Harley Benton R-456FR BK Progressive Series Reviews

I LOVE THIS GUITAR

My least expensive FLOYD ROSE guitar. And yet I keep grabbing it. The frets needed a polish and a ton of oil on the fretboard. Oiled up the FR and it is smooth as butter, best FR special I have.

Very good for the price after some tweaking

First, the pickups are excellent, they are a copy of the Duncan Distortion's with heavy bass and very high output that creates a little grit when regular pickups leave the tone too clean and bland. Metal is metal at high distortion levels. Second, the bridge is very good, returns to pitch very well with stock strings and stock setup. However the knives needed some sharpening, and D'Addario strings improve the tone. The most important components are lined up accurately, neck, pickups, and bridge, so no major rebuilding was needed. Only the string holder had to be moved 0.8mm to a side to center it. The fine E string was too close to the neck edge, and the palm of the hand would mute it, sometimes. So I filled the screw holes with plugs and drilled new holes 0.8mm to the side. The jack retainer plate was held by small screws that I replaced with stronger ones. Pulling and pushing the jack stresses that part, so I like stronger attachments. The neck joint is done very well, not a cigarette paper could be inserted there, no gap. The tuners seemed to have a little play but just tightening their screws solved that. The knobs have no play, no unevenness, no noise, they are true professional grade knobs. They are firm. Same for the selector, it's the only selector in all my affordable guitars that makes no noise at all. One solder joint broke after two days so I reflowed it, and checked the other solder points, they're all good. The bridge springs needed a bit of recentering, too, so, plugs, drilling, and voilà, screws and springs are square with the cutout in the wood, and with the bridge. The truss rod moved silently and smoothly, no problem adjusting that. Tightening the string holder screws doesn't change the pitch much, no problem there. The trem arm seems thin to me, so I added three layers of heat-shrink tubing to make it fatter and more grippy, a totally reversible and easy mod. The internal cutouts are made well, paint was not even but making it even was easy. The outside paint is applied very well, and doesn't scratch too easily, except I have seen harder (polyurethane) skins. But the Harley Benton has to be affordable, so the quality is adequate. The neck finish is very good, undistinguishable from the finest Ibanez or Jackson axes. Only the frets need the usual polishing, nothing to blame here, they don't buzz at all from the factory, and their edges are smooth. So five stars for the sound, five for the ergonomics, and four for the perfectible fit and finish. A bargain. Note that the guitar was totally usable, it's just that I do a systematic check on all my new axes, and improve what I can. For 200€ the overall factory quality was fine. Most importantly, the main components, pickups, neck and Floyd Rose, are very good, and assembled right.

Great guitar, worth all the money

Returned mine because I struggled to get the Floyd Rose set up properly (my fault, not the guitar's) and decided I would exchange it for something without a floating bridge - however, absolutely fantastic guitar, sounds and plays really well

Shipped to me with buzz on Low E and A string

Like the title says, it has buzz. I went to a music shop to get it restringed and they still brought it back to me with buzz. Makes playing it kinda disappointing

Perfect vfm. Don't buy without owning a decent amp/multi fx.

Headline says it all. Playability and frets are fine. Bridge needs sharpening on the knife edges. Pickups are pretty and i mean pretty bad. For the price it is absolutely worth it especially for a beginner guitarist looking to become familiar with floating bridges. I got it as my secondary superstrat for quick band rehearshals/trips/vacation. Generally i needed an instrument where damage would not be a main concern of mine. I would not recomend this as a main axe for an intermidiate/advanced player but one would already know that at this price point.

I love this guitar!

Ive had it for a few years now and i always want to play this one over all my others (i have 11) for the money this is the best value guitar I've ever found.

Floyd Rose Tuning Stability

I guess this guitar is some sort of Ibanez imitation or a Budget Super-Strat, and it's really good. The construction is good and there were no defects, it's set up well out of the box.

The main feature is the Floyd Rose Tremelo. This is the 1st I've ever had, and the "word" is that you, like, "never have to tune again!". Well, you do (at least I do), but you almost don't! It's really great: the tuning stability WHEN USING THE TREMELO is there. Incredible. I'm speechless.

The body finish scratches up but that doesn't really bother me.

I'm pretty much a "Harley Benton Bottom Feeder": I have a bunch of their guitars, but mostly under $200, some over.

This one is the "fastest" of all of them. Probably not as fast as an Ibanez (I understand that they have a specially designed neck that's extremely fast) but is fast and easy to play. It's wider than a traditional electric but easy to get used to (I play a Classical Guitar too, so this is ok.) However, I think I'd like it better if it wasn't as thick, something of a "baseball bat" for a neck. Fast though.

The pickups sound ok. They're Humbuckers but "microphonic", so they'll pick up pick and string noise at higher volumes and probably generate too much feedback (I'm a "Low-Watt Busker", so it's fine for me....for now.)

One Tone and One Volume Knob each, I like that just fine.

On how it sounds: add some Overdrive or Distortion Effect and it's a great Metal Guitar for sure, I like it for a lot Heavy or Hard Rock, especially anything that you "whammy".

Surprisingly, at least to my ear, turn off the distortion, play it straight - I like it for Jazz! (Weird.)

Anyway, except for the pick-up noise,

MY FINAL JUDGEMENT IS!!!.....

..Cool man. Dig it.

holds tune has floyed rose

great sounding axe had to do a complete setup now it sounds great pick ups are not bad neck is comfortable damping the floyeds springs help with spring noise

Rocker Guitar

Really like this guitar compared it with my Fender HM Strat and it's right there!

Definitely a rock guitar my HM and this guitar both have the Floyd Special and they stay in tune no matter what you do with them.

Neck pickup- 8.7 k

Bridge pickup- 14.6 yeah that's right this thing is HOT!!!

Only thing I had to do to this guitar was lower the bridge for my personal preference and re-tune and it was ready to go.

Frets are nicely finished,neck straight and excellent finish.

Good Bang for the Buck

Stock PuPs are weak, Swapped em out for Seymour

Had to set it up. But love it

Best for the price

It's a great guitar for the price. Sound is very good, neck feels comfortable and thin, floyd is OK but tuning stability isn't perfect. This guitar is great for mid-range guitarists but for beginners it's quite bad because of floyd rose.

Where do I start..

The good - this thing is a beast. You will never find another brand new guitar of this quality with a Floyd Rose for this kind of money. I was really surprised at how nice it actually is. The frets are huge, fret ends are filed down super nice, neck is fast as hell, and the pickups sound great. I've seen other comments about the Floyd and the tuners being junky, but thats not been my experience yet at all.

The bad - right out of the box, I had to make an adjustment on the input jack because the cable wasn't making a good connection. Very simple fix, and nothing to complain about. I noticed the frets were very scratchy when doing string bends.

Considering I knew I was changing strings and drop tuning anyway, I went ahead and pulled the factory springs, polished the frets, treated the fretboard with some lemon oil (it needed this badly), threw on a new set of Paradigm stings, and did a complete setup. A couple hours worth of work made a world of difference in this guitar. Its quickly becoming the new favorite in my collection.

Good guitar with some flaws

I bought this guitar to be modded. It is fine, comfortable thin neck, cool look. Stock pickups are ok, but nothing special, generic flat sound. Floyd is to be blocked straight away, otherwise guitar does not stay in tune. Two of the saddles just broke when I replaced the stock strings, a bit of a bummer. Cheap replacement, though.

In general, after all the moddings, new electronics and proper setup, the guitar is very good, low action, plays really well.

Great quality/price.

I love it, it's really cool. Already own a bass of the same series and the only negative thing I have to say, is minor, and it's about the springs. For a guitar clearly made for metal... it needs heavier springs or at least, add 2 more to the box.

Very happy with this guitar

Thank you for offering a low priced guitar with a progressive look, a Floyd Rose tremolo and string lock at top of neck. Loved it!

Not great but ok

Overall build quality is quite good: body, neck, fingerboard is well-polished as well as frets.

Tuning pegs are crap. Two of them have a significant backlash and you cannot fix that because there no any adjustment responsible for that. Oh! And you rotate it towards the headstock end to tighten the string top 3 strings and towards the bridge to tighten the bottom 3 strings which is confusing and definitely sucks

Pickups are not very impressive. there is a luck of high frequencies using the same amp and cable, but can be adjusted with eq so ok

Kit strings just suck - better replace them first thing

Volume control knob is awkwardly displaced but rotates quite smooth.

And the biggest dissapointment is a Floyd Rose tremolo which is FR Special on this guitar. It's an absolute piece of shit which it does not keep tuning at all. The quality of tuning screws is terrible - you cannot adjust them smoothly probably because of the bad metal and as a result bad screw-thread

I can compare it with Cort X250 of the same price and looks very similar in terma of build quality (though the headstok is 6 in line on Cort which looks better to me). But Cort has EMG pickups. And though it has a licensed Cort Floyd Rose tremolo the build quality is much better and it never gets out of tune for me despite the "true" FR Special

It is still quite a good deal for the price but I would have never bought it again honestly

In general, in combination with a good processor, it is suitable for 80's metal and modern metal generes

This guitar is suitable for hi-gain guys who like to play metal and cut fast solos. Floyd Rose works fine, is capable of different Floyd rose things. However, I would not call his work perfect.

From the cons: the guitar came to me in not very good condition, possibly the cost of transportation. The clear sound is very bland, which is logical. Not enough sustain, which was very noticeable.

great guitat but floyd is made from soft metal &stripped out very easy ,replaced it with ofr now its a super shredder!!!!!

Perfect Guitar for the price!!

A Floyd Rose special bridge alone cost about €80!! So having an €80 trem system on a guitar that cost only €150 is the first thing that attracted my attention! Besides having heard good reviews of HB guitars, I decided to give it a try although in the past I've always been very apprehensive about buying low cost guitars with a Floyd Rose!!

It only took 6 days to ship to my doorstep!! I'm in Mauritius!! So having it shipped from Europe that fast was surprisingly satisfying considering the fact that most items I order online from anywhere else take way longer than that!!...

The guitar out of the box was perfectly set up!! Plugged it and was amazed that it was in tune!! Tuning stability is excellent!! No matter how hard and extreme I used the whammy bar, the guitar stayed in tune!! So it was a great relief as well as a great sense of joy!!

The pickups are high gain Humbuckers!! So it's not really a guitar for clean sounds!! With distortion however, the sound you get is absolutely perfect and it made me realise that the natural sustain of the guitar very very good!!!

If you are more into Rock and Metal stuffs and love the heavy distorted sounds, this guitar is a must have!! Not only for the price, but also for it's look, build quality and playability!!...