Harley Benton RB-414BK Classic Series

73

Electric Bass

  • Classic Series
  • Body: Okoume
  • Glued-in neck: Okoume
  • Fingerboard: Amaranth
  • Dot fingerboard inlays
  • Fingerboard radius: 350 mm
  • Scale: 864 mm
  • Nut width: 42 mm
  • Body and neck binding
  • Double-action truss-rod
  • 22 Frets
  • Pickups: Artec Mini humbucker (neck) and single coil (bridge)
  • 3-Way pickup selector switch
  • 2 Volume and 2 tone controls
  • Chrome hardware
  • DLX machine heads
  • Strings: .040 - .100
  • Colour: Black
  • Suitable strings: Super Long Scale 175630
  • Matching case: art. 122214 (not included)
Available since December 2019
Item number 467068
Sales Unit 1 piece(s)
Colour Black
Soundboard Okoume
Neck Okoume
Fretboard Amaranth
Frets 22
Scale Long Scale
Pickups SH
Elektronic Passive
Incl. Case No
Incl. Bag No
$209
The shipping costs are calculated on the checkout page.
In stock within 9-12 weeks
In stock within 9-12 weeks

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

Standard Delivery Times
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A new spin on a classic design

The Harley Benton RB-414 BK, part of the brand's "Classic Series", is an extremely affordable solid-body bass with a set neck. Despite the fact that Harley Benton has done its own thing when designing the RB-414, the bass still clearly harks back to a classic design of the 1960s and 1970s. Even back then, it would have cut a fine figure in the hands of Paul McCartney or Chris Squire. Fortunately, players can now get their hands on one of these unusual-looking basses without having to spend a fortune on one of the significantly more expensive originals.

From Metal through to square dance

Players may well not believe their eyes when they take their first look at the RB-414 and its specifications. But as incredible as it sounds, it's for real: A bass that comes with a high-gloss body finish and a set okoume neck, bound body and fingerboard, two pickups, double-action truss rod, and a sophisticated bridge is a true rarity at this price point. The RB-414 combines a humbucking neck pickup with a single coil bridge pickup, thus ensuring a high degree of sonic versatility, and its looks and playing feel make it great for fans of heavier music. Quite apart from Rock & Roll in its manifold guises, however, this is a bass that will mesh perfectly with other styles, including Country and Western.

Easy to set up, even easier to play

The Harley Benton RB-414 BK is a dream come true for bass junkies who have long aspired to aquire a bass with this distinctive design but have hitherto not had the means. Far from being just an affordable compromise, however, this bass effortlessly fulfils all of the player's day-to-day needs. The double-action truss rod allows the neck to be optimally adjusted whatever climatic conditions are like - a major benefit with set-neck instruments - and the bridge features individually adjustable saddles that can be locked in order to prevent accidental changes to the intonation. The bridge additionally has a height-adjustable baseplate, which can also be locked to prevent unwanted changes to the bridge height and to eliminate unwanted noise. In other words, you can "set it and forget it".

About Harley Benton

Since 1998, the Harley Benton brand has been catering for the needs of numerous guitarists and bassists. In addition to an extensive range of stringed instruments, Thomann's house brand also offers a wide choice of amplifiers, speakers, effect pedals, and other accessories. In total, the range includes over 1,500 products. Built by established names in the industry, all Harley Benton products combine quality and reliability at attractive and affordable prices. The continuous expansion of the range ensures that Harley Benton always provides new, exciting, and innovative products that keep players perfectly in tune with the musical world, day after day.

Like hitting the jackpot

It goes without saying that basses at this price point are most immediately associated with beginners and newcomers to the instrument, and of course the Harley Benton RB-414 BK is perfect for those players. That would be selling its potential short, however, because it certainly has what it takes to appeal to the more advanced player as well, whether they are a bassist looking for a backup instrument or just one that sounds radiacally different, or maybe even a guitarist who occasionally likes to moonlight on bass. And one important final tip: Although the RB-414 features a standard 34" scale length, making it a "long scale" bass, players should be aware that they will need "extra long scale" strings as a result of the large gap between the bridge and the tailpiece.

73 Customer ratings

4.3 / 5

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59 Reviews

H
Good value for money for this style of bass
Howard 04.04.2020
Use – mostly for personal pleasure, but will be used for an occasional gig. My usual amp is an Ampeg Portaflex 500 through 2 4x10 Kustom cabs. Also sounds good with a Behringer 300w head.
Summary – Good value for money for this style of bass. I like this, already playing it a lot. Looks the part and sounds good. It is very reminiscent of a certain US manufacturer’s classic basses, one of which I used to own.
General - I have not had happy experiences with HB basses, which unlike HB guitars have often in the past been poorly made and sound terrible. This though is somewhat different, looks great, seems well made enough, but still far short of being beyond criticism. It does have that RB like growl – the neck pickup is a thing of beauty. It also has a very nice thin neck profile with a more traditional wide fretboard – a very different playing experience compared to more modern neck profiles and widths. The polar opposite of a jazz bass.
Pros – plays very well. Intonation and neck relief were perfect out of the box, and action height suited me too, so nothing to adjust. As it has acclimatised to my house I have had to make a small adjustment to the neck. The tuners seem fine. The growl and mids from the neck pickup are IMO what I am looking for in a bass of this style. The neck and body binding are really nice to have, and on the neck helps with the slick playing experience. The bridge pickup saddle makes a perfect wrist rest for a bit of slap bass.
Cons – a few minor finishing issues, some chrome missing from one of the bridge saddles, the odd bit of not quite tidy finishing, a few sharp fret edges at the dusty end. No fret buzz, but a lot of buzzing from somewhere around the pickups from any G (+/- one or two frets) played anywhere; this is a sympathetic mechanical buzz and you can’t hear it through an amp. The bridge pickup is set far too far from the strings, and the height adjuster screws are also what hold the chrome cover on. As these are screwed with springs over them into a plastic plate underneath the pickup the whole assembly is prone to moving. I re-engineered the setup to get the pickup higher and the saddle solidly mounted, which unsurprisingly has also eliminated the buzz I mentioned earlier. I’d rather have a higher output, but that’s what the gain control on the amplifier is for. It did arrive with the bridge pickup saddle badly bent – I am not a fan of Thomann’s new paper packaging, it definitely does not work as well as the blown plastic packaging did.
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S
sounds great but the quality of it let it down.
Sergiosel1 28.02.2022
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!
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Anonymous 30.01.2023
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
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H
Excellent experience and customer service
Honeycrash 14.03.2022
Pure quality 👌 in harley benton bass guitar 🎸
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