Enhanced MP-4EB Creme : Noisy electronics, poor quality

5 years ago

Playing this bass approx. one month at home studio.

The bass require some tweaks and fixes, but can't reach "just ok" level.

Quality.

Frets are extremely sharp on a neck edges which makes play quite dangerous. Spent some time and money to fix it but after few weeks frets become sharp again.

This means wood quality is not ok. Other things is normal, but frets issue kill everything.

Electronics.

Neck pickup is too loud, too much gain. Middle balance position means neck. To get balanced neck-bridge sound I have to move balance 60-70% towards "bridge only" position.

Active mode is very noisy and clippy. Actually you can't record this bass in active mode just from a box.

Solutions is to disable active mode and lost EQ feature or play with volume knob to reduce clipping and noise.

Misc.

Before purchase I though it's a good idea to have such pickups setup and active electronics in classic body shape. But there are design issue - it's not working and I have no idea how to make it good without total replacement - preamp/pickups/etc.

So, it's not good even as a base for upgrades due to quite high price.

Pros:

- lightweight

- nice colour

- nice hardware

Cons:

- sharp frets

- unusable electronics

- difficult to record without noise and clipping

I do not recommend it for purchase.

Image Harley Benton Enhanced MP-4EB Creme

Technical Data

  • Manufactured by Harley Benton
  • Released in 2018
  • Average price : $356
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