Harley Benton Enhanced MJ-5EB Lake Blue

I picked this bass up in July of 2019. The price was quite reasonable. When I received it, I did a basic setup and practiced with it. I took it to rehearsal and played through my Genzler amp, It sounded pretty good. My plan was to play it stock and do some upgrades in a few months.

Took it to the gig the next night and started the show with it. In the middle of the first song it started this high pitch screeching sound. So I cut the highs and tried to put as much bottom into it as possible. No luck, So switched it to passive mode and the screech went away. I had to play in passive mode the whole gig. It's a good thing I have a quality amp that I could compensate for the loss of the preamp.

I was planning to due a few upgrades on the bass, so I went ahead and ordered a Bartolini HR-4.7APJ/918 Pre-Wired Harness. I had it installed at my local music store.

Now this bass is one of my main basses. With the stock Rosewill pickups combined with the Bart preamp. It steps the game up on this bass. For good measure I had the music shop do full setup on it as well. The improved preamp puts this bass on par with some of the top high end basses.

If you purchase this bass be prepared for a few issues and the cost of some upgrades. But if you can handle that, this will be good instrument for a very long time.