Harley Benton B-650FL BK Progressive Series 4-stars Reviews

Not for beginners

In terms of sound, construction and features it's an incredible instrument for its price. However, one feature which this bass does not have and which could be very useful for beginner fretless players is fret markers.

Quality is far exceed the price.

This bass has a really nice build quality that even better than a lot of bass in 400$ range , everything is solid , no wobbly part

Sound

An important point of improvement is the sound.

The most affordable decent 6-string fretless

It's pretty good, especially for less than $200 (plus shipping)! It's light, and the body is small. The neck feels great. Fingerboard could probably use a coating, especially if you use roundwounds. The setup out of the box is okay, just needed an intonation adjustment. The stock strings aren't so great. Pickups and electronics all work fine, but they're nothing special (I hear EMG 45s fit well, though). If you're looking to learn fretless, or looking for something you can put a bit of time and money into to have a really great bass, this is a good option.

Very much useable

I've owned a few HB basses, and this is one of the better ones. I'm not reviewing this bass as a sub 200 Euro bass, but objectively as in if it truly useable or not.

The build quality isn't bad. The bridge kind of feels like plastic or even hard rubber, but it does the job and holds the intonation. At least the saddle feels like real metal. The nut feels completely like a piece of cheap plastic, but then again, it is holding up so far.

The fretboard is way too soft to my liking. I feel like the fretboard held this bass back in sounding more professional. The pick ups...... They will be changed as soon as I decide that it is worth the money to upgrade this bass.

I play this always in passive. Active mode sounds kinda weird, and I can't put my finger on exactly why. Passive/active don't really have any differences on this bass anyway. The knobs feel great to turn, EXCEPT for the volume knob. A little whisper of wind could turn the knob.

Overall, a useable bass. If someone you don't care much for wants a 6 string fretless, this is it.

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.

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...

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

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.