Nouveau retro pop-rock music:
Definitely different!!


Back to Rants and Raves

Harley Benton GuitarBass - My Experience

By Sammy of Stone Marmot

Nov. 3, 2024

I've been looking at six string basses, the ones that are tuned like a regular guitar but one octave lower. The most popular example is the Fender Bass VI. The primary reason is because a lot of jam sessions I attend either the guitarist can't make it or all the guitarists are strictly strummers, so I end up doing the song's signature guitar licks on bass as well as many solos. So I wanted something that sounded like a bass but could also fill in for guitar if necessary.

I never tried a six string bass before and didn't want to spend a lot of money on something I may not like. Guitar Center claims to carry the Fender Squier Bass VI, but rarely have any in stock to try. The closest Fender Bass VI I was able to find to try out was in South Carolina, about 700 miles from the Tampa Bay area where I live. This is a bit far to travel just to try an instrument.

Then I discovered the Harley Benton GuitarBass (HBGB), shown in Figure 1 (picture from Harley Benton website), which cost less than $300 including sales tax and shipping. A friend I play with regularly has two Harley Benton guitars which he likes and plays often. Harley Benton guitars also get descent reviews, especially considering their cost. This seemed cheap enough to be worth the risk of not liking it.

Figure 1 - Harley Benton GuitarBass

Figure 1 - Harley Benton GuitarBass (From Harley Benton Website)

So I decided to order an HBGB. They have a US distributor in Connecticut which lists on Reverb.com. I received the HBGB four business days after ordering it. The packaging was sufficient and I received the instrument in good condition.

The instrument was in excellent visual condition. It looked quite good. I'm not a big fan of generic sunburst finishes but this one is growing on me.

A few reviews complained about sharp fret ends and a rough fretboard. My frets are well smoothed at the ends and the fretboard is smooth and comfortable. Figure 2 shows part of the fretboard and fret ends. The neck is thicker than on my Rickenbacker bass, but thinner than on my 1960's Conrad violin shaped bass and is comfortable to play. I've had no problems with the nut or tuners.

Figure 2 - HBGB Fret Board

Figure 2 - HBGB Fretboard And Fret Ends

The HBGB hummed badly when I first plugged it in. Investigation showed that the neck pickup was way too close to the strings. I adjusted all the pickup heights, after which it sounded good.

Some reviewers didn't like the pickups. I had no preconceived idea of what a six string bass should sound like, other than like a bass, so I like its sound. All the other musicians I've played with since getting it also like the sound of the bass. Note that I am using it mostly as a bass and not a heavy metal baritone guitar or any other such thing.

The HBGB had lots of fret buzz on the low E and some on the A string. These strings, particularly the low E, were a bit floppy, as noted by almost all reviewers and true of other six string basses under $800 and even many more expensive ones. Installing fatter strings, such as 0.095 for the E and 0.075 for the A, helped, though finding any strings that fit this bass is a challenge. There are at least a six different sets of strings to choose from the Fender Bass VI and its equivalent. But these instruments have vibrato (Fender mistakenly calls it tremolo), which requires strings about 2.25 inches longer than what properly fit on the HBGB.

Fatter strings did not totally solve the problem. I discovered that the neck was too straight with little neck relief. When capoed at the first fret and pressing the low E string down at the fret where the neck joins the body, Fender recommends 0.010 inches between the eighth fret and the low E string for guitars and 0.015 to 0.020 for basses as measured with feeler gauges. I adjusted the neck so it bowed about 0.013 inches at the eighth fret when measured as above. This eliminated the fret buzz.

As received, the intonation was good. I had to readjust the intonation after doing all the above. I could properly intonate all the strings except the low E as I ran out of adjustment range in the bridge. Though not desirable, this bass is still usable as I rarely play the low E way up the neck as all these notes are available and easier to play elsewhere.

I almost always play bass with a Dunlop nylon 0.73 mm pick. The fatter strings and the guitar-like string spacing means you have less open space between strings. This is true for pretty much all of these kinds of basses. Since I play with a pick and also play guitar, I haven't had much problem adjusting to this close string spacing. People who don't use a pick may not like any of these six string basses.

I'm happy with my GuitarBass, especially after the changes I made. These changes were not a surprise as pretty much all the string instruments I've owned needed some work when I first got them to be able to play well, no matter how much they cost. Since this instrument was relatively cheap brand new and so far the only additional cost being the price of some fatter bass strings, I feel it is worth it. So I would recommend this instrument to others, assuming you play with a pick.

Back to Rants and Raves

© 2024 Stone Marmot Enterprises, all rights reserved.