Harley Benton Enhanced MP-4EB Creme

I ordered this bass because I love the sound of both the P Bass, and the Stingray and I really admire the Harley Benton brand for bringing so many different styles of bass at an affordable price. The bass is nice and light with a very ergonomic but very familiar tradition yet with a modern feel. The finish of the stainless steel frets, the binding and the block inlays is amazing with no sharp ends and the ebony board and satin maple neck is a dream to play. The overall fit and finish of this bass is flawless, this looks and feels like a much more expensive bass. I have Fenders, Warwicks, and stingrays and this thing can easily be in the same build quality as these big name brands. The versatility of the tones is huge, but you do have to be careful because the P pickup in active is massively more powerful than the MM pickup. The eq is great if you want to dial in specific tones but again you can massively overpower the bottom end especially on the P pickup. If you have the patience to play around with it, it will reward you. Overall this is a fantastic bass , both in quality and sounds, I would definitely recommend to both beginners and more experienced players out there. I am just waiting for happier times when I can be allowed to tour with this bass.

I bought this bass as a mod platform because 1. stainless frets 2. ebony fretboard (with binding), 3. Reverse P/MM pickup layout 4. expected HB quality. I'm not an active guy so I planned on swapping out a bunch of stuff right away. When I received it it was setup pretty well with a low (lower than I like) action. When using active, there's a bit of a blown out sound when controls are dimed. But overall it sounded nice and easily gigable as is.

I pulled out the active electronics and the pickups and replaced with a Fender Precision 63 pickup and a Seymour Duncan SMB-4A wired VVT with a toggle switch for the SMB-4A to give Series, Parallel, and single coil. CTS 500k linear taper pots. This thing sounds great and plays as well as any bass I've ever played. The fret ends were well finished and the binding gives it a touch of class.

The only negative (and it's a VERY minor gripe) is that overall paint isn't anywhere as nicely done as the 25th anniversary models I have. There are a couple paint runs that were cleared over but you can barely see them, only feel them if you rub your hand over them. Like I said, very minor gripe as I bought it for playing, not staring at.