I’m an experienced professional musician and over the years have owned many high end basses (Warwick stage 2/fretless Corvette, USA P’s and J’s, etc) and my main bass is a 5 string Overwater. So I have perspective . But I still suffer from GAS and so I occasionally buy a cheaper bass for a bit of fun. I’ve got a couple of Sires which are great and I liked the look of this Harley Benton and thought I’d have a go for less than £200.
It’s really well made, plays exceptionally well and the tone is comparable with £1000 basses. Great for finger style and slap, don’t use a pick much but it seems good on that too. And the tone/volume controls enable a wide variety of tones from almost Precision to Jaco and quite a bit in between.
The neck is great, extremely smooth and easy to fly around. It’s fun, if you know what I mean, and makes you want to play more.
The saddles and truss rod only required a slight tweak to lower the action a bit to my preference. I can play fast on this bass the same way I can in my Overwater. I may change the strings as there’s a certain feel to them I’m not in love with, but they’re fine, I’m probably just a bit fussy.
They’ve even put fluorescent fret markers on the neck!
If I think back to my first bass in the late 70’s as a novice player (a terrible short scale Kay with an action you could fit an action man under) and what players can buy now for less than £200 is simply phenomenal.
The pink is really lovely. I’m putting a tortoiseshell pick guard on it and was thinking about new pickups, like a Bill Lawrence set, but actually why bother? They’re fine as they are.
Haven’t gigged with it as I mostly work in studios/pits, but in terms of weight it feels well balanced on the strap, no neck dive for me. It’s not light but I’m used to heavier basses and enjoy the solidity. What can I find wrong with it?
Er…..
To conclude: if you’ve got other basses, get one. If it’s your first bass, get one. If you want a decent bass to take out on gigs, without worrying, get 1 (or 2).
OK - I’m off to have another razz on it.
