Harley Benton SC-Special TV Yellow 5-stars Reviews

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 !

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 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.

Love those P-90s!

Here's a guitar that will take you back if you're hankering for a vintage sound and will take you forward because of its quality build. Seriously, this is one nice guitar even without the great price. Right out of the box, the guitar played nicely. Soon as you put your hands on it you'll know you're in for one sweet ride.

Shockingly high quality and value

For under $300 USD, including shipping, this can’t be beat. The neck, out of the box, amazing feel. Could use a fret polish, but rolled fretboard and rounded fret ends. Graphite nut, great tuning machines make tuning easy and stable. One small height adjustment to the bridge and it was perfect.

You get more than you pay for!!!

This guitar hold its own against much expensive brands. Its built very well and is a joy to play.

Has a cool vibe to it!!!

Inspiring Machine

Upon a very quick arrival, there was outer box damage ... the small E string was broken. After unpacking, giving a good once over and a new set of strings, it proves to be an amazing guitar for its category. The frets are smooth as glass, providing great feedback up and down all the areas. Tuning is stable. P90s sound amazing through a high gain cab. What is not to love? Only trying to explain the TV Yellow to non-guitarists. All things considered, I feel quite happy and pleasantly surprised ... honestly, was not expecting HB to have such a good product.

Absolutely love this guitar

I already owned a DC Junior (in Faded Brown) which I adore, but a TV Yellow Special was always a dream guitar for me. So when I saw Harley Benton had released one, I couldn't resist!

Obviously the finish isn't strictly TV Yellow, but it's closer than a lot of others on the market, and you can see the nice grain through the finish.

The other slight niggle is the scratchplate being junior-style rather than true to the Special. I took it off with the intention of adding a more accurate replacement, but the pickups are slightly closer together than standard and in the time before I've been able to modify the scratchplate I've grown to like it without one. My DC Junior is also scratchplateless - the finish and grain on both guitars is great, so I'm very happy to show them off.

Also worth noting that it shares the deviation from classic body shape that all HB SCs have - a curve downwards at the neck heel. It actually makes the higher frets easier to access!

The neck's a nice profile, although the glossy finish takes a bit to wear in/get used to. If HB could do this in the open pore finish like the faded brown DC, it would be perfect!

I'm a big fan of the Roswell pickups (here and on all my HB guitars!), and everything else is brilliant. If you're after a Special, this is 100% the best bang for your buck available!

Perfect

About 90% of my playing is Blues, I play on bars and scholar presentations.

Pros

1. The pickups are good and emulate that vintage single coil tone, that's amazing for the price (A vintage strat is at least $1000 USD)

2. The guitar is heavier than I expected, and that's cool because it gives a cool sustain.

3. It's very versatile, sounds great with high gain and has a cool clean tone too.

Cons

1. The headstock logo looks soft, maybe it disappears with time

2. If you look very carefully, you can see imperfections on the painting.

Very good instrument for the money

it arrived very well setup. action was a little too high for my taste which I corrected easily. holds tune, no problem despite the junk tuners. At least the tuners on this one dont have dead zones. very comfortable neck and the fret finish is really nice. definitely comparable to most Korean or US made instruments. The pick ups are ok, not great but they get the job done.

I am an experienced guitar player with heirloom guitars in my collection as well as lower priced guitars that I gig with. I have several Les Paul style guitars, but all have humbucker style pickups. I really wanted a guitar with P90s. After trying to find an Epiphone TV Yellow LP style guitar with P90s, (none available anywhere), I did some research & discovered rave reviews about these Harley Benton SC Specials. I waffled for a while, but finally talked myself into buying one.

I left the guitar in the box for 36 hours after it arrived so it could acclimate to the environment. I was like a child at Christmas when I opened the box. All I could say was "Wow!" The guitar was nearly still tuned and the intonation was spot on according to my digital guitar tuners. The fit and finish on the guitar is nearly perfect. I love the look of the vintage style tuners. The guitar is set up for 10 to 46 ga. strings, but I will put 9 to 42s on it eventually and adjust the action. I love the growl of the P90s. I can't put the guitar down. Well Done HB!

Real value for the buck

The title says it all. There were minor issues like a bit sloppy paint job or rusty factory strings, but beyond that instrument is really good for the money and those minor issues were fixable.

I was particularly impressed with it's sound, those are quite cool P90s for a 200 buck device!

Awesome guitar

My 2nd Harley Benton and again very happy i bought it.

Body: Really nice processed. No faults at all. Color isn't TV yellow but light brown leaning more to orange then yellow. No complaints - I like it.

Bridge: Ok. I had to file sharp edge on 6th saddle that was hurting my palm. Not a big deal. Design of the bridge is a little problematic if you only need to change one of the strings since pickup is very close to string holes. But I think most wraparound bridges have same issue.

Pickups: Ok but not so happy as I am with Roswell Filtertronics on Harley's FLT90 Telecaster. They sound decent but my ear missing something. Can't say exactly what. Always had trouble explaining sound to others. It's not so important since sound is very subjective thing. I'll just say that they don't match so well in my setup as the rest of pickups I already own (setup: Marshall JVM with 4x12 Greenbacks 25).

Elektronics: Great. Feels and works even better than on HB FLT90.

Neck & fretboard: Really nice. Feel and shape is almost the same as on my Gibson SG 2008. Really comfortable to play. Some frets needed sanding. No sharp edges - good job on fret ends. Fretboard was really dirty and all frets needed polishing but I am not counting that as a bad thing.

Nut: Not cut as it should but it's not a big deal.

Tuning machines: Great. They don't hold tune so well but that could be cause of the headstock design (eternal Gibson problem) or because of the nut not cuted as it should.

Why I gave 4 stars on quality?......Bridge desing is very high so you cannot raise pickups close to the strings. Because of that I had to put 8mm thick wood shimm, screw it underneat bridge pickup and drill holes through it for pickup screws. Now its posible to raise or lower bridge with ease. If any of you going to do the same you don't need 8mm shimm, 5mm thickness should be enough.

Would I buy HB again?.....Of course.

Rock on!