Harley Benton RB-414BK Classic Series

I ordered this bass back in March after having had my eyes on it for quite some time and initially I was quite excited. It looks great, is fun to play.. until you try to do a basic setup on it.

There are several issues with this instrument:

First of all - the awful bridge. WHY on earth would anyone design something with pieces of it readily falling off is beyond me. The strings rest on these tiny metal pieces that are held in place by the strings themselves and nothing else. Also, the individual string height CANNOT be adjusted, only the height of the bridge itself. This can obviously be upgraded, but it is NOT an excuse for an instrument targeting the beginner market.

Second - the bridge pickup mount from hell. Who in their right mind would ever think this was acceptable?? It's the most ridiculous mounting "solution" I have ever seen by far:
The metal piece over the pickup is held together by screws that are NOT properly held in place! They go through the top pickup cover, then the plate around the pickup (which is the only thing screwed into the body and keeping the pickup from completely falling out), then a wide plastic platform under the cover on which the pickup itself sits and then.. NOTHING! Not a single nut or anything to be found! The only other thing found under the cover are a these couple of ridiculous springs around each screw, which are supposedly meant to keep the pickup in place? Needless to say - it does NOT work, the pickup sags down and cannot be raised up properly and the metal pickup cover that goes over the strings is slightly loose and rattly.
I suspect THIS is the main reason why so many people complain about the pickup being too quiet - it's IMPOSSIBLE to adjust the height! When it sits at a proper height the volume is perfectly fine.
WORKAROUND:
Take off the covers, take out the pickup, get rid of the pointless screws and add a few nuts of appropriate size to space the pickup a bit lower from the metal cover (otherwise it touches the strings) and then another pair of nuts to secure it in place. This should not have to be necessary, but it is and easy enough to do. You still cannot adjust the pickup, but at least it is properly secured in place now.

Those are the 2 major issues I have with this bass, which, when solved, leave you with a pretty decent bass that's actually quite fun to play and sounds pretty good.

The only other thing worth noting is not so much an issue with the instrument itself, but with the Thomann listing, which is a pretty big oversight on their part:
The scale listed on the product page is "Long Scale", when it should be "Super Long Scale".
"Why is this an issue?" one might ask - because when you buy a replacement string set, maybe even with your initial order of the bass, you may end up in my position and waste your money on a set that is just too short. I picked up a Harley Benton HQS Bass-5 45-130 (yes a 5-string set, it seemed very cost-effective, being just 13eu) which also states "Long scale", but does not give any actual measurements of the strings themselves, which is also the case with a lot of other string sets. You need to look for "Super Long Scale" strings for this bass, which narrows down your options A LOT. So keep that in mind.

What's frustrating is that it could have easily been GREAT value with a bit more quality control. I cannot recommend this for a beginner, but as a mod platform - it's still worth a consideration, especially for those looking for a Ricky style bass on the cheap.

I was really looking forward to getting as it looks great & sounded great from the reviews I watched, but I'm not sure if I got unlucky with mine but out of the box it had loads of scratches on the back (the one I bought wasn't a B-stock product) & the neck was severely bowed.

I tried to amend it but to get it to stop buzzing like crazy it made the action really high above the 5th fret & due to the bridge design I was unable to level out the action.

The bridge is a bit of problem area as it only allows to raise all the strings rather than the individual saddles, which makes hard to get a consistent action.

I think this would make a great mod project if you have time to put into it but unfortunately I just don't at the moment!

After playing guitar for over 20 years I decided to buy a bass guitar for something different. After reading and watching all the reviews I decieded on this model.
I have had this bass for over a year now.

The guitar arrived promptly and well packaged from Thomann and just needed a quick tune to make it playable.
It sounds pretty decent, but there is a noticeable difference in output between the pickups. Neck pickup is louder than the bridge. I've adjusted heights to no avail. There is a bit of neck dive but a decent leather strap sorts this out. The neck does feel thick and solid.

The finish is fairly good all around and the binding really sets off the guitar beautifully. Also the tuners stay in tune fairly well.
Some of the routing around the pickups is a bit rough in places.
All in all its a decent guitar that plays reasonably well after some adjustments, looks the part

The E string sounds great once the bridge has been properly adjusted, but the higher strings come out extremely muffled.
Said bridge is also quite finicky, using loose rollers that you need to watch out for when you're changing the strings.
If you can get past those niggles, it's a solid RB copy and quite fun to play once the pickup cover has been removed.
The only thing I can say about its construction is the nut on mine was very loose and was actually sitting on a small crack. A couple of dabs of wood glue sorted all that.
Not really a bass for someone who isn't willing to put in a bit of work on the upkeep of their instrument, but decent for anyone else.