Harley Benton B-550 QTB Progressive Series Reviews

Pretty good

I bought this as i needed a 5 string bass. And what can i say. Its a 5 string bass xD

Pretty alright for the money. Only downside are the factory strings. (They suck)

Great introduction to 5 string

Came quickly, no damage, set up well.

Plays great, this is my first ever 5 string so cost and quality were great for my venture into this area.

I love the colour, it would definatly benefit if the colour and fade were brighter but on the whole great looking instument.

Sounds good and has some real bite. Switch gear feels nice and is quite accurate.

Plays well frets have no sharp edges. No neck dive which suprised me as the body is quite small.

Would be tempted by another but 4 string or fretless if there were more colour options.

Only downside was a cut finger from the edge of the nut which was razor sharp- resolved with a file.

For the price a great a bass. I wish i could have got quality instruments like this when i was learning the bass 20 years ago. Now Im dipping my toe back into music after a 15 year stop, Im glad i can get something of a great quality without having to save for it

Unexpected

I don't know why but, I bought this bass because it said it was long scale and it has all the dimensions of a short scale. It was unexpected but useful since the bass player in my band is a small guy hahahaha.

Great for the Price

The guitar is fantastic for the price, but it has it's downsides.

One of them is that the 5th string sounds quieter than the rest strings. The other thing is the string buzz which I managed to fix by changing the nut. It's unfortunate I had to do that but at least it worked.

Impressive and affordable build

I think the quality is incredible for the price. It's neatly put together and finished; the tuners feel a little cheap, but it stays in tune, and the neck is really comfortable to play. The tone is also halfway nice, and the settings offer a lot of freedom. When the treble is turned up, the preamp becomes hissy. Get it!

More juice than I deserve

I’m not believing this bass. Great price fast shipping. Sounds too good to be true. But it’s not! Beautiful instrument that makes beautiful sounds

A lot of Bass for the money

Pros:

-Everything that's on it works, stays in tune as well.

-Good neck, quite even frets, no serious flaws.

-Active/Passive and EQ gives a good variation of sounds.

-No visual flaws. The red "tiger stripes" could have been a little bit brighter, but still has a pretty unique look to it.

Cons:

-Factory strings are meh, as per usual (pretty obvious to change strings on any budget instrument anyway)

-Fret ends are a little bit sharp, but that's something I have even seen on a 500€ instrument. Easy fix with a small file or some tape and sanding block.

-Active circuit is a little bit noisy on certain EQ settings. While I do consider it a con, I don't intend to use the active EQ anyway, sounds good enough in passive mode.

Overall I'm really happy with the purchase. A must have for writing your own basslines as a guitar player.

Shocked

Ok so I thought that a bass this affordable couldn't be well made. Boy was I wrong. This bass is a work horse. It sounds great and looks great too. I own both a sting ray and a spector but for some reason I keep picking this up and playing. The only gripe I have and just to let you know that I'm not the only complaint is that the fret ends were a bit sharp but I grabbed a metal file and fixed it. I would say that this bass has shocked both me and other musicians for both price and quality. I would buy a second one and tell my fellow musicians to pick one up if they needed a bass.

Wow, what a find!

After researching the various reviews, on various platforms, and watching You Tube reveals & demos, I decided (skeptically) to invest in this product.

To my surprise, this is an excellent entry level base, in comparison with most entry level products, which usually need setups, to get them to a playable level. This was playable, straight out of the box. Very minor fine tuning. It was almost perfectly tuned out of the box, intonation was dead on, string height was really good (I like it closer to the fretboard), workmanship was good. This is a steal for the price point. I would recommend this product & vendor. Took about a week to arrive.

Perfect guitar for a beginner

Bought. Dropped tuning from standard to drop G. Sounds NICE!

BTW 2 modes(active and passive) the best guitar for its price.

More than worth the money

I'd really wanted a 5-string bass for some time, and after shopping around at other stores (and some less than great dealings with another store) I decided to give this one a try. Needless to say I'm ecstatic with the result. Beautiful finish, nice full sound, and no other company could sell something this great at this low price.

Good quality product

really like the bass for the price! A serious competitor such as Fender/ibanez/yamahah! Highly recommended

Does what I need it to do!

I'm a bedroom guitarist recording a few tracks and needed a functional, cheap and cheerful 5 string to do some simple bass tracks.

My needs regarding this instrument are very basic; feel ok in my hands, work and not get in the way of what I want to do. In all those aspects it does exactly what I need it to do!

I can't attest to the overall sound quality of this item as I'm very far from a professional and even further from a professional bassist (!) but the levels going in to my DAW via my interface.

Only slight gripe is that the fret edges could have been slightly better dressed and the fretboard was a tiny bit dry but, at this price point, I would really be nit picking to deduct any stars.

Harley Benton B-550 QTB Progressive Series

I will use this bass for slapping mainly because of the sound.

with a few modifications i turned this bass into a good slapper.

The bass was delivered in a good and neat condition!!!

For the price there is actually nothing to complain about!

Well Done Harley Benton!!

Incredible value

Fantastic 5 string bass capable of giving a wide variety of tones with the active and passive pickup option.

Pros:

Light weight despite it's size

Well balanced

Both pickups produce fantastic sound

Neck is quite thin and fits nicely in the hand

Cons:

Pickups can't be raised or lowered, but that is just a minor inconvenience.

Fantastic instrument for this price

Haven't played/owned a bass for at least 30 yrs, and wanted something cheap to practice on. This was far more than I expected.. Build quality is great, fretworks is far better than much more expensive competitors.

Stays in tune even after a day of hard practice.

Pikcup's are super , and active/passive switch is a very nice feature.

Only "Negative" is the use of batteries if I don't remember to pull out the battery after playing.

Best bang for the buck

Not much to add except this is a very good Basses, especially for beginners. At this Price tag it's honestly unbeatable.

Seriously; how do they manage to do it?

Okay, at the time of writing, I've had my 4-string B-450 QTB for over a month and it continues to astound me. It's big sister, the 5-string B-550 QTB has also been here for a few weeks too. It's my first 5-string bass and I'm already smitten. So much so, that the two basses are used alternately, at least as much as it is reasonable to do so.

Of course, in comparison, they constitute two very different instruments. You might not think that the addition of a bottom B string and a narrower pitch between the strings would make so much difference to your bass playing, but it sure does; or, at least it does for me. To an extent, the basses choose their own songs. They also make your hands do things that are almost unexpected; spooky even!; although, that matters not, as the sound that comes out of these two machines is quite frankly amazing; and that just using their passive electronics, fed through a flat EQ and output at a reasonable volume. Their playability is also excellent. In fact, .you get so much for your Euro, or whatever currency you use, that it's really difficult to criticise these machines. They are quite literally stunning. So, I guess that's why there is a black Harley Benton fretless sitting beside me as I write. It's too early to tell its story yet, but I'm pretty sure it will be impressive. Now, which one of you three beauties will I use today? Decisions, decisions. God bless Harley Benton!

not so good

i have a lot of harley benton stuff ,but this one seems not so good,its great for begiiners

A good bang for the buck

The only negative things I have to say is the frets and nut look like they got knocked off a motorcycle going 120. The rest of the bass is fine thought. The pickups sound good. It stays in tune really well. The pictures on the website should be retaken. It looks black and red on the website but it's definitely black and brown.