Harley Benton SC-400 SGT Classic Series 4-stars Reviews

Surprisingly good for the money

I bought this as a basis for modification - I plan to add an extra pickup for the low E and A strings with a separate output to go via an octaver into a bass amp. As such I know I'm going to replace much of the electronics, but straight out of the box, with a little tune-up, I was impressed with how well it plays and the sounds it makes. I previously bought one of the SC kits and the pickups supplied in that were terrible - these on the other hand actually sound pretty good! The instrument is nicely finished, with no flaws I could see. The neck is nice, and the frets are well fitted with no sharp corners. The fret tops are a little rough though, meaning bends sound a little graunchy. Nothing a little polish won't fix though! Tuners work well and it seems to stay in tune, and initial set-up is nice and low, although the intonation needs tweaking at the bridge. The only real complaint is the bridge/tail-piece doesn't seem to be earthed properly, so it's quite noisy if you're not touching a string. As I'm going to be stripping it and rebuilding then I'll fix that along the way, but it's a shame when everything else was so good!

Beginners dream

The guitar came great out of the box, frets were a bit sharp bot still really playable, no need of truss rod adjustment, action was good. Finsih was decent. Keep in mind this is a 160euro guitar. So you wont get Profesional guitar. But never the less a great instrument to start your journey, would recomment it for everyone who is looking for classic gold top les paul style.

Great addition to the collection

It arrived quickly and looked great out of the box. Since I have some skill in care of my equipment, the little issues found were easily adjusted. Small dry solder ground problem and I swapped the tuners to a set I like better.

Sounds great looks great

Anyone looking for a Les Paul style guitar without spending a ton of money Harley Benton is the way to go

not a bad guitar iv got to be honest im a fender type guitar man but for the money you can not fault it

Have some little scratch

Guitar have some little scratch, also paint is more orange color (not gold), and also have some paint defects, not perfect painting (some spots). but overall for this price this guitar is good. You can use it play. looks modern.

Extremely usable workhorse/backup

I bought this guitar to use for a side project which is playing in drop D tuning and I've been very impressed with the instrument so far.

First the cons up front:

Some finishing issues - One of the tuning pegs washer sort of bits on the top of the headstock isn't seated correctly so it popped out when I restrung it. It doesn't affect playability or tuning, just looks a bit jank if you look close.

Some minor chips to the paintwork on the headstock too...seems most of the issues with my unit are localized to the headstock. Some minor discolouration to one of the tuning pegs.

The nut is definitely not the best but it does the job. Some minor tuning issue on the G string but that's been an issue on nearly every guitar I've ever owned, even high end ones (I'd strongly recommend trying a string pack with a wound G. It'll feel different at first but you soon get used to it and it has an extremely positive impact on tuning stability.)

Now onto the positives - The guitar arrived ready to play right out of the box. The intonation was good and it was very nearly in tune straight out of the box. The body has a nice weight to it and is legitimately stunning especially with that carved top.

The action is nice and low and there was zero fret buzz. The frets are not remotely sharp and are well polished for an instrument of this cost.

Acoustically this guitar is SO loud which is a very good thing. This translates into how it performs when plugged in which is to say it has a powerful and resonant tone and sustains like crazy. Honestly this was one of the things I was really taken aback by. Hit a big chord and just let it ring out and you'll see what I mean.

The pickups are surprisingly articulate to say they're cheap stock ones. They're loud and powerful but you can also pick out each string in a chord.

To sum up. If you're after an LP style guitar and can tolerate some potential cosmetic issues from the obvious corners they've had to cut to get the price this low then you can do a lot lot worse. Besides, these issues are far outweighed by the playability and sound you get from the instrument.

Recommended for players of all levels as a cheap workhorse or a backup/mod platform.

Suprisingly good for the money

I bought this guitar as a present for my father. I was pleasantly surprised at the good intonation and overall the guitar shipped well set up. The build quality is actually very good apart from some less than impressive woodwork on the body which can be seen even through the golden finish. But for the price that can be accepted and looks don't make sound. This guitar sounds rather good I have to say. We compared it to Gibson Les Paul and in a way I prefer this one as I find it cleaner sounding.

Good Enough for a beginner

This is my first guitar and its better than i expected for the price. It not fantastic but it gets the job done is higher quality than the price would have you believe. I've been using it to practice and play RockSmith for a month or so and everything on it is still solid.

The Good: The tuners keep there tune, and the frets aren't sharp or fuzzy like I've seen with lower end Squire and Epiphone guitars. The humbuckers do there job and all the knobs do there job.

The Bad: On a negative note there does seem to be a small chip on the fretboard near the Guitar nut, it doesn't seem to effect play-ability so far. I don't know if the minor damage was done in shipping or manufacturing but its not a major problem.

Awesome....for the money

You cannot beat this guitar for the price. You get a set neck, good electronics and good fret ends for a staggering $100 or so.

A few notes: It did need a full setup (the fine tuning was perfect, but truss rod and bridge needed adjusting) and the frets needed to be polished. Also, there is no binding and the paint job (especially the line between the black and gold) looks a tad cheap, but it is a cheap guitar.

Even if you bought this as a beginner and paid a luthier to adjust the action and polish the frets, you still are getting bang for your buck.

rock machine

mine came with an intonation problem on the low E string hope the others are good but it has a great tone besides that and it's a 1 in a 1000000 problem all my other harley bentons work great