2017 by isteen

[Geek99]

Do a forum search - people talk about them a lot

[gary mac]

Ive worked on a couple of their P basses, once set up properly they played very well. For a budget instrument frets were good and all the hardware worked. The wiring and pots would be my first upgrade.

[Harryburke14]

I have a HB Jazz bass that at first was quite heavy but Andy sorted it out. There's a thread under build diaries about it.

I agree. First upgrade would be the electronics. I put a Ki0gon loom in mine and never looked back.

[Andyjr1515]

I agree with Harry. The ones I've bought or worked on have been superb value for money and perfect for selective modding.

[Jimryan]

[quote name='isteen' timestamp='1489272507' post='3255717']
Anyone Got one of those cheap HB basses?
Thinking of getting a really cheap (half price of the Squier) Harley Benton fretless jazz bass, and replicerer tuners and perhaps pickups. Any first hand experience with them?
[/quote]

Like a few mentions before, I've got one and modding it in a build diaries thread. Great basses for the money. I grabbed a 5 string deluxe P. First move was strings and hardware. Just waiting on one of the pickups to arrive in the post. They're great project basses.

[DarkHeart]

Ive got one of the HB fanfrets and its a cracking bass, couple of minor issues with it when it first arrived (sharp fret ends and cheap tuners) but once sorted its a really good player, its also one of the first single cuts I actually like the shape of!

[doomed]

Excellent vfm, I put Wilkinson tuners on mine and a cts, switchcraft wiring upgrade (left the std. pickups in) and it's equally as good as my Squier VM jazz. Heavy though due to the ash body.

[Naetharu]

I have two different HB bases.

The Jazz bass with the Wilkinson bridge is fine. I'm not a massive fan of the pick-ups but let's put that down to taste rather than a real problem of any kind.

The 'Progressive' bass however is a bit more problematic. Some very rough edges, electronics that are a bit nasal sounding and the bridge is poorly made so that the saddles don't fit in the slots properly, making them very very difficult to intonate properly.

I guess the lesson here is go with the slightly more expensive version with the Wilkinson hardware rather than HB's own stuff.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Naetharu