Let me begin by saying that I am a relatively inexperienced bassist. I play with the one of the local church choirs together with a skilled pianist.
My first bass guitar was a Cort Action junior which I defretted but now have scrapped because of the flimsy neck. Now I play a HB PB shorty with a custom-made body. You could say that I spend more time building than playing my basses.
The Harley Benton JB-40 FL was delivered in a box within a box and an ample amount of padding. They would really have to make an effort to damage the bass in transport.
The finish is immaculate. The body is made of real wood (the grain is clearly visible through the sunburst finish and the grain direction of the 3 parts are not aligned at all).
The fret lines (maple?) were protuding from the edges of the fretboard (probably because the fretboard had dried) but all it took was a light sanding to level them with the rosewood. No particular skill required.
All new bass guitars seem to need some amount of adjustment and this one was no exception. The neck was straight but string height and intonation needed a little tweaking.
Then I replaced the strings with flatwounds. Roundwound strings will damage the fretboard and it seems that most people prefer the sound of flatwounds on FL basses.
The nut height is important to make the bass easy to play.
This nut was clearly not suited for a FL, it was much too high. Luckily, I own a set of nut files, so I lowered the nut to about 0 mm (that?s 0 inches) and now it great to play!
Pickups and pots are OK as far as I can judge. No irritating hum or scratching.
Summary: a very inexpensive, well-built instrument that with some work becomes a very nice bass guitar,probably just as good as basses that you have to pay a lot more for.
