B-650 Black Progressive Series : A great bass and for this price just utterly amazing

I picked this bass up a few weeks ago after joining a Prog/Metal band and finding myself in need of an instrument with a low-B string. Previously I’ve always played 4-strings (A Maruszczyk Elwood X is my main bass) and so this was a big change for me.

In terms of build quality the bass is very good. There are a few rough edges, such as the finish on the bottom edge of the fret-board and a couple of scuffs on the hardware, but nothing you’d notice without going and really looking for it.

The electronics are very impressive given the price of the bass. The EQ is usable, with a good range of +/- on all three pots. It’s easy to get a good tone that cuts through the mix even when playing along with a couple of noisy metal guitarists. The passive sound is also very nice, perhaps the best of the lot. The only issue is that there is a loud ‘pop’ when swapping between passive and active modes so it is not easy to use the active as a means of boosting volume / altering tone mid-song unless you can get away with muting the bass for a moment first.

Despite being a six-string the bass is very manageable with good ergonomics. The neck is a kind of D shape with a noticeable flattened section on the back. It does get chunky toward the body of the bass, but it never feels un-manageable. The fret-board has a very flat radius - it feels almost like playing on a classical guitar – which took some getting used to, but it works well and lends itself to fast runs and string-bending with ease.

I did find the bridge to be a bit of a problem. The saddles sit too tightly in the ‘monorail’ slots and so adjusting the intonation was a nightmare. I had to use a spanner to lever the saddles to get them to move, which resulted in a lot of trial and error and over-adjustment before I finally got the thing intonated properly. This job would normally take me ~5 mins on my expensive basses, and I would estimate it took around 2 hours with this one. However, it’s not something you’ll need to mess with much once set so it’s far from a deal breaker. Just be prepared to really work to get the bass properly in tune.

In terms of sound, the bass is pretty nice. I have it running into an Ampeg Portaflex-500 & 4x10 and it sounds good. With the active pre-amp on there is a lot of growl, and an almost Warwick like tone. It works well for the kind of heavy music I use the bass for, however, I doubt I would be very impressed if I wanted to play smooth Jazz on it. By contrast, when set to passive mode the bass is tamed a lot, and has a much smoother voice that works fine for mellower styles of music, even if it does lack a little articulation.

A final point to mention is that the weight of the bass is really great. While heavier than my four-strings I’ve not had any issues using it for long periods. Twice I’ve taken it to a band practice where I’ve had it around my neck for just shy of 4 hours without fatigue or discomfort. Pretty impressive given that it is a six-string made on a budget.

In conclusion I would really recommend this bass to anyone looking to try out a six-string for the first time, or perhaps who just fancies something a bit different to mess around with on occasion. If I was going to play six-string more frequently (at present I use it only for a couple of songs in our set-list) I’d probably consider upgrading to something a little bit more fancy, but for what I need now this bass is great and the value for money is utterly astounding.