Harley Benton HBO-850 Bass Black

For the price range, I can say that it was a great surprise.
When I tried it for the first time, I has some buzz on the 5th and 6th fret for the 2nd and 3rd string. After adjusting the truss rod I got it working just fine.
The wood overlay over the body was quite rough, so I used a very thin sand paper to smoothen it out, and the result was just fantastic. Now it is so smooth that many times I am using the holes to rest my thumb while I play.

The tuner doesn’t work that well, but since I use my phone to tune the bass, I do not find that a negative point, but I do understand that it may be a problem for some people.

The inlays on the neck are just beautiful.

The sound of the bass is great and after you get used to the round body back, it feels very comfortable.

For a beginners bass, I would never give more than 4 stars, and I can tell you that this bass goes up to the max. If I hadn’t fix the buzz by adjusting the truss rod It would be 3 star bass; and by sanding that body overlay gave the finishing of the bass a near 5 star.
Overall, and if you are just looking for a bass to start, I do recommend it.

I've been learning for about a year now, starting with a cheap electric rescued from a skip and then a Cort Action PJ, but I wanted an acoustic for general practice/travel where I didn't have to be plugged in to an amp. Several people warned me off acoustic bass guitars ("too quiet", "you need an upright to play acoustically with a band"), but for my purposes this is just what I was after. Nope, not hugely loud and resonant, but for practising on your own with minimal faff it's great. Finish isn't perfect, but decent enough. Fretboard is a bit noisy on unintended taps , but it's my first day with it, and I've already found a technique to minimise that that may help my electric technique (finger ON the frets, not behind them).

Plus you can plug it it...it sounds...louder! And there's a built in tuner that is close enough to my newbie's ear.

The best acoustic you can buy? I seriously doubt it. A perfectly good acoustic bass for £129? Totally, I'm very happy with it.

Bonus point to Thomann for excellent service, cheap delivery to the Scottish Highlands (UK companies frequently add £30 for that), and not pestering me for a review...which is why I'm unusually doing a review.