Harley Benton SC-Custom II SPAF Reviews

Harley Benton SC-Custom II SPAF

A wonderful tool! The workmanship, sound, and playability are at the highest level. Now it's the best of my guitars. I had to adjust the beaker and tighten the core and you can play right away!

Good guitar

It was my first time buying a HB guitar and I shipped it to PERU (South America) It was great, it arrived on time. The guitar was in good conditions, some light stains in the back but nothing bad at all. The pickups sound good. I really like the guitar and it is worth what it costs:)

Πολλή καλή

For this price is best.And the quality is best

Favorit guitar right now

Grover tuners are perfect! Gift strap locks that I did not even read on the page (must have missed it) is a killer touch! Finish is just flawless, really! Pickups are hot but defined. I don't know what pots it has but it is as sensitive as my friends 2020 Gibson LPClassic! I showed him yesterday and he is legit mad at me now, because his axe costs almost TEN TIMES more. I am just simply amazed by the quality, there is not a single thing I pick on, really. I have the Harley Benton SC-550 from this march (it is the older SC-550, not the new SC-550 II). Compared to that (and that was more expensive) it is just night and day. The pots, the finnish, the accessories on it is just superb. I thought the SC-550 is a fantastic guitar but it has finnish flaws (nothing extreme, scratches, some misscolored spots at the neck joint), but after this guitar I want to sell the SC-550 now and get another of this in another color.

One thing I missed at purchase (but I was lucky I guess) is that the uncovered Roswell humbuckers in SC Custom II range are LAF Alnico 5 pups wheres this (and all the uncovered ones) are HAF Alnico 5 pups. The HAF pickups are a bit more compressed and much more hotter, which is a killer!

Ohh and the matte finnish! I am huge sucker for matte and brown wood colors, this combined just makes me look at it and just play it! Super super nice!

Setup: out of the box both bass and treble side are 2 mm at the 15th fret. I like Treble side on 1,5 mm and bass on 2, so I just lowered the treble side. Pickups were 3- 3 mm from the strings (both pups on both sides) if the last note is fretted. This pickup comes alive if you raise it to around 1,6 mm on the bridge (both treble and bass side) and 2 mm on neck pup (also both sides). The neck was spot on perfect, as well as the intonation. Factori d'addario 10-46 strings are fresh so even though I am a 9-46 hybrid slinky Ernie ball guy, I will keep them on to play them off, not the usual cheapo' basic noname strings!

Ohh and the matte headstock with the 4 staged Harley Benton logo, omg... super nice!

What a beautiful, outstanding guitar!!!

Such a great outcome for a well deserved expectation, you guy, are wonderful, the classy LP sound on a thinner guitar with great looks and feel! You made me a very happy customer...just work a little more od making the frets all smoother, thanks. Jesus Cornejo!

Quite disappointed

Bought the guitar on a Sunday afternoon and it reached me (Republic of Ireland) 5 business days after. That is probably as good as it gets in terms of delivery time for something like a musical instrument coming from thousands of miles away, so I was quite happy with that.

Upon taking it out of the box, it looked OK... but unfortunately a lot browner than what the photos in the website, as well as some videos in that 'VideoPlatform' .

I obviously can't state this with absolute certainty, but I could bet something changed in the manufacturing process and the color is not quite the same anymore. But all right... that's a cosmetic thing. It is somehow important to me, yes, but not ultimately decisive on returning the guitar or not. Still, I would say it was a good looking guitar. If that was the only 'issue' I would not be packing it again to return.

Now for the REAL issues:

Fret edges: rough! Not razor sharp, but definitely in need of considerable work. Very unpleasant to play... to the point that it actually becomes a detriment for playing.

Bridge: the nut where the poles screw in were not aligned nicely with the body. The one on the top was some good millimeters sunk into the body. The bottom one was slightly above the body level (I'm trying to describe it here with words, but it is a bit tricky to do so).

There were also several ink stains over the binding of the neck. I mean, all over it... more so on the upper frets (the ones closer to the body), but through the whole extension of the neck you could somehow easily spot little nudges of the same finish color used on the back of the neck. Really poorly done.

Other than that, controls/electronics seemed to work quite well. The coils split OK, nothing spectacular, nor terrible. Just 'yeah... ok'.

I had huge hopes for this guitar, after so many astonishing reviews. I guess I didn't lucked out. I still intend to buy another one, possibly of a different color. I really want this guitar to be good!

great looking, good sounding

Great sounding guitar. i wasnt expeciting that much for the price. could work well as a modding platform. HB is doing great things.

5 stars all round

Infinitely better quality and features than a similar priced Epiphone... lots of guitar for your money here. The look & feel is sleek, the finish is satin and the thin neck makes it perfect for beginners or experienced players. The weight is good and it's not 'top heavy'....I cannot find fault with this guitar....

Overall, an amazing guitar, i had to set up the action and pick ups, but i love everything about it.

Pros: -Amazing tuners

-Looks fabulous

-The coil tap works excellent

-I like how versatile it is

-The weight is pretty light

Cons: -The guitar does not really look like in photos, i can not say it is a con as it looks better( a little lighter)

-Needs to be set up( which is not that big of a deal)

I would highly recommend it, for this price, it offers way too much, i have played more expensive guitars which are not on this guitar s level and it s simply amazing.

wow just wow..

i cant beleave what i just purchased.. this is one hell of a guitar and so comfortable came perfectly setup out of the box! the pickups are fine will probably upgrade them but over all one of the best guitars i have played

This thing value is higher than what it costs

I was really skeptical about the quality called in YouTube videos and reviews in here. But after having it in my hands everything make sense.

It took more than a month to arrive (Colombia), but at the end it arrived in perfect shape, well packed and really robust box to protect it.

One of the things I really missed was the couple of stickers that people always shows in their YouTube unboxing videos.

Making it brief:

Good things:

- Omg what a guitar.

- the tuners are really accurate.

- nice sound even for its price.

- that thing looks really beautiful, the color is almost exactly as shown in the page, the two-colors humbuckers fit really good with th body color.

- really nice fretboard.

Not that good things:

- action kinda high, tried to take it down but looks like it needs a trustrod adjustment.

- fretboard is really, really, really dry... Omg I've hydrated it a couple of times and still getting dry.

- the binding could be cleaner.

- some really really minor details (not really noticeable unless you really look for it).

- the pots could be smoother.

At the end of the day this guitar is really impressive, even if you don't consider its price.

Not bad. But have some things to concern

The geometry of the guitar is good.

Very nice neck profile, thin deck (thinner than usual LP) thus -low weight.

Sound - good, but sometimes the pickups behave strangely, sound like soapy (indistinct, deaf)

Finish - have a lot of "sand" in matt varnish. you can easily polish with 2000 sand grid

I cann't believe its not a 3k guitar

This guitar is so nice. The quality of the build can not be faulted. I play in a rock pub band and this has become my now, only guitar that I take. The SC-Custom is so versatile it can sound like a tele or a Les Paul at the flick of a switch. The neck profile is very comfortable and the weight of the guitar isn’t a problem, even after a 2 hour set. Straight out of the box the guitar plays perfect (it was even still in tune after flying from Europe to Australia). I’m a Harley Benton convert now. I can see quite a few more models in my collection now, and they wont break the bank.

Great guitar, worth more than what you pay for

First Impressions:

The guitar is alot darker than the images on the website suggest. The finish on my guitar is alot different from the one presented in the website. Despise that the darker shade of brown does not affect the playability. Also i noticed finish flaws where the neck joins the body.

First Setup:

The guitar is a looker, it is very nice and can easily be mistaken for a more expensive model. The Grover tuners hold tunning very nicely and the nut has been finished in a precise manner. The bridge is sturdy and can be lowered to 1.70 mm on the Low e and a staggering 1.40 mm on the high E. The body weight of this guitar is just right. I have played other LP models and some were too heavy, but this is perfect for handeling in the studio,s tage, practice room , anywhere.

First play:

WOW! The neck is really fast but its not slim bu any means, its made to fit all genderes of playing. Overall i played the guitar for 40 minutes and it feld great.

Final conclusion:

I think the SC Custom II is a great guitar and its quality is definetely worth more than you pay for. I will be looking forward to buy more guitars from Harley Benton!

Excellent, with a few minor niggles

First Impressions:

A lot browner than the images suggest. Book-matched top, really nicely sculpted heel, comfortable neck. Shipping carton supportive, arrived in the UK three days after ordering with no shipping problems.

Some finish flaws, a blob of the satin top coat in the centre of the back, and also two dings on the back. The binding was also a bit dirty, not fully scraped before the finish was applied.

Left to settle after unboxing and then tuned up and tested.

First Setup:

Nice solid Grover tuners, intonation bang-on perfect out of the box [a first!]. No truss rod adjustment required, bridge down about 2mm and tailpiece up to ensure strings cleared the back of the bridge. Graphite nut cleaned up and E and A nut slots cut down by 0.5mm. Solid strap-locks.

Frets polished, and fretboard oiled.

First play:

Holy cow. Damn this plays so well. Roswell HAF pickups [only available on this Custom II] are nicely punchy with the volume rolled off, and very hot when run flat out. Not super-defined when run into a ton of gain but a slight volume roll cures that. Nice pickups. All electrics work well, no hum or crackles, shielding to all cavities.

Not as heavy as you might expect but there is still a bit of neck dive.

All frets level and neck perfect, not even needed to remove the truss rod cover yet. After adjustment action nicely low, neck fast, no buzzes.

A joy to play. Currently sporting a set of D'Addario EXL120BT with no other mods considered or necessary. Even the nut [a usual issue I have with Harley Bentons] just needed two slots deepening, otherwise it's been very smooth even after extreme bending.

Inspiring, one of those guitars that makes you play.

By far the best Harley Benton guitar I've bought in many years.

Great modern SC

This is not a typical LP SC, if you want one of those get a 450/550. It's more like an ESP/LTD with some nice comfort carves on the back. The neck joint is really nice. Finish on the entire guitar is satin and feels really nice and different. Excellent set-up out of the box. I really like the feel of this guitar and the tone variation with the coil split makes it really versatile. Grover tuners are nice and smooth. If I had to find something bad to say, after a bit of looking I found one little bubble on the finish.

Great guitar for the money, but QC is questionable.

Good:

- This guitar is a LOOKER! The flame veneer is gorgeous and the satin finish looks and feels fantastic.

- Although it took about 21 days to arrive, the guitar was almost in tune and in perfect intonation.

- The neck is quite interesting. It's comfortable to play, but a bit on the chunky side - in a good way.

- Frets are well rounded with no sharp edges.

- Pickups surprised me. They are high output and definitely not something you'd expect to find on a $200 guitar. I am especially liking the neck pickup in both modes (humbucker and split)

Bad:

- Binding is FILTHY. There are a lot of spots on this guitar where the binding is dirty or needs some work.

- Fretboard is dry as a bone.

- Frets are very scratchy and dull, and couldn't get them to feel good no matter how much I polished them.

- Nut is badly placed, traps the strings, and covered in glue (needs to go for sure)

- Truss rod cover has a deep scratch

- Neck and body have a couple of small dings.

- Right bridge post is slightly tilted. It doesn't seem to cause any issues for now, but time will tell.

Despite all the bad stuff, this guitar remains a good deal for the money!