Harley Benton MR-Classic BK

Cheap & nasty catalogue guitar

Not great to play. Pickup levels are imbalanced, frets are rough, feels plastic and cheap. The bridge is horrible and was already scratched by people using screwdriver heads too small at the factory. It's a real pain to restring due to the sub-standard bridge design. It's essentially a low-end, budget 80-90s catalogue guitar you'd never knowingly buy that happens to have (budget) P90 pickups in it.

It has character

I bought the MR Modern version a while back, which has higher specification. This one gets close in terms of quality.

I'm a home player, intermediate, I don't own any high end guitars or amps, but I have owned several HB guitars and can compare in that ecosystem.

Fretwork:- frets needed a small polish. The play is generally comfortable, you can feel them all the way up the neck, but they're not sharp.

Finish:- Very good, few minor scratches and dings in paintwork, nothing to worry about

Tuners- they are kind of a non-locking version on what is on the MR modern version. They hold tune ok but are a little imprecise and do jump in tuning occasionally.

Pickups:- I have owned a harley benton JA-60 with roswell P90s, and an SC 450 p90 GT with generic P90s, and these artec p90s beat both of those. The in between position sounds great. The bridge has more treble, without any shrillness.

Weight: I haven't weighed it. It is lighter than my copy of the MR modern, lighter than my TE-52. It's by no means super heavy, but I play sitting down so that's not usually an issue for me.

Action and playability: This guitar came with a fair bit of neck relief. I prefer a straight neck. I will adjust it but I think it will need a proper setup from my guitar tech. The action out of the box is higher than I'd like. The bridge was set quite high and leans forward slightly (as others have noted), don't know if this is a design feature or not, will update after my guitar tech sees it.

Inverse lefty-strat??

Amazing looks, not very heavy, no neck dive, tone is okay but a bit fuzzier with a distortion pedal than I would like so over all a 4/5 stars

Excellent sixties tribute!

Just received and unpacked the guitar, and it's perfect! Pristine condition, well packed and a first class delivery! Time to set it up and rock the house!