Harley Benton PB-50 LH SB Vintage Series

I'm an amateur musician and I mostly play guitar. I do home recording to produce my own songs; until now I didn't own a bass so i decided to get one for this purpose... and you know, for a lefthand player it's always hard to find a good choice of instruments... but with Thomann there are several products and this one caught my attention for its look and the positive reviews.
I received it yesterday... so here is my earl review about it.
It's a good copy of a vintage Precision Bass: a single coil, a thumbrest on the black pickguard, chrome plated mechanics, sunbust finish, maple neck and fretboard... It's cool... and it's sounds fine!
I can certainly say that with this price level it shoud be hard to find a so good bass... it's really worth.
First impression: thumbs up! :)

Un ottimo basso, con le sue peculiarità ovviamente essendo una copia abbastanza fedele del p-51. Ha un pickup mooooolto potente e adeguato al tipo di strumento, ha un suono bello caldo e vintage quando a tono chiuso o semi chiuso e un tono chitarroso selvaggio e spaccaconi quando è tutto aperto. I knobs peraltro, e dunque l'elettronica, danno un' ottima escursione ed un ottima gamma di sfumature sonore a differenza del classico aperto/chiuso di molti strumenti in questa fascia di prezzo. Viene venduto con corde roundwoud dignitosissime e con il setup già fatto. Con corde flatwound penso sarà un vero gioiello. Lo ricomprerei duecento volte. Un vero affare, e penso che anche Monk Montgomery ne vorrebbe uno :)

I needed a bass guitar quickly as my old one was quite beaten from years of playing. I am a guitarist most of the time, but I do play bass a lot and I needed a functioning bass for a specific studio project. I always loved the 51 stlye P basses and the price of the Benton is hard to beat, so I pulled the trigger.

Honestly, I was expecting an ok instrument and was sure I will need to get myself something "better" down the road, but to my surprise this bass suits me like a glove! Great P bass sound, lovely fit and finish and after I put on some flats it turned out as a killer bass.
I bought it and I used it on a commercial record about a week after the purchase with great results, so I guess that speaks enough about the quality of the instrument.

Pros:
- great playability, very comfortable unfinished neck
- great P bass sound from the single coil
- Fit and finish is very good for the price
- It was set up pretty solid out of the box
- For me it is a better fit than some of the squier basses that are double the price (prefer the unfinished neck on these, but your milage my vary!)

Cons:
- upper fretwork was not perfect (specially on the treble side), but nothing too bad (easy fix, had sharper frets on my gibson to be honest...)
- some minor cosmetic issues; there is a bit of glue residue wher the neck meets the body on the side of the fretboard, but it's only visual as it is "flat" and I can't feel any raised areas.
- the neck is chunky. and I mean CHUNKY. It is one of the chunkiest necks I've played, but I happen to love it. If you want to fly over the fretboard or prefer thinker necks, avoid this one.
- tuners are not the best, although they hold tuning well and turn ok, but it's the only thing that might need replacing down the road.

Received my L/H PB-50 last week and it is excellent. looks, plays and sounds really good. I?ve got much more expensive basses.....the case for my MM Stingray V cost more than this bass! .....always fancied an original shape/style P bass.....no chance of a Fender Left Hander and then alongs comes this bass at a fantastic price. Quality instrument, equal to much more expensive models and a no brainier....