Harley Benton SC-1000LH SBK Progressive Line Reviews

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.

Excellent

I had my doubts about buying a Harley Benton but I really am stunned by how good this guitar is. Not just good for the price, but good full stop.

The styling very reminiscent of a well known Japanese guitar, and the satin finish is gorgeous. The active pickups are clear and crisp with a nice bite that cuts through a mix. Bridge and tuners are a smart gold finish and work well and the control pots are smooth. The guitar is nicely set up and the finish is flawless. What?s more it even comes strung with D?addarios. Unbelievable at such a low price. It?s quite a heavy guitar - ways more than my LP Standard, but I like that. The one slight niggle is that the fret ends are not as smooth as I?d like, but this is an easy fix for anyone with basic guitar maintenance skills.

I own 30+ guitars including several custom shop instruments, but I would happily gig and record with this Harley Benton. I can see myself owning a lot more Harley Bentons in the future.

it is a very good product for that price.the guitar looks amazing and it has a good sound

lefties can have cake and eat it

Great guitar straight from the box. no additional setup needed. the matt black finish and gold hardware are superb making it look 3 times the price. bought it mainly to play heavy stuff but quite surprised at the clean sounds I got from the active PUs. a great start to my HB collection

More than expected

I wanted a guitar to play and not to care too much about it. But now I think is more than that.

First thing noticed after unboxing, was the reinforcement profile on the neck, under the nut. Not all the Gibson have it, (Epiphones usually do) and they are notorious for neck breaking. Apparently, this one is safe. The guitar was set up in the shop, but action was pretty high. I tried to lower it and now is as low as any good guitar, so no frets problems. I wonder why they left it like this. The active pickups sound impressive, very hot, and lot of highs and no hum. The tone control is effective, but is working on first third of the turn, then nothing happen. I think there is a logarithmic pot installed, instead of linear.

Easy to replace.

The weak part are the tuners. Guitar stays in tune, but the the tuning process is a trial and error process. But I will upgrade them anyway.

Bodywork looks good, no visible defects. Neck feels a bit chunkier than Fender style guitars which is quite comfortable for me.

Overall, I think I got more than I paid for.

excellent guitar

Excellent guitar.

Great sound, feeling and playability.

Setup not needed, good job on that.

A couple of tiny flaws on the finish, almost unnoticeable.

I recommend this awesome guitar.

OK guitar with some minor issues

I just purchased this. It is my first guitar with active humbuckers. These are not super hot, but they will overdrive an amp if you really dig in. It is possible to get some decent clean tone, surprisingly.

These do have the correct 25k pots, just in case you might be worried about that.

It appears to have a bone nut, that is cut very well. Compared to a some cheaper Chinese guitars I've purchased on the internet, the setup is quite good indeed.

The only issues I had were with the finish. They mask off the binding on the top edge, but don't blend the edge well so it leaves a slight lip where the finish is easily chipped and it looks like some of the finish may have stuck to the tape so there are some rough areas along the top edge.

2 month Update:

Some issues I forgot to include. Mystery goo on frets requiring heavy polishing to remove. Looks like glue possibly.

I did not care for the stock pickups. I swapped them out in favor of Seymour Duncan Blackouts, which are a direct drop in replacement. Sounds incredible now.

The hardware is a step up over Chinese guitars in this price range, but clearly lower quality than what comes on most Epiphones and Squiers.

After the pickup swap and a little TLC, this guitar plays great, but it still looks and feels cheap.

Final update:

I reinstalled the stock pickups to give them a second chance. I think they are actually quite good upon further review. They sound like an active pickup should.

I think I was too quick to try new pickups in this, and did not give these a fair shake.

The guitar holds tune well and now that I've spent a little time polishing the frets it plays a whole lot better.

Pay for what you get.

Received my 1000LH and had a play straight away. Guitar feels cheap in weight and plays cheap. I think a new set of strings and a few months of breaking the guitar in will make it quite a good axe. The guitar looks great but could use with some mods to really make it shine in sound ie pickup changes, strings etc. Good for a practice guitar.