Harley Benton PB-20 SBK Standard Series

I've bought now 6 HB basses, and this one is the worst. In fact, it's the worst product I've bought from here. Bar none. I was thinking at least it'd be better than the Glary's and Monoprice's or my 20-year old p-bass I use fore practice, but no. The neck is very chunky and really uncomfortable for smaller hands. The pickup is tinny at best. Hardware is as cheap as you can buy (man, they don't bother removing the jagged edge of the pick guard). The strings ain't even D'Addario that come with the other HB basses. There's absolutely no setup!!! If you don't know how to set it up, don't buy. It can't play out-of-the-box: the action is a mile high. The setup wasn't simple: I had to fiddle around with both the truss rod and the saddle heights to get it to a decent (i.e., without buzz) action, but still quite higher than what I'm used to. Fret ends are good. Finish good, except there's a chip at the head stock. The only thing I like about it is the color scheme!!! Spend a bit more money to get the deluxe line (PJ-74). The costs of the strings and the Roswell pickup(s) are already worth the difference.

In summary, it is not worth the wood and even the minimal labor put into making it.

The good:
- Looks great
- Does everything you'd expect a P bass to do
- Cheap enough to mod and not worry too much

The bad:
- Poor action from factory. The action is way too high beyond the 12th fret even with the saddles slammed as low as they can go. Had to shim the neck to get it playable.
- Poor bridge placement from factory. In order to intonate properly with the stock bridge as fitted, I have to tighten the screws all the way. The bridge could do with being moved 10mm or so lower down on the body to give more play in the adjustment.
- The strings aren't great. This one's luckily a simple fix.
- The stock pick ups are a bit thin. Again, another relatively simple fix.

Bottom line:
Although I had more negatives than positives, this is not a bad bass. A great looker that, with a little work, will be a great bass. This is okay for a non-beginner like myself, however a total beginner may be disappointed with it and not be able to articulate why or fix it themselves.

I decided to start an instrument as I have been a producer for more than a year now and the bass is the most I like out of half a dozen I tried.
I produce mainly hiphop so I settled with a P-bass, this P-bass because of the price and the colour scheme.

The sound without any amp is very dark, muddy considered by some but I don't mind as I am using an amp for most of my practicing and all of my recording -digitally. It stays in tune very well, didn't change slightly in pitch after 3 hours of noobie practicing. The setup on the strings isn't too bad considering the price but the open E and A strings buzz when plucking hardly, I might take it to a professional luthier if this ever annoys me.

What takes a star off for me is the quality of the body/quality control of these basses. One of the fret markers was missing when it arrived so I had to put something else in there, some silicon sealant was just right. The pickguard has some issues as well, there are some bubbles above the red finish and some scratches too. Not too bad but makes me question the quality control of Harley Benton at the 130 euro price range.