Harley Benton BM-75 Trans Red Deluxe Series Reviews

Great sound and fantastic value for money

Nice Brian May Style Guitar

Thought I would purchase this guitar as wanted a Brian May look alike guitar, not that i am in any way good enough to use it to its best.

Whilst it has options to use the pickups it does not have all the options that Brian's guitar has available.

Nicely finished, low action and did not need any work to make it playable, it has been used just as delivered.

Once again a nice relatively cheap guitar from Harley Benton which raises a cap to the much more expensive copies of Brian's Original.

Worthy Replica!

Compared to the price it has, I was shocked by its quality. I am not using a treble booster neither a valve/tube amp, I have been trying with just the guitar directly on the BOSS ME20 pedal with some low crunchy distortion, chorus, and of course, playing with a coin. The result is just amazing. Mostly like the original, the control volume and phase switched do all the job, no need for fancy pedals or too many effects. The shape it's very edgy, and not so comfortable to play while seated... just like the original! Things I would refine/change: The pickup selector is fine, but it would have been better to have other 3 switches like the original. Tuning keys are not very precise so after some bendings it looses a bit the tune. The lever of the tremolo bridge is the "Strato like" bar that you screw in and out, if not tightened till the end (which makes almost impossible to move then) it juggles around, and the tremolo movement is not precise and noisy. Volume potentiometer/knob it's not the best, and it's the key of the sound, I will change it soon. But hey, we are talking about a 299€ RedSpecial replica, and these things I mentioned are absolutely understandable. It definitely worth every cent! Good job, HB!

Great guitar!!!

I am a new fans of Queen, so I am interested in this guitar. When it comes out of the box, it had been already set up and ready to play. Sound fantastic and the out of phase function adds lots of tonal possibility to this guitar. Lots of fun to play!!!

Great guitar when it’s rewired for series / parallel

The guitar is cosmetically good with no obvious flaws. It’s structurally sound with no major problems with the neck or body. It needed setting up and I replaced the cheap nylon nut. It is great value for a £250 guitar.

But, the main issue is that it’s wired like a strat and nothing like the red special. The pickups are wired in parallel, not in series like Brian’s, and the phase switch on the middle pickup is completely redundant. It’s a very straightforward mod to rewire the middle pickup phase switch as a series / parallel switch. That gives you strat sounds in one position, with bridge and neck humbucker sounds in the other. Plus you’ve got the additional out of phase sounds.

Now it still doesn’t sound quite like the red special. But it gives you 7 sounds in the strat position and 4 sounds in the humbucker position. And it actually is a great sounding guitar with a fairly cheap and simple mod.

I went the whole hog and replaced the stock pickups with the Burns Brian May Tri-Sonics. And it now sounds absolutely fantastic. Not cheap, but well worth the money.

My new favorite!

I am not very good, so I don't expect it to look or sound just like the Red Special. For me it is very comfortable to play, doesn't buzz or rattle, and is holding tune well. Sounds great, and feels solid. I rate this and my TE-90 QM about both of my Squiers, one of which is a '72 thinline. Definitely feel I got more than I paid for!

Beautiful guitar

After a long waiting, it finally arrived. Unfortunately it arrived with to low nut so i had to adjust it by adding same paper tile to make it higher. Action was also not adjusted.

Switching is not like on original Bryan May guitar (missing some sounds due to a usage of 5 way switch and 3 phase switches), but there are still big versatility of the sounds

Despite that the Guitar is just amazing, with great sound, very good finish and i would recommend it

Really nice copy

Ive never held BrianMay's guitar, but i think this copy might make him smile.

The body seems smaller than its famous namesake, and to my eyes is less rounded.

It is re!atively heavy and finished really nicely

I dont have years of experience so I can only speak from perception.

Sounds great, sligntly strat-ish tones in places, phase switches work but it will take a while to figure out.

Plays easily, good action from the box, good fretwork.

Love it