Harley Benton SC-450Plus LD Vintage Series Reviews

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7 years ago

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

7 years ago

great guitar for home

i was looking for new guitar for some time now

price was right for me and so order this one .I was suprised about quality

pros

sound

looks

on mine setup was very good

cons

plastic are very cheep

machine heads are very flimsy ,but it stay in tune fine

summary

it is very good guitar for home and for beginners

7 years ago

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.

7 years ago

Sounds better than my les paul studio

This guitar is beautiful and worth every penny.

8 years ago

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.

8 years ago

use this in my man cave

fit and finish flawless- pickup height not correct on neck pickup so switching pickups from neck to bridge the volume was not the same- only negative. easy to raise and adjust to balance volume.

8 years ago

WOW.........YEAH

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

8 years ago

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!

9 years ago

Excellent Value

Purchased the SC-450Plus LD Vintage Series after months of considering my options. I had looked for a secondhand LP Studio however, failed to find anything that ticked all the boxes for sound, value and looks. After much deliberation, I decided to purchase this Harley Benton, albeit with a degree of trepidation. I'd always said to myself that I'd never risk an Internet purchase of a guitar.

The guitar arrived within 48 hours. I opened the secure packaging almost expecting to be a little dissapointed. I Couldn't have been more delighted. The lemondrop finish is beautiful. The machine heads are smooth and solid. The build quality and finish is excellent overall. To be fair, the fret finishing left a little to be desired (Mr. Perfectionist here) and I arranged immediately for pro set up and fret dress. In my experience, even with US-built guitars, out of the box, they all need some initial care and attention to 'be right' .

I highly recommend this guitar for sound and looks. It's a long, long time since I've bought anything and felt such satisfaction in ownership and value for money. Go for it!

9 years ago

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

9 years ago

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

9 years ago

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....

9 years ago

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.

9 years ago

love this guitar

guitar looks great. feels great. sounds great. although, there are a few things to mention...

the strings that came on it seemed old and crusty. the frets weren't so smooth. and the stickers to indicate the push/pull coil tap on the volume knobs were a pain to get off. might i suggest using vinyl or plastic static cling decals to avoid the nasty glue residue. or, maybe just a card with the push/pull coil tap info tied to the headstock. i cleaned up the frets and fretboard using micro mesh pads and changed the strings to d'addario 9s. adjusted the truss rod, action and intonation. now this bad boy sings.

i'm already looking at buying more harley benton guitars.

9 years ago

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.

9 years ago

Bang!

Best value of any guitar i've owned.

10 years ago

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 ....

10 years ago

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.

10 years ago

HB SC 450

Let's be honnest, this guitar isn't in the same league with the les paul by big G.

But at the other hand is a pretty nice guitar for it's value, nothing more nothing less.

Soundwise is OK but i certainly prefer the combo 498t/490r, i was expecting a mellower wilkinson neck pick up but finally cant compete the alnico ii 490.

I'm in deep think whether to upgrade it or keep it stock. My reference point is a LPJ 2013 which i find to be a much better instrument, again i must notice that this is not a fair comparison but this goes to the people that insists to say that it is on par.

overall a nice beginer instrument. But if you plan to keep it for the long run you must upgrade all the electronics (pots caps pickups etc)

Pros+

-Nice finish on color and woodwork

-decent pickups

-good setup out of the box

-Coil tap

Cons-

-Poor fretwork

-Volume controls don't do nothing from 3-10 then from 3-0 volume drops vertically.

-Tuning machines on headstock have a gap, not a big deal over the stabilty of tuning but a point that shows poor workmanship.

10 years ago