Harley Benton RB-414CS Classic Series

The bass guitar is very well made, everything works as it should. But, it didn't play as it should, the neck pickup was practically inaudible, the bridge pickup, it was very noisy!! Due to the very decent price, I did not complain about the bass, I dismantled the electronics and in approx. two days I identified and repaired the fatal defects in the connection. For example: 1. on a three-pole switch instead of a live conductor, a shield was connected!
2. on the output connector of the guitar "jack" there was a shielded wire connected in place of the live connector! 3. the output wire from the sensors was casually connected between the potentiometers. 4. It was necessary to fly away these errors, replace the output wire with a new longer one to reach the switch pin-connector. 5. The bridge-bridge was screwed in place with 4 screws, only two, so I fixed this defect. Overall, the guitar is great now, but the electronics were literally sloppy. Now the guitar plays as it should be balanced and the corrections react as they should. I did not send the guitar as a complaint, because I control electronics, and I was curious where the defects were!!! So the exhaust check was obviously not done. Due to these defects, it is possible that this good and reasonably priced guitar will be unnecessarily claimed by clients for careless finishing operations.
Because I am really satisfied with the guitar and the repair was successful, I give full points despite this shortcoming!!!
Regards, Thonann.

Wow what a stunning looking, and nice sounding bass!
Build quality itself is excellent! Flawlessly finished! Front and back!

Pickups work well and sound pretty good! There is a fair bit of disparity between them, but they aren't crappy. DOES it sound like a 'Ric'? Not very, but it's kinda there. It's not a slavish copy by any means!

The bridge pick up is quite bright but scooped sounding, but it's nice & punchy!
The neck THUDS! Serious low frequencies put out by it, however I think it is a bit too 'dark' sounding! But if you WANT thump and low end rumble, its got it in spades!

Now, the rub! The nut on mine, is prefectly cut to the right height, NO probs there. Tuners work well! Frets are nicely installed.

The BRIDGE assembly, while nice & solid & high mass, does NOT allow for enough lowering of the playing action! The neck pitch is too shallow! While it IS back angled, it is slight! * NOTE TO THOMANN: Do a redesign of the neck pocket to increace the neck pitch a few more degrees! *

To overcome this, I will have to GRIND down at least 2mm off the bottom of each saddle, + the groove on the rollers that sit on top to lower the bridge by at least 3mm! I have screwed the plate & grub screws all the way down, & while it did help, it is still too high for really comfortable playing! A bit disapointed about that aspect!

The bridge design itself is pretty good otherwise! It's good and solid! What you NEED for good energy transfer from the strings to the body!

AFTER I get the saddle blocks and rollers lowered, only THEN can I determine IF any frets also need levelling after!

KEEP this in mind if you are thinking of purchasing this bass.If you LIKE a really low action, you will NOT get this out of the box!

Sorry HB, while a beautiful bass, this model is a bit hit & miss!
Cheers!