Harley Benton R-458MN WH Fanfret 4-stars Reviews

Almost there

It is alright if you are willing to do additional work on it. The stock tuners sorta do the job, but the ratio is low, and there is A LOT of slack, so I would suggest swapping them if ever climbing on stage with this guitar. Stock pickups are OK, but are on the noisy side and required me to increase the noise floor on my noise gate. The neck is wonderful and the fretwork is more than acceptable. The stock strings are too thin even for standard tuning, with the 8-th string being barely thicker than the 7th string on, say, and Ibanez (65 vs 59). My biggest issue is with the nut, though. While it is made of a good material (Nubone), it is quite badly slotted (the vertical and horizontal angles sometimes seem random). Also for thicker strings one would actually need to re-slot the nut, which from one side means that the proper files were used for the stock string gauges, but from the other this procedure will probably be a must, as thicker gauge strings are highly recommended. For the price of the guitar it probably is OK, but more attention to the nut and thicker strings would have probably cost not more than 15 EUR per guitar, which in all honestly I'd be happy to pay, was there such an option.

The smart way to try something new

So, I'd imagine you're here at the review section wondering if this is real for the price. Yes, yes it is. Harley Benton has re-written what a budget guitar means. Trying to find an multiscale 8 string for under 600 felt like an impossible task. Very impressed with the sound and fit and finish for the price, however mine arrived with some slightly rough frets, nothing 10 minutes couldn't fix.

Not bad

Exactly what you expect for that price, wanted to try 8string guitar first without spending a ton and now I know its not my cup of tea.

Great for it's price

The guitar is really good for its price but there's a couple of things that could be changed. It's a bit short in my opinion as the scale length is only 27 inches. The pickups could also be better, but that's not that big of a deal since you can change them. Overall the guitar is great for its price and I'm not sorry that I bought it.

Great buy for an 8 String, needs work

I just received this today, and while everything is fresh in my mind, I wanted to go ahead and do the review. Frets are a bit sharp, where the neck pickup is where there's a little overhang of the neck, there's a bit of cut wood shavings still on the neck, and the bottom string F#, is a bit wobbly and hard to keep in tune. All in all though, it's a really solid guitar. The finish looks immaculate, the feel of the neck is really good, there doesn't seem to be any electronic issues, and it just feels really good to play. I'm gonna throw some heavier strings on it to hopefully fix that bottom string wobbliness, but then I think it'll be perfect after sanding down the frets a little

Great Quality for the Money!

I've had this guitar for eight months now, and I can confidently say that it still blows me away! The quality for the price is ridiculously good. In all my research before buying this, it seems that as long as quality control does their job, then you get a great guitar. The trade off in price is that the hardware (my main gripe is the tuners) and pickups are cheap. I upgraded to Hipshot locking tuners and lubed the nut, which took care of the tuning instability. The string gauge that is used from the factory is way too light, so I got a custom set from Stringjoy 10-80. With those two simple changes it turned this thing into a beast! The pickups are a bit noisy, so I highly recommend a noise gate. I have a Horizon Devices Precision Drive, so I can make anything sound good haha. I only had to touch up a couple fret ends with my fret file, and it seriously plays like a dream. It's a great modding platform and entrance into 8 string guitars. I love that it's multi scale as well. It really wasn't that big of an adjustment to get used to. I give it three stars on sound and quality before upgrades. It's easily four stars after upgrades. This is my first Harley Benton, and I'm definitely gonna buy more!

Great budget 8 string

Bought this guitar 3 years ago and it’s still chugging like a champ! Came fully set up out of the box, barely needed tuning! A little rough on the frets and the active pickups could do with a bit more punch but other than that it’s a great guitar!

Holds tune nicely and sustains for quite a while!

Great package in general, not to mention the price makes it a no brainer for anyone wanting a bit of 8 string fun, or a base for a crazy project! This guitars got it covered!

Worth giving it a try for the price

I have many old and new guitars in all price and quality ranges and just wanted to see what an 8 string multiscale guitar feels like without having to invest a lot of money. This was the obvious choice. When the guitar arrived the set-up was actually quite good and was in playable condition out of the box, but needed to be set-up again after I changed the stock strings to heavier bottom strings. The instrument's construction is quite good, I did not see any paint, finish or construction issues, tight neck pocket, etc.. It's well-balanced and the fret edges were smooth enough, although the frets themselves felt a bit raw and needed a little polishing and smoothing, no big deal. I liked the smooth feel and shape of the neck. As mentioned in other reviews, the nut needs a bit of filing work for the strings to go through properly; again no big deal. After a professional luthier set it up for me, the heaviest string still has some buzz but I guess I sort of expected that and can live with it. Now on the downside, the pickups are really where I had to lower my overall ratings for this guitar; they are very noisy and muddy and thus probably of quite low quality. I could live with the clean tones which are acceptable, but once OD/distortion kicks in, it becomes difficult to distinguish between the notes I am playing, the sounds seem to blend into each other in an overall noisy background. BTW, I am by no means a heavy distortion user or heavy music player generally, although I do like my OD/fuzz/distortion and I have dozens of guitars with all kinds of pickups for a comparison with, again, dozens of analog and digital effects. At this price point I can live with using this guitar for playing experimental free jazz type of stuff with clean(er) tones, it is a good instrument for an introduction to practicing on 8 strings and a MS fretboard for developing different skills. Presuming that this guitar is normally meant for players with heavier tonal expectations, I'd have to say that something would have to be done about the pickups, which I may decide to invest in at some point.

Good

Nice neck work very minor finish flaws arrived in tune lots of space in electronics cavity for batteries if you want overall great gear for the price. Times got hard had to part ways buying again in different color

Pretty good

Really decent guitar overall. I was happy with the price and the guitar is high quality for this price range.

The pickups are decent, its a bit hard to get a clear tone but overall not bad.

The finish is smooth and neck feels great.

The fretboard is longer than the neck, thats not really a problem but aesthetically, it's not pleasing.

For this price range, this guitar is the best 8 string option and overall pretty solid.

Cannot be beaten even at double the price

Where else will you find an 8 string guitar for this price? Then ask; where would you find a fan fret, multiscale 8 string for less than double what the R458 costs?

Brilliant guitar, no fret buzz, no sharp frets, sounds good, feels good, finish is fantastic.

Only complaints are that the pickups need upgrading and the tuners feel a bit weak/cheap.

Sound

Quality cost is good, but you could improve the sound on this guitar.

Nice guitar for 8-string newcomers and challenge yourself. But in comparison with the 6-string guitar in the same price quote, the other guitar sounds better. 8th string sounds not fat, tried with different string setup

very good for price

very nice guitar after a bit of setting up. Probably needs locking tuners. I fiddled around a bit with some free vsts and got a pretty decent sound with these pickups as well but still might replace them.

The best thing for the price

Very well built for the price, and smooth on playing. The only con of built is that my neck has a tiny rough spot that's kinda annoying while playing but it doesn't hold back any kind of move.

Sound is poor but good enough for value. Consider changing pickups and it's instantly a mid range guitar.

Great bang for the buck

Up front, I'm really pleased with this guitar. For metal (and for the money), it's almost perfect. Now, the details:

Pros:

-Great build quality

-Comfortable, easy to play

-No fret buzz

-No protruding fret edges

-No hum or crackle from the electronics

-Pretty well set up out of the box

Cons:

-The stock pickups are... okay. You can get some nice heavy tones out of them, but cleans – not so much. But again, for this price, it is to be expected.

-My guitar came with a little dent on the headstock. Not sure whether that comes from the factory or uncareful transportation.

-The frets on my guitar were noticeably unpolished.

Great project 8

For the money, simply untouchable value. Arrives intonated, almost fully in-tune, nut properly curved, with a medium action (which I prefer because I have a heavy right hand). Now if you're buying this 8 as a first one (like I did) with the intention to swap things around/tinker (like I will be doing) then this is perfect, because there are a few things to tweak that will take this absolutely to the next level.

Frets are absolutely playable as is, but could use a polish which I will do when my new strings arrive. Pickups are passable at best, but given that's the most expensive investment to upgrade in the guitar they'll serve for the time being. Electronics are the cheap chinese sort, with the sort of 3 way switch that you find on squier guitars and things of that sort.

Now I'll say I think the strings are the biggest let-down on this guitar, which is comical given that they can be easily swapped out so it's not even that big of a deal. But a low .65 on that low F# (or F if you're playing Meshuggah covers) is incredibly floppy and almost unusable, as your fretting hand with any regular amount of pressure will absolutely drive the pitch sharp. I'm going to be putting an .80 on as soon as my strings arrive in the mail.

My one complaint about the guitar that isn't easily fixed is the location of the 3 way selector, I hate how the volume pot is between the bridge and the selector. I fumble over it every time, but I suppose I will get used to it.

The biggest drawback about ordering this guitar was the 3 month (yes, you read that right) ship time due to the pandemic shortage. I knew it would take a while, and I'm not mad about it. I just figure people should know it's taking that long. Overall, strong recommend. Once you put in the time and elbow grease I doubt any sub-$1500 8 string would be able to compete with this beauty.

String holders from the back side of the guitar drop when I'm changing strings.

The neck and the body are made of some very light material, doesn't feel very comfortable playing.

Nice guitar for eventual doodling and messing around with 8 strings.

Solid multiscale guitar, for a low price

After years of playing 6 and 7-string guitars, I decided that I wanted to dip my toes in the 8-string multiscale world. I didn't want to pay absurd prices, though, so I turned to Harley Benton and found this beauty. This thing feels very good, holds tuning quite well, and sounds pretty good for its price. The standard pickups could probably be replaced quite easily for a perfect tone. Overall, I'd recommend this if you're looking for an inexpensive multiscale guitar.

Great buy at a great price.

Shipping was fast, the guitar came set up well however the factory strings less than steller. After putting on a fresh set of strings I was very pleasantly impressed by the playability and overall construction of the guitar, there were no lose screws and the pickups sounded great when plugged in. Even after a few months of playing the guitar plays well. The tuners that come stock are functional and do work but they are definitely the least impressive piece of hardware that come stock. Overall this guitar is a great buy at an outstanding price.