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

Great for the price

I bought this as my first 5 string bass primarily to write and record demos with. For this function, and for beginners learning on a 5 string, this bass is perfect.

I am a fan of how this bass both looks and feels. It is very nice to play and the matte paint is very good looking.

There isn't a huge amount of tonal variation with the humbucker pickup, you can split the coil which does change the sound to be slightly clearer however with an instrument in this price range there is only so much that can be done.

My only issue with this bass is that on mine the pickup makes the low E and B string far louder than the others. I assume this is just an unfortunate outlier on my bass because I haven't heard anyone else mention it in reviews but it can be somewhat frustrating.

Overall, this is a good product and is very useful for beginners or someone who just needs something to write with

5 string on a budget

So it arrives on time and neatly packaged, open the box and check it out. Looks good, finish is excellent, let's give it a twang, lots of buzzing on the lower frets, whip out the supplied allen key and give the neck a little adjust, lovely, sounds good, feels good . Changed the strings to some flatwounds and nice deep sounds emerge.

Hard to find fault with the bass at this price. A good fun 5 string bass that does the job nicely

Still cant belive how good it is

This my 2nd MB-5 still cant belive H.B can offer this bass at this price this thing is nice only con for me is out is a little low but ot sounds amazing

Excellent starter 5 string

This is my first foray into 5 string bass guitars I normally play 4. The pick up is plenty Loud and the finish is excellent for the price. Delivery was prompt and hassle free

105 Dollars? Can't be beat!

I think this rivals what people pay 300 to 400 dollars. At 105 dollars, I will take that all day!! Only problem I have with this is it arrived with a neck backbow. Once I found the correct allen wrench, (not included) it was and 2 minute fix for a person, like me, with the know how. If not for the backbow and allen wrench not included issue, I would have given it 5 stars all the way!

Good Bass for the Price

I didn't expect much when I got this, but for a cheap 5 string just to hit them low ends I'd probably recommend it if you’re on a budget. It doesn't feel as jagged and sharp as other cheaper models on the frets. Like I said, if you’re on a budget or just starting out it’s a good 5 string - but if you’re wanting to do something more serious save up your money and get something higher quality.

Great looking 5 string bass

*Short Review*

Take the bass out of the box, change the strings, adjust the string height and enjoy your new bass.

*Long Review*

I was really disappointed with the bass the first day it arrived. The bass had horrible fret buzz on the D string. The B and E strings were dead and all strings extremely rough to the touch and would chew through my fingers within 10 minutes of playing. I've been playing bass for 21 years and have never had strings that bad. The pick ups didn't really produce much sound at all. I usually keep my amp on 2-4, but I had to turn it up to 5-7 to get the same volume, when compared to my Fender P-Bass. My amp is an Ampeg BA-210.

All is not bad. I put a new set of Fender strings and adjusted the string height and the bass really came to life. It was like a different bass. No more fret buzz, I had to turn my amp down to the normal 2-4 volume and the bass sounds amazing.

Overall, I'm very happy I got the bass. I'd say it is a much better bass than the price suggest. For under $140 USD, you could really do a lot worse.

Not a bad 5 string

We have been pretty lucky with HB guitars to date so was about due one which took a little work to get set up, which is the luck of the draw with any mass produced instrument.

Mainly the frets needed levelling and dressing on top of the usual expected adjustments.

That done, the bass plays well and has a good tone and weighing in at just under 10lbs, feels like a proper bass.

Pros: looks good, sounds good, feels like a decent heavy beast

Cons: needed work to set up properly, was pretty much unplayable out of the box. The string spacing at the bridge didn't match the neck edges until I slipped 1mm shims in between the saddles. The factory strings, as others have said, have some strange tonal properties!

Conclusion: with a little setting up this is a perfectly workable 5 string with clever yet simple controls. Not bad at all.

Don't believe the hype.

Use:

I primarily bought this bass to play wedding gigs since there are a couple of sets were I needed a five string and I don't really like playing 5 strings so I didn't want to spend much money.

Clarity:

The instrument really does look and feel more expensive than it is until you plug it in. The fretwork was really good, all the frets were as level as you'd expect for this bass and suprisingly no frets are sticking out which is a pleasant suprise for this price. The action was very high in my opinion but I have since found out some people like it like that. The intonation was dreadfull though. With factory strings it was almost impossible to set up the intonation properly so I bought a pack of DR PureBlues. But all of this is ok for the price. But the pickup is just horrid. The high are so prounounced and loud aswell as the hi-mids while there is no definition in the bass and low-mids frequency range. Once I plugged it in my MarkBass Little Marcus 500 and heard it I thought I got a defective bass and then I saw that people had the same problems online. I fixed this with a 13 dollar AliExpress pickup and it really is a dealbreaker for this bass. IMHO you can not use this bass in any sort of professional situation if you don't change the pickup.

Pros&Cons:

Pros - Good looking, pretty affordable and very playable after a decent setup and a new pack of strings

Cons - The pickup(whose production should be illegal), really cheap and low quality plastic nut and really bad strings

Conclusion:

If you want something to hold on to and use for a lot of years to come avoid this bass, buy the J or P style HB. If you know how to work on basses and install pickups, electronics etc. for not much more money you can build an excellent bass. The AliExpress pickup, and DR strings made the bass come to life and it sounds awesome now.

Great entry level 5 string

I waited a long time for this bass. I can see why now. These basses [at that price] are absolutely fantastic and they seem to be selling out fast.

Finish in matte black is flawless and even better in the flesh.

Of course they are not medium or high end basses and there are flaws but the build quality, attention to detail and overall sound are much higher than one would expect.

I have a Sterling Stingray 5 and in comparison this is very close. I prefer the neck on the Harley Benton, fast and very playable over the Sterling.

There is huge output from the pickup and although passive it is very punchy. Maybe I got lucky?

On overall volume it is as loud as my active Sterling. The bass has with no noticeable electrical buzz and is well earthed.

As other reviews have said the front and back poles of the humbucker running into the two separate volume controls are strange and take some getting used to. The tone pot adds quite a lot of boost, although I had to eq my amp a little as the guitar is quite "bright" even with the tone fully rolled off.

Negatives are few and can be resolved: bridge is ok but I will replace and the tuners are very poor. I will replace these first.

I also wish they had gone the whole hog and put on a matte black pickguard. Tort shell is fine for now, not great but I will see about a replacement to black.

Overall I am delighted with the bass now that it has eventually arrived.

Its a pity it took so long from ordering to delivery [7 months] with a large number of "expected" due dates that came and went until the new stock eventually arrived.

Amazing

You can't go wrong with this bass.

It needed shielding in the electronic cavity and a setup to lower the strings but other than that this is a perfectly fine bass.