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

Needs some work

First of all a disclaimer, this guitar was playable as received but, it needs work to be a professional quality instrument. I'll start from the top on down. The tuners are Gotoh style keystone tuners, the ratio is 14:1. This is acceptable, no problems with them. Next is the nut, it was well cut, strings move smoothly while tuning. The strings themselves were no name brand 10's. I always use D'darios. Next the fretboard, as other reviews mentioned the black comes off on your fingers, after using lemon oil applied 2X this was not a problem. The frets were O.K. no buzzing but I polished them. The neck itself was perfect. Intonation was spot on. Hardware was good for this price point. Next the electronics. The pickup selector switch was wobbly, it worked but not what I would want on any guitar I was playing out with. Next the pots, they are mini, I don't have a problem with mini pots, but these had to be replaced, as the tone pots were either on or off, they did not taper the tone. As I was going to replace the pickup switch anyhow, I replaced the pots along with them, and shielded the cavities while I was at it. Next the pickups, I love them, the only thing I did was remove the foam backing and replace it with springs. They are the coolest sounding P90's that I've played, sort of hot but not a big 60 cycle hum associated with P90's. Last, but not least, the cosmetics. The gold top is flawless. The model shipping now has a dark back, I like it all, bindings are perfect.

In summation, for $50 U.S. and some hours work, I was able to bring this up to a high standard guitar. Could I have played it out of the box? Sure, but with the upgrades that I mentioned, it plays like a guitar 5X it's price point. Anyone who has been longing for a P90 Goldtop, this could be the one for you.

Harley Benton SC-450 P90 GT Classic Series

A well made guitar. Excellent value for money. It came well set up. The finish was very good but it wasn't too my taste. I'm not sure if it was the pickups that didn't really appeal to me, but l couldn't bond with this guitar. I'm sure it is a very good guitar, particularly for the money, but this one want right for me, so I've sold it on to someone else.

Love it !

Great guitar, definitely worth the money.

not perfect but good enough

pretty usable instrument overall, but has issues for sure (at least mine does).

pros:

-the blackwood fretboard is beautiful

-sounds great and feels good to play for the most part

cons

-lots of finish flaws - LOTS of them. overall a pretty sloppy paint job, with some small metallic bits and unevenness of the gold finish, the binding could be done better.

-the neck is pretty much perfect, but mine has a high 1st fret which makes it buzzy on all 6 strings, but thankfully the other frets are leveled properly and allow for low action and great playability

-a flimsy pickup switch

-high 1st fret action on some strings

I'm happy with the purchase because with a little help its a perfectly usable studio tool. Still I wish it was done with a little more attention to the details. It can be remedied with a good setup though

Quite nice

I'm a beginner and this is my second electric guitar. I mainly bought it because i wanted to try P90 pickups and this guitar is crazy cheap.

The guitar arrived in mint condition after it was in shipping for more then two months, only a quite tune up was required.

I mostly play clean tones and it sounds great, at least in my ears.

The few issues i have with it are minor but worth mentioning. It feels a little plasticity to me. More precisely the fretboard and the glossy neck. In addition its no very resonant when unplugged, compared to my sterling sub 3.

lastly the scratch cover is feels really cheap.

All in all I'm happy with it. it feels nice to play and i enjoy the sounds i can get out of it.

まず、この値段でありえないクオリ

まだ、届いて6日目だけど、音の良さはよくわかるかな。

ギターを長年やってきている50代中盤のおっさんです。Ibanez Jcutomやゼマイティスなどのハイエンド系ギターを多数コレクションしています。

カスタムショップ製のゼマイティスの音はいまいちでしたが、このHarley Bentonのギターは音いいです。ただ、音の抜けはどうなんだろう。

もうちょいあってもいいのかもだけど、レスポール系のギターの音って長いこと聞いてなかったというか、弾いてなくて今回購入したところもあるけど、ゼマイティスに比較してもそう見劣りする音ではないですね。フレットの処理とかもほとんど完璧でこの値段からすると本当に考えられないくらいの質の高さなのかも

Great guitar for the price

Upon arrival instantly thought wow the neck is really small but has a 43mm nut width. The neck was strange to play on at first. Two frets 13 and 14 were high and tried to tap them in with a fret hammer but no had to take them down slightly. The fret board was really dry as all harley bentons are but this was really dry. I ended up using boiled linseed oil and it worked a treat. The machine heads had to be changed out and wilkinson ones fitted right in. The P90s sound great and have to say I really enjoy playing this guitar. It feels like Jumbo frets which to me are great . Highly recommend the guitar specially with P90's. So much so guitar no 14 for me may be the TE 90QM not that I need another guitar but those P90's have become so addictive. I would have given 5 stars if not for the frets

Stunning guitar

Absolutely stunning. Great sound. Great neck. Great frets. Great action. Despite the body being basswood, it's very heavy but sounds like mahogany. I't a great jazz guitar period. Thew pickups are extremely low noise. They just sound great.

The only reason I gave 4 stars is because the action was 5mm at the 12th fret. This is way too high. Although the frets are excellent, they haven't been polished. Also, the toggle switch was screwed down on an angle. I have to now fix this.

An Honest Opinion

Delivery fantastic once in got into the hands of the courier, when we got past Availability Immediate then out of stock then Q.C.

Pickups sound great and the pots work well.

Tuners leave a bit to be desired, a couple of them have spots on them when nothing happens or it slips. The older SC-450 P90 GT Classic Series have a vintage style tuner I think.

The finish is great for the price except for a small scratch on the side, could have been in transit.

There were a number of frets that were high which were sorted.

No scratchy frets.

All in all not bad at the price, all the faults are easily sorted.

It would have been nice if it had the Vintage style tuners.

Surprising quality for the price.

The bones of this guitar...ie, the wood, general construction and finish...are very, very good. Odd to have an LP style guitar made from what looks like maple. Pale wood. But it's a comfortable weight, resonates nicely and seems well made. I like how the headstock is spliced onto the neck at the 1st and 2nd frets...no weak spot at the nut if it gets dropped.

Neck profile is abit odd. Chunky and thick and not unlike some real 1950s guitars lve played. First reaction is 'eewww'... but then you find yourself enjoying playing it. The upper fret access is much better than the traditional LP neck/body join.

The frets needed leveling and polishing and the fretboard was dry and grubby. But after doing the work and setting it up with a fresh set of strings it's lovely to play.

Hardware is cheap and cheerful but works.

Pickups are non-descript P90s and a touch dull, but l changed the volume pots to 1meg ones...an experiment as l happened to have a pair...and they now sound really nice. Classic goldtop P90 sound.

Good value if you don't mind a bit of tinkering and tidying.

Hard to beat!

What do you want out of an instrument? I want an instrument that makes me WANT to play more. This guitar does just that. It calls to me. It begs to be played. It looks so beautiful and it feels so good in my hands that I don?t want to put it down. I?m a guitar enthusiast (not a professional)?I play mostly for fun with family and friends and I am learning how to work on/rebuild electric guitars. I guess you?d say that electric guitars are my obsession.

The box arrived in the USA (Texas) safely in roughly two weeks, and it was looked gorgeous when I took it out of the box. There was only one finish problem on the wood of the guitar: a small color blemish on the side of the headstock (like a dark smudge under the clear coat). It isn?t large, but it is noticeable, and it?s on the side facing me. It wasn?t worth sending back across the Atlantic Ocean, but I will always see it when I pick up the guitar. Also, the cream plastics aren?t so great in terms of cut and color. The switch indicator (rhythm / treble) has a greenish hue, while the P90 pickup covers and the pick guard have more of a peach hue. The edges of the pick guard are very ragged as well. To be honest, none of the cream parts seem to be the ?correct? or ?vintage? look, but that?s a relatively cheap correction if you are a stickler for detail.

The only serious issue for me on this guitar is that the pickups (which are NOT Wilkinson, by the way) sound pretty poor (in my opinion). I realize that this is a purely subjective point?you may love the pickups?but I just couldn?t dial in a decent sound on any of my amps. I also didn?t feel like they sounded in any way like true P90 pickups. Keep in mind that I tend to swap out the pickups on all of my guitars, so I had been planning on removing the stock pickups unless I found them amazing. They didn?t work for me, so they got replaced.

I?m no stranger to high-end guitars, but I?m at a point in my life when I find it more enjoyable to take an inexpensive instrument and see what I can squeeze out of it. Sometimes this includes replacing everything but the wood! I?ve taken an Epiphone (that cost more than this Harley Benton, by the way), and I literally stripped it to bare wood and refinished/replaced everything but the frets! This Harley Benton blows it away?and I only changed the pickups and the strings on the HB (the stock strings were not D?Addario and they were AWFUL?but I always change strings on new guitars anyhow).

The bottom line is that this guitar is truly excellent. Before the new pickups it LOOKED and FELT great to play unplugged?wonderful fit and finish, amazing resonance unplugged. Once I swapped the pickups, this is one of my favorite guitars. I love the look, the feel, the sounds, and the fact that I don?t worry about it getting damaged. Is it perfect? No. But do I love it? Absolutely. At $120 it is an incredible deal?I don?t think you can do better.

Stunning Value

I immediately changed out the strings on this guitar to quality 10-46 strings. Adjusted the intonation and that was it, good to go. No, it's not as good as the SC550 I purchased recently in terms of build quality, but it's half the price! I wanted a GT with P90's. If there was a higher quality GT P90 option from the Harley Benton range then I probably would have opted for that, but it looks the part and play's really well. I don't know how they produce their guitars for this price, long may they continue. Very pleased!