First of all, I was blown away by the quality of this instrument. I heard very good reviews about it before but I was still a bit skeptical...BUT it was JUST as I had heard it would be.
The hardware on this is really worth much more than how much I payed for it. Wilkinson pickups and bridge?? wow.
Great quality stuff there.
The looks on this bass...well you be the judge of that. Doesn't it look great??
- 70s style block pearloid inlays (you won't find this kind of look for this kind of money)
- lovely 3 tone sunburst on a quality American ash
- Harley Benton(thomann) really killed in the looks department on this one, in a good way ofcourse.
It sounds great! I did an AB with a Fender Mexican Jazz Bass and I personally thought this was on par if not better than the Fender!! unbelievable! There is also a good response with the blend knobs.
I had this for about 1 and a half weeks and I couldn't really find much fault in the build of the bass. The frets are nicely trimmed on the sides so it doesn't hurt your hands, and it came setup very well! All I had to do was maybe adjust the saddles to intonate it a little bit but even that was very small. It also seems to be very durable so it should be fine when going on stage as well as on the road.
The only 2 cons I found about this instrument was the pickguard and the weight.
The pickguard doesn't really look like a genuine turtoise shell pickguard up close. Looks a bit "cheap" but that's nothing you can't fix by changing it.
The heavy weight can be both a pro and a con.
It's heavy because it's made of American ash body and that actually contributes to the resonance of the bass as there is more material and mass BUT for a guy like me who isn't "bulky", this might be a problem as it's too heavy to play long hours on stage.
SO my fix on this was buying a good quality strap.
I got a Mono Cases "The Betty Strap" which is doing a miracle work for me. It balances out the weight of the bass and has paddings to relieve the stress on my shoulders. So get a nice strap! I recommend the Betty Strap.
All in all, Great instrument! Great Price! Great Service!
Kudos to you Thomann!!