Harley Benton R-457MN WH Fanfret Reviews

Beautiful Guitar

Great guitar, love the feel of it. Plays well in a variety of styles. The white color is a nice departure from my other guitars and the finish is fantastic.

I did experience some issue with my tuner, in tuning the low B, but found it tunes right up if you use the 12th fret to get it close, then it is right on-for some reason if a bit off my tuner reads F, but this is an issue with my clip on tuner. I mentioned it in case someone else had this problem.

The guitar is fantastic. It arrived set up, nicely low action, and with no buzz. I definitely would buy again.

Chipped paint on the headstock but otherwise great

The guitar had about 1cm x 0.5cm of chipped paint on the headstock which was a bit disappointing to see on a new guitar. I'm going to assume they didn't actually ship it like that and it happened during transport.

Besides that, for the price, this guitar is great. And with some modifications (some of which would be free) it can play like a much more expensive guitar.

Some of the things I liked:

- The action was actually great out of the box

- The freatboard is super smooth

- No sharp frets in sight however a couple frets look like they didn't have the smoothest insertion onto the board. Doesn't seem to affect playability

- No inperfections on the body (besides the chipped paint) and the hardware is very good for the price.

The only things I disliked are the string set it comes with, which is a bit too thin for my liking (not a problem since they can be changed). And also not knowing how to go about changing the pickups since they have to be slanted, but this isn't really a problem of the guitar. It comes with the territory.

Not as good as reviews say

Received it with a ding on a headstock. Everything else cosmetically was very good. Pickups are quite muddy, Definitely will change it in the future.

Fret ends are very smooth, but tops are rough. I can see tooling marks and inconsistencies in fret crowns. Bending is possible only in some places on a neck because of that, although, I think polishing frets will fix it.

Strings are highish, ill try to lower it down and hopefully there will be no fretbuzz.

Tuners are cheap, but holds tuning for a day.

I'd say, if you dont want to put any work in it, dont get it. But I will keep it, overall its cool guitar, it just needs some love :)

Unbelievable bang for the buck

I bought this guitar almost as a joke during quarantine, but as soon as I plugged it in I realised the joke was on me.

It sounded really tight and crunchy right out of the box, way better than I expected. The frets were all perfect, not a single imperfection in the fit and finish of the instrument. If I didn't know any better I could have said it was a 600€ guitar or more.

The features are unseen in any other guitar of this price range, and for the price I'm actually really impressed.

The tuners aren't great, the nut is kinda cheap and the pickups aren't extremely clear, but none of those components are as bad as the price would make you believe. I'm putting locking tuners on it and that's about it. The pickups sound really nice and wouldn't justify spending more on an upgrade than the cost of the actual guitar. The nut can be replaced for cheap, but I just filed it and lubed it and it's much better now.

If you are unsure if you're gonna like 7 strings or multiscale it's the perfect guitar to try out, because if you do like it you'll gladly keep it.

Guitar sounds a little bit too moody

Good budget 7 string

For the price, it is a bargain. Minor finish flaw - sharp edge on nut.

Set up, neck and tuners all good but the pickups were not to my taste but easily fixed with a change of pickups ( Warman). Overall, excellent first 7 string or back-up guitar.

Astonishing Value For Money

Where to begin? like many others I was apprehensive about such an affordably priced item that's in the same category as those that cost many times more.

I have been pleasantly surprised by this instrument. Out of the box the glossy finish is immaculate save for a few spray buildups on the sharp corners around the neck pocket of the body and inside the pickup routes, hardly noticeable unless you really look closely. The controls and pickups feel and sound pretty good, smooth pots and switch and no scratchy signal. Would make a nice bed for some upgrades though.

The intonation and action of the strings does need some work but thats not uncommon for any new guitar out of the box. The strings are buzzing in a few places and a couple of the frets are slightly high, but there weren't any sharp ends that I could feel.

To summarise, it looks and feels the part and only needs some routine setup work to get it playing really well. I'm very impressed with the value for money here.

Amazing

Amazing budge 7 string axe.

Basically I didn't have to do anything else than polishing the frets just a little to eliminate that "friction" sound. other than that, all stock.

Unreal Guitar

This was my first 7-string guitar and I have nothing but praise for the design and build quality.Unlike a lot of other reviews, the frets are perfectly fine on my guitar,tuners working completely fine, the guitar holds tune well and the build quality is superb.

It's unreal what you get for the price, the only thing I would change is the pickups into something better that suits the style of playing,whether you'll be sweeping all day or just 000 the guitar will not inhibit performance in any way.

Worth every $

Good

I bought it for playing at home. I wanted to try 7 strings. First impressions are excellent. The guitar is worth the money.

Great Guitar for the price!!

If i could i would give this guitar 10/10. the build is great and doesnt feel or look like a guitar of this price range, however, the hardware leaves something to be desired. the pickups are standard OEM and would need a swapout (but for the price can you complain?) and the tuners are the same and do slip with high tension on the thicker strings. evven with a few 100 worth of upgrades, this guitar plays like an instrument worth hundreds more! its a great instrument to start with if youre looking into multiscale instruments and its a great guitar to then upgrade into a gigging machine

okay

cant set action too low cause of fretbuzz especially on the high frets, also little bit of paint issues on the body not really a huge issue, definitly good for the price though. Could play amazingly with a little work. Would recommend for wanting to try a 7 string

If you are not sure if you are going to like fanned frets on your guitar, this is the solution

Great build quality for almost no money, good to learn to play multiscale, and with almost no modifications (i.e. pickups) you can make it a professional guitar for only 150 euro, that is insane

Unbeatable bang for the buck

To be honest, I didn't expect much when buying this, due to the price, but not only the specimen I got exceeded every expectation I had, it raised the bar for me for cheaper guitars. Frets are flawless and it came as a shock to me at this price point. Fit and finish were also really good. Tuners hold well, bridge has no sharp spots and it doesn't feel like cheap pot metal. Nut needed some work, but it was a quick fix. Pickups has too much output and they are a little bit muddy. Lowering them quite a bit made them usable, but they are not great. Still, nothing unexpected from a guitar that costs less than a pedal. Really really solid guitar, don't hesitate to buy.

A fantastic Instrument

A multi scale 7 string for under £200!? You must be nuts it'll be terrible right?

WRONG! This guitar feels and plays fantastically, the stock pickups are not prone to feedback but give a great level of gain. The guitar was also very playable right out of the box in G# tuning with only tiny tweaks required to the intonation.

Fantastic, fast delivery 10/10 highly recommend if you're looking to explore multi scale instruments on a budget!

Decent fan fret 7

This was my first fan fret 7, i didnt expect much of it but when i got it with the purple heart fretboard i knew it was gonna be a keeper. Now for the pickups, its voiced like a cock'd wah. Too much midrange. it works well for recording especially with layered parts. on its own its not that pleasing. I didnt replace the pickups , i found a good use for it. With every harley benton a good fret dress and setup is a must to get the maximum potential of the guitar. i reshaped the headstock after 6 mos of owning it to give more spunk :D

This guitar is a bargain.

I already own an expensive Ibanez 7 string guitar. I wanted to play around with a fanfret without spending tons of money and not ending up liking it. The Harley Benton was appealing. I placed my order and was assuming the guitar will need a full setup and fretwork. I was so wrong. This guitar did not need any adjustments. The intonation, fretwork, and action was spot on out of the box. The guitar stays in tune better than my Ibanez. The pickups are ok and sound great for clean, and some high gain. I will be upgrading to Fluance pickups soon. Now for the negative and not a bad one. The nut is plastic as to be expected at this price point. The nut is a bit longer than the width of the neck. This is cosmetic only. I will change the nut anyways. Also people may ask about the thickness , and radius of the neck. I can say the radius is about the same as the wizard but the neck of this guitar is a bit thicker. If you owned a Douglas 7 string guitar. The neck is identical in feel. I like the added thickness. At this price point compared to what I paid for the Ibanez. I can have several Harley Benton's and not regret my purchase.

Exceeds Expectations

I received this to the UK after about a weeks delay (was on 3-5 day back order when i ordered), so super quick shipping times. Was packaged appropriately and no damage to guitar.

Guitar came set up pretty well and was about a half step out of tune and only very slightly out intonation wise. Frets feel good for the price and can see where they have been levelled (there were still a few flatter frets but not a big deal), there are no real dead notes as far as i can see. Had for about a week now and the guitar stays in tune pretty well.

i plan to upgrade the pups as they are a little muddy but not terrible. overall i wouldn't hesitate to recommend this.

Incredibly good product for the money

Now, here's the thing, my review WILL differ quite significantly from others. I guess I won the part lottery.

Plays good in my opinion. Frets were way too sharp so I filed them down just a bit and they were fine. They are a bit tall, but nothing unfixable.

Sounds very good. I use BIAS FX 2 as my amp sim, and it sounds amazing.

The electronics could use a bit more work, as the volume knobs can rotate too much and over 100% for some reason. The pickups I like.

Tuning is stable enough. It doesn't wave too much out of tune, however do tighten the screws on the tuners, as there is going to be some space for you to rotate before the machine head actually starts turning the string.

All in all, love it. Just fix these tiny things.

The item exceeds my expectations in all areas. Will be buying another guitar soon. Would recommend to all.