Harley Benton MSB5

1

20260306_143206
20260306_1432061920×2560 835 KB
Hi guys, i bought this harley benton a couple of weeks back as i was curious about multiscale basses and didnt want to break the bank. This bass was 300euro will begin with saying that! I brought it to a practice session but it started giving a bit of trouble halfway through, started feeding back the amp when the input gain was turned up to appropriate level. I replaced the strings a couple of days later and that issue didn’t re-occur. Preamp is a small bit on the weaker side so input gain needs to be pushed quite a bit but not a problem if you can do this. Fast forward to last night I brought it to a wedding gig and used it the whole night, it was nice clear and powerful. Highly recommend this bass to anyone who wants to try out a multiscale or beginners or whoever, excellent value for its price, easy to play and set up also, preamp controls are decent and has a push pull active passive switch. Not too heavy either

4 Likes
2

Is there a reason you couldn’t solve this with amp master volume? Bass should not require high gain unless you are trying to overdrive the amp.

3

I meant more like higher than I would usually have to push the input gain, amp wasn’t overdriving

1 Like
4

Cool. So why not just use master volume instead? They are not equivalent :slight_smile:

5

Not really i usually set the gain first then use master volume after

6

Yeah, so boosting the gain you’re gonna be amplifying any noise before it goes in to the amp’s preamp, which (depending on EQ) can further amplify it.

Master volume will raise the overall level.

Cranking gain is a good option if a signal is low coming in to the amp’s preamp, but if you find it is adding noise, try just raising master volume instead

1 Like
7

This is an abomination. a Sub $300 Single cut 5 string bass that looks so gorgeous should not be allowed, :rofl:

Wow! massive congrats. Very creative way to bolt up the neck. I’d pay $500 for the neck through version.

1 Like
8

Thomann is going wild

1 Like
9

I’d been eyeing one of these. I really like the look of them. I’d heard mixed things about the preamp being very noisy though.

10

You could always just drop in a Darkglass Tone Capsule or something.

What’s much harder to fix is that it’s single cut. That rules it out for me. Some people dig that, I definitely do not.

11

The preamp on this one is quiet to be fair

12

I had been eyeing it for a long time as well - and I got it early February. I’ve been loving it ever since!

I got the black flame burl colour. I play it home and with a dad-band I’m a part of, it’s been performing really well. The finish on the neck and fretwork is also the best of the basses I’ve played so far.
That being said, I’ve been keeping to cheap brands- started with a cheap, used Aria jazz bass, then got a used fretless, a 5-string stingray clone and the multiscale, all from Harley Benton.

2 Likes