Harley Benton TB-70VS Deluxe Series

Overview:
I picked up this bass to complement my HB JB-75. I wanted somthing that looked and sounded completely different. After looking at all of the available HB basses, the BT-70 seemed to be exactly what I needed. Already being the owner of a FB, I was accustomed to the body shape and the way it balanced. As I recall, it shipped quickly and arrived well packed.

Looks:
The first thing I noticed after opening the box was how nice the finish on the body looked. The mahogony body had beutiful grain showing through the transparent parts of the burst finish. Although this bass is set neck, the raised center section gives it the appearence of a neck through design. There were no blemishes that I could find in the finish on either the neck or the body.

Build Quality:
I can't find anything to complain about here. The tuners were all put in stright, the frets aren't sharp, and the pickguard isn't bad. The poly finish seems a little thick on the neck (I prefer thin satin finishes), but at this price point that seems to be the norm rather than the exception. Nothing I can't live with. As for the electronics, all of the pots turn smoothly and without any audible noise. The push-pull pot snaps cleanly into each position.

Sound:
This bass is capable of producing a pretty wide range of sounds. I have never owned a guitar or bass with active electronics before. Each pickup has its own unique voice. The bridge is bright and punchy while the neck provides great lows. I like to keep the mix around 60% neck 40% bridge.

Conclusion:
If you are looking for an inexpensive bass that stands out from all of the PBs and JBs out there, this might be the bass for you. Its a bit on the heavy side, and the body sits a little odd (if you are not used to a FB/TB style body), but if those aren't deal breakers this guitar is worth it.

I got one of these because I'd like to have a Thunderbird without paying the Thunderbird price. These guitars are equivalent to the Epiphone models, and maybe a little better in terms of how they sound.

What you won't be getting out of these is that more vintage Gibson T-bird tone (not without some effects modeling and tone shaping at least), so as long as you have those expectations you'll be very pleased with this bass.

The bass is absolutley beautiful. Fit and finish are fantastic, and like normal with HB, the bass was set up perfectly out of the box. Neck relief and action height were already right where I like them, all I had to do was tune it! That's super impressive and it speaks very highly not just of HB's QC process but also of how stabile this guitar is if it can traverse half the world and be exposed to a variety of climates and still be set perfectly out of the box.

Tone is awesome. It's got a very thumpy, rich low end and a throaty, growly, almost MM-esque high end. If you want to get rid of that high end and try for a more vintage TB tone, you can roll off the treble a bit and get pretty close. Crank in some mids and OD on an amp or a pedal board and you're in the ballpark of the vintage TB tone used by people like Jared Followill from Kings of Leon.

The volume knob is push-pull. Pushed in runs both pickups in series and pulled out runs the bridge pickup.

This bass does a great job at capturing the TB tone and feel, but not the TB price. I highly recommend it if that's what you're looking for.

First the good: This bass is very comfortable to play sitting down. The finish is lovely and without blemishes. The shape is unique and cool. The reverse head stock helps with drop tuning. The active preamp gives this instrument a lot of range which makes it appropriate for a wide variety of styles. The sound is clear and punchy and it responds very well to a variety of effects.

Now the bad: The gunmetal chrome looks cheap and scratches easily. Regular silver chrome or black looks much better. The pickguard doesn't look great, and the lines don't match up with the lines of the lower horn. The controls don't allow for using the bridge pickup on its own. This could be fixed with a second volume control or a blend control. The strap button locations are terrible, the bass neck dives and makes playing standing up very challenging. This is fixed by moving one button to the heel, and the other higher up, about half way between the center line and the top of the upper rear point. The branding on the head stock looks incredibly cheesy. "Progressive series" should be omitted, and the HB logo should be about twice the size, and in either white or gold. The fixes are fairly simple, and I think they would make this bass a great instrument.

This is my fourth Harley Benton bass guitar, and fifth instrument from that brand. All the other guitars that I bought from new were 100% out of the box.
Upon arrival, I noticed the finish at the bottom of the neck was rough looking, but expected from a budget bass guitar. Two of the volume/tone pots were loose and had to be tightened. The action was very high and found the truss rod was un-tightened and needed to be adjusted. There was fret buzz on the 10th fret and upon inspection saw one of the fret bars was slightly raised more than the others and I had to carefully apply pressure to the fret bar to get it to sink into its place. I was disappointed with the amount of adjustments I had to make to get this bass right.
Once it was in a playable condition, I was happy with the instrument. If it had arrived in the post-adjustment condition, I would have given nearly 5 stars. I love the look, the tone/sound and the feel of this guitar. The Thunderbird style bass is not for everyone, but for people who are into this shape/style of bass its definitely worth the money, providing you dont have the same issues that I did.
Having said all the complaints above, this won't turn me off buying more Harley Benton bass guitars.

I was gob smacked at the quality of this instrument. I was expecting a cheap and cheerful bass, just to knock around while learning how to use Reaper as a home recording tool.
The build quality is just outstanding, the action is great and the sound incredible.
One constructive criticism, as this is an active bass, it would have been nice to be able to turn the active setting on and/or off. (Thomann representatives have told me it's active only)
This means you'll need to mic' this bass up if you're home recording, or use a DI box in front of your audio device, as the voltage from the active circuit, is too powerful for your home audio interface. Presonus informed me I can damage my audio device if using an active instrument and plugging the bass in directly into your audio device.

I have wanted a Thunderbird-style bass since hearing John Entwistle's golden but thunderous tone on The Who records. I knew that he was on to something special with that long string of T-Bird inspired basses over the decades.

So when I saw Ian of "Scott's Bass Lessons" extolling the virtues of the Thunderbird being not only an earth-shattering Rock instrument on the low end but sweet as honey on the high end, I was intrigued. Then he demoed it and I was sold. I started jonesing for a T-Bird so much that it hurt! (not joking)

So I did my research and discovered that this bass was consistently getting rave reviews from everyone on the Internet. And, yes, the fact that was at a far more reasonable price than the alternatives was a big factor too.

Well, it's true. This bass is not only everything that I had hoped for but more. The setup was perfect out of the box and I didn't have to spend additional funds to get my tech (who is a Rock Star in his own right) to "make it sweet". The strings appear to be Daddarios and they're the same gauge as what Entwistle used on his T-Birds.

The only mods that I made were replacing the pickguard with a flat black single-ply (see the ESP Phoenix Tobacco Sunburst to see what this looks like) and replacing the knobs with custom goldtopped black-sided knobs. The factory look was fine but now it's better, IMO - call me vain, I don't mind. The bass has the traditional T-Bird neck dive problem but I'm used to playing Gibsons so that's kind of a given with them. It's really no big deal.

Now let's get to the bottom line: The tone. Ian was spot on, this bass is thunder in an earthquake on the low end and sweet as honey on the high end. This bird sings AND roars!

Entwistle nailed it.

This bass has very quickly become my favorite bass - so much so that I'm thinking about buying another one with a different finish. I suspect that you will love it as much as I do.

Now if you'll excuse me, my Harley Benton TB-70vs is calling and I must answer. Rock on kids!

First of all, u guys need to know what kind of player I am to understand how relevant to you is my review, so I'm a casual player, it's a hobby to say more precisely , and I do play on a low cost amp. Having cleared that I have to say that was is written in description u get, real mahogany, real rosewood fretboard, tunners do their job well, the pickups are not bad, an the finish quality took me by surprise, I wasn't expecting it to that well made, (PS I'm a lucky owner of the one that has the original shape). What I do recomand is to change the strings with some good quality ones, and adjust the bridge, then u will see it is unbelievable good for the money. And also if u fell like changing the pickups I think it will be godlike, but I didn't, and I'm more than pleased with them.
Another thing is the neck that tends to go down, and forces u to take the it's weight in your left hand, so I believe it's hard to play this on a standing position, I usually play sitting and with it on my lap, and I saw that on standing position it's more than hard, again it will need to readjust the belt bolt from the left side, somewhere under the connection of the neck and body, I don't recomand to put it right on the connection since its a set neck construction, and will weaken it.
But I didn't bother :) I play it while sitting, so it's OK for me.
I used once on an amp with a lamp preamp, just to see how it really sounds and I've been more than pleased, in fact the amp owner wanted to buy it from me, he was fascinated.
So if you want to learn to play bass, play at home, or even in a small bar, it's OK, and the value it's amazing, if u want to play it on stage u can buy this, and do some mods, personalise it, put some nice strings, adjust the belt bolt, buy some emz active pickups and there u go, :) the wood it's good, sustains perfect, etc etc... Just buy it man it's cheap and good.

I’ll tell you straight away, sound is amazing.
It captures the real sound of Thunderbird Bass (Epiphone and Gibson a like). Beautiful sound, quite a long scale, + it has a neck dive. Checks all the TB boxes.
Now, good things out of the way, 3 point bridge is probably the worst thing you can put on the bass. Action is never low enough, and it’s annoying. Not Thomman’s fault, Gibson TBs notoriously had the same bridges. Definetly the first thing you want to replace.

Bass came, and it didn’t work. It’s active, so I got the new battery, replaced it, still didn’t work. Jack wasn’t soldered properly, I fixed it, and it worked. One out of three pots seemingly does nothing. I think solder is bad, but I’m not sure. Never cared to fix it.

It’s a great base for upgrade, and original pickups sound great, so it’s good. I guess QC issues might be problematic, but I did raise a complaint, so I presume they’re going to catch it next time. Things happen.

I'm predominantly a guitarist but wanted a decent sounding bass for home recording and like the sound of the Thunderbird.
When my TB-70VS arrived it needed a couple of minor adjustments to suit my playing style, but apart from that, I can't find fault with the quality or the finish. It's well made and looks great. The active pickups are switchable via a push/pull volume knob and have lots of scope for different tones. The fixed neck allows for really impressive sustain.
The only downside to this bass is the weight... Its a hefty beast (just like the real thing) and if you play standing, it's a bit neck heavy. This doesn't bother me as I always play seated.
Overall I'm really happy with the TB-70VS, your getting a lot of guitar for 168 euros (£144)
It's great fun to play and looks great.

I'm a idiot really. When I recieved this bass the bridge was hanging off it, I should of just sent it back but instead I googled it and saw that it was quite a common problem with 3 pin bridges. Anyway I used a epoxy glue and that fixed it. People complaining about neck dive with this bass, that is because the strap pins are not in the right place, I moved the pin to directly behind where the neck meets the body and voila! you can stand and play bass. When I plug this bass in I can hear some hi pitched frequencies which I don't get with my other harley benton guitar. It's a real shame really because the finish on this guitar is spot on, it looks lovely but its been a nightmare really.