Harley Benton PJ-75 VW Vintage Series

132

5-String Electric Bass

  • Vintage Series
  • Body: Poplar
  • Bolt-on neck: Canadian maple with roseacer skunk strip
  • Fingerboard: Amaranth
  • Fingerboard inlays: Dots
  • Neck profile: D
  • Fingerboard radius: 350 mm
  • 20 Frets
  • Scale: 864 mm
  • Nut width: 45 mm
  • Double-action truss rod
  • Pickup: Roswell PBA / JBA Alnico-5 single coils
  • 2 Volume controls and 1 tone control
  • Hardware: Deluxe chrome
  • Deluxe brass saddles
  • Classic PB-Style machine heads
  • Factory strings: D'Addario EXL .045 - .130
  • Colour: Vintage White, high-gloss
Available since August 2017
Item number 409669
Sales Unit 1 piece(s)
Colour White
Body Poplar
Neck Maple
Fretboard Roseacer
Frets 20
Scale Longscale
Pickup System PJ
Elektronic Passive
Incl. Case No
Incl. Gigbag No
B-Stock from $146 available
$185
The shipping costs are calculated on the checkout page.
Available at short notice (usually 2-5 days)
Available at short notice (usually 2-5 days)

This product has been ordered and is expected to arrives in the next few days.

Standard Delivery Times
1

132 Customer ratings

4.6 / 5

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112 Reviews

O
For this money, you won't find a bass better!
OlegDenz 06.11.2021
The sound is perfect for any style of music. If you use two pickups at once with an open tone, then the sound is like Ibanez sr305 (imho)
The tone of this bass can be very aggressive or soft.

Suitable for both a beginner bassist and professional musicians (but for studio recording, you will have to replace the pickups with some seymour duncan).

Came out of the box tuned to the scale. The height of the strings suits me as well (Under 1st fret <1mm under 12th fret 2.5mm), but maybe I'll lower it a bit because it's a little difficult to play.

The bass is in perfect condition, no noticeable chips, no scratches. Of course, if you look closely, then there will be small ones, but they will also be on expensive instruments with a price above $ 1,500.

Analogues in local music stores (in Kazakhstan) are 4 times more expensive, so this is an ideal option for all musicians.
Even if you are a guitarist, you can buy this bass for such a good price for fun.
Ребята из Казахстана и стран СНГ! Не переживайте о том что что-то пойдёт не так, всё было отлично. Я тоже сначала думал что такого быть не может - "отличный бас и за такую цену?", думал что придут дрова, но инструмент оказался отличный и по факту придираться тут и не к чему. Так что заказывайте и кайфуйте!
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AY
Very nice but lacking in QC
Antonis Y. 01.09.2021
I'll jump straight to the point.

The bass is a very nice sounding PJ, with a quite good low B, especially considering the price. However, in my case, the bass came with uneven frets, needed a shim and the nut was high. There was also a bent potentiometer but that was fixed easily.

Fit and finish were beautiful. Apart from a couple of very, VERY minor spots which would be someone being nitpicky, the bass is perfect in that regard. No paint/clear runs, no uneven surfaces, the back of the neck is finished beautifully, all in all, great.

The sound is also one of its very good qualities. The Roswell pickups on this will not need an upgrade. They are classic examples of alnico pickups, perhaps a tad on the hot side but nothing excessive. Sweet sounding and perfectly balanced, without sanding harsh in any setting.

Now the setup and quality control on that regard, which should be the most important -playability- was very, VERY poor.
First off was the need for a shim. The saddles couldn't get low enough to accomodate even medium action. And it needed a relatively substantial shim, too.

Next up was the frets, which was the worst part. The neck was thankfully not warped but, looking at the frets, you'd think it was! This was unacceptable in what's supposed to be on the more upscale PJ model. Even after the shim, you'd get buzzing all over and especially on the higher part of the neck, since the last few frets were incredibly high.
Sadly, it needed leveling and crowning since this wasn't a case of a couple of frets just popping up.
Really, REALLY BAD quality control on this one.

Other than that, the nut was also cut very high and the slots were apparently cut for lower gauge strings, too. It wasn't terrible but it needed filing to be set up correctly.

Thomann of course offers a no-hassle refund but at that point, I did the work myself.

Now, AFTER shimming, nut filing and doing fretwork, I must admit it plays beautifully but you can't expect everyone to be able to do their own fretjob.

I must also mention that it's quite light for a PJ fiver. At just shy of 4kg, it's just nice, especially compared to a lot of heavy Sires, for example.

Would I recommend this one? Yes. It's a nice sounding and nice playing bass. If you can do the work yourself, moreso. Still, even if you can't, If you get a lemon, Thomann will replace it and it's still a very nice bass. Not just for the money, either. A nice bass, period.
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n
Can't believe something so cheap would sound so good
nabilhuakbar 09.04.2020
I love this bass! I've heard lots of stories about how great these basses are so I decided to try one out myself. I got it for noodling at home and occasional recording.

I plugged it in an played it along with two songs...one with just the neck pickup and one with the neck pickup at full and bridge pickup at about 40%...and I was floored in both cases. It has a very meaty, full mid tone that both sits very well in a mix but also stands out. Mixed tones are also fantastic, and the low B string absolutely sings. This bass is very hot, and I'm still kind of surprised it's not active. It just sounds lovely.

It's very playable, and the fit and finish are well above what you'd expect for a bass in this price range. The neck is a thick baseball bat of a neck but it's also very stable. Once the bass was acclimated to the temp in my house, all I had to do to finish setup was to tune it and set the action. Neck relief was spot on.

The only con I'd have so far is that it has a fair bit of neck dive, but that can always be offset by a thicker strap. I absolutely recommend this bass to anyone.
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P
Decent Beginner's Instrument
Paul_1986 09.02.2024
Unlike a lot of HB guitars, HB basses have a long way to go. To keep this short and sweet:

Tuners: must be replaced immediately. This was to be expected - the tuners on this bass are laughably bad. You'd be tuning between each song if you took it onstage.

Neck: straight, but fret sprout was atrocious. Took multiple passes cleaning up the fret edges before this thing was playable.

Pickups/sound: Not very good. I have a passive Mexican Fender Jazz and P-Basses and, stung up with the same brand of strings and through the same amp... this thing is not even in the same universe. Sounds cheap and junky... which it is. In the case of this instrument, you're getting what you paid for.

On the other hand it's affordable and it looks awesome. But you would need to do the above and then go ahead and swap the electronics and pickups to get this thing on the level of a mediocre Mexican Fender. This could turn out to be a very costly exercise on a 5-string.

If you come into this with the mindset of needing to spend another $300-$400 to make this a bass you play in the studio or onstage. At that point, you're approaching the cost of a used Fender bass.

I've been happy with my guitar purchases from HB, but this bass? If I could do it all over again, I'd have just saved up and bought a used 5-string Fender. Much better resale value, less hassle.
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