Harley Benton B-550 White Progressive Series

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.

Really pleased with th quality of this bass for the money.

I bought this bass as a guitar player looking for something to add bass on my recordings. Very pleased so far. Bass required a small truss rod adjustment out of the box but then was ready to go. Plays so much better than other chinese manufactured basses i have played and feels like it is worth a lot more than the price you pay.

Happy with the overall sound, looks and finish and play ability. Also quite light and comfortable which is good.

Obviously, you can still tell that this is a budget instrument, mostly from the feel and look of the neck, fret and hardware (tuners, bridge et) which prevents me from giving a 5 star review, although this is based purely on look and feel rather than functionality as everything appears to work well.

Would recommend for anyone needing a bass on a budget.

This was both my first Thomann and Harley Benton purchase so I was a bit concerned. However once I opened the box my fears melted away. I was hard-pressed to find any flaws, the imperfections were so few and slight that they probably wouldn't even show up on camera. I have been meaning to try a 5 string bass for a while, and at this price point it was a no brainer. The neck and bridge only needed minor adjustment to get into the sweet spot, but I expect that from any guitar I buy.

Pro: I love the smooth neck on this! I have gotten into the habit of lightly sanding all my fretted instruments that have a glossy finish on the neck. It looks nice, but slows down the playing.

Cons: The tuners are a little finicky, also the strings seemed a little chewed up. I put some half round D'Addarios on this baby and all is well.