Harley Benton MB-4 SBK Deluxe Series Reviews

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.

Cool bass, but with quality issues

I've had several HB basses over the years, and my current go-to is a modded PB-20 SBK. So, I wanted to try the MB-4.

What I liked:

- The tone

- The neck (very enjoyable profile)

- The look

What I didn't like:

- Two pots were very gritty, one very difficult to turn

- There were paint blemishes on the fretboard and a small one on the neck

- The pickup screws are at weird angles making it extremely difficult to adjust pickup height (a common issue with HBs in my experience)

If it was any one of these points alone I would have kept it. But all three was just too much for a "deluxe" bass. Seems QC is worse then on my "standard" PB-20 (and the MB costs around 40% more). I was a bit sorry as the tone and playability are pretty good.

Excellent bass for the price

Upon arrival the bass was in near-perfect playing condition. I had to make a small adjustment to the truss rod but it that was an easy fix. Plays great, sounds great, and you really can't beat that price. If you're looking for a music man style bas but don't want to spend a ton on it, get one of these basses!

Fantastic

Best value bass I've ever owned or played. light, punchy and with amazing action.

All around no problems with this bass at all.

Surprisingly good for the price!

Picked up this little chap as a substitution while I don’t have an access to my beloved Laklands. Moreover, I always wanted to try out Musicman-style bass.

I was really surprised by the sound, it’s really good — please check a lot (I mean, QUITE a lot) reviews on YouTube.

Overall craftsmanship is also good; frets could be done better, but come on, for a hundred euro I’ll agree to do it myself.

Also, set up (including the truss rod) was good out of the box, I only had to adjust the scale for D string, that’s it. But I would recommend to buy some multi-tool as well.

Absolute Bargain

Brilliant instrument, and exceptionally good value. Solid construction and well made, and a great choice either as a stock guitar or as a modding platform for later upgrades. It will need a proper setup in time, but it is unbelievably good for the price and you would pay a considerable amount for a comparable instrument from a retail store.

Big, thick, aggressive tone. Absolutely over-the-moon with the purchase.

Beautiful finish, a small set up required but play lovely out the box.

Excellent Bass for the money

Nicely set up out of the box , very good quality overall , lovely satin finish smooth fret edges … plays and sounds fantastic …

In your face Bass

Let's start with the cosmetics... It arrived looking absolutely perfect, just a beautiful and sleek instrument. The fret job is perfect, all frets had a mirror shine. The action needed lowered just a tad, it was around 2.4mm and I like mine around 2mm, a small amount but us musicians are a picky bunch.

The sound of this bass is beautiful, so full and round without being muddy, it doesn't have a huge range in tone but what it does do, it does exceptionally well. It's worth a lot more than it's asking price in my opinion... Buy it NOW!

5 Stars

For the money its a no brainer.

For this price is great

Couple of marks on the finishing and not the most comfortable neck I ever played in my life but at this price is a great piece of gear!