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

Belle of the Ball

Recently a guy said to me "Why does everyone call their guitar 'Belle' after Beauty & The Beast? Well, I really don't know about the general logic there, but the reason I called my Harley Benton SC-450+ 'Belle' is simple. She's a Lemon Drop. With a beautiful, almost bookmatched flame top. She's gorgeous. What name could be more fitting than the one that compares her with Belle, in her perfect yellow ball gown? Precisely.

For clarity - short summary of this review - WOW!!!

Now to get a little more objective - although, as you will know, reading this review, the love of a guitar is a very subjective thing and it's very hard to appreciate what a guitar is all about just by viewing some general pics or reading specs - tantalising as they might be.

So - let's get the bad points out of the way first. I'll talk about my Belle, as she is my First Harley Benton.

** She comes with tarnished strings. "They all do". Put some new strings of your favourite gauge on. Not a big problem (check the price).

** She comes with a dry fretboard. "They all do". Just use some lemon oil and make her shine...

** She has one slightly cracked control knob. Ever so slight - can hardly see it and doesn't affect operation at all.

** She has a tiny, tiny faint white spot under the lacquer near the pickup switch. You need to be about 10cm away or closer to see this.

** Her tuners don't feel as positive as they could - but they still work fine. Just 'tune up', as you should do; no problems.

** The control cavity covers are made of that 'hard' plastic that could shatter (I think), given a hard smack. But they work fine - they're not thin - just don't give them a hard smack.

** The jack socket plate is again a bit low rent plastic - but from a distance it looks fine and doesn't cause me any concern. Remember, we're talking about a 158 Euro guitar here... it does the job.

** The D string is cut a bit lower in the nut than it should be. This could be concerning - but it actually causes no problems and doesn't affect feel. I'm talking maybe 0.1mm.

** For me - the biggest flaw is with the pickguard. Reason Number 1 - it's one ply and made from that flimsy plastic again. Reason Number 2 - it doesn't look great (although the antiqued cream looks fine). Reason Number 3 - the worst bit - it covers up the magnificent flame top! First job - remove the pickguard. What a difference :-)

And that's it for the bad things. So...to the good points;

** Beautiful finish. I mean - it's practically flawless. I've been over it with a fine toothcomb.

** Great flame top - not bookmatched, but very close. Very even, very fine. It's gorgeous.

** Great sunburst - not too much - I find some bursts get too dark near to the edge, so you lose the flame. Not on this baby - just a subtle shading. Looks awesome.

** Neck - is as straight as can be. Now - I've checked and there are some frets that, ideally, could do with some attention. I will be levelling the frets at some point. BUT - out of the box, with the tarnished strings; once tuned - she had a great action. I must confess I didn't measure it, but it felt fine. It was about 2mm, I guess. NO fret buzz anywhere.

** Fret ends - are nigh on perfect. They're a little high, rather than sloping, but none of them catch when you rub your hand up and down and the neck feels great.

** Intonation almost perfect out of the box - check out my other review of the tc Polytune Clip. Awesome piece of kit.

** The Important Bit - as the neck felt so good, I decided to lower the strings. I got them down to 1.1mm at the 12th fret. Still played great. I mean - this guitar costs 158 Euros. It's made out of Mahogany, Maple, Rosewood (but not for much longer, with CITES legislation) and plays just AWESOME! Get this - I then proceeded to lower it some more. Down to 0.9mm (I use feeler gauges). This was the first time I heard a little bit of fret buzz. Still no notes choking - just a bit of buzz. This will be sorted out when I level the frets. If you like a high action - nothing wrong in that - but if you like a low action as I do - it's easily the best action on the most playable guitar I've had the fortune to try out. And it will be better.... but it's so good out of the box!

** As far as I can tell - and I had to look *very* closely indeed - the body is made out of just two pieces of Mahogany. In fact, I thought it was a single piece for starters, but I knew that was unlikely, so looked a bit harder. The tell tale part is in the horn. Really - you can hardly tell from the back. Front - beautiful. Back - beautiful.

** The pickups. OK, they're pretty low output, mellow humbuckers. they're really made for bluesy, low key rock sounds. Essentially - think Gary Moore and you're not far wrong. Which is precisely what I was looking for. (If you want Slash - get a SC-550)

** The pickups also coil split. "What?!" you might say - "On a Les Paul?!!" Well, yes... you may not particularly like the single coil sound (I'm not a fan) and I wasn't sure what this feature would be like, or if I would even use it. Well....if you coil split one of them and mix it in with the other - you know, by turning those volume and tone knobs, like most folk normally don't - personally I came across a lovely sound! So experiment. I *may* install a Jimmy Page setup sometime, so as well as the coil splits I also have out of phase and series/parallel. But we shall see - there are already so many tones to keep me going.

Caveat - the knobs are quite tricky to pull up, being witches' hats - it's best to just pop a bit of finger/thumb under the knob to help lift it. But they're solid enough...that's just the style of the knobs.

** One last thing I nearly forgot - the control cavities are actually finished quite nicely! Still a few rough edges, but no splinters of wood or anything - just shows attention to detail; even at this price point (they're not shielded, though..but they are lacquered.)

Well - I think that's about it. I thought long and hard about buying a Harley Benton - I'm not saying that every guitar will be as good as my Belle, but from what others have been saying, the quality's getting better and better all the time and I tell you, you would be hard pushed to buy *any* guitar up to maybe 500 Euros (or more!) that would compare with this one! OK, the humbuckers are a little weak - but I personally like them. I can see they're not as precise as some, but they're perfectly usable, get a great tone - and - for goodness' sake - ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-EIGHT EUROS!

Yes, some corners have been cut, to get to that price - but everything still functions as it should, it looks amazing and it plays beautifully.

I know the flame top is a relatively thin veneer - but then again, it sits on a maple cap over a mahogany body - all traditional Les Paul stuff - and the flame looks gorgeous! It doesn't matter how thick it is as long as you don't 'ding' it - just don't ding it. It doesn't affect the tone.

Bottom line - if you don't care about the 'name' (it doesn't say 'Gibson' on the headstock) - you'll look amazing, you'll feel amazing - and you'll have saved boatloads of money. I really can't recommend this guitar enough. Back in 1979 I bought a 'Super Strat copy' (an El Maya) for £260. Took me six weeks working in the holiday to muster the cash. Adjusted for inflation, that would be around £1,000 today. Straight through neck, very solid, well specced - great guitar........ but this Harley Benton blows that strat away. No question. And when I've done a full fret dressing and polished the frets and oiled the fingerboard - just try prising her out of my hands :-D

best quitar

as per title this is the best guitar you can buy for 155 euros. nice quality, well handled and the best part it is competitive to similar with tag price 6 time that.

If you want a les paul then buy a les paul....

Amazed!

I was truly amazed by this guitar for the price. It sounds good, plays well,stays in tune and the finish is excellent. Ideal for the bedroom rocker!!, even at twice the price.

Harley Benton heaven

The sc-450 ld,is firstly a great guitar,if you are a beginner, intermediate or pro,the guitar build quality is of a sturdy construction with very eye catching appointments, the flame maple veneer is amazing a great 3dimensional effect, the wilkinson pickups are very responsive especially on the bridge pickup, very distinctive cleans ring out with no muddyness, clarity overall is very impressive on all pick up settings through a decent Harley Benton amp overdriven sounds present good clarity of string brightness, The sustain is amazing for a guitar at this price point, iv got the entire sc series I would say that they are amazing guitars to collect my friends couldn't believe how many top class instruments I got for ?1000 a great addition to any collection, as always very highly recommended always remember it's how the guitar sounds that's important, these Harley's are amazing.

Bang!

Best value of any guitar i've owned.

Outstanding

I bought this guitar cause I could never afford a real Gibson and wouldn't know a Gibson if I held it in my hand .I have a friend who is a player and builder of guitars. I took it over to his house and asked him to give it a once over. His report was the neck was straight and level the electronics were installed great and the quality was perfect . I left the receipt in the case so he can see what I paid for the whole package but he saw the paper but didn't look at it . I told him the price and couldn't believe it. Ican hardly wait to show him my next guitar TE90 ....

Better than you would expect.

These Instruments are superb for the price.

I cannot say enough about them on here.

Looks good sounds good and feels good out of the box.

I own a music store and have played all the greats into the thousands and you will not find a better value Guitar on the market today at the price and quality.

My hat goes of to this company for good quality at a price for musicians on a budget.

You could honestly have one of these instruments sent to your gig, get it out of the box and go on stage they are that good.

I have just ordered more and will be in contact with the makers for distribution for my store, as I can honestly say it would good for my business to have these in stock.

Buy it if your thinking about getting one you will not be disappointed.

Stunning LP Copy

What can I say, best guitar I've EVER bought for this price!

Nice flame, lovely walnut (ish) back.. no sharp frets.

Great tuners, it has coil tapping switches also that was a nice surprise ( it stated this in the description but I overlooked it )

Pros:

Beautiful flamed top and nice grain on back.

Coil tapping.

Nice Wilkinson humbuckers.

Solid piece of kit.

Cons:

A few high frets.

Shame it had to come with pickguard ( that's me being really picky.. no pun intended )

If it got damaged or stolen would I buy this again?

Hell Yeah!!

Astounding !!

I have played guitar for many years and always thought stay clear of cheap guitars.How wrong can you be.I have always fancied a les paul type guitar and having read many reviews and you tube videos i thought i would give Harley Benton a go!!The guitar arrived well packaged it was playable straight out of the box.The quality of the finish is superb the frets needed no attention I only needed to alter the intonation slightly which could have been atmospherics all in all I am just amazed!!Please if your reading this feedback give the HB brand a punt and I am sure you will not be dissapointed.I am now looking to add a Tele style and electro acoustic to my collection.

A very good lp copy

My brother has the vintage v100 and the Harley Benton is about the same build quality, is half the price, and sounds better.

The Harley Benton sc450 guitar has a long tenon neck joint which helps sustain and resonance through the body. Gibson guitars only use this feature on custom shop models now.

The wilkinson pickups were complete surprise in that they sound fantastic and I'm not going to upgrade them, they sound sweet and creamy just like a good PAF should. I'd seriously consider buying these pickups for another guitar too.

I've told so many people about this guitar, and I think everybody thinks its too good to be true. Don't be fooled, this is a great guitar, don't hang around just get one while you can.

Best Harley Benton for me

This is by far the most beautiful guitar I have owned! The looks of this guitar are spectacular for this price range. I have owned other Les Pauls in the past far more expensive and I can tell you that this is at least at the same standards.

The color is its greatest charm (Lemon Drop).No bits or signs of bad manufacturing have been found so far. The fretboard is a bit better than my other HB LP Custom and the pickups sound better too. Too bad it is discontinued...

Better than Gibson?

Honestly, in my opinion having played and owned Gibsons, this is a much better guitar. It's got that chunkiness of the neck, the weight of a top end guitar and it plays like a dream! I will definitely be buying more HB guitars soon (Maybe even a couple of pedals!)

after 7 years

Update 2022:

After more than 7 years with this guitar I'm still in love with it.

I realize that newer specs are a bit different so this review might be futile.

this is the best LP copy out there without breaking the bank.

really nice wood, awesome sustain and well made!

the finishing is ok, shiny and cute. but if you want to look for "mistakes", you will find a few.

the Wilkinson pickups are ceramic and they have a """vintage""" tone as the description says.

they don't sound good at all, but if you're a noobie you'll probably wont mind.

I replaced the neck pup for a "vintage" WSC (roswell) and the bridge with a dimarzio paf pro.

endless sustain and warm tone thanks to the wood.

set-through neck

tuning machines and bridge are average. you could get better ones anyway.

the toggle switch is... not cool (replace that too)

so, if you want a nice guitar, made out of mahogany, and with a nice warmish tone (and again, endless sustain), buy it, and get some pickups.

you'll be happy

Great Value for the price

This is amazing guitar for the price. I have 3 of these Les Pauls. The finish is nice, the sound from these pickups is great for classic rock. It sounds really solid. It stays in tune quite well but you need to tune it between songs if you play a gig.

Compared with the previous model, this one has a fatter neck on the top which I don't particularity like but I love the fact that the new shape alows reaching higher frets a lot easier. The pickups although the same brand, look a bit worse than the previous model. I think there are two types of Wilkinson, the better one have the logo craved instead of printed like this one. They still sound good but I do think the old model was a bit better.

Check the new custom line, they are just a bit more expensive and you get the "Good" wilkinsons, Grover tuners amd ebony fretboard

Big bang for your money!

Seven days after ordering online delivered to my door in the USA....Excellent service!!

Quality and workmanship on this guitar is above all expectation for the price point that these sell for!!