Harley Benton SC-Custom II Active White Reviews

I am okay with it

So I wanted to have this particular sc guitar shape, and I like the design, after market research, it became an easy decision to buy and check what is HB personally.

It came absolutely unchecked and unprepared - I think these shop signatures mean that the guitar is just lying in the box and it's OK to ship it.

Finish - mostly ok, found a few minor painting imperfections that you only will know about.

Neck fingerboard - 1 seems to be painted in this rosewood color(why not in black lol), 2 all over the wood grain was white dust from the main guitar color (somewhere I found how to clean it, somewhere it's too deep - but it doesn't look bad - just shouldn't be there).

3 Guitar nut pasted in roughly.

Tried to set up strings height and delete buzzing on a few frets by myself - but I gave up and gave the guitar to a technician and he was able to tune it quite well. THIS cost me extra cash and 2 weeks time of additional waiting. Only after it became a playable instrument.

Balance and weight - yes it has kinda neck dive. I found weight comfortable.

Pick-ups - nothing special, sounds ok in all genres.

If the slogan of the company is - "That's fine for the money" they made it.

Amazing guitar!!

This guitar is pretty amazing. It sounds and plays better than my epiphone custom special and for the price it was well worth it. The Roswell active pickups sound pretty tight but muddy on clean settings. Only minor cons also was it needed a proper set up and intonation. Also not a fan of the strap locks. Other than that for the price of this guitar is amazing. Definitely going to get another guitar in the near future.

Luis

Great guitar nice for everyone

Simply wow

I got this guitar knowing not what to expect… and man oh man was i impressed

Of course the pickups are okay so i changed them

Realy nice guitar but.

Man o man.

What do i love this guitar. The sound is thick, the weight is just right to bad I didnt get to enjoy any of it on stage.

They Come with straplocks a nice addition but to bad this locking system can break.

Wich ended up breaking the neck and doesnt fit in the ensurance plan.

Amazing as usual!!

Intonation is spot on. Plays awesome. Had to round the fret edges slightly and has a scuff (under the finish) on the headstock….but not so minor that I can’t beat the quality and playability for the price! It’s my third HB guitar and I have plans for several more. I’m a new and happy player of Harley Benton guitars!!!

Incredible Value

Shockingly good value for money. Came out of the box well set up, well intonated. Action is a little high, but you should expect to get it set up yourself anyway. Really great build quality, with no ragged fretwork, great paint job and finish.

The Roswell pickups aren't the greatest, but a solid starting point for later upgrades. Everything else about the guitar is absolutely top drawer, and if you went to a store you pay a lot more to get a comparable guitar.

WOW

The sound this guitar gives is clean and crisp and so clear even with distortion you get those heavy high gain sounds with it being tight and clear and the white finish is so nice with the black hardware. And grovver tunners and active pickups wich you can switch is a steal!

Solid rock guitar

I bought it as a modding platform to put Fishman classics inside.

The looks of the guitar is amazing, and it's comfortable to play. Stock pickups are fine, but loose clarity on high gain settings. It also has Grover tiners, but I'm not amazed by tuning stability, might change it in the future to locking ones.

Great guitar for the price. Don`t overlook this.

I have this guitar for almost 2 years now and just now write this review. I will critique this like a 200+ euro guitar cause it would be VERY unfair not to do so. Feeling wise this guitar is nice and heavy and doesn`t feel cheap in any way. The tuners are solid and the pots and bridge seem to be doing the job fine. The nut can come off if you take the string off which is kinda weird but honestly with the strings on no problems what so ever. With the help of a professional I got the action STUPIDLY low on this (to the point I raised it a bit). No issues with intonation. On the negative side we got the pickups. Yeah they sound bad for metal. Who cares? It`s something you can easily change on it while still retaining the quality that this can offer for a low price. Bad pickups should never turn anyone away for the price of this. At least in my opinion. Surprisingly for cleans they sound fine, however again...kinda boomy for metal sounds. Overall really solid guitar.

great guitar

Great guitar with excellent fret job

Handsome in stark white and black

I bought this model to use with my

E-Bow, for soloing on my electronic based tracks. This guitar's stark white finish and no-frills black pickups (active), that deliver great musical tone, is a just great.

The guitar's looks compliment the music I am playing, too - "Futuristic/Utilitarian".

Works well in any style of music I compose - Jazz Rock Fusion, Blues and Metal.

Fantastic!

Was extremely pleased with this guitar, plays great sounds awesome! Would highly recommend!

Bang for a buck

I'm so happy on buying this guitar, you got more than what you pay. Package arrived late, no damage. the fret wires need a little polishing and crowning, few set up on neck and this is gig ready.

Don't listen to the snobs, for the price this guitar is just fine

As a poor student bedroom guitarist, this thing is just incredible. For it's price you get so much guitar. I can't even think about dropping 2k€ for a guitar. And if you can't either but want a good looking single cut, this is it.

Pros:

-quality control, despite what some reviews say, is just fine. It's becoming a recurring theme now that I buy a cheap guitar from HB, read 7 different essays about how horrible it looks, how bad the finish is and how bad the quality control is. Then it arrives and is completely okay. People really need to realise that they won't get good stuff for free. The guitar is just fine for a low price.

-the finish is great. For the price anyways. There is one small error where the binding close to the neck set is slightly off, and that's legit it. I'm not sure what are people expecting here. Do not expect Gibson Les Paul Signature Custom line craftsmanship level of finish if you're buying a 230€ guitar, I thought that would be obvious.

-the pickups are fantastic, for the price again. I've seen reviews saying that these are trashy. I guess that if you're expecting fishman fluence, then these are trashy. Maybe don't buy a 230€ guitar if you're expecting 200€ pickups.

Cons:

- Mahagony body! Read it carefuly! This thing is heavy!

- more of a personal opinion but the tuners looks weird on this guitar, the headstock is pretty small and they look oversized

- it shipped with strap locks. Which is cool, but problematic. They are on none of the photos and not listed anywhere. Which means that none of my locking straps can actually take this thing. A bit of a white elephant gift.

Best Budget Guitar I have ever bought!!

Was weary as there were a couple of average reviews, but I am very happy with my purchase! Amazing clean and heavy tones, plays great, looks amazing.

Buying the PRS inspired version next :)

Nice sounding and solid LP with very poor finish.

Harley Benton has problem with quality of finish with this model:

- poor paint on head

- scratches next to knobs

- lack of paint in the back

- paint on binding

Except this it’s great sounding guitar with grover tuners.

WOW! if you love metallica you will love this guitar

AMAZING! pickups sound great, hardware is awesome, feels a nice weight. stays in tune well. came setup really well. didnt have to adjust anything

very nice guitar

such a good price and i cant believe how good it is for the price point

other large companies will find it hard to make a guitar this good for this price point

Had my expectatioons set pretty low and still got dissaponted

I really wanted to get a Harley Benton after all the positive words I've heard about them around the internet but I really am disappointed with this one.

I don't care very much about the visual defects like the janky binding or the small dings in the body. What really disappoints me is the extreme buzzing I get all over the fretboard, the kind of buzzing that you can hear through the amp. Even after spending some time trying to find a balance between action and buzz with the truss rod and bridge adjustments I still wasn't able to find a good spot. Also, the frets seem leveled enough to not be the cause of this.

As I really want to have a Harley Benton, I'm currently waiting for a response from support about returning this model and trying to get something else, hopefully playable.