Harley Benton JA-60CC - Too Good To Be True..?

[@jasonmoore3437]

Got the shell pink, played it live in two shows already and I love it!!! This has got to be the absolute best guitar for the money currently on the market. Hands down.

[@timmyv694]

I’m right there with you. Just got my shell pink one in mail yesterday . All I had to do was tune it and it wasn’t that far out ! I still can’t believe how good it looks feels and sounds . I just spent all night playing it . I couldn’t put it down lol. I’m so glad I got one:)

[@JakeLeighGuitar]

That's really great to hear that you're enjoying it! It is such a good guitar out of the box. And you went for the best colour! ;)

[@jean-henrideblanchamp5407]

I couldn’t agree more! No fancy stuff, just plain functional. My guitar tech adjusted the truss rod slightly and changed strings. That’s it. Rumour has it that Harley Benton is made by the same manufacturers that produce other famous brands.

[@Aaaaandcut]

I just played one at my local shop and my jaw dropped. I couldn’t put my finger on what was different, but you pointing out the hard tail and simplicity of it makes sense. Fingers crossed it’s still hanging on the wall when I go back tomorrow.

[@OnTheFritz602]

I'm in love with the Olympic White, creme colored as well as the pick up covers. The roasted maple neck in contrast looks stunning to me. Swapping out the pots and switch is insignificant regarding the total package. Even the pups.

[@robashton8606]

Yeah, the matching headstock on the OW model adds an extra touch for sure. Just got mine about a month ago and I'm still blown away by the quality. Just outstanding.

[@bluesdawg8014]

I have the JA60 OW as well, I love it. Bought used for $125. The price of a pedal Unreal Los Angeles

[@enthused7591]

Got my Shell Pink and Seafoam Green ones in this week. Mind is blown at how good they are. Better than my Fender Player strat in terms of sound, neck feel and fret work. Equivalent in everything else. This is the best guitar for sale period for under $700 and it's $166 lol.

[@T4shOfficial]

That matalish riff in major from 7:32 made cry out of joy 😅

[@pacoruizserrano]

Thanks a lot! Last month i was hesitating between this one or Telecaster type (TE-62DB). I chose TE finally but i do not rule out getting JA-60CC (it's quite a bargain!). Harley Benton definitely rocks!

[@nickdrey1200]

Shell Pink is my favorite guitar color ever. I mean, i have no idea why it hits me so hard lol. First time I saw a Shell Pink strat i just couldnt look away, i couldnt imagine having one in any other color. Never had an affinity for anything pink in my life (except for 😺) but i jive so hard w shelly

[@trainsurfer7593]

It's an excellent guitar, especially at this price point, I've absolutely no regrets getting one - if I have more money at some point I'd definitely get another one! The hardtail worried me a little as I expect a Jazzmaster to have a trem, but Thomann also sell the Duesenberg Les Trem II which fits on the stoptail perfectly and works like a dream. It costs about half the price of the guitar, but all in all they both cost less than a Squier Classic Vibe so there you go! I also appreciate the smaller body and that even though it's a 25.5 scale it actually feels a lot more like a 24 scale, which fits me to a tee.

[@mmbrc]

Hb I intend to buy a JA60cc, after your review, you made a great video, I would like to mention that I already have two HB guitars at home, a bass JB 75 and an acoustic guitar CLD 41 SE WN, which are excellent working guitars, I plan to put a nashville tuning on the JA 60CC, 🎸 0:01

[@steverobinson7040]

I’ve got the 25th anniversary version and it’s brilliant . I have Gibson and fenders but the the hub 25th is the one I go to the pick ups are really organic! Great review and I’ve subbed thanks .

[@PegeCovers]

I want that pink one as well. It sounds good too~~

[@JakeLeighGuitar]

Thanks! Yeah I'm happy I went with the pink one. I think all the colours are pretty cool though.

[@jogmas12]

Harley Benton is killing it in the budget guitar market

[@JakeLeighGuitar]

100% agree. Can’t wait to get the next one!

[@bluesdawg8014]

I agree with you Jake, I bought the JA60 OW. I love the guitar and I own over 50 high end guitars. I also bought the DC Junior in Benton Blue with all black plastics. Sweet Peace Los Angeles @@JakeLeighGuitar

[@iansteel5569]

I love my one, it sounds great plays lovely and stays in tune, which some cheap guitars don't.

[@Steven_SK]

I need a red guitar!!! New to your channel and this is next on my order list from Thomann. May be sooner than later now. Great demo sir. Thank you!

[@JakeLeighGuitar]

Hey Steven S.! Thanks so much for watching and leaving a comment. It's a really great guitar, the best HB I've played so far. I'm checking out some higher end ones today but they're over twice the price so I'm expecting them to be good! :)

[@jamiestevens6691]

I took delivery of the JA60SB three weeks ago. Polished frets, perfect binding, lovely neck, the pickups sound great, the paint-job is flawless, electrics sound good - hands down the best guitar for the money I've bought. ONLY criticisms are I dont like the tuners, and the grain of the body does NOT run toward the neck, but rather slopes downward at an angle of say 20deg to the neck, which imho looks a tiny bit weird. Honestly though, minor gripes. I'm eyeing up the Lake Placid Blue one now, just because I can, and probably will...

[@Clapthom1]

I got the seafoam green. And I’m right with you it’s an incredible good guitar

[@RichWordsMusic]

Well, if I hadn't already bought one of these I'd be buying one after watching this! You make it sound great. I went for Seafoam Green but had Shell Pink and Lake Placid Blue on the shortlist. May have to grab another at some point and do some mods! I think the JA-60CC is exactly what you say it is: a perfect gateway into the world of offsets. Love mine. Cheers man!

[@JakeLeighGuitar]

Haha! Thanks Rich. Well... I only bought this because you had one and I felt left out! Would love to see one in Graffiti Yellow. And now those Cream T Crossfires seem to be everywhere over the past couple of days. Not helping our offset G.A.S at all!

[@RichWordsMusic]

@@JakeLeighGuitar Yep, and I just saw on Insta that they've recently built another Crossfire batch... my wallet is getting jumpy!

[@rallefreifahrt]

I have the same guitar for a week now and I love it!

[@Crow-jg4sj]

I wouldn't use it for distortion but it's a great budget guitar for clean settings. I ordered a surf green lefty

[@robashton8606]

Can confirm everything. This guitar is incredible value for money. The quality is what you could expect from an instrument three times the price (provided, that is, that you don't get one of the Moody ones that slip through Thomann's QC from time to time.) My example is flawless, plays beautifully and sounds amazing: articulate, capable of crystal cleans

[@robashton8606]

and fat warm dirt. I bloody _love_ this guitar! £150! Unbelievable!

[@fazzi4924]

I ordered a seafoam green last night. supposed to arrive next week. Can't wait.

[@CureEclipse11]

Hey, at 06:35 you're playing something really similar to "The city ignites" by 36 Crazyfists 🤩

[@benjaminhawthorne1969]

I plan to buy the "Surf Green" one. Green is my favorite color. The Lake Placid blue is GORGEOUS! 🤗 No offense intended, but your "Shell Pink" guitar reminds me of the toilet seat in my Granny's bathroom. 💩

[@mightyV444]

Holy moly, that thing looks and sounds amazing! 😯 And it's less than $300 NZD!! Shipping costs to NZ must be quite high, though; I'll find out! Thank you for the review, Jake! 😀 ...oh, and I think I like the shell-pink one best, and my 14-year-old Son (who'd started to learn the guitar some time ago) agrees with me 😄

[@JakeLeighGuitar]

Thanks so much for watching! Yeah I think the Shell Pink is cool. To be honest I think all the other colours were sold out when I bought it, but I still wouldv'e gone with the pink. Maybe green... nah, probably the pink!

[@mightyV444]

@@JakeLeighGuitar - 😊

[@juffurey]

well shipping to anywhere outside of continental Europe is high I think. To California it was like $85, still worth it though

[@jameskurvers]

Nice rewieuw , i have the seafoam green , and i'am very happy about it

[@louisfryzel4618]

Have you considered replacing the stock 250k tone pot and/or volume pot for the 1M pots used in the Fender Jazzmaster and the Squiers Classic Vibe models? Or maybe 500k pots? I miss the sparkle in my JA-60 SB so I'm thinking of doing that.

[@Martzoerst]

Buying the sea foam green one next week 🎉 aswell as the stealth TE-20

[@NIRVANAmat]

Looking at those two aswell. Happy with them?

[@Martzoerst]

@@NIRVANAmat I bought the seafoam JA-60 aswell as the pink TE-62. Got them today, been playing them for 4 hours now. They are great, they stack up to my 70’s Strat with no issues. Minimal setup needed which I will tend to this weekend. Stay metal 🤘

[@robashton8606]

The stealth Tele rocks, but I suggest investing in a set of better tuners and nut for it. Otherwise it's a bloody good chugging guitar for the money.

[@skidelhfc2311]

Were you playing a particular song at around 6:55? Sounded really cool

[@JakeLeighGuitar]

Thanks!! It's just a slow clean version of a song called 'Fireworks' by my band Repair To Ruin. I find it's a good piece of music to show clean/crunchy sounds and the differences between the pickups :)

[@hollowmanuk]

@@JakeLeighGuitar Sounds eerily similar to intro to The City Ignites by 36 Crazyfists 😉

[@charlesflint9048]

I just got one in sea foam green and I agree. This guitar is seriously good value and I love it.

[@LennonStephens]

hey Jake what amp for the overdriven sounds?

[@mykoladudchenko2225]

Is this guitar baritone or vi bass? Searching for vi bass and already for a few times reaching this model 🤔 Could you help me pls? Thank you

[@JakeLeighGuitar]

Hey! Sorry for the slow reply. It's just a standard 6 string. The scale length is 25.5 inches so can definitely be detuned a decent amount with the appropriate stings. Hope that helps.

[@mykoladudchenko2225]

@@JakeLeighGuitar thanks a lot! So definitely the main things are scale length and appropriate strings. For example I can buy Jaguar and adjust keys on vi-bass strings?

[@JJ-qt8zb]

My Wife just bought me one for Christmas, it's arrived but obviously I can't open it until Christmas day. Looking forward to it based on your reviews and others. I'm hoping and expecting it arrived in perfect condition. Great review! Peace! 👍🎸✌️

[@DJMTTC]

somebody know the song from 6:08? love that part

[@juffurey]

wow I did not know this fretboard had binding. I don't really care about locking tuners always use a locking string wrap I think I'm getting this over the 25th anniversary one, love the color too. if they use the same switch as on their lowest priced guitars I'll definitely be swapping it out. Did that with the TE-40 which is another great guitar for the price.

[@mightyV444]

And I actually think it's not really a bad thing that the switch works sideways: This should prevent accidental switching when strumming quite hard! 🙂

[@JakeLeighGuitar]

Haha! It's driving me mad! It makes perfect sense... I just can't get used to it on a 3 way toggle.

[@mightyV444]

@@JakeLeighGuitar - I once had a Squier 'Custom' Tele that had the switch installed sideways, too; But it was in the same spot like on a Les Paul where it was well out of the way of my right hand, so I changed that 🙂

[@juffurey]

@@JakeLeighGuitar if there's enough play in the wiring you might be able to open it up and turn it 90 degrees

[@aureliensooukian]

Very cool! Thank you

[@Alfredo78666]

I bought the JA-60 OW and remember had problems adjusting the height of the pickups, how about that guitar?

[@JakeLeighGuitar]

Just tried it out and I don't seem to be having any problems adjusting them.

[@adrian_V99]

All the specs but the weight? Of course they all vary but it would be nice to find one at 7 lb. instead of 8 1/2.

[@y3senia2]

i really want to buy this guitar but i don’t know anything about guitars and i’m not sure what amo to get, i want one that sounds good but also not too expensive

[@prestonhoward535]

what is the difference between JA-60 OW and JA-60 CC?

[@JakeLeighGuitar]

I'm not sure of the specific differences or if there are even any. I know the JA60OW and JA60SB are the older models, ow referring to Olympic White and sb - sunburst. The 4 JA60cc were introduced late last year and the ow and sb have been out for a while. I've only tried the cc models, sorry!

[@valentineboyko1583]

some old models used p-90 style pickups

[@hanovergreen4091]

Those sound like Strat style single coils. There is not sparkle, no clarity, no articulation and no beef in lower end that I get with my P90's. The 250k pot kinda proves that. Odd for them to do that. Gratz on the NGD and Best Regards and Best Wishes! Like your presentation style and playing. Subscribed. BR!

[@robashton8606]

Not sure what you mean. Mine sounds _nothing_ like a Strat. Indeed, it has all the characteristics you say you can't hear. It's also capable of seriously fat tone for a single coil pup guitar. The bridge pickup cranks at 11.7 ohms, which is seriously hot by P90 standards (contrary to appearances, P90s are exactly what these are closest to. They certainly don't sound like JMs or Strat single coils.)

[@louisfryzel4618]

On the pickups, as for the sounds these are Jazzmaster style ... but not Fender-made Jazzmaster pickups so they won't sound the same, just similar. And yes the tone will be darker with those 250K pots as opposed to the standard 1M pots on the iconic Fender Jazzmasters. So you're not comparing apples with oranges but maybe apples with apple sauce? Thanks for the review.

[@robashton8606]

The pickups are actually rather different to ordinary JMs. They're wound with a lot more time gauge wire and have more than twice the output. The bridge pup cranks at 11.7 ohms, which puts it squarely in humbucker territory.

[@Leeny.]

I will buy that guitar in red 💘

[@alexcorona]

It’s missing the unique tremolo and the bass circuit, so not too goo to be true they skimped on 2/3 the thirds that make the Jazzmaster it’s own….

[@ClaudioRusso]

Just got the seafoam one. But maybe I will buy the pink too 😂

[@ClaudioRusso]

What mod do you think I can do? I was thinking about locking tuners, tusq nut and Humbuckers in a Jazzmaster pickup rings

[@JakeLeighGuitar]

You could definitely do all those things. So far I think the nut and tuners have been really good so I'd probably go for the humbuckers first. I'm thinking of doing something similar, but I'm gonna have a new pickguard cut to fit the humbuckers. Maybe the 3 switch might be worth an upgrade, mine doesn't feel too good, but I could live with it.

[@paulheavenly]

Weight?

[@ZX-6R]

They may have changed the string quality recently. I bought 2 harley bentons this december (including this JA60 in pink) and they both had very shitty strings. I bought another harley benton 2 months ago with good strings....

[@robashton8606]

Mine arrived about a month back and it had been shipped with a set of D'addario XLs. Sounds like you ordered at a bar time.

[@robashton8606]

*bad time.

[@650thunderbird]

👍🏻👍🏻

[@jimgray774]

Pink like me