Harley Benton BZ-6000 II NT

Dopo un anno e mezzo di utilizzo posso finalmente recensire bene questo prodotto

Partendo dal fattore qualità/prezzo non posso dare meno di 5 stelle, il manico è assolutamente comodo (nonostante le due corde extra) e il peso, con una tracolla di buona fattura, non è troppo eccessivo, ho usato ben di peggio

L'elettronica ha una buona gamma di suoni, usandolo principalmente per suonare metal, ma anche in ambiti più soft si trova sempre la quadra giusta, il potenziometro del volume è forse l'unica pecca, non avendo un andamento lineare, ma per il mio utilizzo non ho trovato problemi grossi

La possibilità di switchare tra attivo e passivo è molto utile, e la batteria è ancora quella originale dopo così tanto tempo

Come affidabilità, utilizzo solo questo basso da ormai un anno e mezzo, sia live sia in studio, non ho riscontrato problemi

La pecca principale di questo basso, che però mi aspettavo e per cui non andrò a modificare il mio punteggio, è la sua sensibilità al cambio delle stagioni, se usato con l'action al minimo bisognerà regolare i due truss rod un po' più frequentemente, ma ci si fa l'abitudine

Detto ciò, consiglio vivamente l'acquisto, non mi pento assolutamente di questo prodotto made in Thomann

This is my first 6-str bass (I usually play 5- and 4-strings), and after playing this one within two weeks I have mostly positive impressions.
1. Electronics are pretty decent and not that cheap. The treble pot has high freq hissing when boosted but it's not too loud and doesn't annoy me at all (also it's ok for most common active electronics). EQ works in active mode only, and there is no treble cut in passive.
The balance pot does the work, but there is a negligible drop of low and high freq in the middle position in comparison with neck and bridge positions (it sounds good though). Low and mid eq pots are ok, can't complain.
Switching between passive and active modes is not seamless if strings are sounding as there is a millisecond sound loss when you're pulling/pushing the knob, but I've noticed no volume difference between p&a modes (eq is flat ofc) which is really cool.
Tesla pups themselves are beefy, bright and variable. Semi-vintage tone is possible but it's mostly modern sound.
2. The neck is comfortable to play and easy-accessible on the highest frets. Also there is a double truss rod which I can say nothing about because I didn't need to adjust it yet. The fretboard is nice whether you play chords or single notes, and ebony looks good.
Fretwork is almost perfect but you can't lay strings on frets because of fret leveling even if each string is set as low as possible. Action is average and playable but I'd prefer it to be closer for more comfortable taping.
3. Machines heads are just ok — they are smooth and accurate enough, and keep tuning well. The good thing about the bridge is that screws can be adjusted with a flat and a cross screwdrivers, and string saddles are easy adjustable too.
4. Build on the first sight was seemed to be appropriate even for more pricy basses but there is a serious fail with my current bass. The cavities for pickups are milled crooked. How is that possible using a milling machine and having a QA, how Harley Benton? The pickups were stuck (especially bridge) until I pulled them out. And I have no idea how pickups were even set in these tight crooked cavities. Pickup screws are junk so I ruined screw heads trying to adjust pickups height despite the screwdriver matches screw heads. Thankfully I don't need to do an adjustment more than once.
5. The neck is really heavy so neck dive is smth you have to be ready for, though the balance is quite ok on a strap.
6. String spacing is perfect imo. It's more narrow than classic P/J and comfortable for fingerstyle, slap (and double thumping), or playing with a pick.
7. My bass weights 5 kilos.

To sum up, despite all the negative I can't find any basses on this price (or even half more expensive) that would be equal in quality and features to this model, and all the cons aren't that critical for such a working horse for the money.

Ich habe den Bass gekauft, um die Möglichkeiten eines 6 Saiters zu erkunden.

+ Die Bespielbarkeit ist in Ordnung. Die Saitenlage läßt sich relativ flach einstellen.
+ Die Bundreinheit passt auch.
+ Das Klangbild ist ok.
+ Die Klangregelung auch.

- Der Steg-PU fällt in der Lautstärker ab.
- Die Tuner laufen alles andere als sahnig.
- Irritierend ist die Biegsamkeit des Halses. Ein leichter Druck an der Kopfplatte reicht.

Ich hatte das Instrument zuerst anders bewertet. Aber verglichen mit deutlich höherpreisigen Bässe muss ich mich korrigieren. Denn anders als bei den teureren Instrumenten kann ich kein KO-Kriterium - wie einen krummen Hals, schlampige Verarbeitung etc - feststellen. Und PU's und Tuner lassen sich bei Bedarf einfach austauschen.

Also: Verglichen mit der 3- bis 4-mal teureren Konkurrenz ist der Bass mehr als preiswert. In diesem Kontext ist er, trotz ein paar Schwächen, sehr gut.