Harley Benton Enhanced MP-4EB Lake Blue

[ribbetingfrog]

Just got my enhanced series bass.
First impressions are good.

made in Indonesia. I’ve had only good experiences with Indonesian basses, always seem good quality.

This thing is really well made and looks amazing.
It’s got a lot of very nice features.

Stainless steel frets are all level, the edges are not as good as my Musicman but not bad. You can feel the edges when you run your finger down the edge but it’s more than acceptable.

Zeroth fret set up perfectly and works as it should.

Tuners and high mass bridge are excellent.

The ebony fretboard and block inlays are superb.
The white binding on the neck looks great next to the ebony but the binding has several dirty marks in it.
I took a few minutes to roll the edges on the fretboard as the edge was a bit severe. Feels much better now.
The neck is really thin and has a very premium feeling oiled finish. Plays great.

The body is perfect, no flaws, even the neck heel is done absolutely perfectly.

There was an annoying fret buzz I couldn’t put my finger on which I eventually worked out...

The neck needed a shim.

 

I popped the neck off and shimmer it, plays perfectly afterwards. No buzz and lovely low action.

The neck heel is really tight, holds the neck very snugly.

Both pickups are a fraction off centre but only a tiny fraction. I’m quite picky about such things and it’s well within acceptable.
I popped the scratch plate off to have a peek inside and the electronics are very neatly done.
Only complaint is that a bit of wood in the cavity where one of the screws for the pick guard goes in had broken off.
Not a problem as it’s only a tiny bit and under the pickguard.
Little dab of glue and problem solved.

Plugged in to my studio and gigging rig it sounds excellent once you get it set right.

pull the volume pot for passive mode, it all sounds dark and a bit muddy to me, no tone controls in passive mode and I really don’t like the sound.

I do like my bass tone bright, those of us who love 5 year old strings might be happier .

no matter how I adjust the blend in passive I can’t get a sound I like, all too dark and muddy.

it sounds like a tone pot turned all the way down.

Push the pot back in for active mode and it’s a lot better.

At full volume it is far too loud and kicks in far too much distortion but ease the volume off to about half and it’s perfect.

In active mode, eq flat the tone is far less dark and muddy.

The 2 band eq makes a lot of difference, big  adjustments affect the volume and distortion a lot so a little goes a long way.

I find adding a little treble is all it needs, then all tonal adjustments I need can be done with the blend pot, which makes a wide range of tones.

All neck pickup is bassy and has a real kick to it, all neck is nasal and gets funky.

inbetween are a wonderful variety of sweet spots.

Around the mid point the blend of the two pickups sounds really sweet, and I do t stray too far.

slight tweak to the bridge to ease off the bass and add definition, tweet to the neck to add bass and thump and ease off the treble.

Really happy with the sound in active mode. 

At home I play through my line 6 firehawk or my Orange Bass Butler.
Get the right settings and it sounds really good and records well through my Focusrite Scarlett interface.

Overall, it’s a very well made, great looking and great playing bass.
Sound wise don’t want to commit till I can try it at my studio.
My home set up isn’t as good.
For the £261 price tag it’s a whole lot of bass with a whole lot of features.
Whilst it doesn’t feel premium compared to my Musicman it does feel premium compared to the PB50 and JB75 I have owned.

A serious amount of features and nothing in the price range will come near it.

maybe the Sire Marcus Miller v3 I used to have would give it a run for its money, less features but played and sounded as good.

The sire has been my go to recommendation for a budget bass but this is alongside it.
Plays, looks and feels great, stunningly well made for the price point.
Recommended.

Edited May 10, 2020 by ribbetingfrog