Harley Benton HWY-25BKS Progressive Series 4-stars Reviews

Harley Benton HWY-25BKS Progressive Series

Pickups sound slightly muddy, the nut is pretty bad for tuning stability, tremolo bar is unusable because it makes the guitar instantly go off tune, and there is a little buzz on the lower frets of the E string, but other than these minor inconveniences that can be easily solved with a set up and maybe a replacement of the pickups, its very good value for what you pay for.

Great first guitar

amazing first guitar if you’re into rock and heavy metal. features are stunning and the inlay is a nice match. only problem is the quality of the volume knob which isn’t very responsive but for the price it’s amazing.

Great Buy

This guitar is a seal for the money. A good solid build. My only qualm is that the tone is just a bit off. However, it can be made up by a good amp and peddle set-up.

The best guitar for this price

I would say this is the best guitar -at this price- that I have played.

I had an issue with the strings but a small adjustment on the bridge should fix it (the customer service is the best tbh).

The distortion sound is mean and aggressive, while on clean it's not bad so it's fits exactly what I bought it for.

It’s a good beginner guitar, but

It’s a great guitar, but pickups are to sensitive, it creates feedback with high gain amps, and tuning peg broke off. I managed to get a new one, but it is cheap.

Still, electronics work and with a little bit of a setup, it’s amazing. Watch out for feedback tho.

A Good Guitar That Just Misses The Mark

A nice inexpensive guitar that sounds good but has some fit and finish issues.

The flat black finish and reversed headstock work and look good. The frets are level, but the ends are very rough and suffer from fret sprouting

The packing also was poorly done. I had read reviews saying that box wasn't padded enough near the headstock. When I opened mine, the headstock was actually sticking out through the end of the box. I contacted a rep, sent in pictures of the damaged guitar and received a small refund according to the damage received to the headstock.

Good for price

Good for price and good modding platform

A good choice for beginner musicians

This guitar is my first musical instrument and an order of goods from another country. Because of this, I was extremely worried about the delivery of the goods and its safety. Fortunately, the guitar came in one piece, although some dents and cuts were visible on the box.

The guitar looks pretty good. I didn't notice any signs of bad painting, cracks or scratches. For the price of the guitar, I expected a poor quality finish, but I was wrong.

The hardware does not look very high quality. There are traces of corrosion on the bridge tremolo, although the guitar is brand new.

A couple of frets on the neck have come out a little and cause inconvenience when playing.

I can't compare the sound of the guitar with another instance, so I won't be able to determine its quality. (The pickups are working and that's enough for me))

I have concerns that the neck may bend. Looking at it, I saw a small angle, as if it was going by a screw. I think this is due to the conditions of storage or transportation.

In general, despite some disadvantages, I think this guitar is a really good choice for such money. This is just a salvation for a metalhead who wants his guitar to look in accordance with the genre of his music)

could be better

My expectations for a 100eur guitar were low. And still I was upset. I ordered a new instrument. The instrument had chips on the headstock and body. Neck damage can be attributed to careless shipping. But damage to the body of the guitar? I suspected that I got a sample from the display case. But no. The tool is completely unconfigured. Minzura (Scale), neck deflection, string height and pickup height. I set everything up myself. I set the string height to 1.8mm. The 6th string rattles at the 12th fret. Pickups give good sound for a budget price. Stable rotation of string pegs. Satisfactory price. Inspect before buying

Great bargain

I had to replace one of the tuners and I've sent the frets to be filled after it enduring the dry winter here in Ottawa Ontario, the wood shrunk. But I am pleased with the look and feel. No buzzing..

I am upgrading the pickups to nazgul sentient Humbuckers.

Nice guitar ,smooth feeling -pick ups are not great but for the price are good enough! the weight is more than i whould prefer ..nice and smooth set up !(the frets on the high E string nice and flat in compare with a squire that needed some work there)

All Black, if you like Black.

I bought this guitar to use it for practicing my scale and train my melody.

It is a good guitar for me the guitar sound is very good.

The guitar body is easy to get stain.

Stupid Not to Buy

I own the HWY-25BKS and am satisfied with the guitar. It is sturdy, does not weigh too much, and fits my hands the way I had hoped. The arrangement of the controls is too my liking. The neck is smooth and easy to play. The fretboard looks and feels amazing. The techs at my local guitar store did not believe me that a neck and fretboard could be this good for the price. The finish looks nice. Every time I pick it up, I want to play heavy and fast. For the price I could not have asked for more. This is a STEAL.

A few drawbacks are the finish on the body scratches easily. Because of the matte finish, it is noticeable. These seems to be where "for the price" really comes in. The finish absorbs naturally occurring oils easily, and is a mild inconvenience to keep looking nice. The last con is the volume and tone control. Volume seems to have two modes: off and on. Likewise, the tone is not very versatile.

Unless you are a top tier touring musician, that 1%, you would be stupid to pass this up.

I like this guitar

Pros: very metal look, very metal sound, thin neck, reversed headstock

Cons: a lot of chips and scratches, tremolo (I'd prefer Tune-O-Matic bridge on this guitar)

It could have been a 5 out of 5 but....

I have several Harley Benton guitars and this is the one that I have scored the lower, however is not fault of the guitar itself.

Let me start with the pros:

The fret work is excellent no edges that would harm your hand or anything

The look and feel is great, the painting job looks very nice and I have no complains about it, however be prepared cause matte finish will easily get dirty, keep a microfiber cloth handy

Predator inlay and the freatboard looks amazing for this price point, the 3-way switch and the knobs works great and do not seem to be of bad quality

I like the weight on this guitar, it is not that heavy but still feels solid, will be good for your back.

Overall the construction on this instrument is great! would recommend to anyone who wants to start playing or more experienced players that could even modify a few things here and there and make this guitar totally standout.

For this price the guitar is fine, well done!

The cons:

There are 3 things on this guitar, that I would complaint a little about.

1. The humbuckers could be better, they are just not my style, I think even when it says " High output humbuckers " doesn't mean they have to be so noisy, they have that hum noise that bother anyone when using distortion, but my amp does't help to much, ...adjusting your amp settings will help.

2. This one is more a cosmetic issue than anything else, the nut was properly cut in terms of functionality, but it was very scratched, as if the person or the machine that cuts it had a fight with it, still makes the job.

3. Besides the 2 points mentioned above, this is the one that for me would be the most important to describe.

As you can see the reversed headstock on this guitar is very pointy, this is what happened...

Normally the guitar box will have a few paddings for protection, at the bottom, on the sides and on top.

Well... the top padding was not put on this box! that caused the neck literally tear apart the box, when I saw this I thought it was damaged, fortunately the guitar had bubble wrap and the other cardbox on which the guitar box is put on avoided a bigger damage.

However a small section of the reversed headstock less than 1mm has a scratch, I will have to buy some black matte nail paint and make the trick!!! 99.99% is well painted.

But please next time do not omit this padding or any other, they are important, the lack of this padding was a small human error in my opinion, but could have ended worse!! fortunately it was not the case.

Awesome value

When I got this guitar, I was happy to find that the guitar wasn't rubbish at such a price point. I was expecting it to only be good as a mod platform that would require many changes in order to make it playable but I was wrong. I didn't make any changes to the hardware because I didn't really feel the need to.

If I were to modify it, I would change the tuners so that the guitar stays in tune in low tuning. I'd also change the volume and tone knob as they weren't of high quality.

Pros:

- It looks awesome

- Great value

- Sounds decent

- Feels decent (thanks to satin finish)

Cons:

- Hardware is of low quality

- When trying to use the tremolo, mine couldn't stay in tune

- Toggle switch was quite stiff

If you wanna get the most out of the guitar, I'd suggest keeping it in one tuning, run entirely through the bridge pickup and secure the bridge. Using the guitar in this way is where I thought it was at its best.

Overall, amazing value!

Frets and the nut

I absolutely love the pickups! My only real issues with the guitar are fret finish and the nut. I play this guitar every day, but the frets are cheesegrater grade and my bottom E hangs all the time. Even with that I love the sounds I get from it!

Very good guitar

I bought this guitar as a training guitar to practice at work.

In this price segment, the choice is not great, but after reading the reviews and comparing the characteristics, the choice became obvious.

Pros:

Nice view, low price, warranty

Minuses:

Not identified significant. The screws of the anchor cover and the rear covers are not even slightly drilled.

I can safely recommend this guitar for purchase.

Great Value

I purchased this guitar with the intention of modifying it. It had a nice sleek look to it. From the moment I purchased it, everything was processed very quickly, and was shipped out the next day. I received it maybe two weeks after ordering it.

The guitar itself was in great condition. Packed very well. Came in tune. Setup really well. It had some rough frets, but easily smoothed out with playing. The guitar is light weight, but not to the point where it feels like a toy . It feels really well built. Hardware was decent. Nothing to complain about considering the price of the guitar. The pickups also sound fairly good. I did have an issue with the bridge where it was off center by a few millimeters. But the issue was cleared up by customer service.

Overall the guitar is worth it. It's pretty great on its own, and it's also a great modding platform.

got a couple of them

I have no idea how It is even possible yet alone profitable to build a guitar for this price

Like with other Harley Benton guitars the HWY-25BKS needs some work. After leveling the frets polishing them and dressing the frets and ends properly. Then setting the guitar up to my preferences.

I have nothing to complain about, even the pickups are not bad.

I could not build a guitar myself for this price and as a starting point for a customized Guitar this is perfect.

I have guitars that are many times as expensive and don't sound as good when set up perfectly