Harley Benton EX-84 Modern EMG BK Reviews

Great Guitar For The Price!

The Harley Benton EX84 EMG is an amazing guitar that truly stands out. The EMG pickups provide a powerful kick in the tone, delivering crisp, clear sound perfect for any genre. While the bridge pickup arrived slightly loose, it was an easy fix and didn’t detract from the overall quality. The finish on the guitar is top-notch, and the fretboard was polished and oiled to perfection. After months of playing, it still feels as fresh as the day I got it. Plus, the tuning stability is exceptional, holding the tune beautifully through extended sessions.

Metallica on a budget

The guitar looks and sounds great. Tone knob arrived loose. Tuners are rough and the neck is THICC. Great for riffing on the lower frets but going up to the higher frets is hard because it's THICC. But it's an explorer style guitar with EMGs so.

Excellent value.

Great tone, very playable. The three way switch is a little loose. EMG pick ups produce nice tones.

Nice shape

Good sound

Very good in use

Good quality

Disappointing quality

I bought this guitar for my son. Out of the box it looks amazing. The finish is top notch. It came with a preinstalled battery so it was ready to rock. BUT!!! Harley Benton turned me into a guitar tech fast. Quality is absolutely subpar. The guitars input jack came loose. And because of the wiggling of the input jack the poor soldering work came loose as well. So I had to resolder the input jack. The volume knob and pot were loose as well. So I had to fix that. Conclusion: awesome looks and rocksolid sound. Build quality is VERY BAD!!

Awesome guitar

This is a great guitar with great features like EMG pickups, graph tech nut, extra jumbo frets. It’s just awesome, a metal machine.

Not bad for the price

Bad:

The guitar (at least this one) only got a visual inspection. So they missed one of the knob was completely loose to the point I thought it was broken, the volume knob was loose as well only not as bad.

I had to oil the neck as it was very dry. The strings feel old as well.

The frets needed a slight polish, no big deal.

The good:

The body of the guitar is visually perfect (which is why the things mentioned above went unnoticed)

The setup is very good so you don’t have to worry about doing anything extra.

The intonation is also very good.

The biggest surprise is the frets, they’re leveled and with no sharp edges. I’ve had guitars double the price that I needed to take to a luthier to not only set it properly but also to level the frets or to round the edges.

The guitar is very light, so for me it’s a welcome change

In short:

Have some tools nearby, just in case you to adjust something.

Change the strings.

Plug and play

Great Explorer for good money

Fantastic guitar that looks heavy, sounds heavy (it has 2 great pickups). I didn't change anything, just out of the box and it sounds good. I have it tuned to D-standard and might adjust the action as the strings buzz , but I can't hear anything from the amp.

The only issues I found are:

1. Neck dive. A bit annoying, but I replaced the nylon strap with a leather one. Improved, but not fixed.

2. Toggle switch - it works like is going to fall apart, seems to be not too solid. Toggles pickups all right, however it could be a better quality switch.

Anyway, I would recommend this HB guitar no problem (a second HB in my collection).

Poor quality

Fret 18 has scratches.

9v battery was discharged, 3.5 volts.

Fretbord is damaged on the left between frets 13-14, 15-16 and 16-17.

Also small damage on the right side of fretboard between frets 15-22.

The action was high enough to put my pinkie between the strings and 22th fret.

The guitar came with a booklet telling me about high quality control.

If this is high control, I wonder what low quality control is...

Besides that jumbo frets are amasing, paint job and varnish coating are flawless.

Fantastic guitar

Just got this guitar and after playing it for the past 2 hours its now my go to guitar. Right out the box it was ready to play. The finish and construction of this guitar is far better than any guitar in its price range i would say if your thinking of buying one do not hesitate also hot the case for $79. Its as good as the $100 plus cases you would get at any music store!! Shipment was lighting fast!!!!

Killer at any price!

Well my skepticism has been laid to rest: this guitar is as good as the Gibson VOS LP custom and Fender US strat that it now lives next to on my wall. No Sh#t.

I don’t leave reviews, generally, but I’m here to tell ya,that this guitar is really good. Fit, finish m, playability (almost, lowered the tail piece 1/2 turn and tightens truss half a turn) out the box, hardware is nice, tight and trim. I have not a problem with it, in fact I am really enjoying playing it. A lot.

Needed an EMG loaded axe for a heavy project. Figured I’d try this one first.

Packaging was fine, shipping to US was a week, including handling.

I buy and sell lots of guitars.

This one is not only on par with high end guitars. It’s a keeper.

Get one. Hurry up, before they sell out.

Chinese Crap

So this took 4 business days just to ship out because they had to inspect it. The guitar came with a bad battery. The guitar head-dives MAJORLY. The neck is fat and uncomfortable. And the volume knob is in the way of your hand. If i picked this up at guitar center id put it down, it feels light and cheap.

My go to guitar right now while I get my les Paul fixed.

It's a nice axe very smooth and I love the emg pick ups. The strings need to be changed now since I've been using the ones that originally came with the guitar. I also need to polish it so other than that i use it everyday and can't get enough of it.

Great value purchase!

Fit and finish could use minor improvement, but nothing I want to nitpick at this price point.

Features were as specified. Just need a set of new strings. These were not very good.

Plays well, sounds good. Needs a personal setup is all.

Best guitar to live out your 'tallica phase.

Super impressed by this HB guitar. I always wanted to play EMGs and man did I get my wish come true. As with most, set it up to your preference and rock on.

THE guitar for Metallica fans around the world

For the price point this guitar is UNMATCHED! Top notch hardware all around nothing stopping this from being a solid touring guitar for all metal heads! Also was very pleasantly surprised with the exceptionally fast shipping time overseas to Canada.

Pros:

EMG's, Locking Tuners, Solid hardware all around. Comes very well set up from factory no complaints here about action or intonation or anything for that matter

Cons:

Can't get enough of it!

Teenage dream

Looks sick, sounds like a brick to your face (at least with my Fender mustang amp and some downloadable Metallica presets). The neck is fat and I love it, but could be a problem if you are used to thinner guitars. Neck came straight - didn't have to adjust the rod. Experimented with the string height because by default they were pretty high - but that is an individual preference. All the adjusting mechanisms work just fine.

If you take a closer look, you can spot that the colouring is uneven - there are some brighter parts on the neck, but you really have to look for those. And for the price of the guitar - it doesn't bother me at all. The colouring of the guitar is very fragile - if you won`t handle it with care, you can easily damage it. I got a tiny crack on the edge of the body after bumping it on the wooden chair. Also the default strings seemed lubed, because after short period of playing, fretting and picking hand started to turn black.

All in all - I`am very satisfied with the looks and the sound. Would recommend to my friends.

Great Metal Axe!

I bought this guitar because it was the cheapest Explorer shaped guitar with EMG pickups and I am a big Metallica fan.

The quality is decent, it only has 2 tiny finish flaws, one the the bridge tailpiece, the other one next to the neck pickup, but I don't care about that since the guitar is not that expensive, but everything else works like charm.

No sharp frets, smooth neck, it even came it tune from Germany all the way to my country.

The price to performance ratio is huge with this guitar.

If you like Explorer guitars or you are a Metallica or James Hetfield fan and want to go on a budget, this is bang for the buck!

Bargain Explorer to rival Epiphone and Gibson!

Just bought this for my husband as a 30th birthday present. He's been looking for an explorer for ages, and finally he has one! He had this to say:

The fit and finish of the guitar is exceptional. Fret ends rounded off, frets polished, intonation out of the box is spot on and arrived in perfect condition. Finish is perfect, no imperfections, no fret buzz. All it needed was the action lowering, restringing, lemon oil on the fretboard, and a slight truss rod adjustment. But thats personal preference. Out of the box all it needs is a quick tune and it's very playable!

In short:

Pros - everything. Insane guitar and spec for the money, quality rivals that of Epiphone and even Gibson.

Cons - NONE. Except for the fact they are so good everyone wants one!