Harley Benton MB-5 SB Deluxe Series 4-stars Reviews

"Harley Benton's MB-5 SB Deluxe Series electric bass offers remarkable value for its price. With a sleek design and solid construction, it's a budget-friendly option that doesn't compromise on sound quality. The five-string configuration provides versatility, while the SB Deluxe Series boasts a rich, resonant tone. While it may lack some of the premium features found in higher-end models, it's an excellent choice for beginners or musicians on a budget seeking a reliable instrument with a punchy sound."

Much better than I expected!

This Bass is solid! - Only reason not a 5 star is because of Volume controls are jumpy- too little to too much in a slight turn. Bass sounds and plays great!

Great playability and hardware, pickup not so much

I've had one of these for a while now, gigged it a few times with no issues. I found the pickup very trebly and tinny sounding so I replaced it and removed the pickguard (Cliff Williams style), otherwise a very good quality bass for not much money..

Good value for money

Considering what you are getting for this price, I'll consider it the best bunk for your money.

Bang for your Buck

Construction, paint, finish is excellent, feels solid. B-string is good, not flabby at all.

First weak point : the tuners. 2nd : the electronics are noisy , pots are scratchy.

Not a lot of sound difference between the two coils.

Needs a setup (truss rod, intonation , string height), sadly not out-of-the-box ready to play(at least this one). Pickup will be good with new electronics, copper tape, etc.

With minimal extra $$ this will be a great instrument.

Harley Benton

The parcel arrived in 10 days. The package was not damaged.

This bass has normal sound for a small budget. I could recommend this bass for beginners, but... This instrument has a poor detuning and cannot be tuned. So it will have to be carried to the workshop. Keep this in mind when purchasing this bass

Worth the 4 month wait?

I ordered this bass in the first days of June and it was postponed 3 times, each time for anywhere from weeks to months. I finally got it at the end of September. It is Beautiful. But, it was NOT set up properly. Mis-aligned string/neck. Over 100/1000's string height at the 12th fret with a MASSIVE bow in the neck. Intonation was NOT EVEN CLOSE!!! Nut at the E string is cut wrong!! It took hours of set up to get this correct and playable. Now it plays good and sounds good. Yes,... it is worth the money, as long as you know how to set up a guitar! Otherwise it would have cost me $100 setup fee. Worth the wait I did? Ehhh. There isn't anything else out there like this, so.......!?

Hard to imagine a better deal. REALLY.

I bought this bass because I've had a MM style bass in the past and I liked it. I needed a bass for a home studio recording. This is my 3rd HB instrument, so to be honest I was rather expecting some frustrations and a bass that will be waiting as a DIY upgrade kind of thing. My main concern was fretwork, I was already planning to buy some better pickup as well. But ... let me tell you, soon as I put my hands on it I was amazed by the fact, that frets were smooth and nice! Perfect finish and nothing to complain about quality and look - wise! In this price range i have not seen ANYTHING BETTER so far. I did not have to adjust the rod, nor string height, i tuned it and the bass was ready to be plugged. The sound blew me away. It sounds MUCH better than the bass I mentioned before, that was active and almost 3x more expensive ! At some point I even thought that I will think twice before any upgrade, because I don't want to loose what I have now. Sure, low mids could be tighter and more defined, but all the rest - I couldn't actually ask for more. I will put some strings of my choice and we will see. Guys, this is an amazing bass, and HB made a huge improvement, thumbs up! I am not going to get rid of this bass any time soon. I feel like I won some kind of lottery! 4 stars only because 5 would maybe not be fair with top end instruments or instruments I never had a chance to compare this one with. MB-5 SB Deluxe is my personal 5 star bass at this point, and I had an Ibanez 605 before and believe me or not, I would not change it back.

An ok introduction to 5-strings

I bought this bass mainly for home studio use (I was done downtuning a 4-string) and am definitely not disappointed.

The MB-5 offers a decent, low barrier introduction to 5-string basses. The neck, though quite thick, fits nicely in my slightly-larger-than-average hands, and the contour on the body is placed perfectly to avoid getting in the way or excessive friction against the arm. The MM-style pickup and the separate volumes for each coil offer enough tonal variety for my uses, and the pickup itself sounds good with good strings. Tuning stability is fine. Out-of-the-box this bass does however require a setup in order to eliminate string buzz and correct intonation. That being said, for 130e + shipping this is pretty much the best bass I've played in that price range.

TL;DR:

Pros:

- Nice neck for larger hands

- Separate volume-pots for the 2 coils of the pickup

- Good, comfortable design

- Good tuning stability

Cons:

- Requires setup

- Factory strings aren't great

- Wood is what you'd expect for 130e

A bit of fret buzzing on low B string

The low b string was buzzing on most frets but a quick adjustment to the action and that was fixed up. Good sound and feel for the price.

For me it is perfect

I wanted to have a 5 string bass to record some deep parts in my hobby studio and I didn't want to bust the bank.

Pros:

- for me, it should be a one-trick-pony. I would like to have rumbling, growling deep bass for some metal and rock covers that I do for fun. This bass delivers exactly that

- the finish is nice

- frets are ok, hardware is good

- the bass plays and sounds nice overall and hardware seems to be OK for the job

Cons:

- really big, chunky neck, I will need some time to get used to it

- the nut is somewhat sharp, I accidentally hit it with my left hand and it surprised me that it hurt

- one volume knob seems to be dead, so I have to fix that

I would recommend this bass to anyone who wants a cheap 5 string bass. Quality-wise it is around the same level where my previous Squier bass was.

Great sound and great price

This bass sounds beautiful. Both lines on the pickups can be turned up and down making a large variation of tone possible. The location of the pickups give the punchy bass sound that I love.

Great for the price, but with some issues in quality

Pretty good once I received it (there was a bit of a mix-up with delivery causing a delay), but there are a couple of issues preventing me from giving full marks.

One is, the strap button on the bottom of the bass came broken/loose- it looks as if the bass had been dropped on the button at some point, and the finish is cracked and the button looks like it will come out sooner or later. So, I cannot really use a strap on it until I get that fixed, which is a disappointment.

The second issue is that the frets, especially near the body, might be sanded down a bit more- they are a bit sharp, although less so at the lower side of the neck than at the upper side.

This being said, I believe that the value of the instrument is still good for the price. Other than the issues mentioned above, the build quality is good and the bass feels pretty solid.

Sound is very good and punchy (after I switched out the strings for some Ernie Ball slinky roundwounds- the original ones were a bit coarse) and is a pretty good approximation of the stingray sound, although I have not yet hooked it up to a full amp/rig, just a small practice amp.