Harley Benton SC-450Plus LD Vintage Series 5-stars Reviews

Wow !!!

I had read a number of reviews and watched You tube video reviews which were all positive, but I couldn't have imagined how good a product and service I received. Ordered on a Sunday night, playing it by Thursday evening. Out of the box once tuned was fantastic. A stunning looking, well setup and sounding instrument.

Pro's - Flawless finish and binding, neck plays and feels great in the hand, Pickups great sound just what I was looking for not overpowering or harsh but well balanced and tuneful. Coil split is useful. stays in tune well, just cant fault it.

Con's .... being ultra picky the fret-board was a little dry but looks great after a bit of Lemon Oil.

Overall a simply great guitar, I bought a Gibson Tribute T in 2017 and got rid of it as the build quality was so shocking uneven and ridiculously sharp frets, unbalanced neck diving, would not stay in tune. Gibson need to take a good look at the exemplary standard of these guitars, they knock you out of the park.

Just buy one they are brilliant and before the rest of the world finds out!!!

Go-to guitar

This is not a project guitar. It comes set up and ready to play for the most part. I'll even be keeping the strings on. You know when you finally break down and buy that expensive guitar because you are tired of dealing with the crappy action on your "project" guitars? That "Oh wow. This is how a guitar should play." feeling? That is honestly the feeling I get playing this guitar. Maybe I just got super lucky but I'm going to be taking a hard look at my "utility" guitar collection. The money and effort needed to get some of these guys to the Harley Benton level of quality would be better spent on a Harley Benton.

best quality can this reasonable price buy and great customer service..

Mine was flawless

The one I received had no finish flaws, no issues at all. I'm not a beginner. I own several high end guitars. I just heard great things about these guitars. It's much better than an Epi of a similar price. I had it shipped to the US. I'm very pleased.

A Harley Benton convert.

This is my first Harley Benton purchase, after seeing quite a few reviews I thought I'd go ahead and buy one. I was really pleasantly surprised by the build quality, as good as everyone had been saying and spotting some file marks on a couple of the frets it was obvious that time had been spent setting the guitar up. Its action was nice and low with not a hint of fret buzz or choking. If there is a weak spot I would point to the quality of the volume and tone pots, they work and but to be honest moaning about something like that on a guitar that looks as great as this and sounds great is to be a little pedantic. Fantastic value for money.

I'm in love with this guitar!!!

Outstanding for the price! In fact I would pit it against any $3000.00 guitar out there. The finish is beautiful to say the least! I am very happy and it far exceeded my expectations!

Marvellous but mind the colour

Other reviewers have said it all, I will only add that I am more on the amateur side, and for me this is a great quality/price ratio. Unbeatable. I have a couple of much more expensive items and frankly this one is still a favourite. Easy to play.

Be VERY careful about the colour though: the photos on the site have nothing to do with reality. Only the Cherry Burst (CB) is accurate (I have it too). The "HB" - honey burst - is ... honey, ie brownish (no red) and the LD, this one - Lemon Drop - is yellow, no red either (the "burst" is very very mild). Still, all look awesome.

Love it

I?ve always played strats and teles so buying an inexpensive LP copy was a bit of gamble. I couldn?t be happier though. The guitar is beautifully finished in lemon drop and was cosmetically perfect. No work was needed as everything was spot on from a playability point of view. Incredible value for money.

Pro

Great Maple top worthy of a guitar 10 times the price.

The most comfortable electric neck I've used, by a mile, despite the gloss finish (which I always remove anyway). Hardware and knobs are decent at this price as are the rest of the fittings. I personally thought the tuners worked very well.

The action was nice straight out of the box and after slightly modifying intonation I was ready to go.

Con

This guitar cost me less than ¤160, bear that in mind...

The most obvious, but least (?) important hiccup was a large mark on the otherwise lovely mahogany back.

If cosmetics are important it would have been an instant return.

The coil split is relatively ineffective. A disappointment but not a deal breaker because the 'buckers themselves are not too bad.

I didn't get this guitar for a single coil sound anyway.

If you look very closely there are some flaws in the finish, but you have to look hard.

Don't be put off by these relatively minor quibbles.

The top is a stunner and I'd have bought this even if I had tested it first

Fantastic buy! A++++

I love this guitar, sounds fantastic! The finish is perfect, frets are not sharp. I will buy more very soon! Worth every penny. Although I had to pay $19 for customs charge, still worth it! Get one, you will be quite pleased.

Amazing guitar

This is one amazing guitar at a very affordable price. The color and finish are even better in person than from the pictures in the site. I was pleasantly surprised when unboxed it.

I am not as experienced as the other reviewers and cannot give worthy enough review, but this guitar has all that I wanted.

venerable Guitar

Intonation is very smooth. The keyboard is quite comfortable. singular coils without noise. The tuning augers could be of better quality.

The polish is very very good. This guitar is taken. It didn't bother me.

Amazing Guitar.

I had heard good things about this guitar and I was it came i could not believe how amazing it plays. There are some parts that it's obvious that is cheap plastic but it looks and sounds amazing. Not sure you can get a better guitar for the price, very happy with it.

It took 3 weeks to arrive. They also shipped it 5 days after ordering it. They said it was because of Christmas so a heads up for anyone looking of getting one in the holiday season try and order early. Not happy with the delivery part but it shouldn't affect the 5 stars this guitar deserves.

Amazing for the money

this is an amazing guitar. Right out of the box, the action was a bit too high for my taste but within the minute it was adjusted ! Now the guitar has a very low action without buzing. Playablity is superb, the neck is superb, the frets are good although there are some rough edges but let's be honest for this price this is normal. The pickups are good but not great. The pickups on the SC500 which have no brandname are better.

Overall: for this money this guitar can compete with >1000 euro guitars

Budget Guitar

It is one of the best for its price. I am really content about the this product and I recommend it especially to beginner to buy. Classic Les Paul appearance and Mahogany sound will make you feel really comfortable and content while playing it.

Sounds better than my les paul studio

This guitar is beautiful and worth every penny.

Wish i had one years ago.

Very pleased with this purchase. No blemishes on paintwork, tuners work smoothly and frets feel fine (no sharp edges). Guitar sound is good and coil splits work fine giving extra dimension to the tones you can achieve. Only downside I could find was the frets were a bit 'scratchy' but a good polish will soon fix that. Overall a very good purchase for a very good price. Well pleased with this guitar.

WOW.........YEAH

Awesome guitar love it great great right outta the box!!!!

A great compromise for an Epiphone

I already have the Vintage Sunburst which I purchased last year used. It is a great guitar, although it had been professionally setup and the original Machine Head/Tuners had been replaced with Vintage Schaller ones. The only issue is the centre Sunburst wasn't as yellow as I'd prefer, being more orange. Still a great guitar, and very "Pick-up-able".

This the LD - Lemon Drop? (I'll assume), was pretty good. Yes, just like most guitars, even more expensive ones, needed the frets leveling and dressing and polishing. Not bad to start with, but not spot on.

Everything was great apart from a small imperfection in the finish on the neck next to the nut, plus some wood stain had crept onto the nut. this looked pretty poor, but I managed to sand most of it off when sorting the frets.

The default Vintage style tuners are great, although I don't like the green style, the cream coloured ones are nicer I think. They are also I think slightly narrower than the Schaler ones on my other Harely Benton.

The question most people would ask, "How do they compare to Epiphone's?". Well, they are very close, both in looks and feel. They sound slightly different, but only slightly. The main issue I guess is they are not as quality controlled as Epiphone's.

Still a happy purchase!

What a cracker

I bought this after checking the specs against a similar Vintage brand guitar and after receiving the Harley Benton I am absolutely convinced that this HB is an identical guitar.

First off, the HB is not perfect by any means but I have to say that for the money it's an unbelievable buy.

I'll do the cons first. There were a couple of tiny, tiny flaws in the veneer top but you have to really hunt for these and are practically invisible. The tuners were ok but felt a bit cheap and were slightly loose due to what seems to be oversized holes for the retaining screws. The knobs are also a bit cheap feeling as well.The coil tap is a nice touch but really thins out the sound - though I should say I'm not a fan of coil tapping anyway. In terms of construction it's not bad with only a couple of bits of glue evident beneath the finish and these again are not really visible unless you are super picky and really looking for them.

Now for the pros. This guitar has a mahogany back and neck and definitely has a maple cap with a very nicely matched flamed maple veneer. It looks absolutely amazing. The neck is very comfortable and it has a rosewood fingerboard. The fingerboard was slightly dry but a good dose of lemon oil sorted that out. The frets are fine, well seated and finished. I think the bridge and tailpiece are both adequate and have no plans to change them.

I should add that this is quite a heavy guitar but then given the timbers which have gone into it's production that shouldn't be a surprise.

I changed the machineheads for some others which are identical apart from having better quality, white buttons. I also removed the scratchplate and the Rhythm/Treble plate to show off the amazing top on the guitar.

The electrics are typical of an Asian build with small pots and relatively cheap capacitors but they work ok.

My plans are to upgrade the wiring and swap the Wilkinson pickups simply because I want the slightly different, spongy sounds from a pickup with an Alnico 2 magnets rather than the Alnico 5 magnets I believe are installed in the guitar.

Would