Harley Benton B-650 Black Progressive Series Reviews

Nice value for the money

I bought this bass as a newbie for the six strings and the quality is not as I expected.... Yeah, it's a cheap bass but the neck actually feels nice and comfortable, thanks also to the small string spacing.

The EQ is nicely made and gives you the opportunity to switch to passive pickups with a Push&Pull pot and the hardware is well made.

Obviously there are also some cons:

- the body shape isn't that "smart", the small horn is really too small and the bass tends to fall off when playing sit;

- I don't really like the double truss rod system in the neck;

- the finish on the neck feels cheap (but it's a very cheap bass, so it doesn't really matter);

- when it arrived at my home, it was unplayable (it needed a huge setup to remove the huge fret buzz), also some nut slots were too low, so I had to remove the nut itself and place a shim under it.

A nice bass if you're entering in the world of the six strings, but I would recommend this only to a newbie such as I am.

Couldn't be happier with this purchase

You do not expect much for such a low price. Long story short I really wanted a six string bass for the fun of it but didn't feel like spending much at all.

From the time I first opened the package this bass was nothing but a pleasant surprise. The thin neck suits me very well (I'm a guitarist) and plays very comfortably and fast. The whole bass is not heavy at all and sits comfortably. The fretwork could obviously be better being a budget instrument, however in my case it doesn't affect the performance and the only sharp ends I found are on the bass side close to the body (20-24). As far as sound goes this thing has it all. With the easy to control electronics I can get both a soothing buttery tone for the solo play as well as a punchy heavy metal tone.

I've had this bass for over a year now and it has been one of the most fun instruments I have ever played. It's not perfect by any means, but it is a really good entry point for a newcomer to basses or a casual player.

Great Value for money

Great value for money. I can't believe you can get such a decent 6 string bass at this price. I'm very happy with it. Sounds great and the neck feels comfortable and nice. It looks good too. I love the inlays on it.

I'm Glad I Did!

I bought this bass on impulse, as I wanted to get back into 6 string bass playing, but didn't have a lot of money to spend. Ordinarily I would have investigated in depth spoken to people that owned one, and definitely demoed one! That wasn't the case here, I'd never heard of Harley Benton before, I didn't know anyone that owned one, and going to Germany to try one out wasn't really on the cards at the time, so I closed my eyes and pressed "checkout". A few days later my bass lay waiting for me when I got home. I was very pleasantly surprised, the first thing you notice is how good it looks, it's not too heavy, and how well put together it is. When I first connected up to my practice amp even the tone straight out of the box was usable, and it it didn't take much to dial in the sound I was looking for with no annoying electrical hum from the active electronics.

I have gigged this bass quite a bit, and it has never let me down, so if you're working to a tight budget, but don't want to sacrifice quality or features I would wholeheartedly recommend the Progressive Series range of basses.

A great bass

The yin of this instrument is the work the chinese craft people put into this instrument,the yang is the journey of elightenment to really enjoy this bass at its best.

It is best tuned in a c tuning without the low b and then you can get tritones ,third,fourths and triads all with perfect intonation ....find your tuning, grasshopper and the secret sound will be yours....tzu lao

Harley Benton B-650 Black Progressive Series

Perfect introduction for a 6 string bass.

Six strings seem too much for any bass player, but for someone who mostly plays guitar... its just the right number of strings.

I use this bass mostly for home recordings and in that it does the job pretty well.

Arrived in perfect order with no dings or blemishes. Neck was straight and required little effort to entonate.

Some crackling was audible when using the volume pot, but nothing that could not be easily fixed.

A good bass, but with some design flaws

I don't have it now, but it was a good bass. Very nice and versatile sound, but the neck was too heady while the body too light, and it easily drained the batteries.

Serious Value for money

well I took a chance on this one and boy did it pay of , if you search " metalmorningthoughts " on youtube you will find my overview vid and sound test and I stand by everything on there .

the sound is truly awesome with the ability to switch between both active and passive mode on the pickups plus the extensive eq giving a huge range and ability to hone your sound both live and in the studio , the playability is excellent and the neck is very smooth and well balanced on a whole .

my only negative come down to the pickup placement making hand position a touch awkward and the need for a higher quality bridge is a must unfortunately, but given the price these problems are negligible at best .

I would recommend this to anyone on a budget and say jump on it your in for a treat ;) .

Super for the price

I bought this bass, because I wanted a cheap six string for learning the c string and for modifying and upgrading.

Pros:

Looks great.

Playability was really good out of the box. I just adjusted truss rod and intonation and it's good to go on stage.

Battery case is really ergonomic, changing battery on bass has not been easier.

Neck is very comfortable.

Cons:

The sound of this bass is not as versatile as I expected. I play mostly jazz, bigband, pop music. This bass should be nice for modern rock or metal. For me it lacks warmth. I wish there was a switch to split pickups or something.

Nut looks really cheaply made and B string is a little too deep in it.

In conclusion it is an amazing bass for the price. If you want a perfect bass it's not for you, but I think changing the nut, pickups and electronics could yield and instrument comparable to high end basses. If I would loose or damage mine, I think I would buy another one just like this.

Awesome

The bass is really good at all, the pickups do their work, the neck is really solid that is necessary in a 6 strings bass, tuners are perfect: I bought it few moths ago and i tuned it just one or two times. Harley Benton did a really good work also with the disign that is aggressive and elegant at the same time. Such a good bass for that prize should be Illegal!! I suggest it to all people who wants to try something new.

Unbeatable value for money!

A 6-string bass for 150Eur? It's gotta be a piece of crap , right?. WRONG! Good solid build. Nice design and not too heavy. The bass need a tiny bit of adjustment in the bridge for intonation but apart from that it played great right out of the box.

If you wanna get a 6-Sting bass without breaking the bank you could do a lot worse Harley Benton B-650.

Much more than perfect for this price!

I just wanted to try something new for me, so I decided to buy a 6-string-bass. I was pretty surprised by a quality of this product. Sound, ergonomics, look. Everything made me to fall in love with this amazing instrument. I have already used it in my records and brought it to my concert. Six string made some difference, because it's a bigger field for imrovising with solos etc.

Totally recommend to start with this bass.

6 stirng bass guitar for extremely cheap price....

After getting the 5 string fretless version of this bass I wanted to buy the 6 string fretted version to play some dream theater etc.. This price was very affordable for my curiosity. I really liked the active electronics on it. Picups sounds good to my ears. I tested this by on my Ampeg Pf50t and I liked the various tons I get with adjusting the active electronics on it... I think noone can buy any better 6 string guitar for this price. Only things I didn't like about this guitar were some cheap plastic hardwares on it (fro example, nut, screws...). Currently I am using the stock strings as I received this bass 5 days ago. After installing some high end strings on it I will like this bas more. I may update my feedback after I will do that.... I strongly recomend this bass for every bass player...

You can't beat the price!

Very good bass for the price. Couldn't get used to the extra strings, so I sold the bass to one of my friends. He loves it! If u wanna try out some more strings on the bass before reaching deep in your pockets, this bass is for you.

WOW!!!!

Great guitar for the price!!!

Decent introduction

I bought this bass recently as I fancied dabbling into the world of the 6 string.Packaging was good and I noticed no flaws in the item out of the box.The bass was properly intonated and the tuners agree. I couldn't find any dead spots nor bad fretwork. Right off, you notice the clarity of the notes throughout. Chords are fairly clear, but if you want versatility, you won't get it with the stock electronics. The weight is also nice for a 6 string bass-this is definitely on the light end!!

The action is also decent- you can get the strings pretty low before buzz if you like that kind of setup. The string spacing is slightly on the narrow side,but I?ve got small hands. Playing with a lower level Peavey this bass mostly seems worth the purchase.

Now to the two things that I noticed that weren`t to my liking:

1)the B string is a bit floppy-but truth be told I expected it to be.Outside of the very expensive 6 string basses you`ll have a job finding a perfect b string.I can live with it.

2)Slap & pop technique-the former isn`t as unclean as I expected considering the string spacing,but the latter is surprisingly difficult due to the length of the fretboard.You literally have room for a single finger on the high C string between the fretboard end and the neck pickup. More space should have been given accomodate more fingers.I think design and aesthetics came before playability here.

Resumé: a decent all black active 6 stringer that is great value for the money and also a good introduction to the 6 stringers.I would recommend it!

Value for money and much more!

In my opinion it is an excellent bass for messing up with the six strings and see if you really like these extra notes. It has very good construction and for this price price you cannot ask anything more! Really happy to have it. Maybe in the future I will change strings and pick ups for better sound!

Great 6 string bass guitar

I've been playing guitar for over 30 years and have owned a few basses over those years, some good, some expensive and some nasty. I'd been checking out youtube reviews of Harley Benton guitars for a week or so but hadn't seen anything for this bass.

After some thought I decided to gamble on buying a bass that I couldn't find reviews for, and also just generally buying a musical instrument online. This bass is fantastic and the setup, action and intonation were almost spot on.

Build quality, including the electrics looks good (I've taken the inspection cover off and checked everything).

I'm very pleased, in fact so happy that I've already ordered 2 other guitars!

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.

Fantastic bass

This is a superb bass for this price. It plays exceptionally well and has a fantastically playable neck. The electronics produce a nice warm signal too, so all.

More Detail:

The finis on the bass is quite high, although it is clear when you look closely that this is a budget instrument. The visual impact is actually quite striking and I've had more positive comments on this than I have my Fodera!

The neck is very pleasing for a 6 and is easy to manoeuvre over all the strings. The rest are well finished and levelled well enough of a surprisingly low action if needed.

The electronics are probably the weakest area, but would be quick win of an upgrade post purchase i you wanted. You can get some pleasing tone from the preamp, but the bass boost and cut is a little to wooly for my liking. Although it's still usable enough that I haven't swapped out or upgraded yet! I just feel that an upgrade could provide more focus in the low end. Having said that, the B string is surprisingly good with nice tension and clarity in the lower notes.

Overall a fantastic bass that you''s struggle to be disappointed with tat this price point! Incredible value.