Harley Benton RB-414BK Classic Series

Use – mostly for personal pleasure, but will be used for an occasional gig. My usual amp is an Ampeg Portaflex 500 through 2 4x10 Kustom cabs. Also sounds good with a Behringer 300w head.
Summary – Good value for money for this style of bass. I like this, already playing it a lot. Looks the part and sounds good. It is very reminiscent of a certain US manufacturer’s classic basses, one of which I used to own.
General - I have not had happy experiences with HB basses, which unlike HB guitars have often in the past been poorly made and sound terrible. This though is somewhat different, looks great, seems well made enough, but still far short of being beyond criticism. It does have that RB like growl – the neck pickup is a thing of beauty. It also has a very nice thin neck profile with a more traditional wide fretboard – a very different playing experience compared to more modern neck profiles and widths. The polar opposite of a jazz bass.
Pros – plays very well. Intonation and neck relief were perfect out of the box, and action height suited me too, so nothing to adjust. As it has acclimatised to my house I have had to make a small adjustment to the neck. The tuners seem fine. The growl and mids from the neck pickup are IMO what I am looking for in a bass of this style. The neck and body binding are really nice to have, and on the neck helps with the slick playing experience. The bridge pickup saddle makes a perfect wrist rest for a bit of slap bass.
Cons – a few minor finishing issues, some chrome missing from one of the bridge saddles, the odd bit of not quite tidy finishing, a few sharp fret edges at the dusty end. No fret buzz, but a lot of buzzing from somewhere around the pickups from any G (+/- one or two frets) played anywhere; this is a sympathetic mechanical buzz and you can’t hear it through an amp. The bridge pickup is set far too far from the strings, and the height adjuster screws are also what hold the chrome cover on. As these are screwed with springs over them into a plastic plate underneath the pickup the whole assembly is prone to moving. I re-engineered the setup to get the pickup higher and the saddle solidly mounted, which unsurprisingly has also eliminated the buzz I mentioned earlier. I’d rather have a higher output, but that’s what the gain control on the amplifier is for. It did arrive with the bridge pickup saddle badly bent – I am not a fan of Thomann’s new paper packaging, it definitely does not work as well as the blown plastic packaging did.

I was really looking forward to getting as it looks great & sounded great from the reviews I watched, but I'm not sure if I got unlucky with mine but out of the box it had loads of scratches on the back (the one I bought wasn't a B-stock product) & the neck was severely bowed.

I tried to amend it but to get it to stop buzzing like crazy it made the action really high above the 5th fret & due to the bridge design I was unable to level out the action.

The bridge is a bit of problem area as it only allows to raise all the strings rather than the individual saddles, which makes hard to get a consistent action.

I think this would make a great mod project if you have time to put into it but unfortunately I just don't at the moment!

After playing guitar for over 20 years I decided to buy a bass guitar for something different. After reading and watching all the reviews I decieded on this model.
I have had this bass for over a year now.

The guitar arrived promptly and well packaged from Thomann and just needed a quick tune to make it playable.
It sounds pretty decent, but there is a noticeable difference in output between the pickups. Neck pickup is louder than the bridge. I've adjusted heights to no avail. There is a bit of neck dive but a decent leather strap sorts this out. The neck does feel thick and solid.

The finish is fairly good all around and the binding really sets off the guitar beautifully. Also the tuners stay in tune fairly well.
Some of the routing around the pickups is a bit rough in places.
All in all its a decent guitar that plays reasonably well after some adjustments, looks the part

Having read the numerous,varied reviews of the RB-414 I ordered one, fully expecting to have to give it a full set up to get it playable, which I was happy to do (and have the tools and experience), as I really like the look. For a instrument in the sub £200 range, you should really expect to have to tweak it a little to get it exactly to your taste.
It was delivered remarkably quickly,well packaged and in perfect condition, no sharp or unlevel frets, truss rod, intonation, action all set up beautifully. I have played this for about a week now ,to allow for climate/humidity changes, with no adjustments necessary.
My main amp is an Ampeg head and 2x10 cab and with just a variation of the gain and tone you can get a very acceptable comparison to the 'Lemmy' or 'Chis Squire' sound,or whatever sound you want. Plug it through an amp modeller and you would barely notice a difference to the real thing.
As others have said the bridge pickup is pretty good (you can get a nice growl out of it), the neck is not so good,but still ok. It has also been mentioned that on the middle pickup switch setting, if you turn either pickup volume setting all the way down it turns both off. You are, however, still able to back either pickup off in order to get the mix you want. If you want to back either pickup off completely just flick the switch! It can be rectified by rewiring...but I won't be bothering.
The only thing I probably will change is the nut, it deserves better than the plastic nut it comes with.
It appears that I struck lucky with mine as I've had no problems with it, the setup was very good straight out of the box and the overall finish is faultless...I'm really enjoying playing the 'Harleybacker' and will be happy to gig it as well.