Harley Benton R-457MN WH Fanfret 5-stars Reviews

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!

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.

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

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.

Excellent instrument

As someone who never played a fanfret, or a 7 string, this was the best thing i couldve bought to try it out. The quality for the price was excellent, the instrument delivered what it needed to deliver. The pickups were too muddy for my liking, but if you tweak your amp or modeler right, thats a non-issue. 100% recommend!

Beautiful

Just plug&tune&play.

For the price it is just unbelievably good.

One of my best investments!

I've had this guitar for a little over 5 months now and honestly haven't faced any problems with it, it's an amazing beginner 7 string, great quality for the price, clean pickups that allow me to have enough overdrive for slamming deathcore, smooth design and just damn sexy overall!

Great entry-level 7 string guitar

If you want to try a 7-string guitar this is a great choice. Might want to swap the pickups if you're satisfied with the shape and the additional string.

This is great guitar

I wasn't expecting much from this guitar, but seriously I was surprised by how good quality it is at this price, maybe i was lucky to get a good one 😁

The only notes on it is that the frets are ruff and need some polishing i already did it in 2 hours no problem, the neck pocket needs to be tighter but it's just fine no problem here, and i will replace the pickups and the tuners, everything else is great

I love this guitar

I didn't get the " rescue my guitar" sticker though lol 🙁

7-Strings Electric Guitar Harley Benton R-457MN WH Fanfret

Very good guitar quality.

Weighs 3kg, I'm happy I bought it and I enjoy playing it.

I love that my guitar weighs only 3kg, which is great! (note that others could turn out different)

Other Harley Bentons I own are heavy, so I'm happy this one is light!

Pickups sound better than expected, but are high output, I'll probably upgrade later. They're good though, they have a pleasant sound.

Frets - impressively good, no sharp ends, only a tiny buzz on the last two on the 1st string.

The bridge is not grounded, which introduces hum at high gain - I'll have to fix that.

The pots are stiff, they may loosen over time or I'll change them.

The tone knob's metal cap fell off of it's plastic insert, I'll fix that easily.

The neck is a bit thicker, like most Harley Bentons, but fits comfortably in my medium sized hands.

Overall very minor issues, the guitar plays nicely, sounds good and looks good. I'm happy I bought it and I enjoy playing it.

So good!

Everything is in perfect condition. The sound is at the highest level. My friends don't believe it costs so little. Thank you dear Tomann!

Nice bang for your buck

I wanted something that had good reviews on You Tube and scalloped frets. This guitar nailed it for me and the price was super budget friendly. Just ordered another HB guitar but a Tele style, can't wait!

Fanfret if youre on a budget

i believe this is the cheapest fanned fret guitar ive purchased. once you work on the action a little bit, this guitar will pull off gigs and practice. good pickups, good finish, great guitar overall

Actually surprised!

For the price point I was sceptical but I wanted a 7 for the studio as i don't tour anymore. This arrived pretty much good to go out of the box, intonation was decent and it plays well. This coupled with the Archetype Gojira amp from neural DSP chugs like a tug boat.

Great guitar, great price!!

This was my first multi-scale and 7 string guitar, and I didn't want to break the bank, just in case it wasn't my thing. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box, this is a solid guitar!! I took me a little while to get used to the extra string, but the fanned frets were no problem. Overall quality was very good, and playability out of the box was decent. A few tweaks and some new strings, and this guitar punches well above its weight. The pickups in many other reviews are described as muddy, I found them to sound good, but they have a lot of low end (especially on the low B string when downtuned)...an easy and inexpensive fix, rather than replacing them, I converted the tone control to a bass cut control, which allows you to dial out some of the low end to taste, and get more clarity. Highly recommended if you want to get into the world of extended range and fanned fret guitars.