Harley Benton MV-4P Shell Pink

I bought this bass for the looks. I wanted a pink PBass for a long time, and this one is quite beautiful. The shell pink is gorgeous; it has a slight lavender hue, not a problem, but it is worth noticing. The bass is a bit heavy for my liking at 4,3kg.

I gave the bass 4 stars because, out of the box, it's not a great instrument. I wasn't expecting it to be one, to be honest, and, although it was of slightly higher quality than expected, it wasn't really anything to write home about.
It has a few high frets; most notably, it has an unseated 12th fret, which immediately lowers the instrument's overall quality. The tuners are really not great; they all have a different feel and are obviously quite cheap. The pickup is ok, but too hot for my liking, and the bridge is just adequate (although the brass saddles are a nice touch).

With all this said, after proper shielding and customization, it turned into my favorite bass. I put a pearloid blue pickguard on it, and I replaced the bridge with a Gotoh 404SJ-C and the pickup with an EMG Geezer Butler. This is a monster now. It is dead silent, plays great, doesn't neck dive, and sounds incredible with Fender 9050L flats on it. The tuners will also definitely be replaced in the near future.
It is worth noticing that even though it is a 38mm neck, it is quite chunky and might take some time to get used to. Nevertheless, it looks beautiful and feels great in hand and, apart from the frets, is impeccably finished.

I really like HB, but realistically, I always expect at least some, if not a lot of work on every instrument I buy from them. This one is no exception, but is absolutely worth it! It is a pretty good instrument out of the box and a great modding platform!

TOPS:
Color
fit and finish (frets excluded)
overall quality
very nice woods (the bass sounds great acoustically)
Trussrod wheel!!!
Top-loading triple string tree
The neck looks and feels great
High customizability


FLOPS:
Fret ends and especially that unseated 12th fret (I'm REALLY disappointed in that one...)
Low-quality tuners
Side neck markers halfway in the wood/halfway in the binding look misplaced
No shielding whatsoever (There was a lot of buzz going on out of the box)

Que dire sur cette basse, juste que chaque euros investi est justifié de par la qualité des matériaux, l'assemblage, les finitions et mêmes les reglages d'origine sont épatants pour le tarif. Après ne nous le cachons pas, on reste sur de la basse entrée de gamme, mais ca sonne sacrément bien de base. L electronique fait le job et le micro également, pas de crachottis ou gresillements en tournant les potards.

Harley benton monte en puissance et en qualité, la preuve par le gravage de la marque sur le chevalet et aussi sur la plaque du manche. Pour ce prix, avoir des mécaniques de qualité, un manche erable caramélisé, des pontets laitons, et un sillet en graphite...la peinture est sublime et sans defaut.

J ai fini par changer l' electronique et le micro mais c est vraiment une question de goût personnel.

Au risque de passer pour un vieux, j aurais vraiment aimé avoir ce genre d instrument qualitatif pour débuter la basse...

Merci thomann et merci Harley Benton

Ich selbst baue nun schon seit 35 Jahren E-Bässe und Gitarren. In letzter Zeit hatte ich schon viele HB Instrumente zum checken hier in meiner Werkstatt, gute Sachen bauen die in letzter Zeit. Da ich absoluter Prezifreund bin und diese Farbe sehr mag, habe ich mir einfach mal den HB kommen lassen um zu sehen was der für das kleine Geld so kann. Und ich muss sagen dass er mich in allen Punkten überzeugt. Tolle Hölzer, bestens Verarbeitet, optimale Bespielbarkeit, Bünde super abgerichtet, top Hardware und Pickup. Ausser einem anderen Volumepoti (mit 500k klingt er noch was offener) und einer hochwertigeren Buchse wüsste ich nicht was man an dem Bass noch besser machen könnte. Die Daumenstütze unten hätte ich noch weggelassen, die schraubt eh fast jeder ab, dann hat man zwei Löcher die unnötig wären. Auch sehr schön ist die gematchte Kopfplatte, das Griffbrettbinding und die Blockinlays. Light weight Mechaniken gegen Kopflastigkeit sind auch drauf, sowie eine Brücke mit massiven Messingböcken. Gewicht 4kg, also genau richtig. Also alles in allem ein Spitzenbass, kann ich nur empfehlen.