Harley Benton B-650FL BK Progressive Series

ik heb deze bas gekocht naast mijn 4 andere HB bassen dus ik weet de plussen en minnen van deze instrumenten.
Deze bas is door Thomann voor mij gemodificeerd en de lage B(H) snar naar er af en een hoge C plus nog hogere F snaar toegevoegd dus de boel moest twee posities opschuiven, dat is door Thomann professioneel gedaan en ik ben enorm blij met deze opzet, eindelijk een bas waarmee ik "solo" kan spelen en klinkt ook eens uitstekend dus mijn grote complimente voor de firma Thomann, ik ben heel erg blij....

This instrument is of excellent quality for an incredible price.
It is well build with some exotic woods one would only find in the higher priced instruments. The playability, sound and features are way above what one would expect of an instrument in this price range. This bass can take on basses in much higher price ranges with ease.

For me personally, I couldn't get used to the neck-profile. For me it felt a bit too thick and chunky. But that is just my personal opinion, maybe it's just me being spoiled.

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