Harley Benton MB-4 SBK Deluxe Series

Totally worth it!

Right out of the box, the action was sky-high. Easily remedied (with the tools provided) and once the action was where I like it, it really needed nothing else - the playability and sound of this instrument are absolutely phenomenal for the price you pay! Easily stands up to instruments way above this in price! Guess if I had to be REALLY picky, the finish isn't perfect in places (like a little grit got in under the finish) but that's to be expected at this price point and it doesn't affect playability at all.

Surprisingly good!

I've played bass for 36 years and have owned some real nice basses over the years - mainly Rickenbackers. I've always liked the look of the Stingray basses and noticed the Harley Benton MB4. To be honest, for the price, I wasn't expecting much, but having received it today I can honestly say that I'm blown away! The quality seems great! No blemishes out of the box - it's perfect. I immediately put some black round-wound strings on it (I like black strings) and tuned it up, plugged it in and gave it a blast... It's got a lovely 'growl' to it and it feels great to play. The only negative I can find is that the action is a little too high for my liking, but that's an easy fix. If I had paid twice or three times the money for this then I would still be impressed!!

Impressive for sure

wow, it just arrived and straight out of the box it was ready. I tuned it, and the tuners felt great. they turned smoothly and easily. After tuning, I plugged in and was blown away by the strong, solid sound. each coil sounds great by itself and has a nice range of tonal abilities. highly recommend to anyone wanting a great sounding bass at a great price. Okay, I've taken her for a test ride and wow. The fret edges were super smooth, couldn't feel them at all, smooth neck and neck action for fast playing. also it's a beautiful bass

Solid bass guitar

Solid bass guitar, with punchy pickups. Needed a little adjusting and setting up out of the box

Nicely done for affordable

Really nice finish & plays great for affordable. But with Fuzz or Distortion maybe annoying while recording abit, I can even speak through there like a megaphone. But pretty nice for clean! Thanks to HB for made this dream bass shape of mine!

I feel like I committed a crime buying this bass for this price.

Just buy it. I bought it and loved it. The edge of the neck is a little sharp for my hands but otherwise an absolute steal. I swapped out pickup after a while, not because it was bad but just to see how close this bass could get to a real Stingray. Got a pre-EB preamp circuit and this easily stands up beside my €3000+ Modulus Fleabass with Lane Poor Pups

Nice little gem

I have a Stingray 2003 model my daughter was using it all the time, so i bought this harley benton for her so she could have a bass of her own. Now i sometimes borrow her bass because it is just a fun instrument. Of course is the Stingray better instrument but you also pay a heavy price for it. Harley benton is making the big brands look embarrasing because they are so many times overpricing instruments.

This is a good bass and i recomend it no question.

Epic bass!

The HB was really well put together. It was playable straight out of the box. Almost every bass I’ve ever bought needed a few tweaks to make it right, and the HB was no exception. The main tweak was the action (string height) at the nut…each string slot needed a little file to lower the string (being careful to not go too low!). It took about 10 minutes and made a huge difference. I took it on a session together with my Status Retro Jazz…an unfair comparison as the Status cost 35 times the HB. The HB was more than adequate; it had the honky sound of a Stingray, it sat well, with no neck dive, smooth frets, a slightly fatter neck profile than the Jazz…a joy to play. A P bass sounds like a P bass, a J bass sounds like a J bass, and the HB sounds like a Stingray. It’s a great looking bass, nice and light. Un-be-f8cking-lievable at this price. Couple of negatives: the pole pieces in the pickup protrude a little more than I’d like, and the tuners feel cheap (but the bass stayed in tune all day). I’ve played £500 basses that are not as good as this. At £119 (UK price Sept 2023) I might just get a few more to match my clothes.

If you want to slap get this

This thing has the punchiest sound I came across trying out lower-end basses, exactly what I was looking for

Great bass, but needs some changes

It's a great price and sounds fantastic, but if you turn down one of the volume controls to play a single coil pickup, there's barely any difference between one coil and the other.

I understand that re-using the same 4-hole control plate from the other models helps keep down manufacturing costs, but replacing one of the volume controls with a series/parallel/single-coil switch provides far more tone options.

Fortunately, that's an easy mod to do yourself.