Harley Benton SC-450 P90 GT Classic Series 4-stars Reviews

It's a shame because it's a good guitar.

The moment I took it out of the packaging and grabbed the neck, I thought, "This is a great guitar!" When I removed the packaging and looked more closely, I found a crack in the head inlay. I pulled myself together and told myself that it had nothing to do with the sound, but when I looked more carefully, I noticed that the angle of the P-90 on the bridge side was abnormal. Due to the nature of the Les Paul-style body shape, it is tolerable to a certain extent, but it was leaning too far toward the tailpiece. I could adjust this myself, so I didn't think it was a problem and let it go. When I continued to look, it seemed like the pickguard was too low. I gingerly removed the pickguard, and found that the bolts that held the pickguard stays in place had dug into the beautiful body, causing it to cave in. It was a very disappointing experience, as it was such a beautiful, great-sounding guitar.

P90 sound LP

Plays really well, pups do fine, was thinking of replacing but maybe later on. Great value for a LP and platform for upgrades

Nice guitar……..but!

This is a good guitar especially for the incredible price. Just one problem. It is not actually a gold top. It is a copper top. Others have mentioned this also. I still like the unique color. But if you are looking for a vintage look, it may not be for you. I have a 450 plus Tobacco Burst. It is a stunning guitar. But this should not be under the name of vintage for the color is not.

Solid build but needs some TLC

The paint has a smudge but I'm ok with it. There was some fret buzz due to a couple of high frets and it needed a good clean up and fretboard oil. After a few months of tinkering its a good guitar. I've swapped the mini pots for full size CTS and I'm going to experiment with some new pickups. These guitars are great value out of the box but if you want to do some mods it's the perfect platform.

Great guitar

This is a great guitar, the P90s sound great, the guitar setup is good and playability is also good, especially for that amazing price. The looks are also amazing. It has the right weight and feels like an awesome guitar.

nice p90 gold top for the price

bought this p90 gt for the p90s sound and i already have the sc450 plus vintage.another great guitar for the price. i wasnt expecting the stock p90s to be that good but they are really quite punchy and sound like a p90 the guitar was well finished no sharp fret ends no blemishes on body paintwork.i buy harley bentons as modding platforms and usually upgrade nearly all hardware and pick ups over time.and i will do so with this one,but if you buy this guitar as a beginer guitarist you wont go far wrong its great value for money and is a very reasonable guitar plays well,sounds good.it does need tweaking out of the box i had to lower action and set intonation on mine and nut on a-string needed deepening as string was too proud above nut but these things are easily fixed and are normal for any new guitar really apart from the nut issue.this is my 3rd harley benton guitar and i will buy more.£133 for a p90 GT LP copy! its awesome at that price

Well done HB!

It needed some work with the intonation.

I lowered the action a bit and raise the bridge a little, to reduce the angle with the strings.

The P-90 pickups are great. They blend harmonically.

The finish is awesome.

I am glad that I bought it.

This beauty inspires me to play.

Be brave and go for it!

My favorite guitar

I bought this for a friend as a retirement present.

The guitar sounds amazing. Really great for hard rock and blues. Even sounds better playing jazz than a 335. Love the bridge pick up. This thing just fills the room.

It feels like a real piece of gear. The neck is for sure an old school thick c. It brings a sense of power and presence without making it clunky. Smooth but solid. I really hope all the old school guitars HB makes have the “baseball bat” neck!

Honesty time:

The one I got was not gold. It was copper.

Luckily, it feels and sounds so good my buddy fell in love with it. Named it “penny”.

If you’re on the fence, don’t hesitate. I liked this one better than the American LP standards.

4 out of 5 stars

-O’Malley the Alley Cat

Good all round Gold Top

A Gold Top for a fraction of the cost. Good quality build except some fret ends have not be filed down so some work needed here. But for this price you cannot beat it.

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.

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.

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.

Very good, with a little work

I like this guitar a lot. It came with flaws but plays and sounds nice so I kept it. It need some work however.

The positive: Sounds good, Plays nicely and the gold color looks great to me. It stays in tune well. Ooh yea and the price, this is a great deal if you can do the work to make it right.

The negative: The frets were sharp and needed about and hour of filing work. The fretboard and frets was extremely dirty and after 3 cleanings I almost have everything clean.

Great for the price

after droping Seymore duncans in it, it is one of my bast sounding p90 guitars

Great for the Price

Great looking guitar for the price. Quality is good although it needed a proper setup. Happy with the purchase.

Brilliant paint job

I absolutely love this guitar but the screws in the pickups are a big letdown.

So that’s why the four stars.

Why two such big headed screws are needed to go down into the pickups is beyond me ?

Everything about this guitar makes it a winner except for those pickup screws.

P90 love

This was my first Harley Benton and first guitar with P90's.

The 50's neck and P90 snarl just makes it stand out.

It arrived quickly and safely in the US.

Quality gets a 4. The pickguard had a 1/2" unfinished edge between the pickups near the neck pickup. Not a big deal and easily remedied. The tuners were the only weak point were and replaced with $20 Wilkinsons. The fretboard was a little dry and the frets needed a polish.

Fun guitar. Still have it and play it regularly.

Solid Product

After already purchasing the DC Junior I was expecting the SC-450 to be every bit as good as the Jr. It did not let me down. This is a well constructed guitar that plays very amazingly. I compare it to the Gibson's I already own and aside from the mediocre hardware used in the construction, it comes quite close.

I would not hesitate to recommend Harley Benton brand to friends and I hope they get more popular in North America as it apparently is in Europe.

Decent guitar for the price

The fret work could be more precise, but overall the guitar is well made, didn't change the tuners yet, the only complaint aboute the part is the pickup switch after one year. But overall it's a good deal with this price and built quality.

Great P90 guitar for the collection

These guitars have a pretty beefy neck. Great value for the price, and pretty good quality. One small flaw in the finish, a mark on the front, unfortunately, but otherwise a great feeling, playing, and looking guitar.