Harley Benton SC-450 BK Classic Series Reviews

The quality is super

I really liked the guitar, it sounds great, the quality is super

Really impressed

This arrived in Canada today, 6 days after I ordered it. That is impressive considering all the crap going on in the world today. UPS is a customs broker too so they handled that inhouse and there was no long delay as it sat in a customs warehouse. Cost another $50 in taxes and duties, which is about what I expected. Don't hesitate over shipping headaches if you're considering one of these guitars.

Now, for the guitar itself. To start with, the pictures don't do it justice. It is stunning. I couldn't find a single flaw in the finish (well, one minor one but I'll address that later). One thing I didn't like much about it was the light colored fretboard on the guitar in the picture, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it's much darker on mine and matches the guitar perfectly. I don't know if the color varies from guitar to guitar but I am very happy with mine.

It's still cold in Canada so I let it warm up a couple of hours before I tried tuning it. Yeah, maybe I should've waited longer but, you know - new guitar. Anyway, it wasn't far out of tune but it was a bit of a headache trying to get it right with the cheap tuners it came with. Always doing the dance between sharp and flat, and it quickly fell out of tune after a few minutes of noodling around. I'm sure this is partly due to the new strings but the tuners just feel cheap and have too much play for my liking so I will be replacing those right away. I read the reviews before I bought it and I knew they weren't the greatest, so I knew this was probably something I would be doing anyway. To be honest, for a guitar at this price point I would've expected a lot worse issues. If the tuners don't solve the tuning issues I'll try a Tusq nut and maybe a roller bridge.

I'm just a new player who only plays in my basement on a Mustang amp so as far as the pickups go, they sound just fine to me. They really can growl a lot more than my single coil Strat. They are a little tinny when I turn the dirt on though. They may get swapped out sometime down the road but for now they will work just fine.

As for that quality issue I mentioned, another reviewer said the screw for the pickguard was too long on theirs and had marred the finish. This was the case with mine too. It's nothing major - just a small dimply in the paint under the pickguard that can't be seen anyway. I cut about a millimeter off the screw and that problem is solved. Another thing, which is just me being nit picky - the screw doesn't sit flush in the pick guard. The hole is chamfered so it should but it's not wide enough. As soon as my son returns my drill I'll fix that so it sits in there the way it should. It doesn't effect playability at all and some might not care, but my OCD won't allow me to overlook it.

Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase. I knew it wasn't a high quality instrument but you are getting a lot more than the price point suggests. None of the small things I mentioned are at serious enough that I would hesitate to buy another Harley Benton guitar. It is an excellent platform to gradually improve upon as my playing gets better and I think I could end up spending a few hundred in upgrades and have a guitar that would rival one costing thousands. If you're on the fence about getting one of these, check out some online reviews - there are lots on YouTube. Unless you're expecting to get Gibson quality for a couple of hundred dollars, I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Great musical instrument for the price

I'm very pleased with the guitar. For the money it costs, you can't find a better guitar. The guitar that came to me has no defects, at least I could not find them. It looks much more beautiful live than in the photo from the website. I bought this guitar to play at home, I am not a professional musician, I have never held a guitar more than 200 euros in my hands, but I will say that it sounds no worse than the Epiphone Les Paul 1000. I am definitely satisfied with the guitar, I advise you to buy it.

With regard to delivery and packaging. The guitar traveled to Russia for 12 days. The packaging is not wrinkled, in the box itself additional paper was laid so that there would be no shaking.

Really nice guitar

I bought this to be a project guitar and it turns out that there is very little projecting to do to it. It has a couple of little blemishes on the fret board but nothing that hurts the way it plays. I have read in other reviews that the neck is thinner than a 60's slim taper. Mine has a big fat chunky baseball bat neck, not what I was expecting but so far I'm really liking it.

The tuners are pretty good

The pickups are ok

The paint job is beautiful

The set up is not good enough -- it's PERFECT!

In the future I'll change the pickups to a set of SD 59's and that's probably about all.

This is a less than $200 guitar shipped to the United States so don't expect something like a high dollar Gibson to show up but rather something along the lines of a $600 Ibanez with a few blemishes in it.

found an extra hole in the body under the pick cover

In addition, the guitar didn't arrive in the perfect shape, but I felt comfortable playing it. They binding around the frets is not strong enough and was damaged when arrived, now there are little spots where you can see it close. Apart from that, this one is better be shipped without tuners at all, they just don't hold the tunning, forget about bending that third string a couple of times. In total, for its money the sound and features are fine. But the QC sticker on mine shows they don't really care about lower price models. I didn't open the electronics, there might be some more to it.

Great bang for the buck.

Gotta get 1 well worth it.

Great guitar for the price.

Great guitar for the price. Could use better pots and pickups, but for the price you cannot beat it.

Solid Construction & Adequate Sound

Guitar arrived 2 weeks after purchasing in a slightly damaged packaging. Overall the guitar is beautiful, a solid & heavy construction with no visible imperfections. It holds tune well but the humbuckers leave much to be desired when it comes to output. The 3-way switch has a satisfying feel but the tone & volume controls don't taper smoothly.

Fantastic

I just love this guitar! Sound and feel are phenomenal. Definitely recommend.

Amazed

Always fancied a black lp, but not enough to pay Gibson prices, or epiphone for that matter. Enter the Harley, wasn’t expecting much at this price, but this is really good.

Amazing bang-for-buck

I bought this because I hadn't played in 10 years, and just wanted something to jam out on at home. Also, getting the band back together, and may swap out my bass-playing duties for a bit of guitar here and there.

After performing a quick setup (no guitar is ever immediately playable at this price), played like a dream. Far better than expected. Let's start from the bottom up...

Bridge - bridge came a bit high (I like lower action) so be prepared to adjust that. I recommend getting the Harley Benton Guitar and Bass Toolkit to aid with this, if you don't already have tools for the job)

Once the action was lowered, I had to tighten the truss rod just a tiny bit. This was smooth and a quick enough adjustment. Now the action is low and even across the fretboard.

Neck - the neck is fantastic. Smooth finish on the back, stunning fretwork (no sharp ends, no levelling needed - you'll never see that happen at this price). I've heard people say it's a bit chunky, but I think the profile is just right.

Hardware - everything seems solid. The only thing I'd consider changing at this point are the tuners, though the stock ones do the job well enough.

Sound - it sounds like a LP. Very decent pickups (amazing for the price, really). Won't disappoint, but also won't blow your mind... until you remember how much you paid for it.

Conclusion - if you want a new guitar at an affordable price, you cannot beat this.

Excellent bit of kit for the price

I bought this guitar as a practice guitar that i could abuse and chuck around a bit with no worries, for that reason i didn't want to spend a lot of money on it. I must say for £110 it really is an impressive guitar. The guitar arrived on time and extremely well packaged as well.

Pros:

Looks - The guitar looks absolutely fantastic, gloss black finish, contrasted by a cream/offwhite pickguard and trim, brass effect volume controls and fret inlays give it a really solid vintage style and personally i love it.

Sound- For the money it sounds great, for the price i was expecting it to sound terrible but it really doesn't. Plugged it in to my Fender Champion 40 amp and it sounds like it could hold it's own in most surroundings. It does have a slighty muddy sound, but i'm sure with a few tweaks it would sound alot cleaner, as an aspiring bluesman myself i don't mind a bit of filth.

Cons:

I almost feel silly for listing the cons as the guitar was so cheap but out of fairness i feel i should add them, these are cons with my personal model and might not be the same for everyone else.

Tuning Pegs: These are all fine apart from the D string, which simply won't hold its tune for long at all, all the other strings are fine, but the D does lose its tune quickly and quite severely, although new tuning pegs will sort this issue.

Treble/Rythm switch: Pretty much useless. Very loose, doesn't stay in the rythm position and just drops to middle or treble, but this should be easy enough to fix.

I'm not too bothered by the cons as they're easy fixes and considering i paid £110 for a sexy guitar that plays well out of the box i can't complain at all. I'd recommend to either beginners or seasoned guitarists who want a decent practice guitar

Pretty good

I wanted a cheap guitar to record demos for my band, and this one seemed to be okay for that. I didn't expect much for ±129?, but it turned out pretty good. it holds tuning well for about half an hour, which is enough for me.

Excellent!

I was quite impressed when I got my Harley Benton guitar. I have wanted a Les Paul for a long time, but for a resonable price. I wanted an LP guitar for both home use, and to play at concerts with.

Pros: The guitar has a sleek design, and the fret ends did not have any sharp edges at all. That is often a problem with many other electrical guitars when you first get them. Also, the humbuckers give really nice sounds. Everything works on the guitar as it should, no defects in the electricity.

Cons: When I recieved the guitar, one of the volume knobs was so much bent that it made a scratch underneath it when turned around, but nothing to worry about, I just bent it slightly upwards, easily fixed, and the scratch is difficult to see. Furthermore, it took 11 long days from when I ordered to when the guitar actually arrived at the post office (I live in Norway). But I think it was worth the wait. In addition, the fretboard is very dry, I think it needs to be oiled.

Other than this, amazing guitar, and is absolutely worth buying!!

Really nice beginner guitar!

For those who want to experience an electric guitar, this one is pretty good!

It actually surprised me for its price.

Tho, one of the knobs came out, but nothing to worry about.

My new Harley Benton SC-450 BK Classic

Amazing guitar. I currently own a Fender Strat (25th Anniversary model actually) and used to own a Les Paul Custom. The quality of my new Harley Benton SC-450 BK Classic is right up there with these guitars. I am amazed by the quality of this guitar for the price paid. It certainly looks and plays the part. If it wasn't for the subtle differences I would believe it was a Les Paul. The only thing might change but not necessarily would be the machine heads to get tighter control. If Harley Benton maintain this type of quality then Fender and Gibson better watch out.

I will certainly recommend this guitar to my musical friends.

regards

Martin

Great guitar!!!

I have some Harley Benton guitars and basses, and I wanted a single cut guitar. I researched Harley Benton single cut guitars and I came to the conclusion that this is the one. Great features, great price and it looks like one of Adrian Smith's Les Pauls.

The order arrived really soon and the guitar I received was flawless. I had also ordered a Graphtech nut, Harley Benton locking strap buttons, Kluson tuners and a Gotoh bridge. I used them on this guitar, because I love modifying instruments.

The sound of the original pickups is awesome, so I will never replace them. I putted D'Addario 9-42 strings and I did a setup by myself, so the guitar plays like a dream. I love the accessibility on the upper frets too, because of the nice neck joint.

I TOTALLY RECOMEND THIS GUITAR, YOU WILL LOVE IT!!!

Good choice

Good choice for experience, brand new and all level guitarist.

great

great sound good quality. Best cheap guitar I have bouget yet

get what you paid for i guess

the guitar buzzes when i don't touch the strings or metal parts

and i had to open up the back to fasten one of the tone knobs cause it was -5 to 15 instead of 0-10 ...

i don't know if i can send it back to get rid of the buzz maybe ?