Harley Benton R-457MN WH Fanfret Reviews

As my first 7 string fanfret i can confirm this is a great guitar if you want to try multiscales. I have small hands but it's not a big problem.You need to do some stretching on the first frets. When it came,it needed obviously a setup. The fretwork was not perfect because some frets were not in the same height but after setup it plays with a very low action. It's not the lightest instrument and the neck isn't the slimmest but you need some time to get used to it. I changed the tuning pegs to locking tuners and it's much easier to change strings. I haven't had any problems with the pickups, they're pretty good.. Palm muting takes some time too. Overall it's a great guitar for the price and i recommend it!

Great for someone just getting into multiscale guitars, but with a couple kinks.

If you're just getting into multiscale guitars this is 100% the way to go, it feels better than my slightly more expensive Ibanez but does require a little setup. However, to note, the pickups on this are absolutely horrible and an afront to everything holy. You will need to change them, and I am currently in the process of doing so, but you will need power tools. The height screws are glued to the bottom of the guitar and are incredibly difficult to get out without bending them and needing new screws and they're also really picky to what screwdriver you use. Over this, something that isn't that surprising with this guitar is that the pickups do need elevation from a spring, but you can harvest that from the original pickups and just use some spare foam (or even the one already there) for some support. It holds in tune great, I can literally leave it for days without tuning and when it comes to just playing and practicing there's no audible difference. Some of the tuners have gone loose, though. The body is nice and ergonomic, I'm really skinny though so I can't really comment on things such as the tummy dent- thing because I don't need much of it. The finish is a bit weak, though, as it chips away scary easy but I guess that just makes it easier to refinish.

Very nice product

During a year of using this guitar I found almost no flaws in it - comparing even with guitars that cost much more expensive, I can say that in some aspects this guitar is even superior to them, in general - the build quality is good, the only thing that confused me was the quality of the staves, they are not terrible, I just wish they were better. Overall, this is a great instrument, both in terms of playability and sound, which in skilful hands will be a great start in the world of 7-string guitars

Solid 7-String

This is a great 7-string for someone dipping their toe into 7-string playing for the first time and are apprehensive about spending crazy money for a guitar they may or may not like playing. Quality wise, it isn't perfect by any means, but for the price I genuinely do not believe that you will find better!

A great product.

The sound of this guitar can give a head start to many guitars for $ 5k. I am completely satisfied with the sound, shape and convenience. it works great, it is made without unnecessary details! Thanks!

Muddy chugs !!

Fast neck and sounds pretty bang on for the price

Played through a 6505

I cannot recommend, critical issue

I won't be covering the fretboard, body, finish and pickups in this review because these are the quality I expected from a ~200$ guitar.

My problem is with the way it handles strings (you will understand)

on both the .09 - .54 strings the guitar came with and a .10 - .56 I bought as a replacement the high E string snapped while tuning (I switch between Drop G and Drop A quite often) and the low B string just splits while playing, both of these phenomenons happen right at the nut, so I will assume that the nut is the issue.

Other than this ground-breaking issue, the guitar is decent (for 200$), but I can't recommend it.

I will not be returning it as it is my only and first electric guitar, but this has left me a bad opinion on Harley Benton and I will be more careful when buying from them. (I am still very much interested in the 30" baritone jazzmaster)

Starter

Definitely a starter 7 string guitar good construction ok sound, needs beter tuners, fretwork was spot on

string action is great out of the box

no buzzing or dead notes.

fret ends felt fine not so smooth but not awfully sharp as i’ve read others complain of.

the switch, input jack, volume and tone knobs all feel solid.

tuners don’t hold well and the pickups aren’t good but they’re usable.

This is a great gift idea for young or aspiring guitar player that likes the looks of multiscale or low tuning capabilities of a seven string they can start with.

A little bit noisy and muddy, but check the price

Great guitar for this price. The pickups are a little bit muddy and don't have much gain compared to Schecter Omen-8 stocks. Also, I guess that shielding is not super good, the guitar produces unwanted noise that is hard to deal with even with the noise gate. It doesn't have a rich clean tone as well, but with some studio magic, you can receive something well sounding.

Assembled pretty well. No sharp ends, but strings are ringing out of the box.

A great guitar for that price!

Over all expectations

The guitar arrived in great shape, no dinks or issues what so ever (all the way to Norway, with no case just in the packaging). Frets need some polishing, and new strings is pretty much a must but oh lord this guitar surprised me!

I had the idea of replacing the pickups for EMG707's, but as it turns out the stock pickups sound awesome.. they are beyond what I expected. They do sound a tiny bit muddy and lacking in gain, but not as bad as I would have thought.

The guitar looks awesome in white, and except a few dried drops of paint in the pickup selector nothing more to pick on. The tuners hold the tuning just fine. The stock strings are very light and floppy, so I do recommend getting some better strings. Drop A sounds great, and pitch shifted in Neural DSP to drop G it sounds just fine.

All in all I am very much surprised for a guitar in this price range, it actually sounds almost as good as my LTD that I got for 1500. Of course it's super light being in this price range, but it still sounds and feel great. The guitar sounds beefy with the neural dsp gojira plugin. Totally recommend this guitar if you are looking for an entry 7 string. I already have a 6 and 8, but had to get a 7 to complete the collection.

Okay guitar for the price

So, let's start with the delivery. Arrived in 4days as advertised, nicely packaged without any dings or scratches on the guitar.

Guitar:

-Fret end are sticking out quite a bit, some spots worse than other, but they're not sharp enough to cut you.

-Pickups in general are okay(for the price), but for me personally they are to quiet

-Half of tuners were loose when I unboxed the guitar, so had to tighten them

-Volume knob requires some force to actually turn, compared to my other guitars.

First multi scale guitar

The Multi scale feels natural not overwhelming at all to play. Pickups are not as ( muddy ) as people claim on YouTube. Just clean the interment when you get it. The fiber cloth I used to clean was quite dirty after cleaning the fretboard.

Fan fret for fun

Bought this to dip my toes into the 7 string and fan fret world.

Pickups: can be muddy, especially with the tone knob rolled down. Other than that they are fine. These will be the second thing to be changed once I decide where I want to go with the guitar.

Tuning machines: Basic, simple. They semi worked but I swapped them for some locking machines. This solved the tuning stability on the G and high B strings

Neck and fretboard: Straight and clean, fret ends are good, no snags or poky bits. The frets are scratchy, but it's to be expected. neck is smooth and fast and not nearly as wide as I had anticipated. Truss rod needed a quarter turn to fix some fret buzz.

Strings.....were swapped to a new set. Note: nut needed to filed a tad, especially when adding higher gauge strings. But that's only a few moments of work, and they did slot the nut properly for the gauges they send from the factory. I swapped to a light top and heavy bottom set (9-60) after which and a truss rod adjustment I was able to lower the action some and got rid of nearly all the buzz, especially on the low B which initially sounded like an actual bee.

Paint and Body: no blemishes to be found. Routed electronics area is a little rough, only the plate was shielded, with a single stripe of non-conductive paint in one corner of the electronics rout.

Small pots but the actual soldering is good and sturdy and wiring management was actually done better than some name brands I have seen.

Out of the box it needed some care (but don't we all), I am enjoying the fanned frets, swapping the pickups should be simple at which point I'll also swap out pots and rewire as well.

For the price I paid I can easily recommend the guitar, with the caveat that you/a tech will likely have to do some setup and modification to make it 'yours'.

So other than a good setup being needed, there isn't really a reason at this price point to not try it out.

An absolute Bargain

I definitely recommend this guitar !

I have been playing guitar for 20 years now and decided to finally try 7 strings and fanned frets .

The guitar itself looks great . There where no cosmetic issues or damange when it arrived .

The neck is very smooth and it feels as if the guitar wants to be played fast !

Its surprisingly light given the fact its not a small guitar .

The guitar sounds great , really heavy . The pickups give a good high gain sound not too unlike EMG pickups . When switching from my LTD's to this guitar the only change i make in my set up is i add an Ibanez tube screamer to bring the output up too match the active EMG's in my other guitars .

The only slight con for me is when playing hard the tuning can slip a little bit . Nothing major . I do plan to swap out the stock PUP's for Active EMG 81/85 to match the output of my other guitars but that's personal taste .

Overall this guitar is a steal and a joy to play .

Yet again Harley Benton hit it out of the park !

Best choice for the price

My order has arrived last week

The bulid quality is great but i have a

Fret leveling issue 2 frets are a little bit higher than the others and it cause fret buzz

And the saddle screw for action adjustment is too soft

Except that ererything is working just fine

R45-7MN points to consider

I received this guitar over a week ago now … At first glance it looks the business, great paint job and no sharp fret ends. The neck has a nice smooth feel and not too thick either. When plugging it in into an amplifier is when I was faced with a few problems. 1. Horrendous 50 cycle hum ( although guitar is humbucker equipped) which rendered it almost unplayable 2. Impossibly high action … this was fairly easy to remedy as it was just a matter of using the Allen key provided to lower the bridge saddle grub screws.. 10 mins later I was happy with the action … However the extraneous noise was not going away … so rather than return the instrument I decided to open the back and have a look… what I found was very bad soldering, little to no shielding paint and no ground connection to 3 way switch or tone pot … so I grabbed a soldering iron and copper tape and went to work .. I shielded the entire cavity and grounded it all properly. No hum now and it sounds great ( although the pickups lack treble bite , which isn’t a major problem as you can just turn up the treble on pedals or amps you are using… ) I’d recommend this guitar but I’d also bear in mind that when you receive yours you may need to put some time into it to get it up to a decent playing standard. Also at £150 there are plenty of worse horror story guitars out there which cost twice the price. Happy shredding guys and girls 🙌👍🙌

Simply a steal.

I'm quite frankly a little speechless. A seven string at this price is amazing. A fanfret one to boot...

The only minor issue I can find is the frets have smidge of roughness, and this is easily fixed with some tape and finegrit sanding paper.

The neck is super comfy, close to wizard-territory.

The fanned frets feel great for power/barrechords all the way - and the edges of the frets are well rounded and can not be felt during playing.

The nut sists snuggly, and the tuners work great.

The bridge stays out of the way, and the controls do not feel cheap at all. Great friction in pots and selector.

But - the real surprise are the pickups. Metal is the name of the game for me, and these puppies do the job really well! I have to add, I have a Behringer TO-800 overdrive in front of the amp (A Joyo Zombie II), and that tightens things up really nice. Even so, this is far better than the price would suggest.

Some suggest the pickups are a bit muddy, and perhaps bassy, but throw in a decent overdrive, and add an EQ in the loop. I'd go so far as to say you'd want that regardless....

The only upgrade so far are straplocks. I was planning on switching the pickups for Duncan Nazgul/Sentient, but I don't know.. the stock ones sound great, and the new ones would outprice the guitar. Twice.

I ordered a pair of Harley Benton locking tuners as well, but I might just wait until the first string change to swap them out. Locking tuners to me are mostly a convenience.

This one gets a warm recommendation, at least for the metalheads out there.

Problems with the guitar neck

The neck of the guitar is uneven because of this, the string touches the 8th fret on the 7th fret.

the guitar is worth the money

when placing an order for a guitar, I didn’t expect such a price from a guitar that it would really sound good, the pluses of the guitar are a normal assembly, the scale builds, the neck is comfortable and in general the guitar is worth the money, the minuses seem to me that the pickups pick up interference, the guitar is poorly screened, and these problems are solved by replacing better pickups and a slight improvement in screening against interference.