Harley Benton PB-50 LH SB Vintage Series

I needed a bass guitar quickly as my old one was quite beaten from years of playing. I am a guitarist most of the time, but I do play bass a lot and I needed a functioning bass for a specific studio project. I always loved the 51 stlye P basses and the price of the Benton is hard to beat, so I pulled the trigger.

Honestly, I was expecting an ok instrument and was sure I will need to get myself something "better" down the road, but to my surprise this bass suits me like a glove! Great P bass sound, lovely fit and finish and after I put on some flats it turned out as a killer bass.
I bought it and I used it on a commercial record about a week after the purchase with great results, so I guess that speaks enough about the quality of the instrument.

Pros:
- great playability, very comfortable unfinished neck
- great P bass sound from the single coil
- Fit and finish is very good for the price
- It was set up pretty solid out of the box
- For me it is a better fit than some of the squier basses that are double the price (prefer the unfinished neck on these, but your milage my vary!)

Cons:
- upper fretwork was not perfect (specially on the treble side), but nothing too bad (easy fix, had sharper frets on my gibson to be honest...)
- some minor cosmetic issues; there is a bit of glue residue wher the neck meets the body on the side of the fretboard, but it's only visual as it is "flat" and I can't feel any raised areas.
- the neck is chunky. and I mean CHUNKY. It is one of the chunkiest necks I've played, but I happen to love it. If you want to fly over the fretboard or prefer thinker necks, avoid this one.
- tuners are not the best, although they hold tuning well and turn ok, but it's the only thing that might need replacing down the road.

Received my L/H PB-50 last week and it is excellent. looks, plays and sounds really good. I?ve got much more expensive basses.....the case for my MM Stingray V cost more than this bass! .....always fancied an original shape/style P bass.....no chance of a Fender Left Hander and then alongs comes this bass at a fantastic price. Quality instrument, equal to much more expensive models and a no brainier....

Bought this bass to kick about on so I don't damage any of my expensive, big brand basses, I didnt expect much for such little outlay.
I wanted to ditch the scratch plate and go for a vintage 'bits missing' look, as it happens the guard is pretty rubbish...the rest of the bass however is little short of awesome. I ditched the offending guard and immediately liked the instrument. The build quality is a surprise, the fretwork, playability and tonal versatility are all superb.
Playing through a Fender Rumble 100 I managed to find various usable tones from heavy, low bass stuff to slap and funk tones. I found it a little more focused than a p bass and a little hotter than a jazz.
Overall I could use this to record and gig without any setting up, though a half hour of fine tuning the setup yielded an instrument that couldn't play any better.
I can't help but be impressed, the only notably bad part can be unscrewed and discarded