New For Harley Benton Fans

[Stub Mandrel]

5 minutes ago, Teebs said:

You're looking a bit peaky this morning Stub.

Actually the goat vomit looks closer to mine... cured!

[Stub Mandrel]

5 minutes ago, Teebs said:

Really nice!

It's a great way to learn about getting a good finish (mine could be a bit better close up) and it gives you a genuinely nice bass at the end. I won't be getting rid of mine and I bet you keep yours too.

It would be great for them to meet up at a bass bash! They might breed and we get a litter of Harley Bentlings.

[Teebs]

2 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Actually the goat vomit looks closer to mine... cured!

I wouldn't say that it looks cured...

[Slapbass Shaun]

Here's my new MB5 just arrived.

Initial thoughts are "its a cheap bass,but definitely NOT a bad bass".

A bit heavy but not too heavy(for me anyway).

Plays straight outta the box.

Pickups are surprisingly quite loud.

Volume/Tone knobs are cheap but useable.

Little tip-Keep both volume knobs on full otherwise a bit of hissing goes on.

All wood seems ok.ish.

No sharp fret edges.

A little chunky in the middle of neck but again,still useable and needs getting used to.

Tuners ok.ish

This is my first 5tringer and the narrow(er) string spacings takes a bit of getting used to.

All things aside,its well worth £115 delivered to UK.

P.S sorry about the mess behind...lol.

 

 

 

Edited December 10, 2020 by Slapbass Shaun
missed a bit out

[Bassybert]

For £115 delivered that’s quite farcical value!!

 They really are churning out some bargains. 

[Slapbass Shaun]

54 minutes ago, Bassybert said:

For £115 delivered that’s quite farcical value!!

 They really are churning out some bargains. 

Yep.Beginners nowadays have a huge choice of cheap basses and can't really go wrong with a little research...

[Huge Hands]

1 hour ago, Slapbass Shaun said:

Here's my new MB5 just arrived...

I ordered mine last week - due on Monday apparently.

I've always wanted to have a MM in my arsenal but never wanted to pay MM prices,

I have owned various 5s of different shapes and you can get wider spacing (which I prefer) so don't give up on 5s if this doesn't do it for you.  I took a punt on this as the string spacing looked fairly wide on the pics and people were talking about it being a big neck.

I'm sure it will do for what I want.  The stealth one was out of stock which is why I went for this, and I do have an unhealthy love of sunburst anyway.   It looks even better than I thought in your pics.

[Stub Mandrel]

43 minutes ago, Huge Hands said:

I've always wanted to have a MM in my arsenal but never wanted to pay MM prices,

I'm starting to feel tempted, I think they look nicer than the real MM TBH...

[Baloney Balderdash]

I consider getting the Harley Benton B-650 Progressive Series 6 string bass in black finish.

Would be my first 6 string bass, though if I get it I will tune it in D standard tuning, as in the lowest string just being 2 half steps bellow regular E 4 string bass standard tuning.

It gotten some great reviews and I like the fact that it got a more narrow fretboard than most other 6 string basses on the market (unless you go shortscale Fender Bass VI type instruments, but that is too narrow string spacing for my taste, and I actually want to go regular 34" scale too), with a just 51mm nut width and 16mm string spacing.

Not too pretty though in my opinion, but honestly not something that really bothers me much :

 

Edited December 10, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash

[stewblack]

1 hour ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Not too pretty though in my opinion

I know what you mean. I put off buying the Progressive because it just looked a bit meh. 

But actually it's now a firm favourite. I've gigged and rehearsed with it and it's really lovely to play and looks better in real life than in the pictures 

[horrorshowbass]

12 hours ago, stewblack said:

I know what you mean. I put off buying the Progressive because it just looked a bit meh. 

But actually it's now a firm favourite. I've gigged and rehearsed with it and it's really lovely to play and looks better in real life than in the pictures 

Looks a lot better in the fleash compared to web site. Good luck trying to pop on that

 

Edited December 11, 2020 by horrorshowbass

[TheLowDown]

16 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

I consider getting the Harley Benton B-650 Progressive Series 6 string bass in black finish.

Would be my first 6 string bass, though if I get it I will tune it in D standard tuning, as in the lowest string just being 2 half steps bellow regular E 4 string bass standard tuning.

It gotten some great reviews and I like the fact that it got a more narrow fretboard than most other 6 string basses on the market (unless you go shortscale Fender Bass VI type instruments, but that is too narrow string spacing for my taste, and I actually want to go regular 34" scale too), with a just 51mm nut width and 16mm string spacing.

Not too pretty though in my opinion, but honestly not something that really bothers me much :

 

I have both the fretted and fretless. They're surprisingly lightweight for a 6 string. The active/passive push-pull button can easily be knocked so you need to watch for that, and it's very audible. In passive mode it lacks treble. No shortage of low end with this one. The stock pickups can't be raised or lowered.

Edited December 11, 2020 by TheLowDown

[horrorshowbass]

35 minutes ago, TheLowDown said:

I have both the fretted and fretless. They're surprisingly lightweight for a 6 string. The active/passive push-pull button can easily be knocked so you need to watch for that, and it's very audible. In passive mode it lacks treble. No shortage of low end with this one. The stock pickups can't be raised or lowered.

They defo looked at the Yamaha RBXJM2 when designing this one

[TheLowDown]

Yes, they definitely look alike. But to be fair, apart from outlandish designs, all basses fit into one of a handful of design templates.. The Yamaha RBX JM2 also looks like many that have gone before it.

Edited December 11, 2020 by TheLowDown

[Baloney Balderdash]

5 hours ago, TheLowDown said:

I have both the fretted and fretless. They're surprisingly lightweight for a 6 string. The active/passive push-pull button can easily be knocked so you need to watch for that, and it's very audible. In passive mode it lacks treble. No shortage of low end with this one. The stock pickups can't be raised or lowered.

Well, that certainly got me reconsidering.

Luckily my yearly revenue of streaming/playback money from my music production excels all expectations, just checked my bank account and got a minor shock of how much it was.  

Almost thought it might have been a mistake. 

Anyway that means that I can easily afford the Ibanez SR306EB, plus some other musical equipment I have been wanting for a long time, so I think I'd likely end up getting that Ibanez 6 string bass, in the weathered black finish with black hardware. 

Edited December 11, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash

[horrorshowbass]

37 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Well, that certainly got me reconsidering.

Luckily my yearly revenue of playback money from my music production excels all expectations, just checked my bank account and got a minor shock of how much it was.  

Almost thought it might have been a mistake. 

Anyway that means that I can easily afford the Ibanez SR306EB, plus some other musical equipment I have been wanting for a long time, so I think I'd likely end up getting that Ibanez 6 string bass, in the weathered black finish with black hardware. 

Baloney I'm selling mine, pm if interested. 

[kodiakblair]

6 hours ago, TheLowDown said:

The stock pickups can't be raised or lowered.

Don't they have springs or is it foam ?  If its foam, remove it and get 4 springs (maybe need cut down to size). Re-use the existing screw holes.

 

Raise or lower to your heart's  content.

[TheLowDown]

18 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Well, that certainly got me reconsidering.

Luckily my yearly revenue of streaming/playback money from my music production excels all expectations, just checked my bank account and got a minor shock of how much it was.  

Almost thought it might have been a mistake. 

Anyway that means that I can easily afford the Ibanez SR306EB, plus some other musical equipment I have been wanting for a long time, so I think I'd likely end up getting that Ibanez 6 string bass, in the weathered black finish with black hardware. 

I was just listing the negatives, and every bass has them. If they were a bass to reconsider I wouldn't have bought 3 of them.The Ibanez has plenty of downsides too as the only practical advantage of it is its preamp(there's no passive switch on the Ibanez), and you're more than doubling the cost for that. Paying more doesn't necessarily mean a better bass.

16 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

Don't they have springs or is it foam ?  If its foam, remove it and get 4 springs (maybe need cut down to size). Re-use the existing screw holes.

 

Raise or lower to your heart's  content.

I unscrewed the screws but it doesn't alter the height - it just removes the screws, so I don't think there's any foam in there. I'll have a look later.

Edited December 12, 2020 by TheLowDown

[Baloney Balderdash]

2 hours ago, TheLowDown said:

I was just listing the negatives, and every bass has them. If they were a bass to reconsider I wouldn't have bought 3 of them.The Ibanez has plenty of downsides too as the only practical advantage of it is its preamp(there's no passive switch on the Ibanez), and you're more than doubling the cost for that. Paying more doesn't necessarily mean a better bass.

I unscrewed the screws but it doesn't alter the height - it just removes the screws, so I don't think there's any foam in there. I'll have a look later.

You could claim that being able to adjust the pickups and better upper fret access would be an advantage of the Ibanez over the Harley Benton, and judging from reviews and YouTube demos it sounds better too, to me at least, many mention the Harley Benton sounding boomy and muddy, whereas there seem to be a lot of praise of the pickups in the Ibanez, finally to me  the Ibanez also looks much much better.

The only disadvantages of the Ibanez over the Harley Benton, from what I can see and to me personally, would be the fact that you can't run it in passive mode from stock, as you mention, which though would just be a matter of always making sure the battery is fresh and keep an extra one, just in case (there's easy access to the battery compartment at least), and that it has slightly wider string spacing, though to some that would actually be an advantage, well and then the price obviously.

Hard to tell for certain though, when I haven't actually personally played any of the two basses in question.

In any case I have already ordered the Ibanez, so no turning back, unless I return it again, but if it works as it is supposed to and live up to the impression I got from the reviews I've read and the YouTube demos I watched featuring it that won't happen.

Edited December 12, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash

[stewblack]

Good luck BB, hope you enjoy your bass. Ibanez seems to me a very safe choice. I'm amazed by my two. 

[TheLowDown]

1 hour ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

You could claim that being able to adjust the pickups and better upper fret access would be an advantage of the Ibanez over the Harley Benton, and judging from reviews and YouTube demos it sounds better too, to me at least, many mention the Harley Benton sounding boomy and muddy, whereas there seem to be a lot of praise of the pickups in the Ibanez, finally to me  the Ibanez also looks much much better.

The only disadvantages of the Ibanez over the Harley Benton, from what I can see and to me personally, would be the fact that you can't run it in passive mode from stock, as you mention, which though would just be a matter of always making sure the battery is fresh and keep an extra one, just in case (there's easy access to the battery compartment at least), and that it has slightly wider string spacing, though to some that would actually be an advantage, well and then the price obviously.

Hard to tell for certain though, when I haven't actually personally played any of the two basses in question.

In any case I have  already ordered the Ibanez, so no turning back, unless I return it again, but if it works as it is supposed to and live up to the impression I got from the reviews I've read and the YouTube demos I watched featuring it that won't happen.

It's only boomy in passive, as mentioned above. It's not at all boomy in active mode. The range of tones is actually very versatile, although I rarely change the settings once I've found something I'm happy with. . Good luck with the Ibanez 👍

Edited December 12, 2020 by TheLowDown

[DarkHeart]

On 09/12/2020 at 13:16, stewblack said:

I have a sunburst Jazz which is older and a real ⚓. The 2 pickup version of the musicman style bass and that's pretty heavy too.

Maybe the all black ones are from a new run using lighter materials. I don't know but I have the P Bass and MM bass in the Stealth Black and both are a beautiful weight. 

Stew, what is the neck like on the P Bass compared to the MM chunk wise?

[stewblack]

14 hours ago, DarkHeart said:

Stew, what is the neck like on the P Bass compared to the MM chunk wise?

They're not the same neck. MM has one more fret, otherwise they measure and feel identical 

[stewblack]

Pbass left MM right then MM left Pbass right. 

[mcnach]

While I wait for my MB-5... I ordered the Precision too. Well, it's only fair, my girlfriend bought the MB-5 for me and she seemed to like very much the look of the Precision, so I ordered it for her.

Note: yes, she plays bass too.