Harley Benton R-458BK Fanfret Reviews

overall nice experience

Long time I wanted to try 8 string and fanfret guitar, but can't afford it. With this budget model I get both of these things. Had a 6 and 7 strings guitars. I like the fanfret thing, but realized that 8 string it's a little too much for me. The guitar have a nice build, not bad furniture, only weekly pickups, but it can be replace.

Now I'd ordered the same model but with 7 strings.

Here is some playthrough with this model:

I use this guitar as is

I'm a pro guitarist go by Xoddamnoch I play Metal & Rock. I normally use Schecter gitfiddles(guitars) But i wanted to try Harley Benton And not for nothing this guitar is very impressive. Harley Benton if they keep it up they will be the next Schecter so get while they are still affordable these cats are on to something. Chris Maddox,

Beat expectations!

Not only did it arrive pretty much exactly as it indicated on the website , but it got here to Canada in perfect shape!

While it did require a slight intonation and general setup tweak, it was more-or-less ready to rock out of the box.

Some have slagged the pickups and tuners, but I have found that for the price point, this is a stellar deal. The pickups aren't muddy, and while the tuners aren't ideal, they're not as sloppy as some would have you believe.

The fretwork is good, and I haven't encountered any fret-out anywhere on the neck. While I didn't require a lot of time to get accustomed to the fanfrets, the flat D-shape on the neck does take some time if you're more accustomed to baseball bat necks over Ibanez Wizard-style necks.

For anyone getting into 8-string/multiscale instruments, it's hard to find a better deal than this.

Thought it would be worst.

I am very pleasantly surprised by the build quality. Everything is top notch for the price. I still don’t believe.

Good First Fan 8

This be a very good introduction to fan fret 8 strings. Only complaint is the stock pick ups. Very muddy.

Very nice for the price

I bought this guitar in June 2019, so I guess this year's version could be different.

Tuning pegs suck, 2 of them are a bit loose too, neck feels great, frets could use a bit of filing but they are ok. bridge is nice, perfect intonation from the factory, stock strings are absolutely unusable, throw them in the trash as soon as you get the guitar.

Pickups are ok, not great, not bad, a bit muddy (I like them, for black and doom metal they fit quite well, not much for a tight sounding tone though). Pickups are active and slanted, because of the fan fret, keep this in mind if you want to change pickups (active should all be fine, but you will need slanted passives for sure), with an included 9v. Stock nut is a bit too large and could scratch your hand.

It's a great guitar for modding, change the pickups, the tuning pegs and maybe the saddles and you have a killer guitar for a great price. The fretboard's wood looks absolutely gorgeous (Purpleheart wood), but it was very dry from factory.

Just don't buy it you don't plan on modding, unless you want to tune every 15 min of playing.

For a great value introduction to 8-string fan fret guitars, this is unbeatable.

I bought this guitar mostly for fun, but also to experiment with extended range tunings, during the Covid-19 lockdown for £138 inc shipping. It took a while to get here, but I wasn't disappointed!

Having read the other reviews here and from watching demos on You-Tube, I was expecting to have issues with pickups, frets and tuners, but it I may have got lucky with 2 out of 3.

Mine was almost playable, right out of the box (nearly in tune!) with only an adjustment to the intonation on 1 string and tightening the tuners required to get up and running.

Starting at the top:

Headstock

The pearlescent Harley Benton logo has been moved in-between the 4-a-side tuners; an improvement from previous models, where it was stuck at the very end.

The tuners are unbranded and non-locking but once tightened up should function well enough. Considering it's a fixed bridge guitar, you wouldn't expect tuning stability issues, but all the strings are angled at the nut and this caused my D string to stick slightly, so mine will need re-filed. (While I'm at it I may just replace it for a black graphite type nut, as the white one looks a bit out of place)

The strings that came on the guitar are pretty decent, although they are lighter than the 10s mentioned in the specification

Neck

The C-profile is comfortable with a fast non-stick, satin finish and a tidy scarf joint between the 1st and 3rd frets. Slight neck-relief helps with bends and stops the F# string from rattling off the frets. The fingerboard is excellent, but a little dry and will need oiled, with offset dot-markers (3 at the 24th fret but only 1 at the 12th). On my example, the fret-ends had been well filed, with no sharp edges and the frets were well levelled for a low, buzz-free action, without any dead spots.

On the down side however, after levelling, the frets have not been crowned or polished, leaving them feeling pretty rough and scratchy on the strings.

Body

The neck/body joint is tight and well constructed with 5 bolts and a rounded heel. Access to the top frets is unrestricted and comfortable.

The black gloss finish was pretty good, although I had a couple of tiny dents and scratches and you can make out a bit of orange peel if you hold it to the light.

Pick-ups/Electronics

A lot of people complained of muddy sounding pick-ups with this guitar. Looks like it has been addressed by ditching the pre-amp and going passive, because my example sounds great, on both clean and hi-gain settings.

The huge shielded control cavity seems empty considering it now only houses 1 500K volume, 1 tone control and 1 three-way selector, but I suppose it keeps the weight down and maybe adds some resonance.

I've yet to remove the pups, so I don't know if there's a connection available for a coil-tap, but if so, I'd change out the 3-way switch for a 5-way.

Bridge

On this guitar there are 8 individual bridges, each with their own intonation and string height adjustment. They are well rounded and comfortable for palm muting. Strings are routed through body and the ferrules are all standard guitar-string size, so if you want to use bass strings for the F# and B, you'll need to get do some modification.

All-in-all for the price, this a suprisingly playable guitar which could easily be made gig-able by tweaking the frets, nut and tuners. I know a lot of people are buying this as a cheap alternative to Ibanez/Jackson/Schecter and adding in custom pick-ups, which often cost more than the guitar itself. This might not be necessary any more to get a decent sound. Without the active electronics muddying everything up, with a bit of tweaking of your amp's EQ settings, this beast is capable of suprising tonal variety, from djent to djazz!

A truly amazing guitar

I purchased this guitar because I wanted to try out a 8 string and fanfare guitar. Coming in at < £160 this is the absolute cheapest one I could find.

The build quality and playability for this price is just amazing. Yes, the pickups aren't amazing, but they are more than sufficient for messing around with 8 strings. From my short time with it, I have no complaints with what this guitar provides.

Alas, after spending a weekend with it, I decided to return it. For the sole reason of that I just don't thing 8 strings are for me. I'll just keep to 6 & 7 strings. It probably does not help that I'm not really into djenty music. Because yes. It does (from my attempt).

I highly recommend getting this guitar if you are curious in trying a 8 string. Because if it is for you, then you have a truly amazing guitar at this end of the budget scale.

It's under € 200... BUT

Not a bad guitar for a first time 8 stringer, but there are some serious flaws.

First the bad:

1. Several people have mentioned the pickups being garbage, and they are totally garbage. They have a bad buzz/hum when the guitar is not being played or when long-sustained notes are played. Anything low-low mid volume that you want to play will have this buzz/hum present. Luckily, EMG makes several 8 string pickups that easily fit this guitar, but for a pair it costs more than the guitar.

2. The tuners are bad! They don't wind up smoothly and evenly. Also, they lose tune easily with the thicker strings.

3. Here's the big one: the guitar I was sent has a raised fret on the 16th fret and it could've been easily caught in the inspection that Harley Benton claims was done. It causes a nasty fret buzz sound on most of the strings from the 13th fret to the 15th. I can see the raised fret looking down the neck and I wish so badly that somebody would've caught that before sending it to me, because i have to exchange it and hope that the next one doesn't have the fretbuzz.

The good:

1. It's an insanely good deal for the money and I have no clue how they make a profit!? for the neck and body alone, It would be worth the same price. Adding a set of high quality tuners and pickups would cost 2x the guitar, making it something that could be played at shows, band practice and on basic recordings.

2. The neck and body feel great, very smooth and easy to play. I've played mostly 7 strings and 8 string guitars, this one fit right in with any of them. The fanned fretboard is smoothly playable and the fret edges were fantastic. My only complaint was the raised fret and hopefully an exchange will fix this.

3. It's easy to set the guitar up to the right levels. Dialing in the specific adjustments took very little time. I like to try different tunings and string gauges, so this easy adjustment is important.

My advice: This guitar is excellent if you're new-intermediate and want to test the waters with 8 string. If you're a regular player-professional then be prepared for some disappointment and/or after-market work.

Absurd for the money

This is an exceptional guitar for the money, and if you're curious about eight strings you should absolutely get this one.

The quality control on this guitar was quite good - a couple of small rough marks on the back, but otherwise the setup and intonation was very good, given how cheap it is and how far it flew to Australia!

The weak parts of this guitar are the pickups, the tuners, and the fretboard. The pickups are quite iffy, but for a practice instrument they're definitely serviceable. The tuners are pretty unstable and they slip/stick a bit. The fretboard feels a bit rough and cheap too.

But these downsides pale in comparison to what you're getting for the price: this guitar comes in at under half the price of the next-cheapest 8 string (including shipping!), it has fanned frets, and it feels good and easy to play. If you replaced the tuners and the pickups, this thing could probably even be stage-worthy.

Great first 8 string

I wanted to try out 8 strings without it being too expensive so thought i

Would give this guitar a go and i couldnt be happier with the guitar....

Aside from dead strings when it arrived and could do with some higher

Output pickups but a great introduction to 8 string for anybody thinking

About it

A Perfect Low Budget 8string Guitar

If you want to transition form a 6-7string to an 8string i think its a great budget guitar. Avg sound and total quality but for the price its an amazing guitar, probably even better than most 400-500eu guitars. A good idea would be to immediately buy a fretwrap to kill as much noise as possible and change the pickups after a while cuz i find them a bit noisy but as i said for the price paid you can't ask for more, they already give you more than what you paid for.

best multiscale for this price

I have an 8-string Ibanez RG8, I decided to purchase it to try the multiscale fretboard.

I'm totally satisfied with this guitar. Feels comfortable to play it, no real issues with the build. The neck is a bit thicker than I'm used to with my other guitars (especially the Ibanez) but really good.

The only downside of this instrument is the useless original pickups.

From the A string down to the F#, nothing is clear enough, even the power chords are overwhelmed by the bass range of the pickups.

However, with a quick pickup swap, you can easily solve this issue.

For this price, I think it was the best choice to try the multiscale 8 string world. Would buy it again.

The best multiscale 8 for under a grand

Bought this instrument about a month ago and I could not be happier with my purchase. I was initially in the market for an 8 string and also multiscale to get my feet wet with both but wasn't exactly comfortable spending 600~700 for a comparable jackson that I may not gel with, so I looked around for potential harley bentons and spotted this immediately. I figured since it was much more affordable why not try it. Probably the better decision, turns out the overall build quality is on par with our other guitarists' EC258, if not slightly better. The stock pickups were substantially worse, but I already had a set of fishman stephen carpenter sig pickups ready to drop in and it was an easy wiring job. What I was not expecting was for everything else to be solid; bought locking tuners thinking the stock ones would be really bad but turns out they hold tune extremely well and don't jump, something that the other guitarist's ESP struggles with heavily at 3 times the price. All in all, I would absolutely recommend this instrument for anyone interested in multiscales or 8s, just get a set of pickups and you're set!

Sounds good, doesn't quite arrive ready to play

I ordered this and after a weeks wait it came with at least 4 frets that hadn't just popped out but the fret was actually broken off from the tang / fret anchor on the high e string causing horrible buzzing for the top 3 strings, something that should have been caught before shipping. The tang / anchors were incredibly thin, thinner than an Ibanez Gio or any of my other guitars.

That aside the guitar sounded pretty good, a little muddy in the low end. I actually like the 'smoother' sound of the higher strings.

The build quality was ok but it did not come ready to play. The fret board was visibly dry and the frets were unpolished or not well sanded so bending and vibrato created scratchy sounds. Tuners and saddles were okay but the nut didn't look cleanly glued and it seemed almost as if the fret board had been sanded to slope down on the high e string.

Overall I would go with something else unless you're okay with the possibility of having to wait to return it and get a replacement. The fret problem is also a major concern for longevity.

Does it Djent

I?m working on a prog metal project for a friend and having read a few reviews of the Harley Benton R-458BK 8 string fanfret I decided to give one a go. So, to the unboxing. This guitar had travelled over 750 miles and straight out of the box it was almost in tune which was a remarkable thing in itself. The body was VERY shined and free of dents, blemishes and scratches. The finish on the back of the neck is very good too. As others have pointed out the fingerboard was bone dry but a couple of coats of oil and it?s all OK now. The neck is straight in all the right places and the intonation spot on. Just as good as you would get/expect on a guitar at three times the cost.

On to the hardware. Some reviewers had the saddles as being very sharp. As I tend to rest my hand on the bridge this was or slight concern but, HB seem to have listened and the saddles are now rounded and as smooth as a cashmere cod piece and very well made. The tuners are smooth in operation and hold there tuning very well. I bought this with a spare set of strings expecting them to be really poor, just bits of wire but how wrong was I. The supplied strings are of excellent quality, probably better than the ones I bought. So far so good!!!

Electronics. Pots and switches are smooth in operation and quiet. The pickups are active and? guess what??? They even supply it with a 9v battery. The battery sits in a secure enclosure not a lousy clip that I was expecting. Sound wise, the pickups are good and a decent range of sounds can be achieved with switching and dealing the tone knob.

OK, here?s the slightly negative bit that you were all probably waiting for. It has been observed by others that the frets are sharp and poorly finished on these guitars (probably true on other HB?s too). I experienced a slightly less that smooth finish in ONLY the top four frets (close to pickups) of the neck. It?s only a slight thing and can easily be remedied and only occurs high up the neck. I?m assuming the finishings done once the neck is attached to the body and access is limited due to the cutaways. It isn?t enough to put me off it as every other part of this guitar?s quality are WAY above the price you pay.

So in short, If you want to try an 8 string do not hesitate to give this one a go. at about £130 it is worth way more than the cost and is well worth getting. If you?ve never played a fanfret before it only took me about 15 mins to get used to. As I?d never played a eight string well, that will take a fair bit longer to get used to.

Finally, does it Djent??? Damn right it does!!!

good luck hearing the entire range

For the price, really, I couldn't ask for very much more. Thing plays better than I was expecting, tuning stability is deceptively good, pots are quiet, neck has zero dead spots, etc.

Basically, the thing is great EXCEPT for the fact that, for whatever reason, the pickups frequency response is pretty much zero in the high end. Mushy, muddy tone down low on the 7th and 8th string (again, better than i was expecting for under 200$), and you cant even hear the 1st string about 80% of the time you're playing it. No clue if i got bad pickups or not, but damn did that kill my enjoyment of it. Could always drop new pickups in it, but this thing being routed slanted and for soapbars leaves me very little choice in what i can put in there, all of which being more expensive than the rest of the guitar.

In short, it's good for the price, and for once, a HB sounds like its price.

more than i expected for the price

good for a first 8 string - requires a bit of work

I wanted to get into playing 8 string but didn't want to spend too much in case I didn't get on with it.

It took a while for the guitar to get get to me - despite the website indicating it was instock I was later informed that the latest batch were still going through QC.

This QC was not entirely evident when the instrument eventually arrived - the set up was dreadful and required a lot of adjustment to make playable and the stock strings were dead. During string change all 8 of the string ferrules fell out of the guitar. I also machine heads are also of inconsistent quality. There were also scratches on the knobs and unfinished parts on the back of the headstock.

Once I got the set up issues sorted I found it to be a very enjoyable instrument to play. The sound from the pickups is fine - especially when using higher gain tones. The fan fret neck is very easy to adapt to.

For the money it's a good first 8 string.

Having caught the 8 string bug - I'm now looking to make a more substantial purchase.