harley benton ja60 jazzmaster

artandsoul · Mon Mar 06, 2023 1:13 pm

Just got this like new harley benton ja60 jazzmaster style today from reverb. Came with a nice ibanez gig bag and both look brand new not a scratch and still plastic on pickguard. Been wanting a jazzmaster for awhile and im a sucker for bound necks and block inlays. Pretty nice guitar no issues anywhere and nice feeling no clearcoat neck with a roasted color. Only had to do a quick truss rod and bridge adjustment its good to go.

Quick 5 min play and sounds pretty good but still gonna change the pups since I have a new set of gfs jazzmaster vintage wound pickups sitting around. Read the stock pups are 6.5k and 11k alnico 5 and the gfs are 7k and 8k so probably be better on loud 100w on 412 and fuzz pedals.
The bentons are def still one of the best cheaper guitars you can buy imo that dont really need any real work . So far ive never got a benton that was a mess unlike some other china brands needing fret leveling and tuners etc.

jtcnj · Mon Mar 06, 2023 4:11 pm

Nice!
I have my Firefly FFJA almost sorted.
Just need to add some more foam under the bridge pickup.

idiotsdelight · Wed Mar 08, 2023 5:14 am

I got an eye on one of these. Wish it had the Jazz trem though.

60 Cycle Hum guy threw a GFS X-Trem and 1 megs on his. It looked/sounded great.

artandsoul · Wed Mar 08, 2023 10:21 am

idiotsdelight wrote: ↑Wed Mar 08, 2023 5:14 am I got an eye on one of these. Wish it had the Jazz trem though.

60 Cycle Hum guy threw a GFS X-Trem and 1 megs on his. It looked/sounded great.

yep watched that video last night sounds cool

artandsoul · Wed Mar 08, 2023 10:36 am

jtcnj wrote: ↑Mon Mar 06, 2023 4:11 pm Nice!
I have my Firefly FFJA almost sorted.
Just need to add some more foam under the bridge pickup.

Yeah i saw those when they came out looks cool with the wilkinson trem. I think there what 169 and 20 shipping so good price for sure! If firefly had bound neck and inlays would have bought one . I paid 205 w tax for benton with nice gig bag so about the same price and I got the neck i wanted.

artandsoul · Fri Mar 17, 2023 9:40 pm

well finally replaced the pickups with the guitar fetish jazzmaster set and 11-50 in d standard tuning. since pickups are white cover did white speed knob and left cream switch tip till i get a white one. Sounds great bridge still little spanky like a p90 and neck is nice and full not overly bass crazy . half cranked on 100w head on 412 with tonebender style fuzz its nice wall shaking and full sounding. made me look at the lp and say i might not need you anymore lol. The stock alnico 5 rosewell sound pretty good for stock better than most ever do. I like darker sound and the gfs alnico 2 worked out better for me on the bright as hell jet city heads i got.
Now the bad for some dam reason has a ground hum bad i can touch bridge saddle or even ends of the cables on the pedal board and it stops lol. I didnt look good when i rewired pickups must have no ground going to bridge ill have to take it back apart tomorrow and see whats going on. 1st guitar in many years to have a ground hum on me, not even the chepo p90s had any ground hum. My praise of the bentons has come back to bite me lol