Harley Benton B-550 White Progressive Series

Can you gig this bass? I am
clip above is the DI track from the digital desk at the venue, I've even left my playing mistakes and lax timing in. I was playing in passive mode with the blend centred, bass boosted and a slight cut on treble. That's right you can still boost the bass and cut the treble in passive mode. This is a fairly unique feature I feel.

I'm happy with the 5th (B) string in particular, listen to the clip, those low Cs and Ds really thunder, especially in the flesh through a decent amp. The B doesn't feel floppy.

As expected with dual buckers it's silent when you are not playing, no humming. I was pleasently suprised to see that the bass is also shielded at the factory too. Likewise everything has been grounded correctly too, I can touch the pickups and all other screw heads and fittings with no buzzing.

The tuning pegs keep the guitar in tune. I transport this bass in a soft gig bag and it's virtually always still in tune when I get it back out of the case.

I set this bass up to my liking with plenty of play left in the adjustments. I use plectrums as I don't have feeler gauges. I set the truss rod so I can just about get a 0.5mm under the 7th fret when the first fret is capoed and I fret the last fret (this is neck relief for those new to guitar setups). I set the action at the 12th fret to about 1.4mm (G string) to 2.1mm (B string). No annoying buzzes if I play lightly, I can get that fret buzz when digging in for rock and when slapping though. Access right up to the last fret isn't an issue. No neck dive to speak of really.

Cons: price considered there arn't really any to write home about. The neck pocket could be a little tighter, this is a visual thing though and I suspect it doesn't effect the tone much if at all. The blend knob isn't the nice 3 way smooth blend you might expect, it very much acts as a 3 way switch, don't expect to experiment with 25% neck PU and 75% bridge. It's either 100% neck, 50:50 or 100% bridge. This isn't a bad thing though. The 3 sounds are great especially when used with bass and treble EQ controls.

This has become my main player. It's light, easy to play and versatile. I also don't worry about leaving it in my car or unsupervised at the venue. All I needed to do was swap the strings (I use Dunlop Birght Nickels 45-125). You might get the odd person sneer because it's a no-name brand. Just wow them with your playing and groove and they'll come around.

I bought this bass as I am building my own small studio at home, and I obviously want to be able to record whatever without depending on nothing or anybody whenever I want to.
The bass came perfectly packed, ordered on Thursday/Friday (can't remember exactly) and was at my place by Monday, amazing as always.

In general the quality of the build was almost perfect, only 2 small imperfections:
1. The jack plate wasn't perfectly centered on the side of the body, risulting in the plate itself popping out of a mm or 2 from the top of the body.
2. The fretboard was rather dry, and you could clearly feel it by touch and just by looking at it.
It has to be said that these are details that do not compromise the sound of the instrument in any way whatsoever, therefore I didn't and still don't care.
Especially considered the fact that everything else, such as the finish of the body, frets and related edges, neck finish, pickup alignment, headstock design, all absolutely perfect, completely spot on.

Furthermore the instrument feels extremely balanced and comfortable, not too heavy at all, and very very nice to play with a great sustain I must say.

Once hooked up to an amp, the sound is very pleasant, full and rich in dynamics. The different controls give a great aid in shaping the sound according to one's liking, and allow the instrument to be played in several genres of music, from metal to blues, rock, pop, maybe even jazz.

I must say I am totally blown away by this instrument, considering what I have paid for it, and considering that for any other brand, to get something that sounds like this, I would have had to spend at least 3 times the price.

Definitely recommended to anyone who needs a great bass and is on a budget, or to any player looking to approach a 5 string for the first time.

I?ve been a bass player for many years but have always stuck to ?name? brands (Precision, Gibson Thunderbird, Rickenbacker etc).

Having never played 5-string I didn?t want to spend loads of money on something I may not take to, so thought this bass was cheap enough to try.

I am not going to go into great detail about this bass as most of the relevant points have been made by Howard who reviewed the black version, but some points are worth expanding on.

Firstly, on initial connection, the sound was very distorted and scratchy until I found that all the controls were loose. The strings are not very good, but this is easily remedied. The biggest flaw is the battery ? as has been said elsewhere, the battery is always live even with the jack cable removed. This is because the active circuitry needs to be earthed. However, the solution is easier than fitting a toggle switch. On removing the back plate, I found that the negative side of the battery was connected to the jack socket as normal. I also found that the earth lead (yellow in my case) from the active circuitry was also connected to the socket. A little solder work to remove the yellow cable from the socket and connect it to the earth side of the volume pot fixed the problem in 2 minutes.

On the plus side the bass is a comfortable weight and well distributed (although I?m not particularly keen on the quirky chamfered body shape). I also like the idea of the push/pull volume pot to switch between active and passive ? although, if there was some LED indication of battery state you would never need to go passive!

All in all, this is a very usable bass after some modifications and I consider it to be reasonable value for money.