Harley Benton MV-4MSB Gotoh SFG

The Harley Benton MV-4MSB is an excellent little bass, and not just for the cheap price, it's a solid instrument that holds its own against basses costing several times more. Although the one I received had a couple of minor issues that were slightly annoying but simple to resolve.

The bass is extremely well built, everything feels solid and secure, the Gotoh machine heads are super smooth when tuning up and the no-frills bridge is solid, does its job and is easy to adjust when setting action and intonation. The pickups sound great, IMO, a little on the quiet side and you cannot blend between them as has been well documented, but they sound great, a little light in the mid-range but that helps keep the tone clean and clear, it's quite a bright sound but with plenty of low end to stop it sounding thin or cheap. The bass just needed a tune up and played perfectly out of the box without any additional set up, mine came with a medium-low action and the neck was straight with no fret buzz.

My particular model had a couple of very minor issues, first, it had a couple of rough fret edges, nothing serious and certainly not rough enough to cut your fingers, but noticeable all the same. But I should point out that the bass took around a week to get from Germany to the UK in a week where the weather was below freezing, and this cold weather may have cause the fretboard to shrink a fraction and expose the rough fret edges. Once the bass had been in my house for a couple of days the sharp fret edges were less noticeable, but 2 minutes with a sanding block with fine grade sandpaper was all that was needed to smooth the fret edges. Other than that, the fretwork is excellent and there’s no fret buzz even after lowering the action by another mm or so.

The next issue, and again this was minor, was the scratch plate overlapped the metal control plate by a fraction of a mm. I took the scratch plate off and shaved a couple of small slivers off using a Stanley knife and that sorted. Another gripe about the scratch plate is the tort finish, I hate tort, it just looks like drab, IMO! But that's just personal preference and I will be swapping it out for a plain black one shortly, which will contrast with the stunning sea foam green better, IMO.

Finally, I found the bass a little noisy, but that maybe because I was playing it in front of a computer which was almost certainly causing a bit of electrical noise. To resolve this I shielded the control cavity and P pickup cavity (they're one big cavity routed into the body) with some copper tape and now the bass no longer picks up any background noise.

But despite the minor issues above - and they are very minor and easy to sort out without any specialist tools even for someone as ham-fisted as me! - the bass is fantastic value for money and a superb little bass in its own right. The lack of pickup blend doesn't bother me, I like the sound the bass makes, it has its own voice, clean and clear with solid lows and a bright, airy high end. I bought the bass expecting to add a blend pot immediatley but I really don't feel the need to, it sounds great as it is. The construction is solid, no flaws in the paintwork and no gaps in the neck pocket which is nice and tight. The machine heads are excellent, the bridge is solid and does everything you need it to do. The sea foam green looks stunning in real life than the pictures on Thomann suggest. The neck is a slim jazz profile and feels silky smooth and effortless to play. The bass isn't overly heavy (it's not as heavy as my JMJ Mustang) and is comfortable to wear on a strap for a couple of hours and is nicely balanced with no neck dive. The contoured body is very comfortable too, more so than the slab body on my JMJ Mustang. The fretwork is excellent with no uneven frets needing levelling.

The nearest bass in terms of specification to this is the Fender made in Mexico PJ Mustang. I had one a couple of years ago and the cheap and cheerful little Harley is arguably a better bass than the £700 Fender in terms of construction, the Fender had a noticeable gap in the neck pocket and the neck didn't feel as sleek as the Harley. The Fender had more tonal versatility with the pickup selector switch but the fundamental tone of the Harley sounds more pleasing to my ears. At £500 cheaper, I'd take the Harley over the Fender PJ Mustang without hesitation!

In summary, an excellent little bass, not perfect, but nothing that should deter you from buying one. And minor niggles aside, remember that this is a <£200 bass so it's unrealistic to expect it be flawless - but it comes close. Really close. It's way cheaper than the Fender PJ Mustang and every bit as good, if not better in terms of construction and finish. It's cheaper than a set of premium bass pickups or a fancy preamp - and this is for an entire bass that you can take straight out of the box, tune up and go straight out onto the stage and gig with! My 2 main gigging basses each cost several times as much as the Harley but I'll have no problem gigging the Harley alongside them despite what the gear snobs may think!

Encore bravo à Toto pour cette Harley Benton MV-4MSB Gotoh SFG réplique de la mustang de chez Fender, quand à la classic vibes de chez Squier, elle a des cheveux blancs à se faire.
La prise en main est top, la finition grandiose, branchée sur ampli 200 watts, elle délivre un son puissant tant dans les graves que les aigus (sans oublier les médiums).
Pour moi il manque juste un switch entre les micros mais rien de grave, elle a tout du grande, la série Gotoh est franchement de loin la meilleure de chez Harley Benton, alors faites vous plaisir et foncez. Let's Go..............