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

Amazing for the price

The Good

- Flawless body

- Neck near flawless

- Fret job is near perfect

- Not heavy. Really like the thin D neck profile (similar to ibanez)

The Bad

- Had to shim the neck to straighten it in the pocket with a couple layers of an old insurance card. The low B would slide off the edge of the neck on the higher frets before I did this. Its fine now, nice and straight.

- Tuners are quite meh

The Ugly

- The headstock has a little ding at the very top, looks like a wood defect not the finish

For a $180 USD guitar its just as all the review say: amazing for the price with a few things to look out for. I plan on swapping the tuners and pickups out.

A++ would buy again. :)

Great value, big tone

It's a beautiful guitar and plays very good.

The neck profile is a bit odd at first, but now I'm loving it, also the frets feel spacious, but would like to see them a bit more polished, as they felt a wee bit rough when bending. There are no rough fret ends though so that is always nice to see on a lower priced guitar.

The pickups are hi gain, and had to tweak some settings in my DAW to accommodate, but they sound tight.

All the rest feels solid; tone and volume pots are smooth, jack feels snug, tone switch has a nice stiff feel to it.

All in all, this is a seriously good deal!

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.

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

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

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.

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

"Ein Brett"

Was actually reluctant at first, another 7-string? 150€?

This thing is a beast, and as such you might have to deal with a thing here and there.

Sound is amazing, after changing the pickup (EMG-85 now). Really like the bright fretboard, the C shape is a monster, but works well for chords, as there is enough place for the fingers on the fretboard, without it feeling to "broad". With mine there was nearly no fretbuzz, although action is a bit high for my taste, and might get a little tweaking. There are a few "meh" things. There are black plastics covering the string holes on the back. But those covers are only on 3 strings? Side of the fretboard looks like it got dirty when glueing? No major issues in terms of feel, but if you look close it looks weird.

This thing rips with the EMG85, definition on B-string hammering, any amp, riffing is a charm, as well as playing chords. Can match my 600€ Ibanez, and I guess, I'll go down the fanfret road a lot more.

excellent seven string.

The Harley Benton Seven string fan fret is an absolut ripper for those on a tight budget and looking for a good quality seven string. only thing i would change on the guitar would be the tuners that need improving, otherwise a great guitar for all that are leaning towards their first seven string.

Surprised with the overall quality

While my item didn't exactly match the description (different fretboard colour) I was blown away with the quality of this guitar. Solid instrument, easy to play. Keeps in tune very well. Pickups are the least attractive component in this guitar, but I can still get a lot out of it with my Bantamp zombie, or audio interface. No regrets!

Great value

The overall fit and finish of this instrument is top notch ! The only flaw with this was the pickups have more of a darker tone than I prefer but sound is always gonna be one of those personal preference things .

Unbelievable

What a great guitar for so less money. Looks perfect, well painted. The neck, frets, action very good. The only more or less negative are the pickups (too much), but with a little effort no problem. Looking for a good cheap 7-string guitar? This is your choice !!

Nice

Neck profile quite good; frets ok. Finish work smooth. Pickups are alright for an inexpensive guitar. Tuners fine. Overall a good value.