Harley Benton MV-4P Shell Pink

I bought this bass for the looks. I wanted a pink PBass for a long time, and this one is quite beautiful. The shell pink is gorgeous; it has a slight lavender hue, not a problem, but it is worth noticing. The bass is a bit heavy for my liking at 4,1kg.

I gave the bass 4 stars because, out of the box, it's not a great instrument. I wasn't expecting it to be one, to be honest, and, although it was of slightly higher quality than expected, it wasn't really anything to write home about.
It has a few high frets; most notably, it has an unseated 12th fret, which immediately lowers the instrument's overall quality. The tuners are really not great; they all have a different feel and are obviously quite cheap. The pickup is ok, but too hot for my liking, and the bridge is just adequate (although the brass saddles are a nice touch).

With all this said, after proper shielding and customisation, it turned into my favourite bass. I put a pearloid blue pickguard on it, and I replaced the bridge with a Gotoh 404SJ-C and the pickup with an EMG Geezer Butler. This is a monster now. It is dead silent, plays great, doesn't neck dive, and sounds incredible with Fender 9050L flats on it. The tuners will also definitely be replaced in the near future.
It is worth noticing that even though it is a 38mm neck, it is quite chunky and might take some time to get used to. Nevertheless, it looks beautiful and feels great in hand and, apart from the frets, is impeccably finished.

I really like HB, but realistically, I always expect at least some, if not a lot of work on every instrument I buy from them. This one is no exception, but is absolutely worth it! It is a pretty good instrument out of the box and a great modding platform!

TOPS:
Color
fit and finish (frets excluded)
overall quality
very nice woods (the bass sounds great acoustically)
Trussrod wheel!!!
Top-loading triple string tree
The neck looks and feels great
High customizability


FLOPS:
Fret ends and especially that unseated 12th fret (I'm REALLY disappointed in that one...)
Low-quality tuners
Side neck markers halfway in the wood/halfway in the binding look misplaced
No shielding whatsoever (There was a lot of buzz going on out of the box)