Harley Benton B-550FL BK Progressive Series Reviews

Blown away, incredible value

Received the bass a few days ago, it came playing perfectly and even intonated properly. Put flats on right away and lowered the strings, I didn’t even have to touch the truss rod. The tone is quite nice if nothing fancy, and the active passive switch does pop as other reviewers noted. A mid band for the EQ would be nice, but between amps and EQ pedals definitely not necessary. The passive mode even sounds really nice, close to the active unlike some more expensive offerings where passive mode sounds bland. Fit and finish is also pretty on point. Legitimately have nothing to complain about.

Great bass

Great great instrument. comfortable and good sound. Only wish it came with some explanation of how the knobs work, or was posted on the website. great quality of constructin

All around very good.

very lightweight and playable.

Fretboard could use some oil.

only issue is one of the strings came with a very large cut on it, through the outer winding. I wasn't planning on using the stock strings but this string is pretty much gone.

no damage on the fretboard around the cut so must have been a bad string from the get go.

Overall really good for the price.

This bass is really fun to jam with and it's fairly easy to modify. My only criticism which can easily be fixed was I don't like how the strings sound on the bass so I changed them myself. However my taste in bass sound is subjective. Fantastic price for the quality and another excellent make of Harley Benton

How hard is it to finish it properly?

Great tone and everything works for an amazingly low price, but maybe it's too low? A little quality control on the fitting wouldn't go amiss. Mine needed a thick shim to be made and fitted under the front of the neck heel before I could drop the bridge saddles to a playable height. And I had to fettle the nut slot height. The allen key supplied doesn't fit the B string saddle screws and spins uselessly. Not good enough on a new bass.

Wow

Fantastic bass for the price, can't fault anything.

WOW

Why spend all that money on "Name" basses, whilst this bass is available, GREAT SOUND any genre, only downside is strings, but with "La Bella" no problem, great finish, tuners, pick ups & bridge fine, holds intonation, so play with confidence.

Great fretless bass for beginners

My sister is a double bass player, and I've always been amazed by the expressivity/tone of the instrument and the ability to play microtonal stuff/alternative tunings... this, together with listening to Cynic, Exivious and Spiral Architect, made me want a fretless bass really bad!

I'm extremely happy with this instrument. From the perspective of a beginner, the bass sounds great and it's easy to play. Once you get used to the tone controls, you can get close to a more "jazzy", warm fretless sound. It stays in tune for a long time, and the strings are fine. And especially... it's super cheap! I believe this has a great quality considering its price.

If anything, I would say that the bass gets distorted easily with the B string, and if not you have to play it very softly which sometimes doesn't match the dynamics I'm using on the other strings. I'm not sure if this has to do with the electronics, the neck bolts or the string itself.

Great fretless for home studio recordings

Great fretless for home studio recordings! Smooth and easy though I replaced the roundwound strings with flatwounds to get this typical fretless sound. Let your Mick Karn out!

Your only option if you want it all at an extremely low price

Play-wise it feels pretty good, the neck is fine, the instrument is built pretty okay. But the pichups are not very good. I cannot seem to be able to find a very good tone, and especially that low B string gets lost in a mix, and all these very low frequencies. Not unusably bad by any means, but don't have the highest expectations coming here.

Felt in love in this instrument. Using with Daddario ETB92-5 for 4 years with and the sound is still sweet.

Cons: Pegs are no so precise, switch between active-pasive produced a unwanted click and also output jack after an years were not so solid.

good deal

very nice bass to start and home use,

B string is a little bit unstable in terms of tuning.

Good but won't last long

This guitar is really good. The only problem is the roundwound strings on the fretless neck. The neck was completely destroyed after less than a year.

Good quality, especially considering the price

I bought this bass as I had wanted to try a 5 string fretless bass for a long while. The first impression was favourable. The instrument looks good and feels solid. It is also surprisingly light and easy to handle. The inbuilt eq and other features sound nice, although they drain the battery pretty quickly. A slight minus is that the fretboard is entirely blank, and therefore not very easy to handle for a complete beginner to the fretless world! All in all this is a good product, well worth its price

As good as it gets for the money

I neede a stop gap fretless, and this cheap bass did its job admirably. Sometimes the tone wasn't all I hoped, as it occasionally lacks sustain, but other than that, I've played fretless basses that cost three times as much that aren't as nice.

If anyone wants to start learning fretless or like me, they need a backup bass they know will do the job but are limited in their budget, then look no further.

Can't find a con anywhere.

I wanted a fretless electric bass for some home recording. I used to play around with a Fender Jazz fretless in the 80's, so I know where the bar is set. As it was just for the occasional track, I didn't want to spend too much on a big name, so wasn't expecting it to be top drawer. Was overwhelmed by the quality that showed up. As someone who has been buying guitars for nearly fifty years this has got to be the golden age when you can get something this good for so very little. I told the wife that this would be the last one as even I have to admit that I've run out of room, but at these prices and this quality, I fear total GAS relapse.

Surprisingly good for the price

Surprisingly good for the price. I was looking for an affordable 5 string fretless bass to carry around as a backup, and this fits the bill perfectly. I was expecting to swap the electronics out, but after giving it a test drive and looking under the hood, and decided to keep them as is. The electronics are really well put together for an entry level instrument, and provide a good tonal versality. Not mentioned in the description: the volume knob is a push-pull allowing for passive/active operation.

Great for the price

I bought this bass because I wanted to try out a fretless bass without having to spend too much money on it. I didn't regret my purchase! Great bass. Unbelievable they can make such a good instrument for such a cheap price.

Harley Benton Fretless 5 String

Bought this as a first bass, the quality both in sound and workmanship is astounding for such a tiny price tag.

You will not be disappointed in buying this; even the stock strings are alright!

Big Bang for the Money

Don't know how you do It, but this guitar should cost more that what you're selling it for. Thanks for the Deal