Harley Benton HB-60 WB

I'm a little on the fence about this instrument.

What stands out to me about this bass:

Absolutely stunning finish, in my opinion. At this price, I expected it to feel cheap and 'plasticky', but it's smooth and glossy. I'd personally prefer it without a pickguard, but that's very minor.

The neck is great. For someone like me who's mainly a guitarist, the shorter scale really lends itself to faster, tighter playing than a regular size, without compromise in tone or feel. I can get kinda sloppy on a regular bass, but this neck is very noob friendly and playable. Strings are a little bit rough, but nothing too noticeable. Not painfully, just a little annoying.

The sound is warm and round, but be advised, it's sort of low and it straight upp doesn't work with any kind of distortion. I'm totally down with the mics for jazz, soul or indie pop, but this bass can barely be in the same room as a fuzz pedal without catching fire. Huge bummer, to be honest.

The action when I got it was SO LOW. Rattles for days. It sounds and feels fine above the 7th/5th fret, depending on the string, but below it gets muddy at best and fully dead at worst. Very limiting, and if you're not comfortable with doing your own maintenance, it's gonna cost you more money. Maybe I'm being picky, but an instrument should be finished when it leaves the factory. Light setup is fine, but this bass has unplayable frets out of the box. Big mad.

In all, it's a beautiful, cool looking and sounding instrument for the price. Honestly a little too much setup is required for me to be *happy*, but again given the price pretty worth it. Just be prepared for work. Change the strings and mics and fix the awful action, and it's gonna be way bitter than you've paid for. But you'll be annoyed at receiving a half finished bass. Final verdict: a WHOPPING 3.5/5.

Loved the shape of the bass and the basic features it provides, but... had to return the instrument because of quality issues (loose potentiometer, cracks in the laquer etc.) and wait for 4 months (!) for the new one to arrive only to find out that the next one still has many problems with it, like bad laquering, cracks in the finishing and unatached potentiometer wires. So had to return the bass the second time.

Won't be bothering with this bass anymore. I bought many things from Thomann before and am very satisfied with the company, but the quality control with this particular bass is just non-existent.

Looks wise it's a lovely looking Bass, it really has that vintage look I was after but for me that's where it ended.
The pickups were shaky which when played would buzz with the vibrations so I had to tighten them up. The sound wasn't as loud as I would expect but does have a vintage warm sound. I played this through a Fender Rumble amp so when I used the fat Bassman setting I liked the sound. I swapped out the strings for a set of flat wound strings which for me I believe made it sound better.
Cons: The Volume control was loose so I had to tighten them.
The tone control knobs were loose so they had to be tightened also.
The fret wires were sharp, resulting in me having a lot of small cuts on my index finger, but otherwise a nice Bass.
My honest opinion and I am sad to say it. if you have more money to spend on a better bass like a Hagstrom then do that.
If you are prepared to finish the guitar in the way it should have been before it left the factory then do so, otherwise it's a lovely wall ornament.