Harley Benton B-450 White Progressive Serie

To start my name is Rob aka RT Slinger a bass player of over 50 years.
I was watching a video and someone was reviewing this Harley Benton B-450 Progressive 4 string.
Now I have many brands of bass guitar in my collection of 17, but this one had some about the tone that really grabbed me.
So I contacted Thomann through this website and purchase the bass. Shipping to the US went smoothly no delays and the bass was in great shape when it arrived. I didn't need to do any set up it was great and no dead spots on the neck.
That tone I heard on the video was right there in my hands. I gig with the bass that same weekend and my band mates told me "just leave your other basses home", because of how well in set in the mix. The pros are many but the best is having a active bass that when the battery dies you can still use it in passive mode. Cons I truly haven't found anything that is wrong with this bass and I have held many, many bass in my 50 years of playing. Amazing job and I would and have told everyone what a great bass this is.
Thanks for a top quality bass at a incredibly affordable price point

My first bass, actually. Then i bought a Warwick.

It's extremely good for the price you pay. Never had a problem with tuning, and the fretboard feels very good. Slapped a pack of coated strings on it and been going strong for years. It's beautiful, the inlays are very cool, the sound from its double humbuckers is perfectly fine, and the fact that it's active/passive means i'm never gonna find myself in an awkward situation. Packs a bite

Now concerning the negatives, i only really have one. The neck and the first pickup don't really leave enough space between them for someone to double pluck. You can play slap, yes, but it's just a bit more limiting for my taste.

All in all though, this is probably the best bass a beginner could buy, and a bass that even someone with more experiance could really enjoy

I can't be any happier with this bass. I've played guitar for two years prior to buying this bass and it's such a joy to play.

The neck feels smooth and accessible due to the comfortable cutaways and relatively slim profile and the bass feels comfortable both sitting down and standing up.

The sound of these active pickups surprised me. They are very versatile and provide me with all the sounds i'll need for 99% of my favorite rock and metal songs. Off course there are better sounding basses out there, but definitely not at this pricepoint.

The only reason i'ts not 5/5 for the finish is a buzzing D-string. The nut slot of this string is cut ever so slightly too deep resulting in some fret buzz if i'm attacking the string, mostly when playing metal and punk rock. This is easily solved by fitting a new nut, which are anything but expensive, and i don't see this being a consistent error with these basses. The rest of the bass is finished great for this price.

Overall an amazingly versatile and solid bass, which is accessible enough for beginners and will probably satisfy most experienced players on a budget.

Well constructed, feels good, not too heavy, the overall body shape looks/feels better when you hold the bass in your hands than on the product pics, it is comfortably slim. The neck is well constructed and thin too.

The plug region has a plate correctly installed (diamond shape), it looks/is much better than the plug shown in the product picture.

Sadly it keeps killing my batteries even when the active pot is off and the plug disconnected.

Also, the neck was warped a bit to the right (impossible to fix with the trussrod)

So this particular one has to go back to the store.

I would still recommend it to someone wanting an inexpensive bass for the studio given these problems aren't present in your unit.

UPDATE: Got the new one from the store, all seems to be fine with this one, thanks Thomann.

I really like this instrument. It has some minor quality problems, but at this price point it's absolutely bang for the buck. I really love the sound and the features of this bass.

Pros:
- good playabilty
- clear sound (for me better than HBZ)
- it has push/pull to switch the electronics to active, or passive
- good finishing (cuts are cons)
- for my taste it can sound absolutely beastly (I use with EXL160)
- selected EQ frequencies (bass, treble) are works perfectly with this setup
- the body resonates very well
- high output signal in active mode
- great passive sound

Cons:
- cuts around the pickups, neckjoint and the covers are uneven
- the bridge has slightly misaligned from the center line, and it's conspicuous above the pickups
- the jack socket is not strong enough. I tightened it many times but after around a year I must have to solder the cables

In overall it's a good budget bass, that sounds and looks good. The hardware has good quality for the price. In the future I plan to buy the 5 string version to. I rated to 5 stars because the price/value.