Harley Benton Marquess-4 Blue Stain Reviews

Interesting Shape, Nice Top, but...

Mine arrived with the bridge pickup jammed down into the cavity. Screws are corroded and there are numerous finish flaws on the clear coat and under the clear coat. Seems like a "B-Stock." Neck is nice and tuners are usable. Battery included.

*UPDATE* Since I planned to send this thing back, I didn't look it over very carefully. Well, I did last night and it's a mess. Not only are the pickups jammed into the cavity, the mounting screws are corroded and almost impossible to remove. Poor quality screws are stripping and they were driven crooked which caused the pickups to stick to the threads, pulling them down. The springs are weak and it appears the PU wires below are hindering height adjustment.

The frets buzz like crazy and the bridge is a piece of work. I'd never seen one like that before. Apparently, to adjust intonation, the strings must be removed. After the guesswork of adjustment, the strings are reinstalled and saddles locked into place by a set screw on either side of the bridge plate which clamps them all together. Otherwise, the saddles would just fall out. Each saddle has two height adjustment screws that are diagonal to each other which would make them wobbly.

I ordered new mounting screws/springs and when I remove the strings I'll be able to see how it all works. No instructions were included. It looks nice and heavy but a stupid design and lots of flaws to fix.

One of the Coolest

Honestly, I used to draw guitars on my folders in school when I was 12 and the design was exactly like this except mine was a Dbl. Neck (Im cool like dat yo) So when I saw I had to get. When I saw under 200.usd I HAD TO get it. It is so nice even just to look at the color is amazing and the sound has the neighbor's banging on the wall and giving me dirty looks. Good Job!

Very nice

Love the shape and colour.

Easy to play.

No bad things to say about this one.

Be careful if you put it in the stand. Because of the body shape it can fall.

Excellent sound and playability at a remarkable price point

I took some time to get to know this instrument before I wrote this because my initial motivation was just to buy a halfway decent bass without spending a fortune. My expectations were therefore somewhat low. It arrived in perfect condition and my first thought was: What a gorgeous build. I have since played Marquess 4 through a bassman model, a Fender Mustang (clean), a Zoom L12 digital mixer directly to the DAW, and through a Line 6 POD Go in a variety of configurations, to both Amp and Daw and finally, even an Orange Crush Mini. To my astonishment, tone and playability are amazing. Intonation was perfect and there was just a minor slap to the E string in the upper register, something it took only seconds to fix. Whether this thing shipped from the UK or a US warehouse, that alone is a small miracle. The pickups are responsive, well balanced and without noise. I mostly use it for recording purposes and to sum it up: It plays and sounds like a bass costing 3x as much. I would buy it again in a heartbeat.