Fretless jazz advice - Squier, Vintage or Harley Benton

[Jimryan]

Evening all,

 

Once again I really fancy a fretless Jazz.  In the past I’ve only tried the Squier VM fretless Jazzes, however, I’ve seen a Harley Benton deluxe one on here and always fancied the Vintage ICON ones.  

 

Having only personally tried tried one out of the three, can anyone shed a little light on the others?

 

Cheers,

 

James

Edited September 25, 2018 by Jimryan

[songofthewind]

Well, it’s my Harley Benton you’re talking about, I believe.

The best fretless I have personally played was a Roger Giffin Jazz which belongs to Felix Krish. It was well tasty.

The HB in no way equals that, but I was totally surprised by how playable it is and how good it sounds. Especially after I lowered the nut slots and set the truss rod for a nice flat board. Loads of mwah. Wilkinson pickups on it.

I have gone the active route with my basses now, and I am under pressure to stick to my one in one out policy by my wife, or I would keep it for when a Jaco moment comes over me.

A friend has a Vintage Jazz, fretted, and I find the Vintage and the HB comparable in fit and finish.

I hope this helps. I’m not advertising, I’m just really pleased with the results I get from a so called budget bass, and I believe others would be pleasantly surprised!

[Grahambythesea]

People speak highly of the Sire one, reputedly better than Squier.

[ribbetingfrog]

I had the Harley Benton fretless jazz.

Surprisingly nice bass, good Wilkinson pups and as already mentioned, great Mwah!

I’ve never owned any jazz basses other than Harley Benton’s so can’t compare. Got a fretted one atm with the Roswell pickups and they sound great too. They  are great value basses and plenty good enough to gig with.

[timhiggins]

I have played the Squier VM fretless and it seemed great 

it had more upright like fat warm tone than other fretless instruments i have played ,i was expecting a more jaco kind of tone but it had a more natural scooped sort of sound which i liked a lot.