Harley Benton MB-4 SB Deluxe Series

Okay, first I have no clue how a ray should sound other then what others told me. From this I expected a mid oriented sound. I was ready to go fiddle with the knobs on my amp, a gallien krueger which has a pretty bright modern tone to it. Surprise, it has plenty of low end and a nice up mid zing. I bought this one with the idea of changing the pickup for something a bit more quality.
No need really it sounds fine the way it is.

Next looks, one word damn. It looks just awesome, good paintjob, nice shine, some wood showing through. Finish otherwise is excellent, no sharp edges to the frets whatsoever. Better then my premium Ibanez. Tuners are good, bit heavy, but no glitches and hold the tune well. I changed the strings straight away, but there weren’t even that terrible. Knobs are fine and work well, volume is also not a problem, no issue that is only passive where the original is active. It is plenty loud.

The neck is solid, I mean baseball bat solid, no slim jazzneck this, this is lumberjack country. But again, good and straight as an arrow.

Okay, the lesser points, the action. It was setup by thomann already so it was ready to play straight from the box. Just little tweaking on the intonation which was a tad sharp at the twelfth fret and then I started on the action, I play fingerstyle and can go with very low action. Ever since I got that Ibanez SR1820 I know what good action feels like and I try to setup all my basses that low.
This just won’t take it, it is a nice action, no worries, but not as light as my ibby or my jazzbass.
Any lower and I get fretbuzz, I don't mind a little, I try to get the marcus miller fret overdrive. When you dig deep and hard it may buzz just a little to get that gritty metallic zing into the tone without disturbing the actual tone itself.

So this baby makes you work a bit harder, sort of goes with the thick neck and the weight. That really surprised me, it a basswood body, which usually are light, my washburn weighted almost nothing, this axe is quite hefty. Most basses these days are light, I learned it on a 70’s precision, those weigh a ton. This one is not that heavy, but none of the modern feathery feel.
Get a good strap!
Which for me really works for a ray clone. It is supposed to be the bad boy of Leo Fenders creations and well it certainly feels like it.

So yeah, points on the finish and the hardware which are pretty amazing for this money, lost a star on the action.

But overall, I cannot say anything else then I am very, very impressed by this amount of niceness for this little money.
I bought it for two reasons, I simply wanted a ray clone, and this is great for those bit more dodgy places where you cant store your stuff properly. I do love it, the looks alone are killer, that big fat pickup alone, man.. Have yet to try it in the band setting. I’m sure it will be alright. This was my first HB experience and I already figured if I was starting just now I would get a couple of them.
Do put good strings on it though. I put Daddario’s balanced tension nickels on it and those work great. And it comes with a cord, also amazing.

Update, opened it, wanted to upgrade the pots, one thing I always do wiht budget guitars, the pots are good, but a serious set of quality pots is always better.
Those are mini's. And the tone pot position wont allow for a regular pot. I dont want to take the router and the cover plate is quite narrow so it'll be a tricky job.
Still sounds fantastic, still might change out the pick-up. but it is great as it comes, no worries. Gonna try it in the band setting this friday.

And that friday came and went. This axe makes you work, offcourse it does not have arange of sounds build in like active bases wiht eq's. so it is amp fiddling. Had not brough my own amp, this thing is heavey enough. So it was some peavy which I did not like very much.
I think it really has a ray sound, it has plenty of deep low guts and a good punchy mid section and a tad of that jazzy honk on the higher octaves which I like, if you stick a little fiddly loop between that driving thunder.
the weight, the thick neck and the fact it has no easy reserve in the pick. some basses have more of a volume thing that goes up quite a bit if you dig in a little harder. This is just loud no matter how you play, if you dig deeper it starts driving the amp. I really should put this over a tube amp so I can play those tubes. But this means when ever you want to underline something or make the fill stick out you give it the beans. So you work hard and it growls and sings. Or should I say stings?

Again a stupendous good piece of kit for little money, I think this will give the lower tier sterlings a kick in the backside with ease.
our drummer already was pushing me to use this all the time.

Excellent quality for the price. Ship time to the states was as quoted. The bass arrived without a scratch on it. After a few minutes of tune and minor set up I was playing. The only flaw I could find was a run in the paint on the head stock. Nothing major but it’s there. Frets have no sharp edges and no fret buzz anywhere on the neck. Sound was decent but I replaced the electronics with pre Ernie Ball music man electronics keeping the original strings. Now playing thru my ampeg svt this bass has a pure 70s music man sound and all I can say is wow. I have been playing bass for over 40 years and have 5 other much more expensive basses but after a year of having this bass most days I still grab the Harley Benton first. It’s light and fast. It took me over a year to pull the trigger on this bass and wish I hadn’t waited. Even with about 65$ shipping to the states and 100$ for the preamp and 75$ to have a route done on the back for a battery as there is no room in the electronics cavity to hide it there I feel this bass plays and sounds like a much much more expensive bass. I got the exact sound I was looking for. I almost forgot the tuners. I still have the original tuning keys on it and have no plans to replace them as they just plain stay in tune for weeks at a time. If your looking then I suggest you just get it.

First, apologies to any brainy supermodels I offended.

The Good:
The physical construction and feel of this bass is superb. Fit and finish are on par with instruments costing far more. Feels like a great player.

The Bad:
ALL of the electronics. From the weak pickup to the scratchy mini-pots, to the monkey with a blowtorch soldering, all of it is rubbish. Strings are just OK, but I'm a flats guy anyway. Weight is just below 9 lbs., so not quite super-sized model heavy. It balances well in any event.

The Ugly:
Chrome everything.

Conclusion:
Replace everything except the body and neck and you may have a great playing bass for a reasonable price.

Added on edit: I forgot to mention the excellent setup on this bass. Ready to play, out of the box. intonated, action properly set, the whole enchilada. Great work, Thomann!

After swapping in a new ceramic pickup, a 2 band EQ (Artec SE2-A), new Ernie Ball Slinky Flatwound strings, I found the stock bridge and tuners are perfectly acceptable, albeit flashy.

As delivered, this bass is a pre-2009 OLP look-alike, and the split-coil V-V-T controls just do not work at all well, just as with the OLP.

With mods costing just under $80, this bass is now a sonic flamethrower, and much closer to an original Stingray's tone and power.

Do yourself a favor and purchase an Artec EQ with your order of this bass.