Harley Benton JB-75MN NA Vintage Series

I've had this bass now for a several months and I now finally got around to writing a review.

Let's start with construction. This bass feels substantial and solid. Nothing is loose or rattling, nothing feels cheap or flimsy. The neck is comfortable and slim, as a J-bass should be. The lightly coated natural finish looks fantastic and there were no cosmetic issues with the bass whatsoever.

The tuners feel good and solid, pleasant to operate. Tuning stability is rock solid. It came with sky-high action, like most HB instruments, but that was easily remedied and I was able to get the action nice and low. It's very smooth and comfortable to play.

I previously owned a short scale P-bass (also HB) and compared to that, this bass has a lot more clarity and "spank" in the tone, being two single coils instead of a humbucker after all. It has the classic setup of a volume pots for each pickup and master tone, but I would've preferred it the other way around: master volume and two tones. Maybe I'll mod it like that one day. Overall, it sounds great and there's a wide variety of different tones available, from a really warm and woofy sounds from the neck pickup with the tone rolled all the way back, to funky spanky madness with the bridge pickup tone all the way open. And everything in between, of course. Zero need for updating the pickups.

Unfortunately there were a couple of minor issues. When I first received the bass, it had solid fretwork, but unfortunately during the winter months, it developed pretty severe fret sprout. Like, finger bleedingly severe. Admittedly the winter was pretty harsh here and I don't have a humidifier at my place, so the air got pretty dry. But yeah, that can happen even with instruments costing several thousands of dollars and filing fret ends down is really easy and and an essential skill especially anyone into more budget friendly instruments. I worked the fret ends over after the winter and it's all good again. I doubt I'll have to worry about it again.

Oh, and one final thing. The pickguard comes covered with a plastic film that's basically impossible to remove completely without also completely removing the knobs. Since removing the knobs is quite a hassle, I've had scratchy pieces of plastic under them for months now. However, that's mildly irritating.

But don't let these small complaints detract you. This is a seriously good instrument. Not just "for the money". It's just a solid instrument, great sounding and a joy to play.

Lähdetään hinnasta liikkeelle. 139¤. Mitä voi saada tuolla hinnalla. Pari mottia polttopuita. Hinta ei ole enää ratkaiseva tekijä hyvän basson hankinnalle. Basso vaatii hieman säätöä, mutta on bassoja, joita ei säätämälläkään saa soittopeliksi. JB-75MN NA on materiaaleiltaan sellainen, että siitä tulee oiva basso kenen tahansa basistin käteen. Viritys ja kaularaudan säätö ja tarvittaessa kielten korkeus ja intonaatio. Ei tarvi oikeastaan muuta. Soitettavuus on parempi kuin Tokain halvimmassa (299¤) jazzarissa. Itse asiassa JB-75 on paljon parempi kuin esim. Tokai. Tuntuma soittimeen on todella hyvä. Tämä soitin tulee seuraavalle keikalle mukaan. Poikkinauhat oli hiottu valmiiksi. Todella yllättävää Tämän hintaisessa soittimessa. Tyypillisesti single coilit tuottavat vähän häiriötä, mutta alumiiniteipillä (n.10¤/rulla) kun vuoraa kotelot, niin sekin asia on hoidossa. Mikit tuottavat yllättävän tuhdin soundin. Tosin miinuksena on mikkien korkeudensäätö, joka vaatii myös pientä askartelua, että pelittää kunnolla. Myös mikkien reunat ovat terävät, joten niitä pitää vähän pyöristellä, että on peukalolle miellyttävä tuki. Niin, kaula on todellakin hyvä: nauhat on hyvin kiinni. Miinuksena minulla on vähän lohjennut satula, mutta ei ole kuin kosmeettinen haitta. Suosttelen ehdottomasti. Ja vaikka ei ruuvaru pysyisikään kädessä, niin tämä kanattaa säädättää ammattimiehellä. Sen verran hyvä soitin. Ja jos haluaa modifoida, niin rautapuoltahan voi uusia. Tosin basso toimii hienosti ihan perusmallinakin.

Before purchasing this bass, I've had some experience with electric basses, even though this one is my first that I am going to be owning for myself. Although I am not a naturally picky person, I don't see any problems with this instrument.

It plays like the other basses I've played, it looks great, doesn't feel as heavy as I imagined (compared to guitars). This thing really comes to life with it's looks when live. Of course I did see this model listed here and decided that this is the one for me, but still it looked even nicer than I thought. Definitely the price doesn't correlate with the looks. The sound is a bit trebley (as expected for a jazz bass).


Overall, I'm having a hard time thinking of anything to complain about. This price is really unbeatable for me and I'm having a hard time imagining investing more into a passive bass. Would buy again.