After having a Harley Benton MB-4 in sunburst for a while, which has quickly become one of my favourite basses, I decided to add this 5 string to my collection. Big mistake. I'm not sure if all of these have declined in quality or just the satin black ones, but I certainly got a lemon.
The only good thing about this bass was the fretwork, which was more or less perfect.
Now the bad. First of all, the pickup that came in the bass had a dead coil which produced no sound. After contacting Thomann, they sent me a replacement pickup, which also had a dead coil, opposite of the first pickup. I'm well versed in guitar electronics, so I tested all the other components to be sure it wasn't something else, and concluded that both of these pickups were definitely faulty. Unfortunately this pickup is a very specific size and incredibly difficult to find a replacement for outside of Thomann's parts supply. I bought and tried a few different ones that looked like they might fit, but either the string spacing was off or it didn't fit in the pickguard or both.
Aside from the electronics issues, the finish on this bass was also very thin and had already starting rubbing through in a few places just from handling the bass to change out the pickup. Additionally, the bridge was installed crooked which made some adjustments difficult.
I have quite a few Harley Bentons that I'm happy, but after my experience with this one I'm not sure I want to take a risk on another one.
