Harley Benton MM-85A SB Deluxe Series

I decided to buy a bass to add it to my home recordings. Tired of synth basses. I am mainly a guitar player and the bass is what I need to fill my tracks' bottom.

So I decided to try out Harley Benton bass. Few hours of looking reviews, comparing different basses, 4 vs 5 strings, pickup combinations, etc... finally came up with this one. Two humbuckers with splitting option, onboard preamp and EQ, 5 strings, 24 frets — what else can I wish?

Yes, a playability, and that's what I got! I tried few other 5 string basses of my friends and they weren't as good in playability as this one! The neck is truly awesome! Fret job is just nice. You know, it could be better, but this is a bass guitar — no need to bend strings. ;)

Tuning stability is great, even after few days of not touching the guitar and then playing for an hour or two — it stays in tune, proved by tuner.

So, PROS:

• Playability is fantastic, super comfortably to play. Feels better in hands than basses 3-5 times more expensive.
• Features are great! 5-way switch with really different sounds in it! 4/5 positions of the switch is what I use all the time!
• Stays in tune. Really. Tuners are good, no trouble while tuning it.
• Active EQ onboard. Very helpful!
• Fret job is fine.
• Electronics made really good. I opened the guitar from the back and inside is a really good electronics, no flaws at all, soldering is really good.
• Good setup out of the box. Truss rod adjustment wasn't needed, I only did a little bit of intonation and string height adjustments.
• There was also cable included, but I do not really use it. Looks like the cheapest possible, but it is in — so counts as a con. ;)
• Six months of joy. Great! My tracks now have natural bass line!

Okay, let's dive into bad things. CONS:

• Pre amp catches radio sometimes. Especially when played with gain on. But not so loud as many others say. Gonna add a bypass switch for the preamp to get a cleaner sound when I want it.
• Cheap looking pickguard. But you can't tell it's cheap from two meters away.
• The cap of the 5-way switch was loosy and fell away when I got the guitar. A drop of glue — and it's in place again.
• Pots are not good leveled. If you look closer, they are at an some angle to the control plate. Not an issue at all, not everyone will even notice it.
• 5-th string is a bit loosy, but that's common for 5 string basses. Gonna change it to heavier gauge, I think.
• The sound is not as bright as I think it should. Maybe stock strings are bad, maybe I should try different pups. Am I the only person who plays stock string for a half year? =)

If you want to see the review video and hear LOTS of sound samples, search for this on youtube or google: oU0H6KrmBlA

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So, would I buy this guitar again if I was a time traveller? Surely yes! It's great and really, REALLY pleasant to play!

Llevo año y medio con éste bajo y recientemente lo he utilizado para tocar en algunos bares con capacidad de 200 personas aprox y el sonido que tiene es increíble, yo toco en una banda que se llama Tridente Moto Rock en Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Tocamos éste genero que es un tipo Rock & Roll a veces tirandole un poco a trash metal sin llegar tan lejos solo somos 3, bateria, guitarra y bajo.

Los PROS:

Las pastillas son bastante buenas y tienen bastante ganancia, capturan bien el sonido y se escucha claramente todo lo que hago al tocar.
La electrónica no está nada mal, el Eq sirve bastante bien y la palanca de 5 pocisiones también te da varias posibilidades de sonidos distintos, se puede jugar mucho con eso, aunque yo lo uso en posicion media, es el sonido que mas me gusta.
El slap suena brutal! Es lo que mas me encanta del baio ya que en varias canciones solo hago slap.
Los acabados y la construccion del bajo es de bastante calidad, se siente como un bajo mucho más caro.
Las cuerdas que trae de fabrica están geniales, no se las he tenido que cambiar desde que llegó y siguen sonando increible.

CONTRAS:

Tiene mucho Neck Dive, es un bajo que no esta balanceado por lo que el brazo se va mucho hacia abajo, lo solucioné recorriendo aprox 18cm hacia arriba el boton de correa donde se pone el tahali y me compré un tahali que fuera de cuero o piel rasposo por la parye interna para que se atore con mi player y ya no se deslice hacia abajo, solo asi logre quitar el neck dive ya que era mucho.
El jack de entrada es de baja calidad, tuve que cambiarselo por un neutrik con seguro y quedo perfecto.
Este bajo es muy dificil de tocar slap si estas acostumbrado a slapear en la parte donde empieza el brazo ya que la pastilla esta bien pegada al cuello y no deja espacio para jalar la cuerda. Lo que hice fue comenzar a hacer los golpes del pulgar sobre la pastilla del cuello y jalar en el hueco entre las 2 pastillas, y aunque no es tan como al principio pues ya me acostumbré, pero si lo tuyo es hacer muchas tecnicas de slap te recomiendo mas el de una sola pastilla que si te deje espacio para todo porque hay varias tecnicas que se dificultan con este.
Y por último pues aunque yo la verdad no uso mucho los trastes arriba del 18, el acceso a los trastes 21 al 24 es horrible, muy dificil, habria que rebanar la madera de ahi para dejar acceso a meter la mano, aunque a mi no me afecta mucho porque no uso esos trastes, pero es algo a considerar.

En conclusión.

Para mí es un bajo increíble, que me resulta impresionante por lo barato que es y a veces me causa conflicto que una marca tan barata suene tan bien pero es por ahora mi bajo principal y lo seguirá siendo mientras no encuentre algo mejor.

Sigueme en redes como Rob Galgar y Tridente Motor Rock

I needed a bass like this for my studio, and being a 42 years of guitar player, I'm not a big fan of active pickups.

But knowing how the key of D on a guitar tends to like being weighed down by a low D, I went for this very low budget 5-string with active pickups.

My only concern was that some of the reviews here - and a video too - told stories of a terrible hum when the switch engaged single coils in position 2 and 4.
But when trying that out, I must concur that the hum hardly noticeable, like it is on my shielded, single coils guitars.

Now: after some initial setup - relief of the neck truss rod and some saddle height adjustment, lowering the height of a pickup and raising one to find the sweet spot (and I always do that with new guitars to get them where I want) - I started playing it, and I love it. I feel so good for buying this.

And it looks great, nice fretwork except for the need to be polished to really shine, but tbh unpolished frets aren't a big problem for a bass string, is it.

I played that thing for over an hour, just reveling in the playability and tones I was able to get from it. It's like a Swiss knife of diverse bass tones just via the 5-way switch, and the tone controls enable you to hone the tone right into the pocket you want it to go to.

I couldn't be more pleased, and that's not often the case with guitars I buy not having tested them beforehand, especially when they are cheap like this. If you're reading this wondering whether or not you should buy one, I hope this honest review will be helpful.

I've had this bass for more than a year, and played it during rehearsals and in around 30 gigs. After detecting a little failure in one of the pickups a few months ago, Thomann decided to replace the whole instrument by a new one, that I finally received yesterday.

I've played bass for over 20 years, and had a few... This is one of cheapest I've ever had, and probably the best in sound. Simply you can't get anything better for the price if you like the MusicMan sound.
This beast gets really close to it. I can't still believe it! (and I have basses 5 times more expensive than this).

Pros:

-As beautiful as the original MusicMan stingray 5 HH.

-Super clean sound.

-The tone is balanced and powerful, with rich bass, punchy mids and sharp treble.

-Good strings from factory! (D'addario EXL)

-Decent settings from factory (but still needs some intonation work)

-Well finished (I'd say, better that the previous one I had from 2017, it seems this batch passed more strict quality controls)

-24 fret, which I personally like and use (specially for tapping)

-Price!!!

-The sound (yes, again!)

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Cons:

-the neck pickup is so close to the neck ending that it's harder to play "slap", you can't insert your finger in the gap easily. You need to readapt your technique a bit.

-It's a bit heavy.

-The headstock could be smaller.

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Neutral:

-The neck is thicker than in most basses I've owned. I'm fine with it, but maybe other musicians can find it strange / uncomfortable.

To me this instrument is a dream come true. Thanks, Thomann!

My first 5 string bass. Watched a few online reviews and decided to try it. Usual excellent Thomann service. For the money this bass is excellent. Played OK out of the box, but there was a little bit of fret buzz on the E & B strings. A simple tweak on the truss rod sorted it. Very pleased with it. Good-looking and good-sounding. My one quibble is the lack of documentation. For instance, is the pre-amp always on (and I should remove the battery) or is it only when I have a lead plugged in? Also the downloadable schematic has the pots labelled incorrectly. On mine, the bass is nearest the bridge, the treble next to the volume pot. The diagram has it the opposite way. Mere niggles, this is a great buy.

As a teenager in the 90s I dreamed of having a Stingray, but the cheapest models cost 10 times what this does. I stumbled across it while looking for active electronis to add to my old bass. I had about £250 worth of parts in a basket and then found this, watched some reviews and bought it 30 minutes later. When it arrived, I found two problems and I don't blame either of them on the bass.

1. With the volume at full on the bass, my Marshall MB-30 practice amp can't handle it and starts distorting (in a bad way). Running it through my Behringer-definitely-not-a-SansAmp, there's no problem and the DI out sounds amazing. Solution; get a better amp because I refuse to turn the volume down.

2. I bought the Harley Denton flight case to go with this, but it doesn't fit! It was my fault, I got excited about the bass and didn't check the measurements. This thing is BIG - I've had trouble finding a good case that will fit a 122cm/48" instrument. I've now got one bass that fits two cases and one bass that fits neither. Solution; get another bass that fits this awesome case.

If you're a professional musician, this won't replace a real Stingray. For the rest of us, it's an absolute bargain.

The Music Man Stingray is truly an undeniable tone that has been sought by countless musicians, myself to be one of them, but the price tag associated with that particular bass has always been a major factor in my quest to acquire one of those mean thumping, popping & slapping thunder sticks for my very own. Fast forwarding a couple decades and whilst getting lost in the rabbit hole of the mind boggling selection of instruments to salivate over within the Thomann website, I started to peruse my newly discovered and now favorite brand of instruments, Harley Benton, and saw this beautiful bass, just calling out to me & I immediately placed my order.
With the incredibly low price tag I had my doubts as to whether or not I would be able to achieve all the tones and fluid playability that I knew were the key ingredients of what I had fallen in love with while playing various Stingray models for countless hours twenty some odd years previous while working for a music store, whose name shall go unmentioned. Hint, it’s kind of a scam cash if you’re an employee.
A mere few days after my order was placed I was feverishly unpacking my newly acquired bass to finally give it its test run. I was immediately impressed with the even weight distribution, the smooth finish of the neck and fretboards and plugged it in and was astonished with the thunderous low end that I was wielding in my hands. I couldn’t believe that I was now in possession of this beautiful bass that right away exceeded my expectations and went so far as to make me realize that at a price point being less that a tenth of the price tag, for what had always been a dream bass of mine, this bass had far more rich tones and wider range of sonic frequencies to offer. I no longer feel this level of reverence for the Stingray, as the MM-85A simply outperforms in every conceivable way.
Buy yourself one, hell, buy two. It’s worth it and then some.

The delivery was quick and the bass is 10/10! needed a little setup, (lower action + pickups) but that was easily done with the tools provided and a philips head screwdriver! The neck feels just like a quartersawn satin vibe, the bass stays in tune well, the hardware does the job, no sharp frets or even the slightest sign of damage/poor craftsmanship. The biggest for me is the 9v connector being SUCH an improvement over the exposed red and black wires with the 'hat' the battery has to wear, just slide it down until it touches the springs! Sunburst flame/dark maroon red on the back is stunning and with a little compression and footswitchable EQ, switching between the pickups is a breeze (the single coil modes are quiet compared to the humbuckers so the compression will level that out, the EQ just to beef the bottom end up on the single coils so it's consistent across switching) but overall this bass is incredible! Highly recommend!

Edit: After having this bass over a year, the only problems I've ran into are misaligned bridge + pickups which is a simple fix but annoying to do, and the weight of the body + tuners is immense which means it doesn't always get brought to rehearsals/gigs but with time I'm going to completely customise it so this will be alleviated

Very nice neck, pretty good fretwork. Pickups are nice. The bridge and tuners are pretty cheap, but doing its job well. Finish is good.
Cons: I had to repair electronics just after getting the parcell. It simply didn't worked. Gladly I was able to fix it. It was just a bad conact on the volume pot.
Three stars for the quality because I think these beautiful instruments deserve to be assembled more accurate. Seems like the pickguard was installed in a big hurry. I redrilled holes to place it symmetricaly.
Not a big deal so I decided to keep it. And overall it is nice and a pleasure to play for me.