Harley Benton B-30BK Acoustic Bass Series

I bought this Bass in 2005 initially so i could reherse material at home easily without upsetting the wife by dragging an amp into the lounge. More recently i've been doing some work with an accoustic guitarist so have played a few shows with this beast and to be honest it's more than up to the challenge. It looks great with a high gloss black finish edged in cream and has the look and feel of a much bigger budget bass. The neck is quite chunky but feels good and the action suprisingly low. The EQ, presence and volume sliders do the job. A 9v battery slides in behind the electrics which has a red battery low LED but to be fair if you use a good quality battery it won't need changing much.
When I work live with the acoustic bass it goes straight into the PA via a Behringer BDI 21 modelling DI box which gives me a bit of extra control over the tone and drive and that set up works really well for the small gigs i use it for. I'm really impressed with the build quality of this Bass for the price. My only gripe was there was only one strap button on the bass meaning that unless you want to play seated you will need to buy another one. I fit all my basses with strap locks so not a big deal for me but something to bear in mind. My verdict overall, for the price faultless!

I bought this bass to play in a small acoustic setting and mainly use it with a small warwick amp. The guitar looks really impressive and seems well made. Mine had a slight problem with one of the machine heads but Thomann sent me a replacement straight away. I have Thomastik Flats on it and I think the amplified sound of the guitar sounds really nice now. Unamplified it is quite quiet, as with most acoustic basses (fine if I am just practicing though), and in my view you only really get a deep bass sound with the help of a small amp. I play just with my fingers so that probably has something to do with it. The preamp is quite mid/high tone biased and I keep all the treble high mid sliders to zero and the bass one at the highest setting. As I say - with that setup, I think it looks and sounds great- definitely warmer and more woody compared to my electric basses. Over time I may change the preamp but with the built-in chromatic tuner and the DI out and phase switch, it's such good value and does the job fine. It has quite a high output so I use the active (-15db) setting on the amp. I have lowered the action slightly - something I wouldn't have dared to do myself on a more expensive bass.
Overall - highly recommended and it's such good value.

Beware that this bass is a shorter 32" scale, I was not aware of that before I bought it because the scale length is written in centimeters instead of inches on the website. Not a big problem for me though

The bass is loud enough to be easily heard when playing with fingers without plugging it in, which is the main reason I bought it. It's easy to pick it up and just play it.

It's loud enough to play together with an acoustic guitar if you play with pick. If you play with fingers it won't be loud enough unless the guitarist is playing quietly or also with fingers.

The finishing is obviously not perfect as it's a very cheap guitar, but it's not noticeable unless you look very closely. Overall it's good for the price

The piezo pickup in the guitar does not seem to be pick up the low E-string at all. The other 3 strings are picked up fine.

Bought some years ago now, mainly for practicing or playing outside in the summer, mostly alone : does this job perfectly. I've used it a few times in rehearsal or small gigs, amplified through my Ampeg BA115HP, it sounds very good too.
Finish is really nice, electronic is reliable (battery last ... since i bought it !), confortable to play, ... Only problem is one of the machine head that have a tendency to "lock" when tuning since day one, not really important.

I hesitated between an HB B-30 and the Ibanez AEB8E at the time : i'm sure the difference isn't worth the difference in price.
Happy with my buying.