Harley Benton JA-60SB Vintage Series

Having viewed a video review of the HB JA-60SB on the Cory Mura YouTube Channel ( a really informative German reviewer who covers quite a few Harley Bentons ) I was persuaded to add this HB model to my little collection.

Turned out that his advice was spot-on and have to say that I am really impressed with this JA model - and agree with just about all the impressions shared in the video review i.e. the one that I received seemed to be just as good as the one demonstrated. Actually I think the pickguard photo-tortoise pattern suits the Sunburst colour quite well on a retro-style such as this ( though opinions seem to differ on this ). I have noticed at least a couple of other brands use a virtually identical pattern so the HB version is not unique in that.

I did have a similar offset model of a different brand some time back ( costing 250% more ) which I had to sell, but this one is at least as good if not better than that. Overall quality is much better than you would be entitled to expect
for the price and QC on this one is excellent I would say.
Tuners & hardware work well and Wilkinson pickups in just about any guitar in this price bracket are a bonus.

The Sunburst finish is flawless and lovely - back and front & neck is super smooth to the touch. Rosewood fingerboard appreciated a little touch of lemon oil as it looked a tad thirsty after voyage & storage- but apart from
a fret level check ( A1 pass ) and minor tune this guitar was good to go without any tinkering. Am more than happy with the original spec as am home player only and its fine for me. Do not plan to change anything - apart from the string guides as I have pair of roller trees which are unused and I prefer these to the butterfly type.

If you are in the market for an offset model and don't particularly want to spend 200-300 Euros on a different headstock imprint - I can certainly recommend the JA-60.
In this case less is definitely more - I can vouch for that.

OK - got right to the end and never mentioned Thomann service once ! Here it is now - " Gold Standard" - That's why customers keep coming back !

SOUND: The guitar's tone is amazing. Sounds just as good as the $1k+ Fender Jazzmasters.

QUALITY: Here's where I have an issue. The parts themselves are all good quality, but I'm unable to intonate the 6, 5, and 4 strings (E,A,D). Even with the bridge saddles all the way in (toward the neck) those strings are not intonated at the 12th fret. The only explanation is that the actual bridge position is to far toward the tail of the guitar. It's only a centimeter (if that) of difference, but when it comes to intonation, it makes all the difference.

SUMMARY: I understand that these guitars are at a beginner price point, but they truth is that they are better than that. My TE-52 set my expectations high after it ran circles around my Fender Tele. I'm a gigging musician so intonation matters to me.

I will continue to buy HB guitars, because I think they art an absolute steal for the price, but I want to be honest in this review about my experience.

My hope if that Harley Benton will step up their QC a tiny bit to account for these types of mistakes. Without this bridge issue, I would have literally nothing wrong to say about this guitar.

I have had this guitar for several years now and hadn't realized that I didn't post a review. The stock pickups definitely did not sound bad, but I had a set of Lace Alumitone P90s already, so I put those in soon after I got the guitar.

This is a very comfortable guitar to play, with a slightly fuller neck profile and tall frets. I did need to smooth out some sharp fret ends and polish the frets as well; they were all pretty level, no noticeable fret noise or buzzes. The nut was a bit tall but playable - I've since sanded a bit of height from the bottom because the slots were done well. The neck has a very nice satin finish which I didn't feel the need to sand off. These offset bodies are always my favorite for playing either standing or seated, this one is no exception and it has a solid positive fit with the neck with good weight and balance. I still enjoy playing this guitar all the time.

Not sure if this is the same with the new models, but the pickguard is just a decal of sorts on a white 3 ply guard it seems. My pinky has worn the tortoise shell graphics right off from years of resting it there as I play. It doesn't bother me but I figured I should mention it.

I was very surprised by the overall quality for such an affordable guitar. I would say this is an incredible value for the price. I've played several hundred guitars and have played far worse brand new guitars from other makers in the same price range. Very much worse.

I will add that I've also since bought a Harley Benton TE90 FLT model from Thomann and it is equally impressive and possibly more so. The pickups are pretty mush spot on for my Filtertron taste. I would basically make the same assertion about the neck and fretwork as this JA model. Playable out of the box, but needed a bit more setup work, in my opinion. They just seem to build solid budget guitars.

I discovered that P90 snarl on an old beaten up Squire Jazzmaster that I purchased from an online forum a few years ago however, it eventually needed to go into the shop for repair. Whilst I waited for it to be returned to me, I looked about for something to use in my bands temporarily and found the HB JA-60SB online and found quite a few raving (in a good way) reviews online, as well as some video's and it sounded huge so I promptly ordered one. I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED!!!!

The guitar took only 3 days to arrive to the UK and getting it out of the box, it immediately felt so comfortable and is easily the most comfortable guitar I've played. I've not played any really high end guitars but own a few in the £200-£350 price range which it certainly eclipses in feel and sound and I've not gone back to the Jazzmaster since I got this.

It's quite a versatile guitar, I play in three bands which are all very different. The first is pretty grungey and we play anthemic rock (called Lemoncurd Kids) the other is a bit more proggy/funky (Called The March Fleet) and in the third (Three Birds Blind) I just really do atmospheric stuff and it works really well in all of them. I usually practice three times a week and gig a few times per month so it can take a good hammering.

I've found the Thomann Customer Service to be pretty awesome as well. I had an issue with the nut on the guitar after about a years worth of thrashing and they just sent me a replacement nut at no cost.

I'd definitely look to buy another Harley Benton and cant recommend this model enough. Its a great little guitar, really comfy to play and it just sounds great.

The finish and total presentation quality of this guitar is very good. The issue I had with this guitar is a manufacturing flaw that I am assuming may of been a one-off. The saddle was drilled in the body slightly in the wrong spot making it impossible to intonate. Now, for the price and the target audience for this instrument, probably most people would never notice. Unfortunately for me, I can hear everything and love a perfect setup. I did message Thomann about the issue but never followed through with anything. Thomann is by far some of the best customer service I have ever experienced. I am in the USA and rather than ship It it back, I just replaced the saddle with an adjustable offset tune-o-matic saddle so I could get the intonation correct. It plays and sounds good and is relatively easy on the hands to play.

This is a great quality built guitar. It has a neck string and fret geometry that gives and encorages greater precicion in fretting. There are only a few guitars in a hundred that do this. I own 14 and two of them I made myself (mahohany, ebony Gibson Pickups 26 inch scale length) I own a Jubilee strat 1977 and it has that feel and so do the ones I made. The rest do not. So The JA-60SB is a great guitar to practice on in my opinion. If you are however a beginner expecting to rock out on Deep Purple and Pink Floyd you may wich to consider a Strat type or Telecaster type because the pickups on this guitar are darker and produce a lot of full bass tones. if you switch from strat to the JA-60 you will need to adjust patches in order to get the sounds to play more like a strat. If your style however is Jazz, Fusion Funk you will enjoy this guitar and appreciate its qualities. If you already own HBST or TE models and have looked at this wondering well I got it to keep me from the rut of having Samey guitars and never venturing to do something new. Thats why my two HB to date have been RB600CB and JA-60SB. Do Something different! Well done HB on this model even though one pickgurd screw was missing.
NOTE: Now we ended EU membership these are the rules. £135.00 is customs limit for VAT only charges. Over this amount DUTY may be applied and this is 2.5%. For the paperwork UPS charge £11.50. UPS invoice does not detail the individual charges properly. I think its unlawful. Going to complain and I had trouble with them before. Most important is tracking. You wil see Thomann tracking and a link to UPS. ude the UPS tracking. It moves very quickly to "Held up In customs" this can be a day after it leaves Thomann. If you expect them to contact you, You will be holding up your own delivery!! The payment link will be on the UPS page only and the sooner you click and pay the sooner (next day) you get the goods.

I have now owned this guitar for about a year. I fully understand that this is an inexpensive guitar. The single coil pickups are actually very good. The Volume and tone controls are the small diameter variety, but work fine. Tuners are very serviceable. The neck is good quality and well finished and the set up was good right out of the box. If I had paid twice the price, I would not be disappointed. At this price (even including shipping), I am delighted.

My only concerns were the size of the body is slightly reduced from a Fender Jazzmaster sized body. I do bump the pickup switch sometimes while strumming chords, but I have quickly adapted. I may experiment with a switch that has a smaller control handle, maybe a slide or rocker switch.

My good experience with this one was VERY much why I have just recently ordered another Harley Benton Guitar.

Three year update: This guitar is holding up very well, I have loaned it to students and it has needed no repairs or modifications, the action has been very stable, and I am even more satisfied as time has proven it's durability.

Bijna twee jaar geleden gekocht als “reservegitaar”, ik wilde altijd al eens iets met P90 elementen uitproberen en voor de prijs kon ik ze niet laten liggen dacht ik. Mooie gitaar, maar bespeelbaarheid vond ik maar zo-zo en bleef bovendien niet op stemming. Verschillende setjes snaren geprobeerd maar ik bleef het maar een middelmatige gitaar vinden. Werd dus aan de kant gezet, misschien zou ik er later nog wel iets mee doen. De klank was wél heel OK.

Het is wel echt een mooi ding en omdat ik het jammer zou vinden ze maar in een hoekje te laten staan dan maar eens een setje locking stemmechanieken besteld (Kluson MLV6LN), als ze niet zouden passen kon ik ze altijd terug sturen.

En jawel hoor, ze passen perfect en wat mee is: een beetje tot mijn verbazing had ik meteen een heel andere gitaar: klinkt super, blijft perfect op stemming en ze is nu één van mijn favoriete gitaren (ik pak ze eerder vast dan mijn SG, ook met P90 elementen).

Daarmee heb ik dus voor een 200 euro een schitterende gitaar. Absolute aanrader dus als je er een (klein) beetje kosten en werk in steekt.

I bought this having read a few reviews, but still not expecting too much. Coming out of the box the strings had a bit of corrosion, so it has probably been in storage for a while before being shipped.

The guitar was playable right out of the box, but I still gave it some new strings and some very basic setup. Intonation and pickup height needed some adjustment. The plastic protection on the pickguard was applied behind all the electronics, meaning I had to unscrew the pickguard, the jack input, switch, and pots, to remove all of the plasic.

It plays great. Its no shredder, but thats really not what you should expect from this type of guitar anyway. Sounds good too. Nice and warm neck pickup, with a bit of bite to the bridge pickup. The lack of individual tone knobs is a bit of a drawback.

It is clear that this is not an artisan, handcrafted, several thousand dollar guitar. Only the things that need to look nice will look nice. Behind the pickguard the finish was cracked around every screw hole. A mixture of what I think is woodchips, dust, and paint was found in the electronics compartment behind the pickguard. With that being said, everything thats out in the open looks really good. The finish is spotless, everything is nice and clean where it needs to be.

So far I absolutely love it. Its dirt cheap, and still a great guitar. No, its not a top of the line model, and if thats what you want, you're going to have to buy something different, but for the price, this is fantastic. Hell, even if it cost twice what it does, it would be a great deal, on a great guitar.