Harley Benton SC-Special TV Yellow

My review after 2 1/2 years

This is a great guitar at an affordable price. I've been using it primarily for open tunings and is my go to for slide guitar. This is my first guitar with P90 style pickups so I have no comparisons to make but will attest that both the neck and bridge have a great tone for both clean and distorted. The solid body has good sustain. I am very impressed with the quality of the frets as the ware has been minimal over the past few years. The tuning pegs have no issues with slipping and are very smooth. If I leave the guitar untouched for awhile the strings tend to go slightly sharp, not sure if it better than going flat. It's a classic design that is well built and sounds great. Definitely worth a five star review.

Wondrous tone of a P90 in the neck position!

After I purchased my single P90 guitar, my sixth Harley Benton purchase in 2024, I loved it so much that I instantly wanted a dual P90 version. And I got what I needed it for. The tone of the P90 in the neck position is perfect for some of the music I’ve creating now!

Love my Harley Benton SC-Special TV Yellow

Having a collection of over 20 guitars , some Gibson, Fender, PRS etc.. I am totally hooked on my SC- Special TV Yellow and have since purchased three more Harley Benton guitars. Value, quality and customer service is top notch, I highly recommend !

P90s are great, aren't they?

Aside from a quite slight intonation deviation (easily solved pretty quickly) it came in a very impressive condition. Love the pickups! ;)

Great alternative to the big G!

I found this Harley Benton to exceed my expectations in build quality and playability. For the price, there are no comparable guitars on the market! Great job by HB!

I'm running out of words

It's hard not to jump on the Harley Benton bandwagon as it really is worth hitching a ride. I'm of an age when guitars at these prices (allowing for inflation) would have been sold by Woolworths and been awful in every way. If Woolworths sold products like these, they'd still be in business.

One thing I've personally started to notice is that the extra £40, pushing these guitars up to the £200 mark, is rewarded hand over fist. In particular, the guitars have acquired much more personality IMHO. The Tesla pickups in my DC-DLX Gotoh and these P90s just have that certain something. This guitar is full of personality and vibe which is the one thing that is slightly (not entirely) missing at the lower price points. I have the HB Jazzmaster homage and that is a fantastic guitar but the pickups have no "personality" whatsoever. It was £40 cheaper! Like many, I originally came into Harley Benton expecting that I'd like the lovely necks but upgrade their pickups. On this guitar (and the DC-DLX) that really isn't going to be necessary. The neck is indeed a thing of beauty. Can a neck be yummy? Also, worth saying that I had to re-check the specs as these frets seemed as smooth as the DC-DLX which has stainless steel ones. Bonus.

I also feel that the finish quality is a bit better for that extra £40. That may be me but either way the finish on this was perfect. In fact, the only mark on it is a ding on the back, bottom edge - not by HB but I knocked it on the corner of a table two days after it arrived. Arghhhhh! Fortunately, we now live in a world where I can call this "reliced" so my Harley Benton has now increased in value.

I love the TV Yellow/Dirty Mustard colour which is much nicer in the flesh - more depth and gloss. As it's not a totally solid colour, you may see evidence of the wood grain. This means there may be less consistency and perfection visible through the finish than you would find on a more expensive guitar. However, that soon fades away when you pick it up. It's quite light and is dripping with vibe (in case I didn't mention that earlier). Again, this may be a personal thing but other reviews would indicate otherwise.

I know everybody says the first thing they do on many HBs is change the tuners but personally I find these to be massively inconsistent across all guitars, manufacturers and price points so have given up worrying. The HB DC-DLX Gotoh I have has, shocker, Gotoh tuners! These don't seem any better than these to me. If it's out of tune, I tune it. They all do that job which is good enough for me.

Quite how Epiphone can charge double is a complete mystery. I read one review a while ago which said we should buy HB now before the secret gets out and they start resting on their laurels instead of pushing the envelope. I hope that doesn't happen because this is the shake up the guitar industry has needed. I'm certainly doing my bit for the cause. So, buy it, you won't be disappointed. In the unlikely event you are, send it back. Win-Win!

Finally, my days of heart pangs are over.

Let me tell you my story. I bought a Gibson Special Jr in faded cherry with two P90's used and absolutely loved the way it sounded, but couldn't keep it in tune for even one song. That is ground zero critical for me. I lubed it, and did what I could without spending as much as I did for the guitar with string locks, Gibson fine tune bridge, tuners etc. so I sold it. The guy who bought it from me worked in a Guitar Store, and I almost cried selling it listening to it in my Fender Blues Deluxe Tweed Tube amp; the tone was that incredible. Well the guitar used in price has gone up double since then. I wish I knew about the String Butler back then. So, this has been a heartache I have never satisified until now.

One day I woke up and thought, for this kind of money, why don't I take a chance and buy the Harley Benton SC Special? What if I luck out and get the same tone, and for even way less money. So, I took the chance, and WOW, BINGO, hit the lottery kind of joy. This thing sounds amazing, plays like a dream, and is mint/flawless in every way. Sounds every bit as good as the one I sold. The fretboard edges are smooth, the frets are polished, I lucked out and got one where the mahogany was so even in color it looked like it was a one piece block of wood, and only upon very close inspection along the edges did I see that, yes it was 3 pieces.

I actually have 3 Harley Benton guitars with P90's and they all sound like they are in the same ball park, but this SC Special with solid mahogany throughout has an edge in tonal qualities. It's hard to describe, but it has a special clarity in there, a little more pronounced mids, and sparkling highs especially in the middle position sounding like bells, but without any chiminess, and yes, having full depth of tone there as well. I am blown away by this guitar. Just walking by it, seeing it there in the case, I have to go over and take it out, plug it in, and smile, especially considering what I paid for it. I could see this selling for ten times this price, and being even better than the ones that do in the big name brand. I'm thinking if they come out with one in Cherry red, I might even get another one. Not that I don't have enough guitars already. Highly, highly recommended.

Great!

I love this guitar, built very solid and sounds fantastic. I had to dress the frets and polish them as they were gritty out of the box but other than that the guitar has been wonderful!

Fantastic

Purple heart fretboard looks wonderful. Dirty mustard tv yellow is lovely especially in transparent. Pickups sound great. Bridge is bulky but better than a Gibson equivalent. Tuners are legit. Overall thrilled.

Fantastic sound from a head-turning guitar

This guitar is a total pleasure to play and provides a great variety of classic tones. Every time I open at the case, people are in awe of the fine classic look. I showed my wife a picture of an original Gibson model of the same guitar that is selling for $21,999 on Reverb and she agreed this guitar looks just like it and it plays like a dream. I use it for busking so I don't have to take my very expensive guitars into the outdoors. I needed a guitar with P-90 pickups and this guitar definitely delivers Wonderful full P-90 sounds. I Highly recommend this guitar for it's Classic stylish look and excellent P-90 tones.