Harley Benton JB-75 SB Vintage Series

I've had this bass for a couple of weeks now and have played it about a couple of hours a day.
I've played guitar since1989 but its my first time getting a bass.
I didn't want to spend to much money and ended up with this sunburst JB-75.
I bought it cause I liked the looks.

PACKAGING:
When it came it was solidly packed in two boxes and as far as I could tell it was set up.
No damage on the bass at all.

LOOKS:
It had a great finish and the pickguard didn't bother me as many have complained about.
In my opinion it looked nice, darker and better than on the picture.
I had ordered a black pickguard as well and changed it after a week or so.
I may change it back at some point just for the variation.
The body is mad of three or fouor pieces of wood as far I can tell.

MECHANICS ANDINTONATION:
The bass stays in tune - the intonation is about 6-8 cents of on the E and G string at the 12 fret though...
But i've seen a lot worse.
I've adjusted it at the bridge and might do it a bit more.

FRETS/NECK:
My greatest concern was ratling/buzzing frets and sharp edges on the frets.
But... No ratling on the frets at all!
The strings have a medium action to them.
Not really super close but not to far from the fret either.
I would wish though that the strings were a bit closer to the fret at the 17'th - but again they might buzz so I'll leave them for now.
No sharp edges either on the frets.

PICKUPS:
I'm not that used to analyzing bass sound so I wont get to much into that.
The pickups are NOT WILKINSON but ROSWELL.
Thomann have changed pickup supplier.
If that is good or bad i do not know - but theres nothing to do about it is there.
I mostly use the neck pickup cause I like the fatter sound.
It sounds actually better then the sound bitts you can hear on the webpage here.
The PU have sharp edges. So resting your thumb on them doesn't feel that nice.
I took care of it with a bit of sandpaper grinding the edges a bit making them smooth.

WEIGHT:
The bass weighs about 5 kg but it isn't a problem... I see alot of other instruments also weighing that much and even more.
Unless you have serious back problems it shouldn't be a problem.

PROS:
- price
- stays in tune
- basically playable out of the box
- feels sturdy and good
- looks good

CONS:
- intonation "issues" on the E and G string at the 12th
- Brand image (doesn't have the same ring to it as a Fe.... obviously)
- I don't like the headstock design

CONCLUSION:
For the money it's an AWASOME BASS I must say!
It fully lives up to my expectations and some more.
I have to pull my self together not to order a P-bass from HB at this moment as well!

Chears.

Having used fretless basses for such a long time and saving up money for a nice J-bass from fender, I bought this bass just to keep myself "in shape". It's not the best bass I've ever tried, but for the small money that it costs I'm very satisfied. The sound is nice, with a closer look you can clearly see that it's a cheap bass from it's poor aestethic, but i couldn't have asked more for this price. It also came along with a brand new set of strings. I'd highly recommend it to any starter

First of all, I was blown away by the quality of this instrument. I heard very good reviews about it before but I was still a bit skeptical...BUT it was JUST as I had heard it would be.

The hardware on this is really worth much more than how much I payed for it. Wilkinson pickups and bridge?? wow.
Great quality stuff there.

The looks on this bass...well you be the judge of that. Doesn't it look great??
- 70s style block pearloid inlays (you won't find this kind of look for this kind of money)
- lovely 3 tone sunburst on a quality American ash
- Harley Benton(thomann) really killed in the looks department on this one, in a good way ofcourse.

It sounds great! I did an AB with a Fender Mexican Jazz Bass and I personally thought this was on par if not better than the Fender!! unbelievable! There is also a good response with the blend knobs.

I had this for about 1 and a half weeks and I couldn't really find much fault in the build of the bass. The frets are nicely trimmed on the sides so it doesn't hurt your hands, and it came setup very well! All I had to do was maybe adjust the saddles to intonate it a little bit but even that was very small. It also seems to be very durable so it should be fine when going on stage as well as on the road.

The only 2 cons I found about this instrument was the pickguard and the weight.

The pickguard doesn't really look like a genuine turtoise shell pickguard up close. Looks a bit "cheap" but that's nothing you can't fix by changing it.

The heavy weight can be both a pro and a con.
It's heavy because it's made of American ash body and that actually contributes to the resonance of the bass as there is more material and mass BUT for a guy like me who isn't "bulky", this might be a problem as it's too heavy to play long hours on stage.
SO my fix on this was buying a good quality strap.
I got a Mono Cases "The Betty Strap" which is doing a miracle work for me. It balances out the weight of the bass and has paddings to relieve the stress on my shoulders. So get a nice strap! I recommend the Betty Strap.

All in all, Great instrument! Great Price! Great Service!
Kudos to you Thomann!!