# NBD! Harley Benton BZ-6000, lotsa' bass for little money.



## Chi (Mar 12, 2015)

So after my last thread about brainstorming what bass I should get as my first bass and recording tool, I settled on a 35" 6 string from the Deluxe-series of Harley Benton, Thomann's own brand, made in China.

I always loved the look of their basses, especially the ones in a natural finish. The Deluxe's even have a neck-through construction, which looks really, really neat and it's flawless! When I opened the box I couldn't believe I paid 350 for it.

Under closer inspection I could find a few tiny flaws at the edges of the fretboard, probably from filing the edges of the frets. This and the fact that the fretboard is actually some synthetic wood that looks like ebony are the only "drawbacks" I can find visually. 

Since it's my first bass, I'm still struggling a little with dialing in a good tone, but that's just a matter of time and practice. The pre-amp shapes the tone really well, and with 18v powered by 2 batteries it has quite some output. Even had to dial back the trim-pot on the preamp itself to tame the signal.

I'll put a 145 on it to go down to G# soon. Currently it's strung with stock strings, D'addario 130-something, and they work really well for B and A. I have it dropped to A at the moment.

Another thing I was surprised about was the fact that this thing came really well set-up right out of the box! Didn't have to adjust anything yet, we'll see how things go after the first string-change.

Enough talk though, have some pictures! (iPhone potato-quality)











Almost like undressing a woman.





obby





dat ASS doe










A little family picture.

I also recorded a quick video, showing my basic metal tone I dialed in with my Pod HD to give you an idea how it sounds like at the moment!


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## Noxon (Mar 12, 2015)

Congrats man! That thing looks and sounds nice.


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## crg123 (Mar 12, 2015)

Nice Subliminal Meshuggah facing @1:00 and bulbing at 1:30 haha


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## Chi (Mar 12, 2015)

crg123 said:


> Nice Subliminal Meshuggah facing @1:00 and bulbing at 1:30 haha


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## Nlelith (Mar 13, 2015)

Wow, for MiC bass it sure looks and sounds pretty good! HNBD!


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## stevexc (Mar 13, 2015)

Chi said:


> This and the fact that the fretboard is actually some synthetic wood that looks like ebony are the only "drawbacks" I can find visually.



Ebonol? I'm not gonna lie, I have that on my fretless Squier and I'm a big fan of it. I wouldn't discount it just because it's not real wood, haha.

That definitely seems like a solid buy overall! HNBD!


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Mar 13, 2015)

I agree. I tried one of those Squiers and loved the sound, feel and looks. Shit, I wish more budget guitars made use of Ebanol.


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## Chi (Mar 13, 2015)

stevexc said:


> Ebonol? I'm not gonna lie, I have that on my fretless Squier and I'm a big fan of it. I wouldn't discount it just because it's not real wood, haha.
> 
> That definitely seems like a solid buy overall! HNBD!



Yeah it's not really a big deal at all, that's true! Was just trying to nitpick there I suppose. 



HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> I agree. I tried one of those Squiers and loved the sound, feel and looks. Shit, I wish more budget guitars made use of Ebanol.



The fretboard definitely feels great, I don't see a reason not having ebonol on lower price instruments, so I agree!


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## nedheftyfunk (Mar 18, 2015)

Congratulations. That's amazingly figured wood for the price. I had a toss up between the five-string version of it and the SUB Ray5. Went with the SUB. Now you have me wondering about what might have been...


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## Chi (Mar 18, 2015)

Hah! Yeah it definitely is pretty. I wouldn't have bought it if not for the tons of reviews I've read about it. Did a good bit of thinking myself.

I was gonna' get a 5 string myself, but the 35" scale length really was a selling point for me. And as a studio weapon, the 6th string really opens a lot of possibilities for clean plaing. A win-win along with the asthetics of this thing!


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## guy in latvia (Nov 26, 2015)

Sorry for resurrecting a zombie thread, but I've been thinking of getting this bass myself. How are you liking after having it for all this time? Regarding the electronics, are they directly replaceable with any active EMG or SD pickups without routing, etc?


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## Chi (Dec 29, 2015)

guy in latvia said:


> Sorry for resurrecting a zombie thread, but I've been thinking of getting this bass myself. How are you liking after having it for all this time? Regarding the electronics, are they directly replaceable with any active EMG or SD pickups without routing, etc?



Hey man! I'm starting to like it more and more every time I play it! Got a buddy here who played it as well and he thinks it's awesome.

I'm no expert on electronics and retrofitting stuff with new Pickups, especially on bass, but the routings aren't very wide, since the pickups aren't your standard EMG sized soap (I think).

It looks like Bartolini-esque routs, but I'm not too sure.


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## Chi (Mar 2, 2016)

Little update!:

Been loving this bass for studio-work so far! Got some Kalium strings on it, tuned it to F# and refined some of my Pod HD Bass patches.

Hear that baby growl: https://soundcloud.com/niverlare/niverlare-roots-teaser-2016-ep


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## MikeNeal (Mar 2, 2016)

what settings did you use in the first video for guitar and bass if you dont mind me asking, i love the way the whole mix sounds.

bass looks awesome, i wonder how the quality is compared to the basses from rondo?


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## Chi (Mar 2, 2016)

You mean the video in the OP? It's an early bass patch I made with my Pod HD. Basically a dual-amp setup with the Blackface as your clean low end and a crunchy amp for the distorted mids. EQ's with boosted lows and highs, scooped mids and a gate. Nothing too fancy there. 

And dude, I don't even know what I excpected for 350&#8364;. I'm still blown away by the one I got. It was set up really, really well from Thomann. I put some Kaliums on (182 as the thickest string), set it up for F# and it holds up great. I'm no bassist, and never owned a bass before this one, but I have no reason to complain whatsoever.


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## shredfreak (Mar 2, 2016)

I wouldn't be suprized if Cort actually made harley bentons. That bass looks pretty much identical to my A6 apart from hardware & headstock.

pretty cool though nonetheless.

They do get pretty good reviews overall on their stuff.


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## Chi (Mar 3, 2016)

shredfreak said:


> I wouldn't be suprized if Cort actually made harley bentons. That bass looks pretty much identical to my A6 apart from hardware & headstock.
> 
> pretty cool though nonetheless.
> 
> They do get pretty good reviews overall on their stuff.



In overall shape it is similar to the Cort's, but the horns etc. seem much skinnier. But who knows, it's some chinese factory and I'm sure a lot of chinese manufactured guitars come from there.


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## Low Baller (Mar 3, 2016)

This makes me consider getting a Harley one day very nice


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## shredfreak (Mar 3, 2016)

Chi said:


> In overall shape it is similar to the Cort's, but the horns etc. seem much skinnier. But who knows, it's some chinese factory and I'm sure a lot of chinese manufactured guitars come from there.



Not sure what the weight is on the HB. The Cort A6 is a monster when it comes to weight. i still got one of the older models with hipshot hardware though. 

I will have to some additional mods to it like route out the bridge to sink it in a bit & the obvious pup & electronics change (Delano (series/parallell/single + glockenklang eq).

The cort i'll be getting tomorrow will be scheduled to get Qtuners or even delano hybrids wich do look pretty interesting.


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## Chi (Mar 3, 2016)

shredfreak said:


> Not sure what the weight is on the HB. The Cort A6 is a monster when it comes to weight. i still got one of the older models with hipshot hardware though.
> 
> I will have to some additional mods to it like route out the bridge to sink it in a bit & the obvious pup & electronics change (Delano (series/parallell/single + glockenklang eq).
> 
> The cort i'll be getting tomorrow will be scheduled to get Qtuners or even delano hybrids wich do look pretty interesting.



Yeah, the HB weighs 2135 tons as well man.


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## guy in latvia (Mar 15, 2016)

Chi said:


> Little update!:
> 
> Been loving this bass for studio-work so far! Got some Kalium strings on it, tuned it to F# and refined some of my Pod HD Bass patches.
> 
> Hear that baby growl: https://soundcloud.com/niverlare/niverlare-roots-teaser-2016-ep



Really digging this one, how did you set up that tone, what are you using for drive?


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## Chi (Mar 15, 2016)

guy in latvia said:


> Really digging this one, how did you set up that tone, what are you using for drive?



Tone's all Pod HD + a highpass filtered track with some retarded distortion blended in.

Not really sure how to explain it to you. I made a rather clean sounding patch with the Pod, some EQ'ing for pronounced lows and highs, bit of a mid cut for the clean patch. And just blended that in with the distorted track I've mentioned.

Glad you dig!

Edit: Also made a video for this clip, so you can see the bass in action!


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