Harley Benton RB-600CS Classic Series Reviews

RB-600

This is the guitar that Rickenbacker should have built. Just love the body shape.

Stylish

Good guitar for the money, vintage look and feel. Quality is okay, not perfect, but very good.

Plenty of jangle

A bit rough around the edges but looks good, light weight shorter scale than fender which is good as I am short (5FT) and plenty of pleasing jangley sounds to amuse my self with. Well worth the money.

A great buy.

Saw this on YouTube and was hooked.

It arrived quickly and safely.

I cannot find any blemishes and the setup was fine.

Amazing value.

Cant Beat the Birds.

I had been considering one of these for some time before i made the plunge and to be honest i wish i'd dived in earlier! On receipt which came nearly two hours before the allotted delivery slot which was a major result the packaging was more than ample ensuring a safe delivery. On un-boxing and actually seeing the bit of kit it was a bit of a shock..wow it was better than i could ever have expected, it really looks the part, certainly a nod to a Ric bass but certainly hints of a 425 courtesy of the upper horn. On inspection there appeared to be no issues with the gloss finish, all looked well, the frets were well dressed, possibly only issue was the sharp edges to the scratch plate, a bevelled edge would have been nice but hey this is a budget after all and a damn fine budget at that. The pickups look like Filteron and are very smart indeed. Bridge looked okay and the action being a bit high was easily adjusted even though it played well acoustically straight out of the box. If it plays amplified as well as it looks then we have a bit of a winner here and i wasn't disappointed in the least. Played clean through a Vox amplifier the sound was very nice indeed, chords ringing out clearly defined, the neck pickup was nicely rounded and the the bridge pickup bright but not overly, with the two blended together a certain richness could be heard, dd a bit of chorus and reverb and well the world of sound is your oyster, it took it to a whole new level, a run through of The Blowers Daughter with it A9 and B11 chords and i was hooked, the guitar of choice from now on. Bit of Rockabilly and some slap back echo proving that this is no one trick pony and once you get onto Beatles and Byrds the joy continues. This is a worthy well more than worthy purchase for 200 quid its a snip and even the strings (10's) were in good shape makes me wonder if i really should have a look at a 12 string version!

Harley-Benton RB600CS “WOW”

I own 15 guitars and this guitar is now my favorite! Unbelievable price, quality and lighting shipping to USA.

Impressed

Impressed considering the price. Bought this to modify a little. Perfect as a retro Rickenbacker low cost substitute.

HB does it again.

I wouldn't change anything about this guitar. Great build quality; beautiful in looks and sound.

Quite the surprise

My first Harley Benton - I wanted to try one of their more unique designs, even if it is clearly inspired by Rickenbacker.

Nice compact body, nicely balanced. And absolutely gorgeous looking.

Neck is pretty slim and feels good. Glossy finish, so maybe not for everyone.

Sound: Surprising versatility with quite some character, doesn't really sound like other guitars I have. Nice unamplified sound to begin with. Relatively low output PUs with a pretty dark overall sound. Combines nicely with a clean bright amp (Fender etc) and works rather well even with some added crunch. Not for high distortion.

Quality: well, I had to scrape a few places on the fretboard which had pretty noticeable scattermarks from machining. Aside from that, quality seems good for the price. And considering what quality I had to deal with from other way pricier brands, this one very much holds its place. Honestly quite incredible how much guitar you are getting for the money.

Overall a good buy

It arrived in good condition and it really looks GREAT! The paint job and finish are excellent. However, i did have to spend a little for a good setup, but it was worth it! I have 28 guitars already and think this one will stay in the family for good! It actually has it's own sound slightly different than the Ricky itself. It plays good, looks good, and sounds good... "So Welcome Home Baby"

Short neck

The guitar itself is beautiful, nice finish and everything is where it's supposed to be with no flaws that I can see. Sounds great, plays great. The only thing that might put some folks off is the short 22 fret neck. I guess the advantage to that is you can play it in confined spaces and bump the guitar into anything. As far as playing it does have a wonderful sound, I don't think it needs any upgrades unless you absolutely want to spend extra money on pots, pickups, or tuners. I wouldn't change a thing, plug her in, and go.

If I have one suggestion it would be to get rid of the plastic nut. Why not add a bone or graphite nut to all HB guitars, for an extra 4-5 dollars added to the cost, it would be a real value-added accessory to the entire lineup.

Just finished 2 hours on the new HB

I continue to be amazed at the good quality put into the Harley Benton line. This is my 3rd HB guitar. This one arrived today, and the first thing I do is check the setup. I could hardly believe it. The set up was as GREAT, better than I expected. Even the intonation was good, not many guitars come out of the box this good!

I'll continue to shout the praises of Harley Benton guitars.

Inspirational magic

This guitar is a beauty and is fantastic value for money. I like to keep instruments standard if I can as upgrading a cheap instrument with pickups that exceed its value is going to usually end up with a louder squeeling pig! Not so with my Harley Benton Rickyesque . The way it feels is fantastic and the intonation and tuning are stable. I am no expert on Rickenbackers I cant afford to own one yet but I think I got the next best thing. The jangle tones just inspire you to play something different and many things just fall out of this guitar when doodling. Dont get me wrong you can make this growl rock grunge and roll but give it some clean bell tones and you will be in 7th heaven. It came with one knob missing the silver disc insert. The guys, actully the Gal got this replaced for me PDQ. The rest of the guitar is perfect and has a quality feel. Its not so diverse in tones but it does have a shed load of tone to play with. This is a gig worthy instrument and maintains its lust appeal well after purchase.

Cool guitar

What can you say ? Looks good , sounds good, does you good, can't stop playing it. Had a Ric 330 years ago, didn't like it, this Harley Benton Ric is the best, played straight out of the box. Soo cool, buy one !!!

Way smaller than you'd think

If you're a fan of 'RB' guitars and want an affordable one, then I imagine you bumped into this one. However, I would check for videos or images of people holding it... It is WAY smaller than you'd think! That might be a good thing but I can imagine a lot of 'RB' would expect it to be as big as the others. It sounds okay but it does the job. It's a bang for the buck if you want a semi hollow body guitar with an 'RB' vibe!

Running Down a Sound

It took me a little while to dial in the TP sound I was looking for in this Rickenbacker inspired semi hollow. First, I replaced the strings with Elixir Nanowebs. The I tuned her down to D which gives it that bottom on Running Down a Dream. I don't use pedals generally because I feel they take out the percussiveness of the instrument.

I'm running it through a Fender 40 watt Champion on the British setting which gives you punch and grit.

This was my first try with Harley Benton and the guitar arrived in great shape. I also like the smaller body style than if it were a Ricky. It's easy to play and looks the part. All in all, good deal.

A set neck semi hollow for less than 200 Earth Pounds?

Indeed, a semi hollow, with a set neck, and styled just differently enough from a Rick to have it's own character all for the price of fifty pints of dubious ale.

It's a very fine guitar, and not just "fine for the money" but in and of itself. Really nice neck with very well dressed frets, and reasonably well set up too: a touch of relief giving you a nice low action with a TINY bit of fret buzz that was easily dealt with with just a little more relief dialled in.

The sound is pretty much what you'd expect when you clap eyes on it: a sort of econobacker sound - just jangly enough with plenty of poke too. Switchgear and pots are all fine and do the job they are tasked with perfectly adequately: they will of course break eventually, but you have no need to swap them put straight away unless you plan on some really heavy gigging a long way from home.

The big deal for me is the styling: there are any amount of guitars out there for this sort of money, and most are strat or tele or LP shaped. This one gives you a little bit of character to play with.

I use this guitar for Jam nights and it has so far stood up fine to being used by a bunch of players, some of whom might have had just a little too much...whatever it is that is making them walk like that.

So yes, it's sturdy, it sounds fine ( not brilliant, but nothing to be ashamed of by a long way) pleays great, and it looks like a grand and a half's worth from a few feet away. What's not to like?

well if I had to be picky, one of the machine heads is a little loose around the centre point, meaning you had to turn it a couple of degrees before it starts to move the string. This is something I have had on other 2-300 euro guitars and so far isn't anything to worry about: it holds it's tuning fine, it's just a bit of a pain, but it will be replaced and locking tuners wouldn't go amiss.

The interior finish ( in the F hole ) looks a bit like an impressionist painting, but in that you have to look hard to see anything I don't care.

If you want to upgrade, either over time as the existing hardware wears out, or as a project just for the fun of it, you'll be doing so on a guitar that will merit the extra work.

It's great.

Good choice for an affordable Ricky type guitar.

This instrument looks great and plays reasonably well, though unusually for Harley Benton guitars, mine would have benefited from a bit more work on the set up. The strings were quite high. I lowered the bridge and will probably get round to having a pro set up on it because as they say, it is on the neck that you communicate with the guitar - it's the bit you touch. Played unplugged there is a slight metalic resonance coming off the hardware that you won't find on a Rickenbacker (costing 10 times the price!). Plugged in it is very impressive to my ears, once you get used to the semi-solid feel of it and adjust playing style slightly. The other guitarist in my band started using his on stage straight away. The tuners seem ok, with a touch of sticking on one of the wound strings, but a bit of pencil lead in the nut, and a few other tweaks that are perfectly normal on a new instrument, and this is an excellent choice for the Ricky fan. Not recommended for shredding or players who prefer very thin neck profiles, but if over time, elements were upgraded, such as a bone nut, top end tuners, maybe a new loom and pots, I think this you would have guitar worth a lot more than you payed for it. Though you couldn't sell it at a price to reflect that now, HB guitars could start to become collectable?

Pretty for the price

It is a pretty guitar. Of course it has minor quality details, but they are indeed minor. Sound is as expected. It is smaller than you could see from the pictures and that makes it very light, can be convenient. Overall it is a good one, happy with my purchase

Harley Benton RB-600CS Classic

The guitar I received was very good. The outer shipping box was trashed by the shipping companies. The inter shipping box was in good shape with no damage. There was a large amount of bubble / pillow wrap around the inter box.

The guitar was well packaged. When I took the guitar out of the box it looked great. So far, I have looked it over closely and I have played it. I can find no problems. The sound is good and finish is beautiful. I like the neck and the action. There's no static with the control knobs. They function as they should.

I own several guitars (Fender, Gretsch, Ibanez, Epies). This is my second Harley Benton, but it will not be my last one. I hope your experience will be as good as mine. I live in Texas, USA