[quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1392934584' post='2374553']
Any consensus on the hit rate for good examples of these inexpensive J&D and Harley Benton basses? I'm sending back a new Vintage V4 P bass because it was genuinely horrible, the sound didn't inspire me and the number of cosmetic flaws sufficient to make me never want to bother with the thing (shoddy finish in several places including the neck pocket, skewiff scratchplate screws, warped scratchplate, strings not evenly spaced across the neck, nut slots too high and the worst BBOT bridge I've ever encountered). I'm tempted by the Harley Benton PJ-4 HTR Bass but fear getting another lemon so maybe I should go for another Squier (like the VM PJ).
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I know that at least three of us on BC have bought HB basses recently and all of us have been happy with them so I say go for it, they have a 30 day return policy at Thomann as well so you can't really miss out, I was debating whether to buy the bass you mentioned but ended up getting the slightly dearer HB Jazz bass [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbb1975_na.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbb1975_na.htm[/url], the bass looks great and is well finished, the only slight negative on mine was some of the fret edges were a little bit sharp but not enough to need filing IMHO.
Hope this helps a bit
John
Lovely bass John