Harley Benton RB-414CS Classic Series Reviews

Great Value & Quality

I have been playing bass for 24 years, and the appearance of the RB-414 CS caught my attention. For the price, I expected a perfectly adequate bass, with decent tone and average build quality. What I received with the RB-414 CS is a top quality instrument in every regard: playability; fit and finish; and a nice range of tones. I have already been playing it in live performance. This was also the first time that I ordered a bass (or a guitar) that came perfectly set-up right out of the box: In tune, comfortable string height, spot-on intonation, and all the fret ends rounded and smooth all the way to the highest (22nd) fret. No rattle, no buzz, just pure clean tone. I highly recommend this instrument for both beginners and gigging pro's.

Not perfect, but a worthy affordable alternative

My kid both plays bass and loves Scott Pilgrim--so a red flame Rickenbacker bass is what they wanted, but that wasn't an affordable option. This Harley Benton has a close enough look, and with a bit of set up has sounded good and held up to a young rocker's handling. A good purchase and a happy kid.

Impressed heavily

This bass is a work horse. Plays great out of the box. Though as a problem when you choose both PUs the tone knob is more of a master tone. As well as, it has some hum to it but after a copper shielding it’s perfect.

My Favorite Bass

I'll admit that what caught my eye was the beauty of this instrument.

But, as my wife reminded me, I didn't need another bass—four was more than enough. I bought it anyway, explaining to her that it had features and style that set it apart from the others, blah blah blah.

When it showed up, I was again stunned by the beauty of it. The playability was completely satisfying and, when I brought it to band practice and played it, my bandmates claimed it had the best sound of all my instruments. Some of these guys have 50+ years of band experience, so their opinions matter to me.

The Harley Benton RB-414Cs is now my "go to" bass for playing in my band. And, I have to say, I still think it's beautiful.

Harley Benton RB-414CS Classic Series

This bass was okay. The sound was so so. Doesn’t sound like a Rick. The quality was really good and it plays pretty good. If you change the pickups it might be a good bass.

Good "for the money"

Honestly, I don't know what I was expecting buying a bass at this price point but this is what I have noticed.

Pros:

-Sounds unique

-looks great

-Made of solid mahogany

Cons:

-The bridge is confusing at best

-Frets had to be leveled the day the bass arrived

-The overall feel falls short compared to other brands around the same price range.

In all, have I spent more and gotten less in a bass? Absolutely. Would I say this bass is objectively good? Maybe. Depending on what you want in an instrument, this could be a very interesting mod project but I would not buy this if you are looking for something you can pick up and play.

It will take work (and a lot of it!) to keep up with brands like Squier. What this bass does offer however is something truly unique and a true blank canvas for creating something that is truly your own. Would recommend it as a project but not as your only bass!

Fits my needs exactly

Summary: A beautiful instrument which I enjoy very much.

However, it does have its weak points. They don't matter to me, but if

any of these are significant to you, you may want to reconsider.

The bass came with perfect setup, both intonation and action. The PUs

and the electronics provide a good range of tones that are angled more

at rock rather than jazz (but you'd probably tend to go fretless for the

latter, anyway).

The tuning machines are so-so. They hold the tuning very well, but they

have a lot of "latency", meaning that you can turn them for quite a way

(roughly 1/4th of a turn) before they take effect.

The finish is near perfect over all, but is a little rough on the insides

of the cut-aways. The neck is on the thinner side (suits me well), if you

want to get a real handful, that's not it. A few of the frets have

sharpish edges, but can be easily filed down.

It is perfectly balanced on a strap; sitting down it has a small tendency

for neck-dive.

The nut is cheap, but cut well. The bridge, though, leaves me scratching

my head. Works well enough as delivered, but trying to understand how it

works makes me want to change it for something more standard, and shouldyou want to put stronger strings on (comes with .040 to .100), well...

Quite a few caveats, I know. Don't get me wrong, these are for those who

expect a cheap Rickenbacker copy, which the bass is not. I love it for its

strengths: easy to handle and very good sounds. A good bass, regardless

of price.

j

Unbelievable

Awesome bass and unbelievable price! I love mine and I just ordered a PB-50FR.

Incredible Value & Quality

I am an experienced bass player and have owned 2 classic Rickenbackers. The RB-414 has incredible value & quality for the buck !

R-b 414cs classic series

Right out the box first impressions paint looks amazing, the binding around the body is i think 4 layers done really well. Single ply binding around fret board done really well the frets don't stick past the binding no sharp edges it has a set neck which is. Super nice.the toaster pickup sounds deep and full the bridge pick up sounds awesome just a lil more treble then the eck.the switch and knobs seem solid. The only trouble i had was the trust rod needed a lil adjustment but that's to be expected i live in Detroit Michigan and it's cools over all great bass unbelievable price I'd definitely recommend it to anyone beginner or veteran you won't be disappointed

Very cool looking bass, expect to do a bit of work.

Let me start by saying that this bass is gorgeous. The finish is beautiful and the build quality is solid overall.

The frets we're a bit sharp out of the box and the bass was buzzing badly. Much like a genuine Ric, this bridge is not very good. After some fret work and a full set up, this thing growls! Definitely worth it and it does sound a bit like an old school Ric, with a Gibson flare. I love it!

Quick tip: The bridge pick up sounds a lot better once you clip the springs to about half length. This allows you to significantly raise the pu and get more output. I'm sure you could do more with the electronics in general, but this did it for me aside from some sheilding etc.

Nice bass but required some work to make it shine.

Fit and finish was very good. Had one high fret that required attention. The bridge did not allow me to lower the action sufficiently so I replaced it with a black Hipshot Ric bridge and also made a new bone nut (two mods I planned to do regardless). These mods along with a slight truss rod adjustment resulted in a bass with very low action and it plays/sounds great. Also love the recorded sound straight into my DAW using primarily the neck humbucker.

Beautiful and sounds decent

Finish is great, no flaws, neck and fretwork wonderful. really looks the part. Plays good with a setup. Not in love with the pickups but that is an easy fix. Well built machine for any money, but amazing for the price (QC as good or better than their inspiration)

The Rick Clone you was looking for

doesn't sound like a Rick but has the looks all i really wanted, its a good bass. If you wanted the look of a rick but not pay 2 grand, well here is the bass for you.

No disappointments

This was exactly what I was hoping for. Sound quality is great and the build is better than I expected for the price. But that is the idea right? The only thing I can see to do is some slight fret work to shape some edges. And the finish on the neck was grabbing my hand slightly. Overall well worth it

H.B. Bass guitar

The bass guitar is very well made, everything works as it should. But, it didn't play as it should, the neck pickup was practically inaudible, the bridge pickup, it was very noisy!! Due to the very decent price, I did not complain about the bass, I dismantled the electronics and in approx. two days I identified and repaired the fatal defects in the connection. For example: 1. on a three-pole switch instead of a live conductor, a shield was connected!

2. on the output connector of the guitar "jack" there was a shielded wire connected in place of the live connector! 3. the output wire from the sensors was casually connected between the potentiometers. 4. It was necessary to fly away these errors, replace the output wire with a new longer one to reach the switch pin-connector. 5. The bridge-bridge was screwed in place with 4 screws, only two, so I fixed this defect. Overall, the guitar is great now, but the electronics were literally sloppy. Now the guitar plays as it should be balanced and the corrections react as they should. I did not send the guitar as a complaint, because I control electronics, and I was curious where the defects were!!! So the exhaust check was obviously not done. Due to these defects, it is possible that this good and reasonably priced guitar will be unnecessarily claimed by clients for careless finishing operations.

Because I am really satisfied with the guitar and the repair was successful, I give full points despite this shortcoming!!!

Regards, Thonann.

Beautiful Bass, Terrible fretwork

My RB-414CS arrived quickly and in perfect shape to California. Workmanship and finish was excellent. It also sounded great. The string action was a bit too high so I attempted to lower it a little. No luck! Any lowering of the action caused terrible fret buzz. I investigated with my fret rocker tool and discovered high frets all over the fret board. It appeared no fret leveling had been done. At the price point it may not be reasonable to expect good fretwork.

Wow! I am just blown away

I can't believe that you can get such a solid bass with so little money! The bass just feels so nice to play. My cheap instruments twice its price will need some fixing before it can sound or play well. This played perfectly right outside of the box. Super impressed and the Bass looks pretty cool.

Great fat tone, but frets needs to be polished also saddle is kinda too high. bridge is nightmare to adjust.

ricky shortscale bass

looks superb sounds great and a brilliant alternative to standard normal scale length