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Good but some quality control issues.
Whoever is doing quality checks on these basses needs to improve ! The finish on these basses appears to be a photo laminate applied over a basswood core of indeterminate quality. This looks good but you can't compare it to something like a Sterling Sub where you are getting a solid 2 or 3 piece body. The maple neck is well made with generally good fretting with a few sharp ends.
Out of the box the truss rod had not been adjusted and the neck had too much relief. About half a turn was needed with the stock strings to get the neck playable.
The pickup was misaligned with one corner pushed right into the body. I had to remove the pick guard to rectify this which appeared to be caused by the foam supporting pads being misshaped. I added some extra foam to the front of the pickup and this enabled me to set the pickup correctly.
Lastly the nut is not well cut with some strings too low and some too high at the first fret. With the bass properly setup I have buzz at the first fret on one string that will need repairing.
After a few hours work I have the action at under 2mm and the bass plays and sounds good for the price. However, a beginner would not have been able to achieve the same result. I must admit I seriously considered returning this bass.
Postscript: I have now sold this bass and bought a used Sterling SUB in walnut satin. This has better body wood and superior active electronics which give a better sound without the unnecessary coil tap found on the HB. This is a good value bass but its not worth 2 or 3 times the price as suggested by some reviewers. The SUB is a better instrument but you also pay a price premium.
Out of the box the truss rod had not been adjusted and the neck had too much relief. About half a turn was needed with the stock strings to get the neck playable.
The pickup was misaligned with one corner pushed right into the body. I had to remove the pick guard to rectify this which appeared to be caused by the foam supporting pads being misshaped. I added some extra foam to the front of the pickup and this enabled me to set the pickup correctly.
Lastly the nut is not well cut with some strings too low and some too high at the first fret. With the bass properly setup I have buzz at the first fret on one string that will need repairing.
After a few hours work I have the action at under 2mm and the bass plays and sounds good for the price. However, a beginner would not have been able to achieve the same result. I must admit I seriously considered returning this bass.
Postscript: I have now sold this bass and bought a used Sterling SUB in walnut satin. This has better body wood and superior active electronics which give a better sound without the unnecessary coil tap found on the HB. This is a good value bass but its not worth 2 or 3 times the price as suggested by some reviewers. The SUB is a better instrument but you also pay a price premium.
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K
Disappointing.
Unplayable.
Starting with the frets, I injured myself on the 4th fret the first time i picked up the bass. Then i noticed the action was ridiculously high at almost 4mm on the 12th, so i decided to check the fret job... there are 3 frets that DON'T rock. Yeah. I can perfectly understand a few bad frets on a cheap instrument, but this is a first for me, i have never seen an instrument setup in such a sloppy way.
3 pots, 2 are not grounded, and the third (middle one) IS grounded but extremely scratchy, when you turn it it feels like you are scrapping rust inside the pot or something. Not the end of the world, a pot is easily swappable, but it just adds to the whole mess.
Might as well mention the nut, which is so badly cut that it's unsalvageable and basically needs a new one.
Its my 3rd recent Harley Benton. The other two are a MV-4-JB and a Fusion-T. Both of those instruments are insanely good and punch WAY above their price in every single metric possible.
This one is reminiscent of the old Harley Bentons, low quality, low effort, basically zero quality control.
I'll probably end up returning it. It's a shame, really.
EDIT: Yesterday I was kinda mad at the product I received so in the review I mainly focused on the bad, and forgot to mention the one good thing it has going for it: the sound. It does sound surprisingly good for what it is. Even with the stock strings, which by themselves should be considered a crime against humanity, it does sound surprisingly decent.
I also think they were onto something when they decided to split the humbucker into two volume pots. I believe this was their way of introducing a high and low EQ without going active - and therefore keeping costs down. Kinda works in reverse tho, where if you lower the neck pickup for example, it drops the bass a bit, shaping the sound kinda like what an EQ would do. Its sloppy, but works well on a bedroom/practice setting. I see most youtubers using it as a coil tap, like you would on a guitar,but i really believe it was intended more like an EQ shaping than coil tap switch.
All in all, and like i mentioned before, I believe this is a relic of Harley Benton's past. Ingenious design plagued by low quality, low effort, no QC, zero attention to the fret work and overall product quality.
I believe there is a real demand for these types of instruments (MM style bass at an affordable price) so i would love to see them giving some love to this model. Move production to the good factory that's producing your newer models, give it a roasted maple neck, maybe add in an ultra cheap 2 band EQ, slap an extra 50 euros on the price tag, and you got a sterling killer. Easy.
Starting with the frets, I injured myself on the 4th fret the first time i picked up the bass. Then i noticed the action was ridiculously high at almost 4mm on the 12th, so i decided to check the fret job... there are 3 frets that DON'T rock. Yeah. I can perfectly understand a few bad frets on a cheap instrument, but this is a first for me, i have never seen an instrument setup in such a sloppy way.
3 pots, 2 are not grounded, and the third (middle one) IS grounded but extremely scratchy, when you turn it it feels like you are scrapping rust inside the pot or something. Not the end of the world, a pot is easily swappable, but it just adds to the whole mess.
Might as well mention the nut, which is so badly cut that it's unsalvageable and basically needs a new one.
Its my 3rd recent Harley Benton. The other two are a MV-4-JB and a Fusion-T. Both of those instruments are insanely good and punch WAY above their price in every single metric possible.
This one is reminiscent of the old Harley Bentons, low quality, low effort, basically zero quality control.
I'll probably end up returning it. It's a shame, really.
EDIT: Yesterday I was kinda mad at the product I received so in the review I mainly focused on the bad, and forgot to mention the one good thing it has going for it: the sound. It does sound surprisingly good for what it is. Even with the stock strings, which by themselves should be considered a crime against humanity, it does sound surprisingly decent.
I also think they were onto something when they decided to split the humbucker into two volume pots. I believe this was their way of introducing a high and low EQ without going active - and therefore keeping costs down. Kinda works in reverse tho, where if you lower the neck pickup for example, it drops the bass a bit, shaping the sound kinda like what an EQ would do. Its sloppy, but works well on a bedroom/practice setting. I see most youtubers using it as a coil tap, like you would on a guitar,but i really believe it was intended more like an EQ shaping than coil tap switch.
All in all, and like i mentioned before, I believe this is a relic of Harley Benton's past. Ingenious design plagued by low quality, low effort, no QC, zero attention to the fret work and overall product quality.
I believe there is a real demand for these types of instruments (MM style bass at an affordable price) so i would love to see them giving some love to this model. Move production to the good factory that's producing your newer models, give it a roasted maple neck, maybe add in an ultra cheap 2 band EQ, slap an extra 50 euros on the price tag, and you got a sterling killer. Easy.
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