Harley Benton SC-1000 SBK Progressive Line 5-stars Reviews

simply unbeievable

playing and building guitars for quite some years now i have no idea how it is possible to build a guitar of this quality to at a price like this.

I didn't expect much because It seems hardly possible to ship a guitar for that price yet alone build and ship one.

There is no real flaw I could find and I tried to.

The hardware is of decent quality ( no Schaller but precise and good looking )

An overall very professional job I have paid many times of the price of this guitar for guitars that didn't sound as good.

It came almost perfectly set up (but this is just personal preference).

The guitar plays great and the neck feel is very pleasant.

I will probably buy another (or a similar one) soon.

all I can say to wrap this up is that I couldn't build a guitar like this for myself at this price

Metal HB for a good price

After one year I feel like I can write a review for this guitar.

Looks:

Color is matte black, which looks awesome and more "metal". It doesn't pick fingerprints much unless you have greasy, fatty fingers. Binding is of good quality.

Gold colored bridge: teeth of saddles have lost their color, they are now silver. Also bridge has some rost type of wear, you have to look very close to notice them.

Weight is optimal, not so heavy, although feels like it has a mass.

Fingerboard and frets are good, no complaint there, no sharp frets.

Neck: it is not thin like Ibanez, also not so fat. It feels comfortable to put thumb over it.

Tuners: holds tuning for a week even. Maybe small adjustment would be needed after that long of time but during playing I don't need to retune.

Pick-ups: never swapped them, they are active and high-gain, perfect for metal. Three way switch offers tonal variety.

Conclusion: super value for that price, if you want some metal-high gain active guitar you can go for it. It became one of my favourite guitars.

Best value for this guitar!

This guitar is well built and with a very nice finish. The pickups are very good, i have another guitar with EMG 81/85, but the Harley Benton's HBZ can rock this guitar too.

The neck it's very comfortable, do not be aware that on neck it's Harley Benton and not LTD/Epiphone/Jackson. This guitar is awesome too, don't be aware to try harley benton's products. A best value guitar!

How do you do it for the price

Fantastic instrument, rapid shipping to Australia, very well packaged, awesome price, and the guitar was finished flawlessly, setup perfectly, intonation was spot on. great Price, wow, I will be buying more of these great guitars.

Amazing for the price

So after having this guitar for 2 days and using it for at least 12 hours im in love with it.

it sounds like an esp with emgs and have the quality if a guitar 5 times the price

anyone thinking about getting one when they are in stock just do it... you wont regret it.

Unbeatable for the money

I bought this guitar on a whim and have to say I was greatly surprised. To say this is a bargain is an understatement, Finish is nice and smooth, gold hardware really does look great against the black and feels quality. The level of binding is brilliant its nice and even with the rest of the finish.

The happiest surprise for me has been the pickups and sound and play-ability of this thing, its great! For those who may be put off with the active pickups please don't be. they are not as severe as emg's but are happy to chug along to Metallica riffs no bother at all. turn the gain down abit and level out the tone and she'll sing the blues awesomely!

Neck profile is nice and comfortable, not too thick and not too thin, with plenty of access to the higher register and the guitars satin like finish is nice to the touch and allows quick movement over the entire length.

I plan to pick up a white one in the next while too.

Really good guitar

First impressions are very good, it looks fantastic and as far as I can see there are no cosmetic issues at all.

The setup is very good (it could be played right out of the box with nothing more than a quick tune). The frets are well finished with minimal buzz, bends feel nice and clean with no scraping on the frets. The soft satin finish feels really nice and fast on the neck, and the comfort cut on the back of the body is great. The fretboard could do with a little oil but I'm happy for the moment to leave it, the action also could drop a little but it's fine where it is for now. In fact for the 1st time ever I'm not even going change the strings right away, I'll let it settle and play for a few days first.

Really very pleased with it.

In summary, I hit the Harley Benton jackpot, It's another £100 guitar that feels like a £300 one, it's a quality bit of kit and it will be my metal axe of choice from now on.

Very Impressed

I have been very impressed with the Harley Benton product line. I like the finish, the sound from the active pickups and the overall feel of this guitar. I also bought the white version.

My main weapon

This is a great guitar from Harley Benton..really love the sound, appearence..the only con is the tuning machine, always need to retune after about 2-3 hours..but everything's perfect when its arrived, intonation, height and not to mention its equipped with daddario string..

A Very Good Copy

. . of the much more expensive other brand guitars with 1000 in the name.

These are my initial observations; I shall update the review over the coming months as I play it for more than a few minutes.

The set up out of the box was not bad at all: it was almost in tune. The action is set fairly low which suits me. The intonation is only marginally out, and I shall correct that when I go through set up after it has acclimatised for a few days. As it comes though it is perfectly playable.

The sound is acceptable rather than breathtaking. I am using a couple of Mustang 3s and a Zoom G3X pedal. No doubt a thicker sound would be obtainable with a valve amp, but I don't have one (maybe the next purchase?) There is a reasonable range of tones available, and there is very little noise from the active circuit, less, in fact than the noise from the Wilkinson passive pickups on a couple of my other guitars.

Playability: a very nice neck profile and a smooth silky matt finish. The frets are well set and there is not a trace of them straying past the neck edge binding. The fingerboard frets cleanly all the way up on every string. Truly impressive at this price point.

Finish: almost the fly in the ointment. It's not bad at all, but clearly not anything like the finish on a much more expensive instrument. There are a couple of traces of glue on the fingerboard (easy to remove), a smudge of paint that has not quite been cleaned off on one side of the nut, and the striping on the body edge binding is a bit hit and miss, with the lines breaking up in places. The matt finish on the body appears to be flawless. The gold plated hardware does look a touch delicate in places, and indeed the bridge is - care is needed adjusting the intonation.

I bought this because I wanted another guitar with a two octave neck to pair with the playing position of my Epiphone Prophesy, and it easily and impressively fills that role.

Overall, despite not being perfect, it is close. At this price point it is amazing value for money, hence the 5 star headline rating.

Update after six weeks of ownership: It is just outstanding - so glad I bought it. I really can't recommend it highly enough.

Great Guitar

Excellent guitar for the price. Feels great to play and it sounds excellent too. You'd have to look hard to find any problems with this guitar and to be honest I was expecting a few because it was so relatively cheap but overall it's a very good guitar.

Amazing guitar!!

Finish - proporcional to the price, really good - looking guitar

Sound - very amazing, strong signal but less noise, easy to use of volume knobs - can be used for fluent transition from "clean" to lead sound.

Cons are only not too firm tuning (maybe can be solved with new zero fret)

It's a good guitar for its price. I bought this guitar as my first electric guitar ever, and i'd say, im quite happy with it. The guitar sounds amazing when playing with heavy sounds and is also nice with cleaner sounds.

There some few minor problems what came with the guitar. The pickups weren't adjusted right (pickups were closer to lower strings than to the higher ones), the strings weren't on the same level and also one of the pickup frame in less than a month. The varnish on guitar comes off really easily. Also i checked the frets heights and noticed, they weren't on the same level either (only couple of them)

Anyways, i recommend this guitar to everyone, who are looking for an amazing but cheap guitar.

Amazing guitar!

Guitar very well made.just opened the box and started playing no tweaking was needed.sound and playability is great.It is worth every penny however it looks like it wont take good any hitting.

Harley Benton L-1000 Progressive Line VB

I bought this guitar because i liked the colors and it was cheap, but now that i have it, i am so happy i bought it, the active pickups are absolutely amazing, have a fantastic sound and are relatively less noisy than the pickups in my Gibson flying v. the matte black finish is amazing and the gold hardware that comes with it really makes it stand out on the guitar rack, the flag inlays are just another feature that make it look fantastic, i give this guitar 5 stars for the quality and price, defiantly recommend picking this one up, i will also be buying the white model.