Harley Benton B-30BK-FL Acoustic Bass Series

adding more on the 7th of Feb.
I got back home and had some more time to spend on my various amps, and I am changing my rating of this instrument for its sounds to full 5 stars. This bass is crazy good for the price.
And I didn't use its onboard tuner until now, and now I realized it's a chromatic tuner, not like some cheapest crap tuner that only let you check for an A note.
The basic sound with its 4 EQs all flat in the middle, it's a bit too crispy. high frequency too boosted. easily adjustable.

People give a lot of credit for people who have a lot of experience with so many instruments, so I gotta start from there though it will make me look like a shallow rich punk, which I'm not. I'm just a regular man who doesn't even have a car because I spent too much money on music.

I have 12 years of musical experience, mainly as a bassist, and I have owned and used too many basses(and more) from Cort to Fodera. I have made myself an acoustic bass guitar, and I own a Fodera fretless bass, but I always wanted a fretless bass guitar that sounds alright. I understand that because of the structural nature of an acoustic bass guitar(too small body, too short neck), it's difficult for it to sound big and good enough, but this Harley Benton's price and my trust for Thomann forced me to buy one. Also, Warwick Alien started to look too expensive after seeing this..

The only downside of this instrument is the slightly unstable head machines. The bass itself is made very sturdy, The looks is acceptable even though I'm more of a Dreadnought fan. fingerboard looks clean and well dressed. I haven't used the built in pickup and preamp, but it has a 4 EQ knobs, built in tuner, 1/4 inch output jack and an XLR output jack. And that all costs only 170 euros! about 200 dollars? I bought a huge gigbag for this bass for extra 30 euros, and I consider it all costed me total of 200 euros.

I'm so happy I have a good and affordable acoustic bass I can bang around everywhere! You know how good it feels to know that you can easily get a replacement.

I waited a few days before writing this review to ensure it would be accurate.

I'm more than satisfied with this bass. For the price, I seriously doubt you can find a better instrument (even used).
It came well packaged and very playable out of the box. There were a few minor finishing problems (paint between the sound hole & neck not finished, fretboard needed lemon oil treatment & the 12th fret marker looked a bit odd) but nothing that affects it's playability and overall quality.

Others have mentioned that it's not very loud (acoustically) but I find it could easily compete with a 6 string acoustic at normal volume. I may even install a sound-hole cover to reduce it's acoustic volume.
Basically, it sounds as good as it looks... And it does look very nice, as I've received several complements on it.

I would recommend this bass without hesitation.

I've purchased 3 Harley Benton instruments, and my advice to you is to buy the highest-end products they have. Those are the only products worth spending money on. I've purchased one high-end and two low-end (cheapest) products. This would be one of the low-end ones. It's not worth the already incredibly low price. The dots on the neck seem to have been placed at random, so you either have to sand them off, or do what I've done, place a strip of tape on top of them and make your own, correctly placed, dots. That's not the worse part. I've played the bass less than 10 times since purchasing and the tuning machine on the G-string is already broken. It won't tune all the way up to G without popping and slipping back down. If I want to fix this issue, it will require buying new tuning machines which will be not much cheaper than the instrument itself. Also, when plugged in, it's incredibly hot. You almost have to stay away from plugging it in and just use a mic.