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Harley Benton B-650FL BK Progressive Series

123

6-String Fretless Electric Bass

  • Body: Alder
  • Bolt-on neck: Canadian maple
  • Fingerboard: black walnut
  • Neck profile: Modern D
  • Scale: 864 mm
  • Nut width: 53 mm
  • 24 Positions
  • 2 Double action truss rods
  • Pickups: 2 humbuckers with active preamp
  • Controls: Volume with push/pull function (active/passive), balance, bass and treble
  • Black hardware
  • Die-cast machine heads
  • String spacing: 16 mm
  • Factory strings: .032 - .125
  • Colour: Black, high-gloss
Available since November 2017
Item number 411666
Sales Unit 1 piece(s)
Lefthand Model No
Colour Black
Number of strings 6
Body Alder
Neck Maple
Fretboard Black Walnut
Scale Long Scale
Pickup System HH
Elektronic Aktive, Passive
Incl. Case No
Incl. Gigbag No
£168
Free shipping incl. VAT
In stock within 5-7 weeks
In stock within 5-7 weeks

This product is expected back in stock soon and can then be shipped immediately.

Standard Delivery Times
1

123 Customer ratings

4.4 / 5

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features

sound

quality

97 Reviews

m
Solid budget bass for trying 6-string fretlesses and practicing
max-v 20.06.2021
Got this instrument in summer-autumn of 2018. Got better basses since then, but still keep coming to this one few times a week to practice (mostly unplugged) - it just feels great. Maybe good flatwounds add to the feel (stringed with around-half-the-bass-price Thomastik JF 346 - they don't feel loose and even kinda growl (open E, low-B) on this bass when unplugged).

Pros:
- price: can you find cheaper fretless that doesn't fall apart in your hangs and requires almost zero maintenance (except truss-rod adjustments) for a couple of years?
- build quality: instrument feels solid, nothing's loose, everything can be set up just fine - quite low action, intonation, neck relief / truss-rod etc
- very comfortable and pleasant feel-wise: some people complain about neck dive - did not even notice that even when playing standing (maybe not all the pieces of wood are equal)
- narrow string spacing: matter of taste, but I really like that (and IMO it makes sense for fretless as it's mostly played fingerstyle)
- smooth fingerboard: no pores at all (have another fretless with panga panga and it's a really big deal)
- powerful fat lows: long notes or staccato ones - even uncompressed homemade direct input recording sounds nice and fat in the mix

Non-irritating cons / notes:
- tuners feel cheap, but do their job: some tuners "slide" a bit before string actually starts moving
- nut is not "slippery" enough even for flats: need to pull/stretch the string while tuning or it can go slightly flat after a couple of relatively aggressive plucks
- fingerboard feels quite "soft" and easy to scratch, I suggest stringing it with flats from the day one

Cons:
- clarity/midrange: not enough clarity in lower register - you can hear some midrange-y overtones unplugged, but they're not picked up when plugged; fast riffing / galloping in lower registers sounds muddy and indistinguishable; haven't tried that with rounds though (but I think it wouldn't improve it much - IMO, pickups are to blame)
- pickups/electronics can clip the signal if you're digging into strings quite hard - IMO, worth replacing, the bass itself is well-built and resonates fine - just need to overcome the mental barrier to pour basically as much as this entire bass costs for normal (not the best) pickups
- built-in EQ is... Meh. Don't think you can make the bass sound better with it (even the opposite), so it's pretty much useless; better play with pickup balance instead
features
sound
quality
8
2
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FS
Bang for your buck (or euro)
Frank Strijkplank 01.04.2020
TL;DR: very usable bass with some minor issues.

I kind of missed having a fretless, even though my current band has little use for one. This one seemed to fit the bill nicely and wouldn't break the bank. After a few days my conclusions are as follows:

- Fit & Finish: I can't really fault it in any way. The paint has no flaws, the neck feels nice and smooth.

- Sound: overall very usable. The stock strings suck and were immediately replaced by proper ones. I like passive mode somewhat better than active, but the passive tone control has very little effect and is next to useless.

- Setup and hardware: The bridge feels like it's made from hard pastic but does the job. It's a candidate for upgrading though. The nut suffered a minor malfunction when I replaced the strings: the end at the B string broke off. The string stayed in place and I was able to glue it back, so no biggie for now, but definitely an upgrade candidate. The fretboard is super smooth and feels good to the touch. I could set the action fairly low without any issues. Setting intonation also was easy. Accessing the truss rods requires removal of the strings. I prefer having the truss rod access at the body end. The rods operate smoothly and effectively. The tuners also feel kind of plastic-y but work as expected.

So far I like the bass. For 160 euro you can't really expect it to be perfect in every way, and you should factor in some 30 to 40 euro for proper strings, but then for 200 euro you get a very usable package. I think I'll keep it around for a bit...
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6
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W
Awesome looking, great feeling, Affordable
Wolfred 17.02.2022
This bass is great and affordable and for such a low price what more could you ask for? Great for beginners and experienced players. Sure out of the box it could use a major set up, Pickups are decent but for this price what do you expect. Highly recommend this to anyone who’s into fretless playing or for those who are interested in trying out a fretless.
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2
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M
Amazing Bass
Metaled 06.03.2024
In general, it is an amazing instrument for the price, it has good sound, it doesn't feel cheap and it is probably the best 6 string fretless bass in that price range. The only small issue i found is the cutaway because it is a little hard to reach the high register of the neck without stretching the hand. Aside from that, everything in this bass works fine.

The battery is very easy to remove since you don't require a screwdriver, so you can always remove it if you aren't going to play for extended periods of time; it also has a pull/push knob to swap between active and passive mode. The only feature i would like to see in this bass is a mid knob for the pre amp.
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0
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