Harley Benton Bass Guitar Kit J-Style

This is a very good kit to work with and with a bit of effort, will result in a very usable bass guitar.

I've built HB kits before so I knew what to expect. True to form, it was well packaged, delivered very efficiently, and everything was there. The components were all wrapped carefully and everything was complete. It's a kit so I knew I'd need to do a reasonable amount of work on it. You could just build it as is but you get a better result with some effort.

The body was fairly well finished but there were some rough patches and a couple of marks from the sanding so it was sensible to sand it down to 400. Although it didn't need a primer, I applied one anyway because I was going to give it a gloss acrylic finish. After the initial cleaning up and painting the body I checked the neck. Very straight, frets perfect and there were no rough edges. It would have been fine to use straight out of the box but I shaped the headstock and then prepared and painted the neck too - don't forget to mask the fingerboard :) .

Once painted, I assembled the whole thing in about an hour but there were some little irritations on the way. The plastic plate was not cut accurately to fit the neck and needed a fair bit removing with a Dremel. Not difficult but surely it could have been cut accurately in advance. The screw holes for the plate were positioned accurately though they were drilled a little deep so the screws were loose once inserted. I just dipped the ends in wood filler and they settled in fine. These are very trivial irritations.

The bridge was positioned perfectly and once the strings were on I set it up. The truss rod needed only a quarter turn to set the action though getting the action right at the bridge meant the bridge was lowered virtually to the plate. That tells me that I'd have to put a shim under the neck to recover the adjustability. Something the width of a credit card will do the trick. It's not a deficiency of the kit, simply something we need to recognise and deal with for all bolt-on necks. A note in the construction booklet in future might be useful for others.

The pickups and controls were easy to install and everything works fine, both pickups giving a good signal and the tone control has a reasonable range. The downside is that these are cheap pickups and seem quite noisy. Given that the pickup and control cavities are not screened from EMI and since they are both single coil, noise is inevitable. I decided to disassemble the bass, put a shim under the neck join, and replace the pickups with Fender Jazz Bass pickups (from here) and also to line and earth all the cavities with copper tape which should all but eliminate noise. The strings provided are fine but I'm putting flats on for even less string noise.

First time round it played very well and comfortably and there's a good balance between neck and body. Even with the stock pickups, there's a good range of sounds available and it records well straight into a USB mixer. I'm playing mostly jazz and not gigging with it but even through a standard guitar amp, this gives plenty of rich bass tones. Once it has the Fender pickups in it, it'll sound even better.

As with every kit, you'll have to do some work but with a bit of patience and a modicum of skill, this kit gives you a very nice jazz bass at very low cost. Recommended.

This was the first time I'd attempted to build an instrument from a kit.
I've been a guitar player for over 40 years, and wanted a bass for home recording, but also for a bit of a 'do it yourself' challenge.
I downloaded a template for the headstock from the web, cut out the shape with a coping saw, used a file and emery cloth to smooth it off.
Lacquered it with some automotive acrylic lacquer I had lying around and treated the fingerboard to lashings of lemon oil. Some spikey fret ends were smoothed with a small file and polished with emery cloth.
The body was a disappointment, being of two distinct colours of wood, so had to be painted. I chose gold to go with the tortoiseshell pickguard I'd ordered with the kit. It was only after applying the paint that I realised I'd misread the instructions.
The body needs grain sealer and primer before painting. I'd recommend this be stated clearly in the instructions if possible. I didn't do this, and consequently the woodgrain soaked up loads of paint and is still visible after many coats. Be warned, future buyers!
I lined the cavities with copper foil for shielding, then the whole thing went together like a dream, and I set it up for neck relief, intonation and action as per online recommendations.
Here's the best part. The sound is fantastic and very like the genuine article; so much so that the bass player in my band wants me to build him one. It'll be ordered today.
A few little niggles, but the end result is great.

A good kit to approch the art of guitar/bass building.
The wood of the body has a weird grain so a natural finish is not the best option, I finish mine in fiesta red nitro and the result is stunning. Body needs to be carefully sanded on some spots that are rough to grant a good final result.
The neck is quite good, I did a level-recrown-polish job to the frets as I did with all the low cost instruments, fretboard with a good soak of wood oil (I use the red one but there's plenty of choices) reveals a beautyful dark tone.
I can't judge the stock PU because I changed it with a pair of Di Marzio's DP123, electronic is the standard chinese stuff you find in low cost intruments, it works, for sure can be upgraded with quality part for a few bucks if you want.
Assembly is easy, the coupling neck-body is tight.
With a quick set up the finished bass is a good, playable instrument, soundwise my rating is influenced by the fact that I installed PUs that costs more than the kit but even with the standard ones you'll have a light bass with a confortable neck with no dead spots that you can think to upgrades later

Body:
-The body needed a lot of sanding and putty before I could paint it.
-The wood is also really soft and light. This means it dents easily and the bass has quite a lot of neck dive.
-The predrilled holles were drilled in the correct position but the holes for the strap buttons were too big for the screws so I had to use bigger screws.
Neck:
-The neck was finished well. The fretboard needed a bit of cleaning
-The frets were 100% perfectly level and perfectly crowned, the did however need polishing and the fret ends needed rounding (they were not sharp but I prefer rounded fret edges).
-The nut was cut correctly.
-The neck fitted very tight in the neck pocket.
Hardware:
-All the hardware works, the tuners aren't super smooth but they do the job.
-I can't comment much on the sound of the pickups because I'm new to bass guitar. I don't know how they should sound. But I think they sound just fine.
Conclusion
I give this bass a 7/10
It is a perfectly functional and good looking bass but it has neckdive and the body dents easily. I also needed some different screws than they provided to assemble the strap buttons.