Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherry 3-stars Reviews

Nice looking guitar with a dull sound

First, the good part - I love the looks, and it's made fairly well. No fret sprouts, the binding is decent, and the action is low. The only quality issue was that the bridge was not properly grounded (the wire was just hanging in the cavity unattached), so I had to fix it myself, which wasn't too hard.

Features-wise, I'd like to have coil split push-pull. I think the recent versions already have it, though mine didn't.

Now the complaints. It's the sound. Compared to all my other guitars, this one sounded dull, dark, flat, and uninspiring. Because I liked it otherwise, I tried changing the pups: tried various humbuckers and even a set of Phat Cats (which sounded fantastic on my Epiphone Les Paul) - nothing helped. I managed to get out of it more or less decent high-gain metal tones, but it could not do anything else properly.

Trouble Staying in Tune

It looks great and sounds nice, but it falls out of tune. I love my other Harley Benton (CST), but this one just hangs on the wall.

It's an okay guitar..

This guitar cost me around $200 (USD) and I received a $200 guitar.

There is nothing particularly special about it, nor anything wrong with it. The finish is well done, the neck profile is nice, the pick-ups sound decent, and the initial set-up was acceptable. The roseacer fretboard feels a little strange to me (I cannot explain exactly why). Overall, the guitar seems well constructed but doesn't feel like a high-quality instrument.

The bottom-line is this: if you are considering this guitar because you believe it to be a $1000 guitar, you will be disappointed. If you understand that this is an above average entry-level guitar, then you will be happy.