Harley Benton SC-DLX Gotoh Daphne Blue

Daphne blue

Unbelievable quality for the price. Beautiful finish. Love it. The feel and tonal quality is amazing

Very nice guitar

It is very nice guitar, magnets are not something that you would use for metal, but nonetheless they have really nice tone to it.

Fantastic

So the first one I was sent one of the tuners had been knocked around but getting it sent back and a replacement sent out wasn't too much trouble.

The one I have now is great, haven't had to adjust anything really, sounds great, plays great.

Incredible value

My guitar came almost near flawless, the only two problems with it was a minor blemish inside a binding on a headstock and one of the knobs spins too easily.

And that's it. Other than that - everything is simply amazing.

It came somewhat decently set up (only had to adjust intonation).

It feels and plays great. The fretwork is flawless (which is very good when you have steel frets), the pickups are "workable" (nothing to write home about, but you won't wanna instantly throw them out, that's for sure), and the hardware is good.

I needed a somewhat modern and versatile guitar as an emergency for my studio work, and this one delivered HARD. And for the price - if you told me even 5 years ago that I'd get an instrument I'd wanna keep for sub 250EUR, I wouldn't have believed you.

Also... the finish... In person this color is stunning. Probably the best one they offer on this model. Can't imagine others looking better. It's that good.

10/10. If that's what HB brand has become, then... what a time to be alive!

Pro level single cut

If you’re looking for a gigable single cut at a bargain price you’ve found it. Seriously this guitar punches way above it’s price.

Very Good Hardware, Good Pickups + Electronics. The Frets... Not so Much

This was my very first Harley Benton guitar (I have three of them now, so you can suspect that this review is going to be good). From the very beginning, I have to say that for the money, this single cut beats whatever else exists out there in the same price range. Hardware alone, being from Gotoh is very good and can be found on much highly priced guitars. The same can be said about everything else.

The big and pleasant surprise was the unexpectedly good quality of the pair of Tesla pickups. After just 2 hours of playing, I changed my mind about replacing them.

Out of the box, the construction of the guitar was without any esthetic fault. Binding was clean and nice all around, the paint was flawless, headstock looks great... Visually, nothing to complain about. Even the Graphtech nut was installed at the right height and needed no adjustments.

The only thing to be annoyed about were the frets. Although they were correctly installed, with no rocking, dead spots or buzz anywhere on the neck, they were totally raw and unfinished. Bending strings produced weird scratchy sounds that should not have been there. So, I had to polish them. There is also one good news here. Polishing them took a lot of effort and time, which convinced me they are really made of steel.

I had this guitar for one year now. After this time, the paint started to pale here and there, and you can clearly see white...ish spots thru the fading blue. I do not mind this fact at all. Especially because everything else (hardware, pickups, electronics, truss rod, and the frets after the finishing polish) holds out just like the guitar is brand new. Action is low, playability awesome, sound is great.

Do I recommend it? Oh yes. Even if you have no skills for a DIY, and you have to go to a luthier / repairman and pay for polishing the frets, what you get for the money can be easily compared with similar guitars in the 1000+ price range.

Very impressed

Okay so the hype is real. The built is great. The neck feels actually amazing and due to the Gotoh hardware stays in tune very very well. The pickups are a little harsh in the high mids but was intending to have them replaced anyway. The finish on the body is fantastic but the neck not so much. Lots of spill on the binding and I don't really like painted fretboards. The frets need severe polish. They were so rough when the guitar came is was absolutely unplayable. With some loving and pickup change this became an amazing guitar

It is not a copy of anything, it is its own thing

Looks on this guitar is amazing, honestly if I would have ordered a custom made single cut guitar by a luthier, the features would have been quite similar to this:

- Stainless steel frets

- Volute in the headstock

- Thinner than a Les Paul with comfort cut

- Blue or pink satin finish (well, blue in this case). I don't flavor high gloss finish too much.

- Binding

- Two volumes but only one tone

- Coil split

- Gotoh hardware, non-locking tuners.

- Bright pickups (I would not have thought of Tesla, but I love how clean they are, the PAF that had my Gibson LP sound as if you had put a blanked covering the amp). The Tesla's lose volume with split coil, but that is to be expected. Sound doesn't reach as far as a strat, but it is quite bright and spanky, I love it.

Believe it or not, this was the single cut guitar I had in my head before Harley Benton launched this one. I would have asked for CTS pots, but this ones are Alpha, no need to change them for now.

Things that are not so good:

- Neck dive. Yes, the awful neck dive, not everything can be perfect. Guitar is so cool that it doesn't took me down. I put 200 grams of weight in the control cavity, not totally fixed the dive, but is much much better, with a strap with good gripe is not noticeable. Weight WITH the fix: 3.7 KG, out of the bnox around 3.5 KG.

- 2 frets are not perfectly leveled, but I noticed only measuring it, I don't feel them while playing. All in all the fretjob can be considered as well done.

- 2 of the 3 screw holes of the control plate where dull, but still the screws hold position.

And that's it. Honestly I can't fault this guitar, I think is an awesome instrument for a very affordable price. A branded one with the same quality for sure would be over 500 € and I would not count on the stainless steel frets at that price.