Harley Benton Enhanced MJ-4EB Lake Blue

I have owned and sold on a number of basses over the years, and eventually settled with my mid 70's Fender Jazz Bass. However I am never really comfortable taking it out of the house due to its value and risk of something happening to it. I therefore wanted to find a reasonably priced bass that I could use as a real workhorse and not be too upset if something happened to it.

I picked the Harley Benton MJ-4EB as its specification is really impressive, the vast majority of reviews for this instrument all speak highly of it and it cost about £250 delivered.

I have had it for just under a week now and I absolutely love it. It arrived in great condition - no issues with anything, looks superb, it came setup properly (so I do not need to spend additional money taking it anywhere for any additional work). In terms of sound, it is more versatile than my Fender and so far has been a pleasure for recording with.

I cannot believe how good the value of this instrument is - if it had a Fender logo on the headstock, it would sell for significantly more.

I ordered this bass for recording and at home use. Definitely will use it for gigging if I start gigging again.
In short:
Visulas - this bass looks just amazing. Not just for the price, in any price category this bass would look amazing. Finish is perfect.
Feel - it feels amazing to play. Neck is super comfortable and fast. No sharp fret ends, no fret buzz and low action straight out of the box. This is the most comfortable bass I have played. I had Squier VM Jazz Bass and I find this one better. Fretboard on mine looks darker than on the pictures and looks like real ebony (there were some speculations that fretboard is roasted maple, it is definitely not).
Sound - Very good. I find both pickups very good. Sound is a bit bright when bass and treble eq is in the middle position. But everything can be adjusted with eq on the bass itself or on the amp. when treble is pushed to 90-100% buzzing can be heard. but since bass is bright on middle eq there is no need to crank up treble all the way. MM pickup is a bit dominating when balance is in middle position. Split coil on MM works great, and the jazz bass sound that way is really good. Sound in passive mode is great. Slight reduction in volume can be heard when going from active to passive mode, but nothing radical.

Pros - literally everything on this bass (except things below)
Cons - The only thing that feels a bit cheap are pot knobs. In the pictures knobs are with screws, mine came with push-on knobs. But they work just fine.
I find the 22. fret inaccessible. I can reach 21 but not 22. Again, its not a problem, just an observation.

I highly recommend this bass.

After buying a previous HB bass, I thought i'd upgrade to an enhanced model.
Unpacking left me impressed. A good looking bass with a great finish.
Jack socket loose and one screw missing. Hmmmm...Sorted that.
Volume pot felt cheap. Cover pulled off when engaging passive mode. Glued back on.
Balance pot not at all smooth.
Plugging it in left me less than impressed. Very buzzy when not playing. Poor tone.
Very effective EQ section. Huge tone changes
For some stupid reason I opted not to return in. In hindsight I wish I had.
I'm now left with a bass that looks ace, but in reality is ungiggable due to the buzz when not playing.
If I buy another bass, then I will definitely buy with my ears rather than my eyes.
Maybe I just received a duffer, but apparently it had been "checked" before despatch. I can only imagine that it wasn't plugged in!
Disappointed....

I’m mainly a guitarist, so I wanted a bass to record demos with and just play for fun, and this bass performs very good for the money. It also looks pretty good in a slightly metallic blue finish.
Mine played very good right out of the box with no sharp or dead frets or anything like that. The only quality complaint would a volume push-pull know is a bit wobbly.
Sound-wise this bass is very versatile. You can split the humbucker, blend pickups, switch active/passive. The active preamp isn’t the most interesting, EQ is very basic, so I mostly use it in a passive mode, but then it’s missing a tone knob. Overall, if you are not looking for some specific sound, this bass gives you a lot of usable options, so I would recommend it to beginners or anyone who can have only one bass.