Harley Benton MB-4 SB Deluxe Series Reviews

Good starter bass

I mostly play guitar, badly, and wanted a fullsize bass to play, badly. I always liked the look of this style of bass with the chunky humbucker style pickup. This one feels quite nice, and while I don't really know what I'm doing with it yet, it feels and plays nice to me so far.

Shipping from Germany to me, on the West Coast of the US did take over three weeks, so keep that in mind if you need the product quickly.

Good but some quality control issues.

Whoever is doing quality checks on these basses needs to improve ! The finish on these basses appears to be a photo laminate applied over a basswood core of indeterminate quality. This looks good but you can't compare it to something like a Sterling Sub where you are getting a solid 2 or 3 piece body. The maple neck is well made with generally good fretting with a few sharp ends.

Out of the box the truss rod had not been adjusted and the neck had too much relief. About half a turn was needed with the stock strings to get the neck playable.

The pickup was misaligned with one corner pushed right into the body. I had to remove the pick guard to rectify this which appeared to be caused by the foam supporting pads being misshaped. I added some extra foam to the front of the pickup and this enabled me to set the pickup correctly.

Lastly the nut is not well cut with some strings too low and some too high at the first fret. With the bass properly setup I have buzz at the first fret on one string that will need repairing.

After a few hours work I have the action at under 2mm and the bass plays and sounds good for the price. However, a beginner would not have been able to achieve the same result. I must admit I seriously considered returning this bass.

Postscript: I have now sold this bass and bought a used Sterling SUB in walnut satin. This has better body wood and superior active electronics which give a better sound without the unnecessary coil tap found on the HB. This is a good value bass but its not worth 2 or 3 times the price as suggested by some reviewers. The SUB is a better instrument but you also pay a price premium.

adding new bass for my collection

this is another great deal that only Harley Benton can offer. this bass looks really amazing out of the box, with everything ready to play. the bass came well packaged with no need for any adjustment.

pros - the bass has great tone, nice playability, the neck feels good (little bit chunky).

cons - the knobs are not perfect, they need to be replaced, especially the tone control, because they are not as sensitive as they should be so, its a little bit difficult to get the exact tone.

A lot for little outlay

I bought this bass after checking out PreEB, EB, Sub sting ray Basses, I was looking for a budget bass that delivers and this one certainly does, I was curious after reading the shining reviews which cover most angles and definitely swayed my decision to buy. Delivery was quick and the bass well packaged, I also bought DM blue steels to replace the factory strings which seemed ok in fairness. I stuck on the DMs tuned her up, the setup was playable but not for me.

As in another review relieved the truss 1/4 turn, filed the nut slots, lowered the action and tweeked the intonation. It felt much better to play with a reasonable action, the fret work is pretty good with no sharps, when I plugged it into my combo I found the knob configuration was not the same as a standard 3 knob stingray. There was no manual included but it did come with an emergency lead a truss key and saddle Allen key. With some trial and error I found out that apparently the first(front) knob controls the front 4 poles the middle knob controls the back 4 poles of the pup and the rear is tone.

I would suggest to upgrade the pots at some stage as they?re not great. Yes this is a passive bass that sounds as if it?s actually active, quite punchy clear tones from low to high.

All in all with a set of strings (not essential) needle files a couple of Allan keys a tuner and two hours, you can have a professional feeling/sounding stingray style instrument for under ?150 and that?s quite incredible indeed folks.

Harley Benton MB-4 SB Deluxe Series

Perfect musicman copy for modding.

it's ray, you know it is!

So this is interesting piece of gear. my third benton. since i wanted to get that ray tone in my arsenal, i pulled the trigger on this one.

first glance, everything is great, finish is good, body wood is great, sunbrust looks good with that black pickguard and maple neck. also matching headstock is just extra sauce on the steak.

upon further inspection; neck is chunky/thick but comfortable! also maple on the neck looks quartersawn (!!!!!! WOW!) and neck is stable. out the box setup was good, medium - low. so i turned the trussrod 1/4 of the turn and got really low action, amazingly low for this price point. also no fretbuzz! imagine that. so more tweaking and i've got it even lower, and tuned E string to drop D. still no unwanted stringbuzz :)

and now to sound, frist of all, strings on this bass seem like some cheapo stuff and this bass really needs some good strings (elixir nickel or something similar). sound is stingray sound but a bit more ... warmer? could be because it's passive ,and tone pot really gives you something amazing in tone posibilites. i would descirbe basic sound as thick, phat with really deep but responsive low end and punchy defined mid-range but with subdued highs.

it's worth at least 4-5 times it's price imho. also, it's really light. so another plus!!

go get it!

Intro level "Musicman" clone...

I have recently played the Sterling Sub 4 and Sterling Classic basses and wanted a "Musicman" style bass for modding. This fits perfectly into that category and i was pleasantly surprised at the quality of fit and finish. This is a passive bass, two volume, one tone ( split coil) and i get a great range of sounds. I also wanted a maple neck for the brighter sound. This emulates the Sterling Sub 4 bass in as much as it has six bolts holding the neck in place nice and firmly.. Its not a super heavy bass, weight wise and is very comfortable to play.The neck has satin finish and is a good comfortable fit in the hand with a fast action. All in all a great bass for the money. Buy one...have some fun!