Harley Benton RB-414CS Classic Series Reviews

I got one!

After a long wait, my HB RB-414CS finally arrived! This is a great looking bass. Very nice finish - almost flawless. I only found 1 tiny bubble in the clear-coating, on the back of the neck, near the binding. That's it. No other flaws in the finish or painted areas. The cut of wood for the body on mine has a dark streak, which affects the sunburst. It has a weird dark-to-light-to-dark streak across the top end which makes it look like it has a racing stripe. Originally, I thought I might have to take it to my luthier for a setup, but it is very playable out of the box. Maybe needs a tiny tweak with the truss rod. I need to see how it settles in its new climate. It came with low action, easy to play. No high frets, no buzzing. The gloss coating on the neck is not as sticky as others have pointed out. I may take some steel wool to it at some point, but is fine for now.

All in all. Very happy with this bass. It looks fantastic and sounds great, and very high quality for the price!

Changes: I will remove the pickup cover, which gets in the way sometimes with my style of playing. New strings of course. I have some gear tuners that I will add on at some point. and maybe some strap locks. I have a zero mod thumb rest from a rick that fits. Not perfectly flush with the pick guard, but close enough.

My assessment: If this bass is in stock, get one!

Harley Benton RB414cs electric bass

I've been playing bass since '66 and this is the first bass that I go out and play before breakfast. It looks great, plays great, sounds great. I'm concerned about the bridge with the loose string pieces. It should either be shipped with extra pieces or should have a different bridge. If a piece was lost when breaking a string, you'd be out of business.

I love this bass!

Pretty much what everyone says :)

I'm sure I'm just seconding what other people have said. It's a beautiful bass. The finish is gorgeous if you ignore some slightly sharp frets (nothing emergency room inducing). There's a sweet spot in setting the action where you can find a decent growl and a minimum of fret buzz. The middle position on the 3 way switch kills all sound if you've got either volume down to zero. We've all heard about this stuff, right? All of the issues are easy to remedy and none of them stop this from being an outstanding value. It is very playable and beautiful looking. While this won't be my number one bass, it will definitely have a spot in heavy rotation.

Great bass

For that money the best instrument!

Awesome Bass

Gave to a friend who always wanted that type of bass. Will be ordering me another once they are back in stock. Very versatile tones from the humbucker and single coil. Put flat wound strings on it and loved the sound! HB did good:-)

Super sounding bass guitar!

I was a little concerned about what I would get when buying this Bass, since the manufacturer's products are almost entirely at a low price point and "in the style of" - some other well known instrument style. I thought quality and components would suffer to meet a given price point.

I was very, very wrong. This is an excellent quality bass at an excellent price point, and it has that "signature" sound that you can hear in the "Famous Bass guitars sound comparison. Guitarbank session" YouTube video - That's where I fell in love with the signature sound that this bass has. I'm so glad I got the sound, without the multiple thousands of dollars signature-sound sized hole in my wallet to match!

I'm very very happy with my purchase, and am considering getting the black one, too, so I have an E standard, and an additional alternate tuning in the guitar stand all the time.

Great RB style bass

Good balance, nice looking finish and feel, despite being a budget guitar it sounds great and is in line with the sound of the guitar it mimics. Excellent quality for the price, and even without considering the price an all around great bass.

Some Annoyances But A Worthy Bass Otherwise

I have a love-hate relationship with this guitar.

I love the design, as it is very clearly inspired by a certain other guitar. Compared to the stylized aesthetic of its source of inspiration, the subdued headstock and more symmetric body shape give it a more grounded vibe that I prefer. The dark color of the neck and headstock provide a nice contrast to the body's bright sunburst, white pickguard, and shiny chrome bridge. Granted, my sunburst is more of an orange-golden-tobacco than the depicted orange-cherry-red but I love it all the same. As a whole, this charming instrument looks like it came straight out of the 1960's.

The bass needed a setup on arrival, but after a few adjustments, it was very playable. As its description promises, the combination of a mini-humbucker and a single-coil pickup allows it to produce a diverse range of sounds, from growly, trebly highs to warm, punchy lows. My only gripe is that the pickup cover was a nuisance that I quickly removed, but aside from that, it's wonderfully versatile.

My problem with this bass is that the manufacturer's lack of quality control gives this thing an unpolished feel. The pickguard felt a bit rough around the edges, and there were flecks of white plastic where it was cut. The black outlines that run along the binding sloppily fades as it runs along the edges of the body, and there is a natural dark mark in the wood on the front that I'm not too fond of; could they not have used a different cut of wood? There was also a rough texture in the finish on one side of the neck where it meets the body, in addition to slight traces of what looked like white glop on the edges of one or two frets. I really wish that the factory did more to address these before they were shipped out.

The bridge is another issue as well, which has a proprietary design that echoes the guitar it's inspired by, but it's done to a fault. The bridge includes two knurled head screws that serve no actual purpose, and actually gets in the way of the E and G saddles. Replacement parts are also not easy to come by, should you lose any part of those tiny two-piece saddles. For all of its faults though, it's not horrible; in fact, it feels sturdy, the saddle slots are cut to match the fretboard radius, and it does look the part. Maybe this is a good thing because since it's shaped to this bass's 34" (864 mm) scale, it's also impossible to find an aftermarket bridge that doesn't compromise the aesthetic, and even if I were to get a different shape, there's still the matter of patching up the two screw holes that hold the stock bridge in place.

Despite its cons, the pros outweigh them enough for me to recommend it. For the price, you are getting an excellent bass that plays well, sounds good, looks good, and has decent hardware. I really wish the factory had done a little more work to polish out rough spots, but aside from that, it's an excellent instrument.

Could be better

Great looking bass let down by the neck which was bowed up ! and the bridge strings do not have individual adjustment. Fixed the neck with the truss rod and have got the bridge setting right. Bought this cos it looked so good , better than a Ric 4003, so ugly ! Now I have got it right I would give it 4 stars, shame it was'nt right out of the box.

A great bass!

A great bass to go with my existing ones (Fender PB, EB3 copy, 5 string).

Easy to tune, fun to play, "original" sound.

Never mind a great bass for the price - simply a great bass!