Harley Benton B-550LH BK Progressive Series

I play guitar and am trying to learn the piano/keyboards and also bass. Being left handed usually brings a quite big premium over right handed models let alone choice but Thomann have a great choice for us lefties at great prices. I chose this model for how versatile it seems to be for all types of music. I love prog, metal, rock, funk, pop and hope to be able to give all a go and sound ok with them all with this. Arrived within a week of ordering (UK) well packaged and undamaged. The finish is superb and the neck is lovely. All set up and ready to go out of the box and is relatively easy to play for a newbie like me. Very comfortable and not too heavy either. I don't have anything negative to say about it yet and hope not too either. Quality is top notch as was the service I received from Thomann. Hoping to be funking like the brilliant Julia Hofer soon 😁 Keep on rockin' and don't let anyone out you down. Peace and love

I am blown away at the quality of this bass for the price.

The Good:
-sounds great
-neck is smooth and very comfortable
-the installed preamp sounds amazing for the price

The (few) negatives:
-small finish flaw on the headstock (not even worth photographing, rest of the finish was perfect)
- fret ends a little sharp (easy to fix on my end)
- Rosewood fretboard is super dry, picking up some lemon oil to treat it tonight.

All in all the negatives are few and minor, I would definitely buy this bass again and suggest it to others as it plays well and sounds great. If I didn't know what i spent on it, I would have guessed at least 2-3x the price.

Cheers

The bass came in almost excelent condition. the only thing that threw me off was that the fretboard was dryed out. other than that it was in perfect shape. the vage sounds that come off that instrument are massive. the set up was on point. good mainly for metal and heavy sounds but also it can get the job done exelently in clean genres as well. it is a bit heavier than a strat style guitar (harley benton st 20) witch that means for a bass it is extremely light. the only things i would propably change is the knobs on the pots because they dont have indicators for the turn amount
edit: the audio jack metalic shielding is kinda sticking out a bit from the side contour of the body but its not sharp
edit2: one of the knobs is reverse polarity and you have to turn it from the other side of the rest

Let me preface this by saying I'm more of a guitarist than a bass player, but here are my thoughts on the B-550:

I bought this bass because I needed a 5-string to finish recording some songs in lower tunings. I needed it cheap, and I needed it quick and as always Thomann delivered just what I needed. It might not be the best Bass I've ever played, but for the price, it vastly exceeded my expectations.

Pros:
- Having 24 frets is always nice. Seeing as we're extending the range lower, why not extend it higher too. Smart thinking.

- Amazingly, this bass is lighter than my 4-string. If you're a gigging musician, this is a huge bonus.

- It's well-built and feels very nice to play

Cons:

- Very minor fret buzz on the 3rd fret (Should be easy enough to fix with some TLC)

- The push/pull pot on mine doesn't seem to work. I'm getting nasty electrical noise and very low volume signal on one setting (I don't particularly mind though, I don't really need this feature)

All in all, I can't complain. I have some minor nitpicks but overall I'm very happy with my new bass. Thanks Thomann!

the choice for l/handed bass players is often limited, but this item is nothing less than remarkable, especially for the money; a smooth neck, with no sharp bits to tear your fingers
all set up for you, exactly in tune at the 12th fret, a brilliant active pre-amp, all nice and quiet, and a stunning finish, the neck has super accurate tuners, not sloppy, easy to tune, it just sat on my lap, like a sweet baby, eager to be played, no buzzes, just sheer fun, I am still getting used to it, and every time it comes out of its case, I smile, best value for money I think I have ever bought, well done musikhouse thomann, yet again you have served the musicians more then well