Harley Benton B-650FL BK Progressive Series Reviews

good sound, low build quality

Pretty good bass for its price. I'd not tour the world with it, but great for practicing at home.

The bridge, the pickups, and the strings aren't balanced nor centered, but it's not a big deal.

Also it seems like the sides of the neck suffered a couple of small hits somewhere along the way, and you can still see some glue marks.

The sound is actually pretty good for this price level, if you're using pedals on top then you have nothing to worry about.

Active/Passive switch does its job, the preamp is ok.

Bridge and tuners are actually not bad as well.

Overall not too bad, even surprising for a 180 euro bass. Got it just to get used to 6 string fretless - and that is exactly what this bass gives you.

Notice that there are no other marks besides the side dots, so be prepared to train your ear ;)

Can't beat for the price

If you can't afford a $1000+ Warwick or something, get this, it will absolutely get the job done. Beware though: neck is very flat and quite slippery.

Fast and Professional Service!

I ordered this bass on a Monday and it shipped from Germany to Dallas, Texas in 4 days! Simply amazing! The bass came in outstanding packaging.

The bass was pretty much set up out of the box. I just adjusted the saddle height and it was perfect. I cannot wait to use this live and on my next solo project. Smooth tuners and knobs. No crackles, clear punchy tones. The neck is amazingly smooth and easy to play with my long fingers. Definitely worth the money spent!

The only con is the saddle screws. They are too long and stick out considerably when lowering the action, however it doesn't affect playability at all.

Did I mention shipping? Honestly, it's top rate! It took less time to receive this package from overseas than how long it takes other top companies in the US to ship domestically! Thank you so much for your business!

I am not that experienced and this is only my second bass, so I don't have much to compare with. But I really like this bass, I like the sound, the fact that it got both active and passive mode and, I like the string spacing, which is really comfortable for me, who only played 4-stringed bass before, and of course, the price was really good too.

I was worried about B string, but it is okay actually, after I changed strings and set the bass up in sounds just like the others. I couldn't fix the little buzz on the first "fret" on B-string, but it's fine by me and also it's the only spot with buzz.

The things I didn't like are that volume knobs feels really loose, it does it job, but feels weird comparing to other. The tuning pegs feels cheap and I need to tune this bass more often, then my previous one. It also have a neckdive, yes.

But overall I really enjoy this bass, it feels pretty comfortable and sounds good.

Amazing bass for the price

I didn't expect much, when I bought this bass, I just wanted a fretless 6-string, so it was either at this price range, or something for at least 1000 euros.

The bass sounds fantastic, I haven't tried the active mode (I am categorically against that), but the sound of the passive mode is awesome.

The only quibble I can think of - it appears that the G string is actually a D string, just tuned a 4th up. It doesn't really have any effect on the functionality, but it's weird nonetheless.

Harley Benton B-650FL BK

I didn't really know what to expect so I purchased this bass with an open mind. I couldn't be happier!! The feel, sound, play-ability is absolutely amazing!!! I was surprised it comes with round wound strings but it's totally fine... Flat wounds would be too big and would have to redo the nut.

The weight is very balanced, beautiful craftsmanship... I am very very pleased with this bass and would recommend it to anyone...

Bang for your buck (or euro)

TL;DR: very usable bass with some minor issues.

I kind of missed having a fretless, even though my current band has little use for one. This one seemed to fit the bill nicely and wouldn't break the bank. After a few days my conclusions are as follows:

- Fit & Finish: I can't really fault it in any way. The paint has no flaws, the neck feels nice and smooth.

- Sound: overall very usable. The stock strings suck and were immediately replaced by proper ones. I like passive mode somewhat better than active, but the passive tone control has very little effect and is next to useless.

- Setup and hardware: The bridge feels like it's made from hard pastic but does the job. It's a candidate for upgrading though. The nut suffered a minor malfunction when I replaced the strings: the end at the B string broke off. The string stayed in place and I was able to glue it back, so no biggie for now, but definitely an upgrade candidate. The fretboard is super smooth and feels good to the touch. I could set the action fairly low without any issues. Setting intonation also was easy. Accessing the truss rods requires removal of the strings. I prefer having the truss rod access at the body end. The rods operate smoothly and effectively. The tuners also feel kind of plastic-y but work as expected.

So far I like the bass. For 160 euro you can't really expect it to be perfect in every way, and you should factor in some 30 to 40 euro for proper strings, but then for 200 euro you get a very usable package. I think I'll keep it around for a bit...

Unbelievably great value!

At £135 this bass is a steal and great value because it's as good if not better than many 'brands' at 3 times the price. Straight out of the box (but after tuning, of course), it plays and sounds like a dream. Build quality is excellent, faultless even. Great action. I'll be changing the roundwound strings for flatwounds (for the benefit of the fingerboard), but this still makes the total cost well below £200. Buy one now before the price goes up.

Amazing Bass for the price!

I am so impressed by this bass! The sound is great, the build is nice and the instrument itself is just so unique! This bass shipped to me in under a week from Germany to Oregon. While challenging to learn after never trying a fretless or a 6 string, the experimental aspect ended up being a lot of fun. I call mine Hyperbole!

good fretless bass

this is both my first fretless and 6 string and it really didn't dissapoint.

feels good, sounds great the only thing i would reccomend is putting either flatwound strings or tapewound strings on it becuase the neck wood is too soft for roundwounds

Nice

Well soung, well building quality, extremely cheap.

For this price - nice product. If u just want to check 6 string fretless bass - this for u.

NOT SO GREAT

The neck had a small defect on the 5th fret or do , there was glue at the end of the neck and eelctronics are really poor quality , instrument was out of intonation and poorly setup , pickups are so ans so , overall a cheap instrument , probably with some upgrades could have been good but why bother if overall is bad !!

Times six

A well made Bass, which has great tone. The controls are a little confusing (Bass, Treble, Pan and Volume-push/pull). The Bass and Treble knobs seem to act more as Master Tone knobs, depending whether you are using the Passive or Active mode (Bass-Active, Treble-Passive). The Walnut Fingerboard is perfectly finished and give the instrument a lovely warm tone. A very good buy.

B-650FL BK

Very happy with this Bass only adjustment was slite buzz on D string raised it and was fine everything else was perfect only one suggestion is if there was a version with the fret lines but as I said this is a fantasic Bass and feels great sounds great

A bang for the buck!

I ordered this bass without expecting much, for my bedroom practice rig, since it's really cheap, when it came (after almost 2 months) I was surprised to find a well built bass, without major flaws in manufacturing and a really decent sound after I changed my strings, except one very critical problem:

The neck is heavier than the body itself, which means the center of gravity of the bass is in its neck, since im a big guy its not an issue but for smaller people that might be a deal breaker and might render the bass unplayable.

Also, The volume knob goes from 0% to 90% with no room to play with it on both passive and active mode.

Pros :

Really cheap

Looks real nice

Sounds decent after a new set of string

Cons :

Written above.