Harley Benton SC-450 BK Classic Series

If you going to spend a lot of money on an instrument then you need have no worries in buying it from Thomann, I'll start right at the beginning, be sure that it will come packaged well.

It took me some time to open the package which arrived in just a few days and was crammed with large bubble wrap to protect the contents, which were in another box inside, I suspect that guitars costing very much more than I paid for mine would be package the same.
The HB 450 is primarily used for practice and entertaining the family, though it would definitely not look out of place in far more demanding situations like on the stage, or on the street where it will certainly get noticed because of its looks which are great.

When I finally got the Harley Benton SC-450BK Classic, (which can be regarded as a relatively cheap Les Paul, considering you can pay large sums of money for them) out from the packaging, don't let the price of the HB 450 fool you.
From the box the first thing you notice is the weight and on further inspection the quality and workmanship of the instrument with plenty of thought to detail being put into it. The finish is superb, very glossy with a nice sheen to it. Frets are nice and level with the sides of the neck with no sharp edges like some models costing lots more. the finger board inlays look like real inlays and not stuck on transfers.
The machine tuner heads are good and solid looking though I found that the fifth is a little slack, but from reading on the web this is easily fixed, not a problem.

The pickups are fine and quite good for the type of music that I play. If I need to get better ones then Thomann can supply them but I dont think that I will have to as the ones supplied on the HB450 are most adequate.
From the box the guitars set up was almost perfect with no alterations or adjustments to be made and if you wanted to adjust them its easy to do.
The selector switch is fine but when you put the guitar in the bag put the little foam protector back on so it doesn't get broke as an earlier one on a different guitar did.

The sounds are superb and very mellow which I like a lot,
the volume and tone knobs look great as does the general overall appearance of the guitar. In all I would say For the price first class.
buy one and find out for yourself.

This arrived in Canada today, 6 days after I ordered it. That is impressive considering all the crap going on in the world today. UPS is a customs broker too so they handled that inhouse and there was no long delay as it sat in a customs warehouse. Cost another $50 in taxes and duties, which is about what I expected. Don't hesitate over shipping headaches if you're considering one of these guitars.

Now, for the guitar itself. To start with, the pictures don't do it justice. It is stunning. I couldn't find a single flaw in the finish (well, one minor one but I'll address that later). One thing I didn't like much about it was the light colored fretboard on the guitar in the picture, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it's much darker on mine and matches the guitar perfectly. I don't know if the color varies from guitar to guitar but I am very happy with mine.

It's still cold in Canada so I let it warm up a couple of hours before I tried tuning it. Yeah, maybe I should've waited longer but, you know - new guitar. Anyway, it wasn't far out of tune but it was a bit of a headache trying to get it right with the cheap tuners it came with. Always doing the dance between sharp and flat, and it quickly fell out of tune after a few minutes of noodling around. I'm sure this is partly due to the new strings but the tuners just feel cheap and have too much play for my liking so I will be replacing those right away. I read the reviews before I bought it and I knew they weren't the greatest, so I knew this was probably something I would be doing anyway. To be honest, for a guitar at this price point I would've expected a lot worse issues. If the tuners don't solve the tuning issues I'll try a Tusq nut and maybe a roller bridge.

I'm just a new player who only plays in my basement on a Mustang amp so as far as the pickups go, they sound just fine to me. They really can growl a lot more than my single coil Strat. They are a little tinny when I turn the dirt on though. They may get swapped out sometime down the road but for now they will work just fine.

As for that quality issue I mentioned, another reviewer said the screw for the pickguard was too long on theirs and had marred the finish. This was the case with mine too. It's nothing major - just a small dimply in the paint under the pickguard that can't be seen anyway. I cut about a millimeter off the screw and that problem is solved. Another thing, which is just me being nit picky - the screw doesn't sit flush in the pick guard. The hole is chamfered so it should but it's not wide enough. As soon as my son returns my drill I'll fix that so it sits in there the way it should. It doesn't effect playability at all and some might not care, but my OCD won't allow me to overlook it.

Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase. I knew it wasn't a high quality instrument but you are getting a lot more than the price point suggests. None of the small things I mentioned are at serious enough that I would hesitate to buy another Harley Benton guitar. It is an excellent platform to gradually improve upon as my playing gets better and I think I could end up spending a few hundred in upgrades and have a guitar that would rival one costing thousands. If you're on the fence about getting one of these, check out some online reviews - there are lots on YouTube. Unless you're expecting to get Gibson quality for a couple of hundred dollars, I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

I bought this because I hadn't played in 10 years, and just wanted something to jam out on at home. Also, getting the band back together, and may swap out my bass-playing duties for a bit of guitar here and there.

After performing a quick setup (no guitar is ever immediately playable at this price), played like a dream. Far better than expected. Let's start from the bottom up...

Bridge - bridge came a bit high (I like lower action) so be prepared to adjust that. I recommend getting the Harley Benton Guitar and Bass Toolkit to aid with this, if you don't already have tools for the job)
Once the action was lowered, I had to tighten the truss rod just a tiny bit. This was smooth and a quick enough adjustment. Now the action is low and even across the fretboard.

Neck - the neck is fantastic. Smooth finish on the back, stunning fretwork (no sharp ends, no levelling needed - you'll never see that happen at this price). I've heard people say it's a bit chunky, but I think the profile is just right.

Hardware - everything seems solid. The only thing I'd consider changing at this point are the tuners, though the stock ones do the job well enough.

Sound - it sounds like a LP. Very decent pickups (amazing for the price, really). Won't disappoint, but also won't blow your mind... until you remember how much you paid for it.

Conclusion - if you want a new guitar at an affordable price, you cannot beat this.

This is my second Harley Benton, my other one is a TE 20 (Telecaster type) - also recently purchased. I guess this review is really in comparison with the Tele, which I can't fault - especially for the money. Okay... overall, this guitar is excellent. It looks fantastic, sound wise it's good - perfectly adequate for home use (I don't play gigs so couldn't really give a worthwhile opinion on that but would bet it being okay) Like the Tele, I had to lower the action and put some new strings on - all as you would expect and now it plays just fine. The reason I can't give this guitar 5 stars (which it deserves for the little money paid) is that unlike the Tele it does have a few blemishes such as some of the machine heads have slight marks on them and the there is a very tiny repair to the fret board where it meets the inlay at the 15th fret, only noticed after applying oil and also I had to tighten the input jack. None of these things bother me in the slightest nor do they affect the guitars playability and I have paid an awful lot more for guitars that have had bigger niggles than these. Anyway, thanks to Harley Benton and Thomann I have added a very worthwhile LP copy to my guitar collection for very little money - happy days!!