Harley Benton SC-450 P90 GT Classic Series Reviews

A fantastic GoldTop guitar at a terrific price

Harley Benton offers their version of a historically significant and classic guitar design with the SC-450 P90 GT. Great workmanship, great feel and great sound from the P90 pickups has convinced me that you don't have to spend thousands to get a terrific GoldTop guitar.

Much better than expected!

This is an excellent guitar, especially at this price point. The only flaw that I've been able to find is that the two mounting screws on the bridge pickup were loose. That took about 30 seconds to fix. There are no flaws in the finish, the setup is very good and everything works as it should. The neck feels as good or better than my 2010 Gibson Traditional Plus, which cost me about 11 times more (and I purchased the Gibson 12 years ago!). Now that the cat's out of the bag, I'll be shopping here for instruments in the future.

Goldy is home

Never own a gold top . I figured let me try this one out after watching the few reviews on YouTube I’m so glad I took the plunge!

Ridiculously good for the money

I have several great guitars, Fenders and Gibson, some vintage and I love them, but I had always wanted a Les Paul Gold stop w/P90 pickups. I didn’t need another guitar and I would not have bought a gold top les Paul for that exact reason. But at this price I had to buy it and I am so freaking pleased with it. The quality, fit and finish, playability, tone are all top notch. I play it through a Spark Amp and it sounds like a million bucks. I am also a pretty good player and would gig out with this axe without a question.

Absolutely amazing

Received it earlier today. Other than the normal dry fretboard (to be expected), it’s completely rock solid. Intonation is dead on. Action is perfect. A little lemon oil, and it’s good to go. This is now my 6th Harley Benton.

Brilliant guitar

Had this guitar for a while now and I can only say it is amazing for the money.There has been no issues what so ever.The finish etc. is comparable with guitars costing many times more.I can really recommend this guitar.Just amazing.

Great rock tone

Amazing guitar, flawless in every aspect. Replaced the pickups with dimarzio 59, but was not nessesary after all, cause the pickups were great.

Great starting point but needs upgrades.

Everything was pretty much ready to go and played well out of the box. Great for beginners as is, but If your an experienced player and need something that meets your reliability needs for recording and gigging you will likely need to upgrade it.

A new nut. The one that comes is plastic and cut poorly. It looks cheap and feels cheep and slightly harms the intonation.

Better tuning machines as there is some minor slippage if subjected to agressive styles.

Some minor fret levelling, pretty good out the box only 1 fret was high and 5 mintues with a file and it all works with no buzz.

New pickups, the ones that come sound like p90s but are a little harsh and not very well rounded. Replace them with quality pickups and seat them at your desired height and you have magic.

Swtich has excessive play but works. Replacing it will something more sturdy and longer lasting would be a must. I doubt it could live through use as a killswitch for more than a day.

New pots and wiring, the mini pots do the job but dont add much to your sound or are helpful musically. Replacing with full sized pots and your caps of choice will have your pups reacting more how you want them to.

Only other issue is cosmetic. The tailpeice is not fully seated and instead of taking the time to seat it properly and raise the height they opted to just only partially sink it on one side. Not an easy fix if it bothers you but not exactly something that will affect performance.

If you want a cheap guitar you can upgrade to something playing and resembling something much more expensive then you can absolutely do it with this guitar. A couple of hours and another 200 to 300 on parts and you'll have a stellar instrument.

I got it sent to Japan

There was dullness on the frets and the fingerboard was very dry.

Some repair was needed.

But the sound is perfect.

What an amazing guitar!

Looks awesome! What a gorgeous finish! Plays great! Totally authentic. Sounds amazing! It just sings! Such a sweet tone that seems to sustain forever. Worth far more than it costs! It competes with my 1973 Gibson goldtop which I bought new in 1973. I am VERY impressed.

Great Copper Top for the money

I bought this because I had severe GAS on p90 guitars. I first opted for the SC special one, but I just don't dig the mustard colour. This one is also way cheaper so it's was an easy choice!

It arrived within 3 days after ordering on sunday. Awesome!

The guitar looked great but out of the box there were some small issues. The setup was not great (although not bad) and there are a few little finish flaws. But hey, for this money you can't expect perfection.

Tuners are ok, not going to swap them because they hold tune just fine. They also turn smooth, the throw is a bit short, so when tuning just be really careful.

The nut is cut fine, it's plastic but I don't care. I put some pencil graphite in there and it's now smooth as any nut. EDIT: the nut was causing major turning issues. Installed a graphtech nut and it holds tune very well. The tuners are really good enough.

Fretboard looks nice, was very dry an needed some oil.

The frets were a bit rough, needed some polishing with 0000 steel wool. Be sure to mask the pickups with tape when using steel wool!

There are a few high frets here and there. Nothing really disturbing. I've set the action on 2mm low e and 1.5mm high e. It buzzes a little, but can't hear it when playing on the amp. I do however want to try a fret level on this one to see how this goes. A guitar this cheap is a nice practise object. EDIT: I leveled the frets. It was my first attempt and I improved the playability. Still 2 or 3 frets that are a little higher. I might spot level them with the next string change.

EDIT: I don't know if the wood in the neck still thinks it's alive. I've done a second full fret leveling as 13 frets were again uneven. It's now completely level and plays great. Hope it stays this way, because I'm not doing a third leveling ;).

The pickups sound ok but not for me. They are ceramic of course and I don't like the boomy attacky sound of ceramic magnets. I ordered some alnico IV magnets to put in these p90's to see if they can sound the way I like them to sound. EDIT: the alnico IV magnets are installed. It didn't really change the tone much. I might go for some vintage voiced alnico 2 pickups. EDIT: A new set of p90's are on the way. A combo of A2 neck + A5 bridge with low output.

The pots are the cheap mini pots and they put linear pots in for the volume control. I like log pots better so I will swap them at one point. They do work fine though and they are not scratchy. I think I will buy Alpha pots, because CTS pots have too wide bushings. You need to ream out the holes and I'm not going to bother doing this :). EDIT: Yeah so I've grown to love linear volume pots... So much better volume control! Really the whole range from 10 to 1 is usable now, instead of most action happening from 10 to 7 on log pots.

The switch is cheap, but works fine, no need to replace.

Oh yeah one nice tip: when ordering I placed a remark asking if they could select a lighter weighing one for me. And they did! Mine weighs about 3.8kg (8.4 lbs) which is pretty lightweight for a Les Paul style!

Because the colour is more copper than gold, I also ordered black plastics for the pickups, switch and knobs. Looks awesome!

All in all I'm happy with the guitar. It's a love/hate relationship with this one. By far the worst HB guitar I've had, but I learned to level frets on this guitar and I dig p90's. I might sell it on later, but will definitely need a p90 guitar in my arsenal.

great value for money

other than a bit of string buzzing the guitar is great and a very good value

This bliss

Love this guitar,not quite a gold top but the most value for money guitar l own out of several.love the p90s.would like a dc550 set up like this

outstanding value

guitar played perfectly right out of the box, really has the feel of a 50's style LP

Needs tweaking to be brought to play

The guitar arrived in good shape. The finish and colour are amazing for this price tag (and my taste) but other than that, there are a few things that need to be "fixed".

Neck is straight and fat which is a bit odd (been used to faster necks) but will eventually get used to it.

The fretboard was dead dry so needed some oil treatment but the blackwood looks pretty cool.

Frets needed polishing since bending the strings is obviously not even close to smooth. They also need levelling in the B and high E strings at 17-19 where there are a few dead spots. Also some buzzing which needs to be reviewed/adjusted I guess.

The guitar is pretty heavy which can be either a good or a bad thing and a matter of personal taste.

Tuners are just OK.

Intonation was interestingly pretty on spot (nice one there).

Pots and switch look really cheap but work OK for now.

Nut has not been cut/finished with care (has remnants of the actual cut and not been sanded at all).

Overall at 166 euros, I don't think you can get something better (not even used) so if you have the knowledge and time to spare to get it properly playing, go for it. If not, you may end up with a guitar that is difficult to play. It's a good basis for experimentation on updates/maintenance and in general, stuff you wouldn't do in more expensive guitars but can also be a great (and stunning) player if you treat her well.

Total vintage rock and roll vibe

I have just about every type of guitar except for a single-cut with P90s. So this was the only way I could fill that slot and not break the family budget.

So glad I pulled the trigger - this is a high-quality instrument. the finish, frets, action and sound are spectacular right out of the box. And the box got to me from Germany in 3 days in the dead of winter with the guitar almost in tune! Perfect weight too 8-8.5 lbs. Love it.

great guitar at low prices

couldn't fault the feel, look, feel, playability what a quality of the guitar it equals guitars that cost 10 x this price, I bought 2 and will purchase many more , well done on achieving exceptional quality and this low budget price, 1st class.

Harley Benton SC-450 P90 GT

Needed a complete set up, some frets were high, nut at high E was cut down to fret board. The p90s sound awesome after raising them.

It Could/Should Be Better

The finish is NOT gold! It's a copper color, which is actually rather disappointing when you see it in person.

The pickguard was not countersunk so that the screw attaching it to the pickguard mount would be flush with or below the surface. The protruding screw head is annoying to the picking hand. Remove the pickguard.

The baseball bat neck should be replaced with a 60's style slim taper neck to greatly improve the guitar's playability.

Everything else on the guitar is pretty decent, and it is worth the low price in the long run.

P90's are a little too hot. Some 60 cycle hummm.