Harley Benton MM-85A SB Deluxe Series 5-stars Reviews

Brutal!!! Super recomendado!!

Llevo año y medio con éste bajo y recientemente lo he utilizado para tocar en algunos bares con capacidad de 200 personas aprox y el sonido que tiene es increíble, yo toco en una banda que se llama Tridente Moto Rock en Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Tocamos éste genero que es un tipo Rock & Roll a veces tirandole un poco a trash metal sin llegar tan lejos solo somos 3, bateria, guitarra y bajo. Los PROS: Las pastillas son bastante buenas y tienen bastante ganancia, capturan bien el sonido y se escucha claramente todo lo que hago al tocar. La electrónica no está nada mal, el Eq sirve bastante bien y la palanca de 5 pocisiones también te da varias posibilidades de sonidos distintos, se puede jugar mucho con eso, aunque yo lo uso en posicion media, es el sonido que mas me gusta. El slap suena brutal! Es lo que mas me encanta del baio ya que en varias canciones solo hago slap. Los acabados y la construccion del bajo es de bastante calidad, se siente como un bajo mucho más caro. Las cuerdas que trae de fabrica están geniales, no se las he tenido que cambiar desde que llegó y siguen sonando increible. CONTRAS: Tiene mucho Neck Dive, es un bajo que no esta balanceado por lo que el brazo se va mucho hacia abajo, lo solucioné recorriendo aprox 18cm hacia arriba el boton de correa donde se pone el tahali y me compré un tahali que fuera de cuero o piel rasposo por la parye interna para que se atore con mi player y ya no se deslice hacia abajo, solo asi logre quitar el neck dive ya que era mucho. El jack de entrada es de baja calidad, tuve que cambiarselo por un neutrik con seguro y quedo perfecto. Este bajo es muy dificil de tocar slap si estas acostumbrado a slapear en la parte donde empieza el brazo ya que la pastilla esta bien pegada al cuello y no deja espacio para jalar la cuerda. Lo que hice fue comenzar a hacer los golpes del pulgar sobre la pastilla del cuello y jalar en el hueco entre las 2 pastillas, y aunque no es tan como al principio pues ya me acostumbré, pero si lo tuyo es hacer muchas tecnicas de slap te recomiendo mas el de una sola pastilla que si te deje espacio para todo porque hay varias tecnicas que se dificultan con este. Y por último pues aunque yo la verdad no uso mucho los trastes arriba del 18, el acceso a los trastes 21 al 24 es horrible, muy dificil, habria que rebanar la madera de ahi para dejar acceso a meter la mano, aunque a mi no me afecta mucho porque no uso esos trastes, pero es algo a considerar. En conclusión. Para mí es un bajo increíble, que me resulta impresionante por lo barato que es y a veces me causa conflicto que una marca tan barata suene tan bien pero es por ahora mi bajo principal y lo seguirá siendo mientras no encuentre algo mejor. Sigueme en redes como Rob Galgar y Tridente Motor Rock

The GOAT of Alternate Stingray’s

Hands down, the best Stingray clone I have ever played. This is my go to bass for every gig. Headstock is a bit heavy but a quality strap fixes that issue. Great tones and growl out of this beast. Thank You HB

Harley Benton MM-85A SB Deluxe Series

Hello everyone) This is a new experience for me, to take a 5 string bass in my hands and.. what can I tell you, I am very pleased. The instrument fits well in the hands, is pleasant to the touch, and produces a beautiful, voluminous, clear sound. If you are still thinking, I can tell you, take it, you won’t regret it)

Very nice neck, pretty good fretwork. Pickups are nice. The bridge and tuners are pretty cheap, but doing its job well. Finish is good.

Cons: I had to repair electronics just after getting the parcell. It simply didn't worked. Gladly I was able to fix it. It was just a bad conact on the volume pot.

Three stars for the quality because I think these beautiful instruments deserve to be assembled more accurate. Seems like the pickguard was installed in a big hurry. I redrilled holes to place it symmetricaly.

Not a big deal so I decided to keep it. And overall it is nice and a pleasure to play for me.

Amazing

After an initial setup, this is a beautiful bass. Its sounds great, the active pickups help to sculpt the perfect sound, and it plays really well.

It is my first 5 (had many 4s) string bass, and to be fair, I probably wont need another.

After some initial issues

This bass is awesome I will pick before some extremely more expensive basses I love it so far with new strings and a minor setup everyone loves the sound. I get so many compliments

Amazing Bass

I use it as my main bass guitar, for band sessions, live performances, and recording. It is an all-around fantastic bass. It competes with bases in the thousands of euros category, price-wise.

The sound: there is no sound/genre this bass cannot brilliantly handle. From jazz to heavy metal it takes them all. I've had sound guys compliment the sound during soundcheck. When they asked about its prize, they were all surprised!

The looks: It looks fantastic! It is even more beautiful up close—nice maple neck with a great-looking sunburst body.

Build quality: this thing feels like it's built to last. It is a bit heavy (that's the only con about it), but nothing restricting. The tuners are fine and they are not loose at all. Pickups are well-built and versatile. Not to mention they can be loud as hell!

Overall, a great instrument for the money, that would fit your needs.

Harley Benton did it again.

I needed a bass like this for my studio, and being a 42 years of guitar player, I'm not a big fan of active pickups.

But knowing how the key of D on a guitar tends to like being weighed down by a low D, I went for this very low budget 5-string with active pickups.

My only concern was that some of the reviews here - and a video too - told stories of a terrible hum when the switch engaged single coils in position 2 and 4.

But when trying that out, I must concur that the hum hardly noticeable, like it is on my shielded, single coils guitars.

Now: after some initial setup - relief of the neck truss rod and some saddle height adjustment, lowering the height of a pickup and raising one to find the sweet spot (and I always do that with new guitars to get them where I want) - I started playing it, and I love it. I feel so good for buying this.

And it looks great, nice fretwork except for the need to be polished to really shine, but tbh unpolished frets aren't a big problem for a bass string, is it.

I played that thing for over an hour, just reveling in the playability and tones I was able to get from it. It's like a Swiss knife of diverse bass tones just via the 5-way switch, and the tone controls enable you to hone the tone right into the pocket you want it to go to.

I couldn't be more pleased, and that's not often the case with guitars I buy not having tested them beforehand, especially when they are cheap like this. If you're reading this wondering whether or not you should buy one, I hope this honest review will be helpful.

Great MM looks and build quality, just not quite the sound I wanted

There is NOTHING wrong with this bass, other than I didn't care for the sound, but that is completely subjective. It was very well made. I also found the neck a bit of a struggle for my shorter than normal fingers, again, not the fault of the bass.

Amazing Instrument for the price! With some flaws...

I've been playing electric guitar for about 12 years and owned a few bass guitars throughout that time which never stayed in my possession, however this one takes the cake!

All in, this is the best bass guitar I've ever owned, I wanted something versatile that I can use for any of my recording purposes, and this fits the bill exactly. 5-way pickup selection options gives me exactly the sounds I need and I love the half-way stop on the control knobs. The overall quality far exceeds this price point and I am highly tempted to purchase more from this brand in future!

Other than a few minor finishing flaws, such as a few screw holes and the control cavity being a little messy, the quality and condition is otherwise perfect and playable out of the box!

I couldn't be happier with this bass

As a teenager in the 90s I dreamed of having a Stingray, but the cheapest models cost 10 times what this does. I stumbled across it while looking for active electronis to add to my old bass. I had about £250 worth of parts in a basket and then found this, watched some reviews and bought it 30 minutes later. When it arrived, I found two problems and I don't blame either of them on the bass.

1. With the volume at full on the bass, my Marshall MB-30 practice amp can't handle it and starts distorting (in a bad way). Running it through my Behringer-definitely-not-a-SansAmp, there's no problem and the DI out sounds amazing. Solution; get a better amp because I refuse to turn the volume down.

2. I bought the Harley Denton flight case to go with this, but it doesn't fit! It was my fault, I got excited about the bass and didn't check the measurements. This thing is BIG - I've had trouble finding a good case that will fit a 122cm/48" instrument. I've now got one bass that fits two cases and one bass that fits neither. Solution; get another bass that fits this awesome case.

If you're a professional musician, this won't replace a real Stingray. For the rest of us, it's an absolute bargain.

My first 5 string, doubt I'll need another

The delivery was quick and the bass is 10/10! needed a little setup, (lower action + pickups) but that was easily done with the tools provided and a philips head screwdriver! The neck feels just like a quartersawn satin vibe, the bass stays in tune well, the hardware does the job, no sharp frets or even the slightest sign of damage/poor craftsmanship. The biggest for me is the 9v connector being SUCH an improvement over the exposed red and black wires with the 'hat' the battery has to wear, just slide it down until it touches the springs! Sunburst flame/dark maroon red on the back is stunning and with a little compression and footswitchable EQ, switching between the pickups is a breeze (the single coil modes are quiet compared to the humbuckers so the compression will level that out, the EQ just to beef the bottom end up on the single coils so it's consistent across switching) but overall this bass is incredible! Highly recommend!

didn't expect it would be so great

This is my second bass guitar. The first one was Fender Jazz bass. But nowadays you need 5 string bass and I have chosen this one after watching some reviews on Youtube.

First of all, it came perfectly packed. I'll start with the sound because it's the main thing. And the sound is just awesome! I've seen Musicman Stingray 5 and it's likely equal to me. But the price is 10 times lower))

The finish is great! It's active and I use it for about 7 months now, but the battery still alive!

I really love the amp inside which makes all those different tones to sound. My word is buy this one for sure!

Harley Benton MM-85A SB Deluxe Series

i have had this bass 4 years now and it is still a pleasure to play, ,no problems at all

Great Bass!

I bought this bass because of the reviews I read and watched online. This bass definitely does not disappoint.

The variety of sounds available from the 5-way switch is more than I expected. They are all well designed to give the different sounds necessary for different genres of music.

The bass is well made. Frets were level and well polished. The setup out-of-the-box was excellent. The neck did not need to be adjusted. While the action was good for average playing, it was an easy process to lower the strings to fit my playing style.

The fit and finish were excellent. It surprised me that the back of the bass was finished as nicely as if it would be seen by the audience!

I'm glad I bought this bass. It will be a valued member of my performing arsenal!

Nearly perfect!

I decided to buy a bass to add it to my home recordings. Tired of synth basses. I am mainly a guitar player and the bass is what I need to fill my tracks' bottom.

So I decided to try out Harley Benton bass. Few hours of looking reviews, comparing different basses, 4 vs 5 strings, pickup combinations, etc... finally came up with this one. Two humbuckers with splitting option, onboard preamp and EQ, 5 strings, 24 frets — what else can I wish?

Yes, a playability, and that's what I got! I tried few other 5 string basses of my friends and they weren't as good in playability as this one! The neck is truly awesome! Fret job is just nice. You know, it could be better, but this is a bass guitar — no need to bend strings. ;)

Tuning stability is great, even after few days of not touching the guitar and then playing for an hour or two — it stays in tune, proved by tuner.

So, PROS:

• Playability is fantastic, super comfortably to play. Feels better in hands than basses 3-5 times more expensive.

• Features are great! 5-way switch with really different sounds in it! 4/5 positions of the switch is what I use all the time!

• Stays in tune. Really. Tuners are good, no trouble while tuning it.

• Active EQ onboard. Very helpful!

• Fret job is fine.

• Electronics made really good. I opened the guitar from the back and inside is a really good electronics, no flaws at all, soldering is really good.

• Good setup out of the box. Truss rod adjustment wasn't needed, I only did a little bit of intonation and string height adjustments.

• There was also cable included, but I do not really use it. Looks like the cheapest possible, but it is in — so counts as a con. ;)

• Six months of joy. Great! My tracks now have natural bass line!

Okay, let's dive into bad things. CONS:

• Pre amp catches radio sometimes. Especially when played with gain on. But not so loud as many others say. Gonna add a bypass switch for the preamp to get a cleaner sound when I want it.

• Cheap looking pickguard. But you can't tell it's cheap from two meters away.

• The cap of the 5-way switch was loosy and fell away when I got the guitar. A drop of glue — and it's in place again.

• Pots are not good leveled. If you look closer, they are at an some angle to the control plate. Not an issue at all, not everyone will even notice it.

• 5-th string is a bit loosy, but that's common for 5 string basses. Gonna change it to heavier gauge, I think.

• The sound is not as bright as I think it should. Maybe stock strings are bad, maybe I should try different pups. Am I the only person who plays stock string for a half year? =)

If you want to see the review video and hear LOTS of sound samples, search for this on youtube or google: oU0H6KrmBlA

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So, would I buy this guitar again if I was a time traveller? Surely yes! It's great and really, REALLY pleasant to play!

Great deal

Love this bass, great price and outstanding quality for the money, versatile, plays well, after a setup it seems to have a more expensive instrument in your hand, amazing flamed maple top and 24 frets to play. Only downside it's hard to find the right spec data.

Amazing instrument

Amazing quality for the money!!!

Ready to go!

The bass came fully set up out of the box. I just had to tweak the intonation slightly. But, neck relief and string action was bang on.

I only gave 4/5 on sound as there is very slight buzzing but some DIY shielding should cure that.

The build quality is excellent but there is a lot of head dive because of the lightweight basswood body.

Overall, its a excellent guitar and worth every penny.

Can't complain for this kind of money.

Nice looking and pretty good craftsmanship for such a inexpensive bass. The only problem i had is that it came with a crooked bridge saddle, but managed to fix it. Everything else works nice after a proper setup.