I agree with you. I have an Epiphone SG in black stain with a black pick guard, and it's nice, but feels a little too monochrome. The red of this pick guard really pops and gives it nice character. Makes me want to cut a new pick guard for my SG. :)
Hah I was stupid enough to get one for 79 pounds , ordered pj bass but the p pickup didn't work so it was a jazz bass without the neck pickup , the controll knobs kept falling off and and the it was just bad in general. Never get a bass under 150 if it's not a well known brand.
I made some simple and cheap adjustements. Strings through the body. There are already holes in the bridgeplate. Simply drill 4 holes through the body. Then cut off the electronics. Pickup directly to the output jack. Sounds like a musicman. Combine with any preamp or passiv. Perfect. Greetings from Hamburg
Love the pick guard contrasting colors make the instrument easier to see I doubt if it were a white base with a black pick guard there wouldn't be a complaint I changes most of my guitars and basses because I want them to be seen and since it's a passive bass the two volume controls is thinking outside the box to keep the Stingray look
Bass players today have it made. My brother played a Fender bass for 30 years starting in the 70's. He was on stage a lot and his bass weighted close to 12 pounds.
Just ordered one. That's my 6th Harley Benton. I now have one electro acoustic, one bass and four electric guitars from this maker. All of them are fantastic.
I'm loving Gregor's humour here haha :) Love this in the description: more beard: @Rene Flächsenhaar less beard: Gregor Fris Nice to see a cheaper Musicman alternative from Harley Benton
Dude that’s exactly what I was thinking!! I don’t even like active, back when I had an OLP stingray, the original owner put an active eq and first thing I did was take it out 😂
Another fine product review video again. I agree with all the comments about your sense of humour, the comment about the neck had cracked me up. Rene's playing is inspiring and entertaining as always, makes me feel immediately grab my bass guitar and start to play. Cheers!
Got hold of one recently £115 + shipping crazy cheap sounds and looks fantastic. Feels good to play no issues with neck size for me. Get one you'll love it. PS mine is sunburst but I saw one in black and a black pickguard it looked much nicer IMHO.
I bought a sunburst one the other night when I was PISSED - It arrives tomorrow. 😀 I don´t even play bass but a good friend had her bass nicked years ago .. so I´ll let her have it. 😎 I actually have a 1983 EBMM Cutlass on my bench for a service .... so will make a comparison tomorrow. Hopefully I´ll remember to hit RECORD ! Letcha know how we get on!!! Cheers from Madrid
I have a passive OLP MM2 STINGRAY and it has thr same control's but i play everything wide open. It also has the actual Stingray 3+1 tuners because it was the only bass Ernie Ball gave a license to and it was before Ernie Ball made Sterling
Harley Benton's require two things. Locking tuner upgrades and a new set of strings of your choice. Beyond that they are solid as any brand name and a lot more affordable.
youtube channels or what you call them are so stupidly commercial, you want to watch people but you see commercials... BUT this review, the first for me, is amazing... elegance, humor, great bass playing, and very good points... even though I love the pickguard red :) so, right away I subscribed to this channel or what you call it :) thanks for the great review!
Never meet your heros, for years I wanted a Stingray 4H. Bought a 2000 4H in Trans Orange with maple neck....usual quiet G string, neck like a baseball bat, neck wasn't stable for ever tweaking the truss rod, sold and replaced with another VMJ jazz.
Cool bass but dealbreakers for me are the nut width and headstock shape, probably gonna stick with my Sterling SUB Series 4, but I like the idea of separate coil volume controls!
If I had a need for a stingray . This is definitely the bass I'd buy. Great demo btw . I'm better off with a precision and a jazz but this is a great bass especially for the price.
@@Minimalist1266 Absolutely mind blowing how they can do this for the price. Looks, feels, sounds like Ray, plus the ability to get a single coil tone, which sounds REALLY good. I'm gifting the PB20 to a friend's son.
I had a genuine stingray five and the only problem I had with it was the g string was so close to the edge of the front board I kept pulling it off. I'm curious if that happens but this one
I got a Dr Tech bass that looks exactly like this. But sunburst finish. Got it from a friend but looked up website and it originally sold for $130. Not sure if it is manufactured in States but assembled in California. They are out of business now I guess. Man is mine heavy though.
I just bought Schecter SGR for 200€ four weeks ago. Knowing new HBs would look this stunning and cost 130-140€ I'd definitely would've waited. Dammit, I'm satisfied with the Schecter, it sounds better than these but I'm on a tight budget, just for home playing, so HB would've been good enough, especially with that 5th string...
I was very surprised by the price. You could probably kit it out with active circuitry if you needed, but I'm not sure we heard both volumes, and is there a difference?
I’ve got a left-handed MB4. Terrific for the price! The only thing is the pick guard is easily scuffed revealing its white base colour. Also, why don’t HB do lefties in any other colour apart from black???
I never had a Stingray because I don't like active basses, but now this is not an excuse anymore. I think I'm gonna get one, or two for that price... when was your birthday again? ;-)
Question: I see the pickguard has a white outline, so is it in two layers and could I remove the screws and take the top layer off and have a white pickguard?
I have a Sterling SUB, and the flat finish on that has also become shiny over the years. So even with the "real" fake Music Man, you're going to have that issue....if it's an issue. I kind of like it.
I wanna order one and upgrade it with emg mmtw5 and emg bqc preamp what say you? I think it will pretty much sound wise challenge a 1000 euros stingray, as for the features, it will outperform it with the mid controls and the high freq switch!
I've had one of the HB mb-4 for about a year now. The volume/volume/tone arrangement with the stock pickup is pretty much useless as it is. Terrible hum, especially if you isolate the bridge pickup. Leave it in MusicMan mode and it sounds great though; in other words, just don't touch the volumes. Though I've doing the research and started getting the parts together for a Nordstrand Quad Coil and also swap in a push/pull pot. This setup will then allow for series/parallel/single coil switching. From what I've been reading should take it from a one trick pony to a dynamic tone machine.
Could you do a followup video after upgrading the pickups/electronics? maybe EMG MM5tw to keep the dual/single coil on a push pull volume switch and add the BQC control for a four band EQ Would love to see the tone possibilities!
Can you please let us know how your action and truss rod is set? Like measurements? I have noticed that you generaly have very nice low action, and i would love to duplicate that on my basses 🙏
Why make this bass passive and why isn't the pickguard black??? This would make for a nice stealth StingRay copy Buy, hey, the buyer could upgrade it with an active/passive preamp. I'm very cool with my black Sterling by Music Man Ray 35!!!
Gasp sooo thats how you pronounce his surname !! Btw his playing is absolute inspiration!! i have never heard anyone else groove with stank like he does. I see Rene - click like
Hi! I love your video('s) and because of this one i ordered one myself. My question is if you change the strings or came the once we listen to on the video with the bass?
hello bro I'm not sure whether to buy this harley benton bass or a yamaha trbx 174, which is better in terms of performance? Or well, if you were in my place, which one would you choose?
Wow okay these basses are no longer available.. too bad, I'd like to try one of those since HB doesn't have to hide itself behind other, more expensive and more established brands anymore
A stingray with a Fender-ish headstock looks better than the 3 top, 1 bottom headstock that Stingrays have, in my opinion. This bass looks gorgeous, though. The dark-gray matte finish with the dark-red pickguard is great. The headstock curves are also pretty cool! Also, the string spacing seems to be really tight for a 5-string, which i like. Probably getting this as my 2nd bass, try the 5 strings for Primus and stuff. ALSO also, 4:16, this is definitely gonna do great covers for RATM, provided you get a good distortion. Over-all, sounds like a brighter Stingray, which is perfect for me.
After we released this video they sold so many of those, that they had to take it off the website for a bit. There's possibly hundreds of these on backorder. The offering will reappear once they're able to deliver again
i disagree i think the black with tortoise pickguard is a stroke of genius
I agree with you. I have an Epiphone SG in black stain with a black pick guard, and it's nice, but feels a little too monochrome. The red of this pick guard really pops and gives it nice character. Makes me want to cut a new pick guard for my SG. :)
I`ve wrapped my pickuard in black and it looks a beast, shame I can`t share a pic on here.
yeap it looks amazing!
I have The HB Tele black with tortoise pickguard and it looks absolutely fine!
'Tor-twarrzz', please.
Beginners these days have it so much easier than we did 30 years ago, so many more viable starter axes.
and we're so happy about it :D and the pandemic gave us time to practice too
Totally agree!
Yes, my first bass was everything, but not in tune, hahahahahaha!!!
Hah I was stupid enough to get one for 79 pounds , ordered pj bass but the p pickup didn't work so it was a jazz bass without the neck pickup , the controll knobs kept falling off and and the it was just bad in general. Never get a bass under 150 if it's not a well known brand.
@@pilotreg Sorry about that. I got no problem whatsoever, guess I was lucky. Love this bass.
Lets be honest, Rene could play a loaf of bread and it would f#*king rule.
I wish I could:)
Agreed. He's a groove machine.
@@slawaschwed Sorry, to hear this.
@@reneflachsenhaar2968 I have a loaf of very stale, hard rye bread in my kitchen that I'm going to mount a neck and some strings on and give to you. 😎
@@patrickfitzgerald2861 :)
I made some simple and cheap adjustements. Strings through the body. There are already holes in the bridgeplate. Simply drill 4 holes through the body. Then cut off the electronics. Pickup directly to the output jack. Sounds like a musicman. Combine with any preamp or passiv. Perfect. Greetings from Hamburg
They are really stepping up there game. Killer looks and tone
Best Rene Bass-Face in a long time! 😆👍
I play a Sterling Ray 35 and honestly these don't sound a million miles away from that. Colour me impressed.
Love the pick guard contrasting colors make the instrument easier to see I doubt if it were a white base with a black pick guard there wouldn't be a complaint I changes most of my guitars and basses because I want them to be seen and since it's a passive bass the two volume controls is thinking outside the box to keep the Stingray look
Bass players today have it made. My brother played a Fender bass for 30 years starting in the 70's. He was on stage a lot and his bass weighted close to 12 pounds.
Just ordered one. That's my 6th Harley Benton. I now have one electro acoustic, one bass and four electric guitars from this maker. All of them are fantastic.
I'm loving Gregor's humour here haha :)
Love this in the description:
more beard: @Rene Flächsenhaar
less beard: Gregor Fris
Nice to see a cheaper Musicman alternative from Harley Benton
When Harley Benton makes a Bongo six strings copy I’ll buy one at least.
Bongo is like a Stingray but looks like a toilet on a stick.
@@jrburger95 I need six strings, jajajajaja. No matter if it looks a toilet
Dude a cheap toilet seat looking bass I want them to make it..
@@Jihadbearzwithgunz Sounds like a fun DIY project. You could get a toilet seat for less than $50. ;)
@@NeoRichardBlake lol and a warmoth neck and just a hunk of mahogany lol don't tempt me ;)
I need more "bleck" basses in my life right now :) The first clip is really awesome BTW.
The OLP was also passive with volume knobs doe each pickup coil. The neck was so thin you could dive bomb by pressing on the headstock
No need for the Dart signature then 😂
Dude that’s exactly what I was thinking!! I don’t even like active, back when I had an OLP stingray, the original owner put an active eq and first thing I did was take it out 😂
Had mine for over a year. I love it. I put a flat black pickguard on it and some DR black beauties.
Hi where did you buy the pickguard please?
@@georgebowling842 i painted the existing one.
Another fine product review video again. I agree with all the comments about your sense of humour, the comment about the neck had cracked me up. Rene's playing is inspiring and entertaining as always, makes me feel immediately grab my bass guitar and start to play. Cheers!
Hmmm active Thunderbird, passive Stingray....someone in HB messed with the specs lol
George Vrachliotis loll
I believe that's on purpose. The market for conventional specs is already saturated enough with epiphone and SUB
As an owner of 2 Musicman basses, I'd like one of those as well.
Got hold of one recently £115 + shipping crazy cheap sounds and looks fantastic. Feels good to play no issues with neck size for me. Get one you'll love it. PS mine is sunburst but I saw one in black and a black pickguard it looked much nicer IMHO.
Great review ! Detail, humour, just great. Such a refreshing change .. Thanks
Larry Graham Hair on that slap bit....sounds great.
I bought a sunburst one the other night when I was PISSED - It arrives tomorrow. 😀 I don´t even play bass but a good friend had her bass nicked years ago .. so I´ll let her have it. 😎 I actually have a 1983 EBMM Cutlass on my bench for a service .... so will make a comparison tomorrow. Hopefully I´ll remember to hit RECORD ! Letcha know how we get on!!! Cheers from Madrid
Thanks for the review. I need a bass but only for my little home studio. I think this is the perfect fit.
I have a passive OLP MM2 STINGRAY and it has thr same control's but i play everything wide open. It also has the actual Stingray 3+1 tuners because it was the only bass Ernie Ball gave a license to and it was before Ernie Ball made Sterling
I love how groovy Popeyes bass lines are!
Haha, Popeye never thought about him! Made my day!:)
Harley Benton's require two things.
Locking tuner upgrades and a new set of strings of your choice. Beyond that they are solid as any brand name and a lot more affordable.
Most come with D'Addario strings?
Strings no. Tuners sometimes.
Harley Benton is always killing it!
youtube channels or what you call them are so stupidly commercial, you want to watch people but you see commercials... BUT this review, the first for me, is amazing... elegance, humor, great bass playing, and very good points... even though I love the pickguard red :) so, right away I subscribed to this channel or what you call it :)
thanks for the great review!
Yes guy! Nice bass playing - love your bass face too.
Never meet your heros, for years I wanted a Stingray 4H. Bought a 2000 4H in Trans Orange with maple neck....usual quiet G string, neck like a baseball bat, neck wasn't stable for ever tweaking the truss rod, sold and replaced with another VMJ jazz.
Oh mein Gott!
Sie haben’s getan.
Sie haben einen Klassiker gebaut. Gratulation an Thomann! Ich werde einen bestellen und modden!
These basses sounded pretty cool. \m/ sounds killer with distortion at the end of the video.
Cool bass but dealbreakers for me are the nut width and headstock shape, probably gonna stick with my Sterling SUB Series 4, but I like the idea of separate coil volume controls!
If I had a need for a stingray . This is definitely the bass I'd buy. Great demo btw . I'm better off with a precision and a jazz but this is a great bass especially for the price.
just ordered one. love my pb20, and being a long time stingray lover I can't wait to try this. as always, great review and demo!
I assume you got the bass by now? What's your verdict?
@@Minimalist1266 Absolutely mind blowing how they can do this for the price. Looks, feels, sounds like Ray, plus the ability to get a single coil tone, which sounds REALLY good. I'm gifting the PB20 to a friend's son.
@@presentrlb u have the mbk ? u can slap with it ? i have difficulty for do it.
What have you done, Gregor?
Now I'll have to buy this one too. Not only for some good touching experience. Thanks for a great review! 🐷
I had a genuine stingray five and the only problem I had with it was the g string was so close to the edge of the front board I kept pulling it off. I'm curious if that happens but this one
I got a Dr Tech bass that looks exactly like this. But sunburst finish. Got it from a friend but looked up website and it originally sold for $130. Not sure if it is manufactured in States but assembled in California. They are out of business now I guess. Man is mine heavy though.
I just bought Schecter SGR for 200€ four weeks ago. Knowing new HBs would look this stunning and cost 130-140€ I'd definitely would've waited. Dammit, I'm satisfied with the Schecter, it sounds better than these but I'm on a tight budget, just for home playing, so HB would've been good enough, especially with that 5th string...
I was very surprised by the price. You could probably kit it out with active circuitry if you needed, but I'm not sure we heard both volumes, and is there a difference?
I’ve got a left-handed MB4. Terrific for the price! The only thing is the pick guard is easily scuffed revealing its white base colour. Also, why don’t HB do lefties in any other colour apart from black???
Man, this video is only from a month ago and they don't sell this Bass on Thomann anymore. :/
They will most likely be available again in May 2021.
Hello. Does the original Stingray 5 pickguard fit the MB-5? And also, where can be bought different colour pickguard for MB-5? Thank you.
I would be surprised if a MM fits here. I don’t think you can buy replacements
Found replacement mirror finish pickguard for my MB-4 on EBay, fitted perfectly.
I never had a Stingray because I don't like active basses, but now this is not an excuse anymore. I think I'm gonna get one, or two for that price... when was your birthday again? ;-)
I kept the 4 string... I’m good, but thanks 🙂
Makes me want to upgrade my face with some beard attachments!
It is an OLP with 6 bolts in the neck instead of four. Killer look, and I want one ^^
You can remove the pickguard and make it more black. ;)
That sounded better than my squier I just upgraded from. Maybe you had some noise suppression, but I didn't hear a buzz, hiss, or hum.
The neck on this good for someone with small hands? Looks awesome.
Im in the process of building a passive music man style bass from scratch right now too!
Sounds grrrrrrreat! Rene is so cool.
We all want to see you play! Make it happen
Question: I see the pickguard has a white outline, so is it in two layers and could I remove the screws and take the top layer off and have a white pickguard?
Nope, that’s 1 piece
HB are killer basses for the money.
I have a Sterling SUB, and the flat finish on that has also become shiny over the years. So even with the "real" fake Music Man, you're going to have that issue....if it's an issue. I kind of like it.
I have a PB , looking at picking one of these up too. Would prefer a fretless one but they don't make those unfortunately
I wanna order one and upgrade it with emg mmtw5 and emg bqc preamp what say you? I think it will pretty much sound wise challenge a 1000 euros stingray, as for the features, it will outperform it with the mid controls and the high freq switch!
Harley Benton it's just like Kakashi Sensei, the copy ninja! And always makes copies with excellent quality!
THE best Stingray copy around.
How does it compare with HB B-550? There is a small price difference, but which is actually better?
Haha, sehr cooler Humor, Gregor!
Ich bin ebenfalls total begeistert von diesem Bass, der macht echt Laune und klingt einfach großartig! 😎👍
I've had one of the HB mb-4 for about a year now. The volume/volume/tone arrangement with the stock pickup is pretty much useless as it is. Terrible hum, especially if you isolate the bridge pickup. Leave it in MusicMan mode and it sounds great though; in other words, just don't touch the volumes. Though I've doing the research and started getting the parts together for a Nordstrand Quad Coil and also swap in a push/pull pot. This setup will then allow for series/parallel/single coil switching. From what I've been reading should take it from a one trick pony to a dynamic tone machine.
real nice, but Fender already has an MB5 bass. ???
Dude! It's a humbucker and the volumes allow you to coil split but also give more choices.
The bass sounds good, silver pickup magnetic poles, actually match the silver frets and silver strings.
What string does have on? Would you recommend to buy flatwound string for it?
yes
I have 2 Musicman basses. These basses seem awesome as well!!
Beim großen T im Webshop ist der Bass nicht zu finden ...
Is it possible to change the pick guard on this? I love the colour, but not a fan of the shape :[
What riff is he Renee playing when he first intros the bass? Or is he just jamming to a backer track?
Could you do a followup video after upgrading the pickups/electronics? maybe EMG MM5tw to keep the dual/single coil on a push pull volume switch and add the BQC control for a four band EQ Would love to see the tone possibilities!
I kept the 4-string but really like it as it is
@@basstheworldofficial it sounds pretty good!
Can you please let us know how your action and truss rod is set? Like measurements? I have noticed that you generaly have very nice low action, and i would love to duplicate that on my basses 🙏
THEY NEED TO BRING THIS BACK!!😭
It is back!
@@randomcitizenname
It is?😳/😃
I haven't looked on their site recently!🕵🏾
@@jasonbenford3427 yep, at least the 4 string one is.
Just got mine.....love it
Would a standard Stingray 5 pickgaurd fit on the MB5?
Why make this bass passive and why isn't the pickguard black??? This would make for a nice stealth StingRay copy Buy, hey, the buyer could upgrade it with an active/passive preamp. I'm very cool with my black Sterling by Music Man Ray 35!!!
Can anyone recommend a direct fit replacement bridge for both the 4 & 5?
I like the red pickup-guard! But the back of the neck...yes, should be natural.
The knob configuration i'ts kind the same the Eko made on his M style basses (tone, bridge coil volume, neck coil volume)
Already no longer available on the linked site :(
I like the bleck with tortwas.
YEAH!!!!! have you the name of the track at 00:08 !??? THKS
Rene est un tueur !!!!
white nut on the 5 strings?
Gasp sooo thats how you pronounce his surname !! Btw his playing is absolute inspiration!! i have never heard anyone else groove with stank like he does. I see Rene - click like
The bass is no longer available at Thomann... why?!?! Does anybody know?
Sold out at the moment
Does anybody know if there will be a lefthand-version of this bass?
More matte black finishes holy heck
Can anyone make recommendations on what strings to put on the MB-4 SBK when I get it ? 😅
Ernie Balls sound great!
The ones it comes with which are D'addario
Got one with retrovibe stinger 70s preamp,,,it's a STINGRAY for £119...❤🤦👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👍
Happy birthday!
Hard to mess up 1-3/8” pole pieces.
Hi! I love your video('s) and because of this one i ordered one myself. My question is if you change the strings or came the once we listen to on the video with the bass?
the bass in the recording was fresh out of the box. We didn’t change a thing
hello bro I'm not sure whether to buy this harley benton bass or a yamaha trbx 174, which is better in terms of performance? Or well, if you were in my place, which one would you choose?
This one here
Wow okay these basses are no longer available.. too bad, I'd like to try one of those since HB doesn't have to hide itself behind other, more expensive and more established brands anymore
Missed you Gregor!
The tune from about 8 seconds in, is that by somebody or your own jam? Sounds great.
René Flächsenhaar wrote this (the player)
A stingray with a Fender-ish headstock looks better than the 3 top, 1 bottom headstock that Stingrays have, in my opinion.
This bass looks gorgeous, though. The dark-gray matte finish with the dark-red pickguard is great. The headstock curves are also pretty cool!
Also, the string spacing seems to be really tight for a 5-string, which i like. Probably getting this as my 2nd bass, try the 5 strings for Primus and stuff.
ALSO also, 4:16, this is definitely gonna do great covers for RATM, provided you get a good distortion. Over-all, sounds like a brighter Stingray, which is perfect for me.
This bass is no longer available on the Thomann website.
After we released this video they sold so many of those, that they had to take it off the website for a bit. There's possibly hundreds of these on backorder. The offering will reappear once they're able to deliver again
I want a four string one.