Harley Benton SC-1000LH SBK Progressive Line

A (semi) reliable, value for money riff-machine

I'm an intermediate player, chose the SC-1000 for my first guitar with active pickups, cause the high gain noise from my previous guitar was kind of a killer. Been using it for nearly 2 years!

Upon a pretty careful inspection I could find no flaws, except maybe a barely noticable scratch near the rear cavity. Visually it's stunning, with it's matte black finish and gold hardware.

My playing experience with the guitar all this time has been good, though not the best. Very good action and comfortable to play on, but the tuning stability could be better. I would also highly recommend swapping out the pickups on it for EMG's, since I found them to be quite noisier than expected. However, a noise gate would do the job just as well, and the tone was pretty good, looking past that.

All in all a very good addition to the limited range of choices for left-handed guitar players, and HB knows how to make a low priced model that doesn't scream "compromise".

Not bad

If it will be your first, it will be good to yourself

As expected, it has hot pickups.

I was looking for a guitar with hotter pickups, that would overdrive without much effort, and this guitar does that. I read other reviews saying that you cannot get clean sounds, but that was not true in my case, at least with this particulart guitar. If you put the volume in the guitar very low and no gain at all in your amp, raising the volume in the amp only, you do get clean sounds. I have tried the guitar with different settings and it gives you quite a lot of different tones and sounds. It is quite versatile. I did not try to get metal music type sounds because I am more interested in rock, so I cannot comment on that aspect. Neither I have tried the guitar without the battery, which allegedly will make the pickups "passive" so giving you more tones possiblities that way. I use to have an epiphone les paul pro, and it was much heavier and very difficult to play, couldn't make the action low and the strings were always very tense. In comparison this Harley Benton is much better, low action and easy to play, not heavy at all and well finished.

Amazing instrument - flipped writing

After using it for almost a week I'm amazed by the quality of this guitar. It feels amazing to play and required only a few adjustments. The sound of the HBZ pickups is way better than I expected and considering the price this guitar is a steal.

My one complaint is that the writing on the headstock that says "Progressive Line" is flipped on my guitar. I should note that the headstock is the left handed version, just the writing is flipped.

perfect aesthetically and sound quality..

Amazing quality for the price, just needs better QC

This is almost an LTD EC with EMG clones, great feeling and playing guitar with great budget pickups. Quality control is my only issue, with the frets not being set properly and making an exchange necessary.

Beautiful

What a nice axe, solidly built with the weight of quality though the body strap button was damaged along with a broken humbucker plastic surround, during shipping both were easily fixed.

The Matt black paired with gold accessories really sets it off..and the sound well, nothing like deep growls and screeching highs to get your blood pressure up! Action is smooth n easy..just a joy to play

For lefties its hard to find anything near this

Great guitar, looks and plays phenomenal. Build quality is hit or miss... the pickup casing was broke and a tuner was missing a plastic washer. That being said this guitar plays incredible out of the box and the pickups are comparable to EMG

Guitar for upgrade

It's a cheap guitar, you have to accept that.

The quality of performance is generally good, but it depends on your luck.

I replaced my guitar tuning machines, made precise adjustments, made the trimming of the frets.

Only after that the guitar was nice to use.

In addition to the price, the advantage of this guitar is the sound. This is a real guitar for heavy music.

The guitar has a low noise level, excellent ergonomics (better than LesPaul).

White noise from pickups can be reduced by decreasing the guitar volume to 90%

Cheap never sounded this dirty

Ordered this with low-ish expectations but was pleasantly surprised. Build and finish are flawless. Intonation spot on. Action on the high side of medium. Nut perfectly adequate, but may need some lubrication. Stays in tune well but machine heads don't feel great (maybe due to the nut) Neck plays well and frets are well finished with the exception of the last two or so. Inlays are no great shakes but nice and level with fingerboard. Binding is flawless on body. One tiny spot on the neck where (I assume) the wood splintered, appears filled in. Roseacer fingerboard feels unfamiliar and dry at first. After a first oiling it feels a lot better already. Pots feel ok, but don't appear very linear, kinda wished they had lowered them into the body a little just for appearances' sake

Extremely surpised by the overall sound and the pickups in general. Other reviews led me to believe they weren't that great but I really love the nasty greasy dirty sound I can get out of them. I know this guitar is aimed squarely at the metal crowd but you can really get some Jimmy Page Whole Lotta Love-esque sounds out of this which makes me smile just thinking about it. Unsurprisingly the pickups are extremely hot. Turn that Master down first!

Came with 9V battery, truss rod key, and lead included.

Lead appears ok, but chances are you already have a much nicer one at home.