Harley Benton B-550 Black Progressive Series

This bass in very cheap for what it represents. You get a good sounding active 5-string bass with comfortable thin neck. I actually had the fretless B-450FL which is basically the same bass with extra string and frets so I had very specific expectations. And boy was I mistaken.

The neck feels great, one of the reasons I bought this bass is becase the neck has a thin profile. All the cheaper 5-string basses usually have very chunky fat necks. It's about personal preference, I know, but I prefer thin fast necks.

The body is the same I had on my previous B-450 fretless - it's very light and comfortable to hold. The black gloss finish is nice, you can wear shirt any color you want and it won't clash.

The hardware is where the price is projected, nut is made from ugly plastic, the tuners are from very cheap material and don't feel sturdy but they keep the bass in tune well.

The bridge is what I don't like. Older versions of this bass had individual bridge pieces for each trings. They were a bit crap and setting the octaves right was very annoying because you had to take the string and the bridge saddle top off to move it. Here you have a regular screw with a spring on the back, however, it gets stuck a lot and you see the metal is very cheap as well as the paint. It also has very sharp edges which makes resting your right hand on it uncomfortable.

The pickups are fine. There is no hum as they are humbuckers and in the combination with the body wood they produce very bass-focused tone even in the passive mode.

The active electronics are dual band but the active treble makes just very little adjustments, however, the bass knob shapes most of the sound regardless the amp settings.

I bought this new, not a B-stock, and there is a ding on the headstock. Also, one of the pots was loose (wehn turned all the way the whole thig rotated) so I had to take it off and fasten. Also, the active electronics rattled against the control cavity. I had to get in from the back and glue it to the side of the cavity, so it doesn't move. I noticed the electronics are connected by connectors - there is nothing soldered. I guess it's cheaper to manufacture or maybe it's standard with the active electronics, who knows?

Then it needed a setup, the action was a bit high and the octaves were a bit flat.

Over all I had to do a lot of work and there are quality issues (given that I bought a bass from the same series a year and a half before and that were no issues at all) but I paid 159€. Cheapest active 5-string in Czech Republic is for about 220€ so this bass is a steal. It plays well, very boomy bassy sound, comfortable neck, and it's very light.

I would definitely recommend this bass but make sure to have it set up. One of the thing where Harley Benton (Thomann) saves money is the labor so you have to tweak it yourself. 5/7

*EDIT*
I have been playing this bass for few months now and while setting up for new set of stings (different gauge) I found out the neck is twisted. Still playable, however, let's hope it won't get worse over time.

I'm gonna start this by asking Thomann what is their secret to keep this instrument so cheap but provide excellent quality and tone!?

When I bought this bass I thought I'm gonna get something in the range of entry Ibanez basses etc, with tool dents, bad finish, details wrong, buzz frets and sharp frets etc.

What I got is totally the opposite. I believe this bass is in the range of 600-1000 eur price. No doubt there. It's a steal. Frets are so nicely done, I have much more expensive guitars with worse frets. No buzz fret whatsoever. Setup was done for E standard, and it came with perfect tune and intonation! (amazing).

I tuned to D standard (with the lowest string in A), did a bit of truss rod adjustments and very small bridge adjustments, and it sounds perfect. Perfectly blends with metal guitars I record daily. In the mix, it cuts so nicely, the perfect instrument for a guitar player who likes to record.

The only con I have is that low B string, when tuned to A, is too loose and flabby, I will need to upgrade to thicker strings with higher tension. Other than that, an instrument is perfect.

Very good bass, smooth highs and controlled mids.
The neck is very smooth and nice to play, even if you didn't play a bass before and you switch from a guitar to it, it just flies. very easy to adjust to. Tuning is stable while playing, although I hear a bit of buzz at the nut on G string, but that's easily solvable, I don't count it as a flaw that much. I will probably upgrade the tuners to locking ones and give this instrument an even more value.

Pickups are OK sounding. For my needs as a metal guitarist, active mode is awesome. Passive is too low output, and unusable for me. But if you like, boosting passive with a pedal is the way to go I guess.

I was seriously expecting an instrument with a lot of design flaws, bad intonation, not able to keep tune etc, but got totally opposite. Great job Thomann! This is amazing stuff! Keep em coming :)

Initial thoughts, after one week of ownership.

The good: looks well put together and the lacquer is impressively shiny, although it is quite soft. The machine heads are up to the job and the tuning is stable enough. Intonation out of the box was not too shabby, although it did benefit from a bit of adjustment during full set up. The individual bridge pieces are perfectly aligned. The neck profile is slim and very comfortable in use.

Sounds: quite a limited range of tones, particularly lacking in brights. This can be tweaked through the amp though, to give a reasonable snap to the tone. Replacing the strings may help with this, but the supplied strings sound bright enough acoustically. The bass tones are deep and rounded.

The bad: Quite a long list I am afraid. Firstly the supplied battery lasted precisely 24 hours with the bass unplugged,essential with non switchable active circuits, as insertion of the jack plug switches them on. Only it later became apparent that the circuit was constantly live and no battery lasted more than two days. I ordered and installed a micro toggle switch from eBay to disconnect the active circuit so that I don't have to take the battery out all of the time. The ends of the fret wires are poorly finished all the way down the neck, with your hand slightly catching on every single one - this will wear off and is not noticeable when playing. The truss rod cover was not properly secured, with two of the screws not turned home, and one of the screw holes bodged with two attempts to fasten it. The neck itself was set with insufficient back bow, but the truss rod did its job and I have been able to correct that. The action out of the box was horrific, all the bridge saddles set at the same height even though the fretboard is curved, so work was needed to correct that. Lastly, for now, the neck has 24 frets, but the lower body cutaway only allows full access to 20, or 22 if you move your hand right around the neck. This is not such a big deal as this is the 'dusty end' of the bass, but an oversight that could be easily corrected. The slight overhang of the fretboard beyond the end of the neck at the body joint is just weird; I have no idea why this isn't cut off after the 24th fret.

Conclusion: Despite the little annoyances with quality and design this is a reasonable instrument at this price point. After a few hours work it is quite playable and will fulfil the role I have planned for it of occasional recording use - for performance I will stick with my more expensive 4 string basses. It is, despite the niggles, usable and fair value. I am not sure that it would suit a beginner as so much set up (and in my case some rewiring) is required, but you could always learn on the job.

I record my own music at home, and having a few guitars already, I decided to give basses a chance.
And I could not have asked for a better first contact.

This bass plays nicely. The action is a bit on the high side for me, as it has to acommodate that low 5th string, but it feels very good to play with. No sharp frets, stays in tune, and the neck feels very smooth.

Sound wise, phenomenal. It can get a bit muddy on the 5th string if u start cranking up some distortion, but nothing that trimming the low frequencies with the eq knob in the bass can't fix.
Also, did I mention you can mix both pickups while also tweaking the bass and treble for a huge variety of tones BEFORE actually getting to any amps or pedals?

To end the review, I'll talk about the body of the bass itself. It looks beautifully and it's properly balanced, so you won't have to worry about any neck dive while playing it.

Overall, a VERY solid bass ready for anything you need.

This bass might represent good value for money if you are confident setting up and maintaining your instrument. At this price, no one should expect perfection, and there are many issues. I will try to list them as objectively as possible so you can weigh up your options.

The pickup screws were poorly seated, slanted at dramatically incorrect angles and in some cases protruding several mm, in one case by about 6mm. This is a fairly easy fix, although reflects very poorly on whoever assembled or oversaw it.

The ball ends weren't properly seated in the bridge, leaving tuning stability compromised and potentially damaging the bridge.

I would suggest it needs a heavier set of strings, or more accurately, a heavier low B, due to very flappy tension, but that will depend on one's own preference.

The preamp is, as expected, poor quality and doesn't have much of an impact on output or tonal variety, it's generally not even worth the price of the battery.

The frets are functional and all sufficiently seated. The fret ends feel a little rough, but thankfully no overly protuberant ends, overly sharp edges or sprout as of yet. They have received minimal to no levelling, dressing, crowning, polishing or the like, but that's probably to be expected. Some tweaking with fret rubbers will allow one to vastly improve the feel of these frets if properly applied.

The pickups themselves are fairly weak and anaemic, although that is not surprising for cheap stock pickups. They can at least produce some passable tones. It's unfortunate they made them Bartolini P4 sized, making a pickup upgrade much more expensive and effectively prohibitive relative to the cost of bass itself. A more common sized route such as the EMG 40 would have made more sense to me, which would open up both access to much cheaper replacement pickup options in general and also a much healthier second hand market.

The fretboard feels dry, rough and grainy, if you are used to something like rosewood or ebony. Black walnut has something of a reputation for not holding onto frets very well long term, but so far I haven't had any issues with this.

The inlays are a mixed bag. They have surprisingly little filler, having seemingly been cut and seated accurately, although they are made of what appears to be very cheap, tacky faux pearl plastic, no big surprise. Their position/rotation relative to each other and the frets is all over the place, off centre and at disjointed angles. It appears nothing short of comedic up close, but not particularly noticeable at distance. Honestly, I'd prefer no inlays to this.

The electronics appear to be soldered passably, although the pots are cheap, poorly seated and have a lot of give and wobble in their rotation. These will likely need an overhaul before long due to solder joints potentially breaking due to all the movement or likely pot failure.

The acoustic properties of the bass itself are a pleasant surprise. It sounds significantly better acoustically than I had expected, so no real complaints there, and this is undoubtedly one of the most important things.

The neck is straight, so far at least. I had to make initial truss rod tweaks to correct neck relief, although this is the case with pretty much every bass and guitar I've ever bought, so nothing unusual.

The bridge is functional, although I'd be very careful not to strip out the heigh adjustment screws on the saddles, as I have doubts as to the hardness/quality of the metal used; the same goes for the saddles themselves. The tuners seem adequate and are firmly seated, with no excess wobble or movement.

All in all this may seem hyper critical, but I think it's important to understand these guitars are not sold at such prices due to anything miraculous. They can likely be priced this way because the QC they go through is close to non-existent and they are rapidly mass produced without much scope for care or detail, at least if the one I received is anything to go by. There are a plethora of potential issues you may have to deal with. If you are confident, or at least willing to try, to learn how to maintain your instrument yourself, this may represent a good deal, since the same or worse can be said for basses which cost significantly more than this.

Despite all the issues, I'd say the price I paid for this is fair. If properly maintained and corrected, this bass does it's job, being quite sufficient for bedroom noodling, recording rough bass parts and the like.

I've always been a four string bass player, but when I saw the price on the new Harley Benton Progressive Series I just couldn't help myself. I just had to try this thing out.

Setup wise, this bass came in with a way too tight neck and way too low setting. Literally the only thing you could hear was fret buzz. After adjusting the neck and the bridge (and putting some Rotosounds on it), there was not much too complain left. Sure, the frets could have been shaved a bit cleaner, and I really don't understand why the fret board extends way over the highest fret, but at this stage, that's just nitpicking.

Sound wise, I was very impressed. Although the factory strings are pretty bad, after I put some Rotosounds on it, I couldn't be more surprised. The active circuit combined with the two humbuckers is gnarly in the mids, the B string sounds awesome, and overall you have a pretty wide array of tonal options.

Conclusion: after a simple setup and some new strings, this is just ridiculous value. A five string that sounds good for EUR 149,-?! Sign me up!

Having read a few online reviews for this bass I decided to give it a go. I have played it a few months now and I must say I got myself a very nice instrument for little money.

I can only confirm what I read, i.e. it's designed and built better than many branded and higher priced items; one example, it's got an inclined headstock, which only pricier branded instruments have.
The electronics may not be top notch, but they give this bass a great sound even in passive.

The only thing I dislike are the tuning machines. They are in plastic and thus sometimes are a little jerky, which makes the tuning a little harder than on other instruments. So one day I might change those, but that's the only thing I'd change.

Summing up, it's an entry level instrument if you consider it's price but a mid-level one considering it's quality.

Actualy nothing. First of all - what do you want if it's price is half (or more) lower than similar models by other companies? A miracle? Nice try, but it doent's work like that. BUT. Harley Benton low-cost-series is an affordable chance for guys from Easter Europe like me to try any tipe of instruments before buying something that worth 2 of my monthly salaries (hello 500 euros per month). And i really glad that i had such a chance: i realised that 5-string a not convinient for me and 135-th string on 34' is just doesn't work properly and even in theory can not have proper tension for B-note and not being a spaghetti. Why does people still doing this in 2021 is a great mystery for me. About miracle: everything in bass was good, except of one problem - the screw protruded from the one of pickups by 3-4 millimeters and there was no way to tighten the screw. What about sound - bass sounds good.

Conclusion: this bass is a good chance to try the combination of things that you want to find in the future. Actualy it's good by itself, but i 'm not a guy from youtube who can say "Holy *****, HB making unbelievably cool stuff for THIS money". Maybe i'm just not lucky enough and actually the phrase above is true in 99%, but in my case it's not. Anyway it just works properly and i'm fine with it.

Greetings from Russia, sorry for bad english. Have a nice day btw