Harley Benton JA-60CC | Bags of fun, killer looks + Jazzmaster tones galore for €179! Review & Demo

Подробнее о видео

This is the Harley Benton JA-60CC in Seafoam Green – one of a new, vibrant quintet of colorways available for the brand’s super affordable Fender Jazzmaster-esque range of offset guitars!

Get the JA-60CC here:

Coming in at €179, the JA-60CC is about as cheap as it gets if you’re after a gig-ready offset, but this budget guitar boasts some pretty cool specs and features for the money – and it looks a whole lot more expensive than it is.

The body (which is a bit smaller than that of a Fender Jazzmaster) is basswood, while the 25.5” scale length neck is caramelized maple and features a 21-fret bound laurel fingerboard with block inlays. You get two Roswell P90 pickups, a master volume and tone control, and a generic fixed bridge and tuners – so no extra frills here, and no rhythm/treble circuits or vibrato bridges that you tend to see on Fender offsets.

Now, I chose the Seafoam Green finish, which looks lovely with the off-white/mint green pickguard, but you can also get the JA-60CC in Lake Placid Blue, Inca Silver, Dakota Red, and Shell Pink – so there’s something for every taste here.

The real question is, how does it actually sound? And is the JA-60CC a genuine alternative to a Fender or Squier offset? In this video, I put the JA-60CC through its paces in as many different genres and styles as I can: that means everything from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, punk, metal, and more. Let’s see how it handles it all!

Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:

00:00 Hello!
00:16 Introduction to the JA-60CC range
01:29 Specs and info
03:39 Today’s rig and plan

Clean Sounds
04:20 Clean tone reference chords on all pickup settings
04:40 Poppy barre chords
04:56 Ringing open indie pop chords
05:09 Pop rock rhythm tone
05:20 Neo soul barre chords
05:31 Funky rhythm chords
05:45 Blues progression
05:57 Country ballad arpeggios
06:10 Country lead sound
06:16 Country strummed chords
06:35 Tone control test
07:01 Atmospheric droning indie chords
07:20 Folk pop chords

Clean Sounds with extra reverb/tremolo
07:37 Indie pop picked arpeggios
07:59 Surf chords
08:18 Poppy soundscapes
08:39 Atmospheric arpeggios
09:02 Poppy lead melody

Overdriven Sounds
09:20 Indie rock rhythm sound
09:36 Indie rock octave chords
10:01 Descending rocky barre chords
10:07 Garage rock riff
10:23 Upbeat indie rock barre chords
10:46 Volume control test
11:11 Indie octave chords riff
11:27 Southern rock picked arpeggios
11:38 Edgy indie barre chords
11:51 Droning open string riff (all pickup settings)
12:19 Kings Of Leon inspired indie rock riff
12:34 Airbourne inspired rock riff
12:46 AC/DC inspired classic rock riff
13:03 Groovy classic rock riff (all pickup settings)
13:29 Hendrix inspired classic rock riff
13:45 Classic rock riff

Higher gain drive sounds
14:01 Classic hard rock riff
14:18 Hard rock riff
14:34 Glam rock riff
14:49 Hard rock melodic lead
15:01 Alt rock riff
15:15 Chunky alt rock chords
15:28 Foo Fighters inspired modern rock riff
15:46 Pop punk riff
15:59 Pop punk melodic lead riff
16:14 Green Day inspired punk rock riff
16:28 Punk rock power chords
16:54 Progressive rock riff (Drop D tuning)
17:09 Modern rock palm-muted chords (Drop D)
17:33 Rage Against The Machine inspired groovy riff (Drop D)

Heavy Distortion sounds (all in Drop D)
17:49 Metal chugging riff
18:05 Mastodon inspired metal riff with country twang
18:17 Classic metal melodic lead sound
18:33 Hardcore punk riff
18:48 Rammstein inspired industrial metal riff
19:00 Classic heavy metal/sludge riff

19:37 My thoughts: first impressions
20:42 Weight
21:00 Build quality and hardware
22:10 Playability and neck
22:52 Sounds discussion
25:30 What other cheap offset guitars should you consider?
26:50 My conclusions on the JA-60CC
27:29 Thanks and goodbye

My setup was as follows: I ran the JA-60CC into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, also using my Greer Lightspeed for the overdrive and my Revv G3 for the heavy distortion sounds. The amp went from the Red Box DI straight into my Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, which went into Logic Pro X. That's it. No post-processing on the sounds was done.

Here’s some links to those bits of gear:

-----
H&K Black Spirit 200 head:
Greer Lightspeed:
Revv G3:
Focusrite 4i4 (the new 2i4!):
-----

Enjoy!


-----
Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.

#HarleyBenton #Jazzmaster #JA60CC #HarleyBentonGuitar #OffsetGuitars


*Note: certain links in the description are affiliate links. If you click said links and purchase anything as a result, I will receive a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it does help to support the channel. So, if you do that, thank you very much!*

@HarleyBentonOfficial