Harley Benton Bass Guitar Kit P-Style

Neck is pretty decent, the fretboard is effectively black, like ebony with more grain, does not look like rosewood at all. I think it looks really distinctive. Benefits from oiling. I didn't lacquer the back of the neck, it comes with a satin/matt finish that is very nice.

Would build confidence if they had a guide to which screw goes where, especially as there are enough scratchplate and tuning head screws that you could swap them over. For those unsure:

The larger headed countersunk screws are for the scratchplate.

The four very long screws are for the pickups, beware of screwing them right down as they could pop out the back of the body... put them in a few turns and adjust when the strings are on.
The same screws for the bridge and strap buttons. Personally I think they are a bit short for strap buttons.
String guide uses a scratchplate screw; I reckon if you used a spare bridge screw it could come out the back of the headstock.

The tuning head screw drillings weren't very well positioned. I had to take great care tightening the screws and the heads are all at a very slight angle.

Body wood isn't super hard, but much better than the eBay strat body blank I bought a year ago. If I was redoing the build I would put on a light layer of primer then sand down until it was just left in any depressions, then skim the body with fine filler then sand with fine wet and dry.

Videos that show people putting on 3 very thin layers of lacquer are over optimistic. Do more than that. Yes it is worth waiting a week to finally sand and polish, but give yourself enough paint thickness to work at with confidence. Sanding needs to be really light t-cut will take out light marks so you don't need to sand aggressively.

Double acting truss rod needed to be tightend up, probably by 2-3 turns so not a huge amount. I expect it to need revisiting a few times as the bass settles down.

Setting up meant adjusting everything, including the nut (except the A-string intonation was spot on...) Nut was cut very high, this does need care and courage as it's the one adjustment that isn't reversible.

Pickup screw holes weren't ideally positioned, tilting the two halves forward. When I reassemble I'll move them so they are level.

Controls work fine, no buzzes. When I reassemble I will strip a longer section of the bridge earth wire to make the contact more definite, am worried it could slip out but don't want to strip it yet to make threading it back through easier. Would be nice if it was about an inch longer too...

Tuning heads very stiff until oiled with a drop of 3 in 1, get better with use. Not the best ever but I don't think they need replacing.

A neck wedge may be a good idea as the E-saddle is almost at the bottom and I reckon I could drop it buy up to half a mm or more.

Some of the scratchplate screwholes were way off, one or two not even visible. I put all the good ones in first, then fitted the other screws direct into the wood without a hole.

I fitted Fender flatwounds because I can't find the supplied strings - I'm not convinced they were in the box, but as I opened it a couple fo weeks ago...

The sound is nice, rich and rounded, perhaps not as much growl as a Fender Precision.

I will use this bass for playing at home and recording.
What I liked:
Neck seems very good, frets also. There were no sharp ends. Grain on the back side (maple) is really nice. Fretboard also came in a very nice color. Body is very light (and very soft, prone to bruises), finish is great. Hadrware is also good: tuners are solid, pickup sounds really decent, bridge is nice, pickguard is prewired wich was nice. It?s all nice and neat.
What I didn?t like:
prewired holes for tuner screws missaligned. This meant that I had to refill all the screw holes and drill new ones. Also, predrilled holes for the pickup were not good as one hole was drilled too close to the upper edge of the pickup hole and when inserted like that, pickup could not fit. So again, I refilled the holes and drilled new ones. I had to sand the pickguard a little to fit the pickups through a little bit.
If the holes alligned I would have given 5 stars.

When I assembled the bass I was able to get good medium action (little below 3 mm) without fretbuzz. Only fretbuzz was at the last fret which needs to be sanded down a little bit (but that is not a minus, I?ve had much worse on much more expensive basses). Neck needed a fair bit of adjustment as it had quite an up-bow, but it was easiliy fixed.

Sound is really good, and the tone pot is good. There?s quite a difference with tone closed and fully opened.

Anyways I would reccomend this kit, but only to people who don?t have problems in patching missaligned holes and drilling new ones due to chance of holes being drilled wrong. For the price you get a really nice p bas.

Oh yeah strings that come with the bass are sh**, you can use them to set up the bass and see how it sounds.