Harley Benton Enhanced MP-4EB Creme

I have had this bass for about a month now, and am very encouraged by the overall construction and stability. It arrived well-adjusted except for the string height at the bridge, which was too high but simple to lower. The locking screws on the bridge pieces hold them in place, just don't forget to loosen them first before making any adjustments. The truss rod didn't need any adjustment but is easy to adjust if you need to, and responsive. Other plus points include the zero fret , the tuners are very good, and overall it's a stable platform to work on. After a little setup I find it enjoyable to play.

One minor complaint about the body: there is very little contouring under the right arm, which makes it uncomfortable to play seated. It could stand to have some wood carved away under the arm for comfort.

I have some concerns about the electronics as supplied, though. Firstly, the supplied pickups have Ceramic magnets, not AlNiCo-5 as stated on the website. The P pickup is much more powerful than the MM pickup: it has to be one of the most powerful pickups I have ever heard. I like that, personally, but it has consequences for the standard electronics which don't show this bass in its best light.

- The balance control doesn't work well: its effect is centred around the middle, but the middle position favours the P pickup because of its power. For the outer thirds of its travel, nothing happens.

- The preamp distorts when the P pickup is selected and volume turned up full. It doesn't have the headroom to cope with the ceramic P pickup's high output, with the single 9V battery.

My personal solution to this was to remove the preamp and wire the bass for passive operation, with a 2-volume, 2-tone configuration (500k pots) and separate pickup outputs. In to a better preamp (a Mackie Onyx 2*2 USB interface), the P-pickup really shines, and with a bit more gain the MM pickup sounds better too.

In conclusion, the solid construction makes this bass a very good platform for those like me who like to customise instruments, but in my opinion the supplied balance control and preamp compromise the instrument, and going passive improved the sound (up to 5*). 2V2T controls are more usable and the pickups sound very good through a better preamp. I look forward to hearing what this baby can do live, which I think it is more than capable of handling.

Pros:
-features (ebony board, steel frets, inlays, binding, trough body stringing, great bridge)
-great finish
-unbelivable neck for the money
-even frets, great action
-preamp is great

CONS:
-pickups are way way over the top pumped and hot. There is just too much going on with that P pickup and MM pickup is a bit thin. They fixed that phase issue some enhanced models had. you have to play around a lot to get even, balanced sound. pickups are way to sensitive and moving one side of the P pickup lower by a mm affects the loudness of strings over it by a lot. i had E&A strings clip my preamp and G&D strings being few dBs below clipping. also, bridge pickup is acting wierd, E string is clipping, rest of them are way quieter. really strange issues with pickups.

One thing, if you play with pick and use drive, than the stock pickups are the way to go.

September 2022 update:
I've upgraded the bass with EMG P and EMG MMTW pickups with EMG BQC Control 3 band preamp. bass sounds mind blowing now! These should come stock! No issues with using P and MM pickup at the same time. This bass is my no1 player now!