Harley Benton B-450 Black Progressive Serie

I got this one because I was curious more so than anything else.

The good: finish is excellent, and it's a very nice looking bass guitar. It's lightweight and very well balanced. Passive mode is great, and you can adjust bass and treble in passive as well as active. Came setup perfectly out of the box, all it needed was to be tuned.

The not so good: Active mode doesn't do much extra. Tone is so-so (but still above what you'd expect at this price range), but you can get a decent variety of sounds with the controls. I'd replace the pickups and preamp personally, but you can get by just fine with what's onboard. Fit and finish aren't fantastic...at first I thougth the neck was out of alignment with the body, but it turns out it was just a fit and finish thing. Tuners are so-so.

Definitely worthwhile as a first bass, backup bass, or an upgrade platform. I wouldn't rank it up there with the JB series, PJ series, or TB series but you still get excellen bang for the buck here.

In this price range it's a good solution, if you like to have a good starter bass. The instrument is really well finished, it looks good. I think by the time you should change the strings for the better sound quality. But the factory strings have good sound either. It is enough for a starter bass player. The pick-ups have good tone quality in this price. You can change the tone by the pots. But a good quality bass combo is required of course! The tuning screws are OK too. After a little string adjusment the fingerboard will be comfortable and it's thin enough for the easy playing. I think it is a good bass in this price for a starter player. The frets are OK too, the guitar has clean sound.