Harley Benton Beatbass VS Vintage Series

I've bought a few HB's over the years and this was the biggest surprise. It's not perfect, I'll explain below, but what you get for the price doesn't make sense, it's that good.

It's beautiful, it looks amazing. Let's face it, you're probably buying this for the image, it's not top of the list for 95% of Bass players. The finish is great, the binding is spot on, it's what you hope it will be.

The tuners are ok (that's good in Harley Benton language). The pots aren't scratchy, the switches are good (a little confusing at first), I had no fret sprout and the strings it arrived with were ok but will get changed in a week or two.

I knew it would need a setup and it got one. What did I have to do?

The fretboard was dry, unbelievably dry. It took me a bit of time to lemon oil it three times. Once it was done, it looks good. The end of the fretboard is roughly cut and finished and will need tidying, but it looks ok. The frets were a little rough and needed a good polish but there was no sprout so that only took 30 minutes. The intonation was ok so I marked it up, allowed for a little adjustment, and removed the bridge for a body polish. The neck was flat, way too flat, so I added a little relief which also lowered the action as it came really, really high. I tightened up the tuners although I will replace them soon although I really don't need to, they're fine. Finally, I lubed the nut (not like that) as it's plastic so a little lead is a good idea.

Once done, I tuned it up and left it for a few hours to settle. Now I can't stop playing it. There's a lot of neck dive, all violin basses do this, you'll need a strap, remember this is a hollow body bass and it's unavoidable.

I've always thought Harley Bentons were underpriced, this one doesn't make sense. It's that good.

If you can do the basics I listed above, get one. It's not even worth sparing a thought, just buy one. I promise you won't be disappointed.

I am a hobby guitarist who likes to do my own work on the guitars that I purchase, I currently own 11 electrics, 1 bass (this one), 3 acoustics and a ukulele.

This is a beautiful looking instrument and at approximately $186AUD ($142USD) is unbelievable value for money.

Pros:
1. Of the 3 guitars I ordered, this appears to have the best finish, I can't find a single thing wrong with it, no blemishes whatsoever.

2. The tuners work well and seem to hold tune fine, even after sitting around the house for a few weeks now.

3. All controls and pick ups are working.

4.The tail piece is a little more ornate than the original and going by images on the net, appears somewhat shorter as well.

5.The lovely burst finish is continued on both the back and the neck, a nice touch, especially at this price point. If the good people at Thomann don't remove this, you can search You Tube for "650Thunderbird" or ". Harley Benton Beat Bass Unboxing/1st Impressions" to see for yourself.

6. Flamed maple top is very well done, the join is barely visible, unless you look very hard.

7. Being a "short scale" bass, it will be easier for a guitarist to make the transition to bass with one of these, rather than with a "standard scale" bass.

8. Even with postage costs, it is cheaper to buy from Thomann, than to buy from my own country (AU). This is one of three guitars I have purchased (all in one order) and their quality control, in my case, is second to none.

Cons:

1. Being a hollow body, it suffers badly from the dreaded "neck dive" so even when seated, a strap is a must.

2. The shape does not make for comfortable lap placement.

In summary: I am completely satisfied with this bass guitar and would recommend it to anyone, anywhere in the world.

Cheers
650Thunderbird

Arrived in Australia after just 4 days, and in perfect condition, and that's truly amazing! Out of the box it was fairly obvious that a setup was necessary, but overall I was very pleased with the way it's put together, and couldn't find a blemish on it. The sunburst gloss finish was first rate. The only real gripe I have is that it has to be the most head heavy bass I've ever played. I've owned a Hofner Contemporary violin bass, and it didn't suffer from this problem at all. Mind you it was six times the price! Why HB decided to go with a hefty neck that would better suit a Precision Bass is a bit weird, and even if I were to change to lightweight tuners, I don't see it making a great deal of difference. I've settled on using a strap that McCartney started out with that loops behind the nut. Works really well. I can see a pickup change coming though; most probably the Artec set that are the exact same dimensions, and getting used to the reversed wiring on the switch plate takes a bit of getting used to after owning a Hofner. No real problem as I'll rewire it. I think this little bass is great value for money if you live in Europe. Shipping is the killer in Australia, as it adds around another 30% to the price. I think it's a great little mod platform as the body and to a lesser extent, the neck are extremely well made. A few runs with the fret files fixed up a few stray fret ends, but the nut was really well cut. Overall, I'm pleased with my purchase.

I make no claims to be a virtuoso bas player, but I need a bass for home recordings, and this one is fine for me. Just a couple of points:-

1. I would have expected to find a small piece of polystyrene under the bridge to protect the instrument in transit. I usually find I can loosen the string pressure just enough to slide the polystyrene out without completely dislodging the bridge. But instead with this bass there was a small piece of frayed cotton material which didn't slide out easily from under the bridge, but instead disintegrated into many threads, some of which stuck to the bottom of the bridge, and I had to remove the bridge completely to get rid of them all. Given my rubbish eyesight, it is difficult for me to see well enough to do the measuring to get the bridge back in the correct place.

2. I may be a simple soul, but I would have expected the volume switches on the instrument to be nearest to the thing to which they refer - in other words, volume 1 is right next to treble, and so I would have expected it to apply to treble, and volume 2 is nearest to bass, and so I would have expected it to apply to bass. But no, they are the other way round! I worked it out eventually, but have since found a review of this instrument on Youtube where the guy comments on this and says he thinks it's a mistake. If anyone from Thomann reads this review, could you please check this out? Is this a mistake, or a design feature? In any case, a bit of paper with this information on it would save the customer time in working it out, although, once you know, it's easy to remember.

Apart from these points, I like the sound of this bass, and am happy with it!

All I can say is , "Harley Benton, you did it again". This is a great looking , well put together, good sounding bass. The finish is flawless, Everything works the way it should. And, you can get a variety of tones, from this guitar. It has decent pups, the tuners feel good, it stays in tune, the neck and bridge, and intonation came set. Frets were polished w/ no sprout or rough ends.{ I did have to detune to remove the piece of shipping cloth from under the bridge, but that was no problem. -(marked the top of the E and G strings with felt marker, where they sat on bridge , before detuning and removing cloth, Lined the marks back up , retuned, and intonation was right on.)-} I have a Fender P bass and I would rather play the Harley Benton . Its much lighter, and for me, it balances quite well. If you do any Beatles covers, or you just want to add some unique sounds to your tracks, this is a great instrument for it. The hollow body seems to produce some rich mellow tones, or you can get the standard bass punch, or highs and mids, also. I LIKE IT ! And like all The Harley Benton products I have,...Price, Price, Price ..Can't beat it. Check out these basses and guitars. What are you waiting for....

What a fun little bass! I plan to use it when my old arthritic hands are acting up. It's so light and the short scale is very comfortable. I would love to give it five stars across the board but there were a few unfortunate deficiencies.

PROS:
- overall, the look is lovely
- nice looking binding, hardware & sunburst effect on many surfaces, including sides and back of headstock
- the frets are finished nicely
- considering the thousands of kilometers it travelled from Germany to western Canada, the set-up was amazing: great action & intonation; even very close to being in tune
- the controls make serious changes to the sound

CONS;
- there are weird light markings long the edge of the fretboard, almost like someone sanded it a bit and took off the finish
- there are some tiny blemishes or uneven spots in the finish both on the wood and the chrome; not noticeable from any distance
- the only serious concern is that it ships with round-wound strings and I had to immediately put D'Addario flat-wounds on; the sound was pretty wonky otherwise

Despite the CONS, I think I will love playing this bass. The sound is unlike any other I've played. It definitely is not the sound for all purposes. It is a thumpy sound; there's basically no sustain. Having said that, the non-playing strings tend to ring a lot, especially on the "SOLO" setting. You need to be very good at muting if you switch from "RHYTHM".

All in all, I'd say this bass is all you'd need if you wanted to add that 60s sound to your repertoire.

The HB Beatbass that i received had a fret issue and more. The D string rattled like hell on the 13th fret. Also two tuning pegs where of such poor quality that it felt like they where grinding instead of tuning. The instrument in the mean time looked beautifull and sounded promising. The low output pick-up's in combination with the hollow bass itself sounded real sixties. Thomann solved the problem fast without any problem. 5-stars for that. The HB Beatbass i have in my possession now is great. No rattle, reasonable tuning pegs. Beautifull instrument. Great sounding bass, ideal for a guitarplayer, singer/songwriter, who also play's bass on music, youtube productions and more. Lightweight, shortscale, easy to handle. With the pair of Hofner flat-wound strings i bought at Thomann as wel, i can imagine that even sir Paul wouldn't refuse to play it if a roady had a bad day and forgot to bring the Hofner to the gig.

Disclaimer: I don't consider myself an expert in instrument craftsmanship, this is just my view based on having casually owned a few guitars and basses in my life.

I am totally happy with this guitar. I have purchased a few guitars in my life new, or off the shelf at a standard guitar shop, and this is by far the best coming directly out of the box. I have not once had an issue with fret sharpness. I don't have the expertise to be able to tell if the frets are level but they look ok to me and fret buzz has been minimal.

Low points: intonation needs some work (tiny bit sharp on all strings at the 12th fret)

Tuners seem budget quality. Not too smooth turning, some inconsistency between tuners (some seem strong/more solid than others), but they're not properly rickety and no slipping I've noticed. I do have to tune up a little pretty much every use.

Pickups/sound I'm absolutely happy with. No neck issues. Mine is very straight and after a few months of ownership truss seems to be slowly becoming in need of a little loosening.

But this sounds and feels incredible. I have owned a comparable Rogue model in the past and this is a better instrument. The Rogue had some dead notes and shaky electronics. No problems like that here.

I could not find any flaws with this guitar concerning looks and build
The set up needed slight adjustment, with a tweak to the truss rod and bridge height , however this is normal practice for any guitar straight from the factory.
The intonation was spot on.
The bridge is movable and the saddles can be moved so it’s easily adjustable.
You do need to lift the bridge to remove the foam packing,
I would advise therefore marking its position with some tape to ensure it goes back in the same position, assuming that your instruments Intonation was set correct at the factory