A
Good platform
jumped on the hype with Harley Benton, wanted to test out for my self if all the hype is indeed true. For most parts I understand the hype and find it hard to get this much guitar at this price point. Many compare it to Epiphone around the 500 - 800 Euro price point a comparison I don't think do the Epiphone justice. The feel and tone of the Harley Benton is not of the Epiphone 2020 inspired by series, which has better components overall, but is also 2.5 times more expensive.
Straight out of the box the SC-450 wasn't perfect, I had to polish the frets, lubricate the fretboard, adjust pickup height, strings and do an intonation of the guitar.
The volume pot for neck pickup was faulty, rolling to zero didn't turn off the guitar. Thomann quickly returned 50 euro for this mistake, which I'm happy with.
The guitar doesn't stay in tune that well, which I believe is down to the plastic nut.
The Roswell pickups are what they are, the bridge is bright and sound pretty good. The neck is too dark and muddy for my taste (sounds good coil splitted though).
I'm going to replace all electronics with better quality and replace the nut with a graphtech.
The pickups will probably also be replaced with Seymour Duncan JB/Jazz.
Overall build quality is good, nothing to point a finger at.
Seems like alot of negative for this guitar, but for a pricepoint of 160 euroes you get an excellent platform for personalizing a guitar. For beginners I'm sure this guitar will bring a lot of joy and excitement for years to come.
Straight out of the box the SC-450 wasn't perfect, I had to polish the frets, lubricate the fretboard, adjust pickup height, strings and do an intonation of the guitar.
The volume pot for neck pickup was faulty, rolling to zero didn't turn off the guitar. Thomann quickly returned 50 euro for this mistake, which I'm happy with.
The guitar doesn't stay in tune that well, which I believe is down to the plastic nut.
The Roswell pickups are what they are, the bridge is bright and sound pretty good. The neck is too dark and muddy for my taste (sounds good coil splitted though).
I'm going to replace all electronics with better quality and replace the nut with a graphtech.
The pickups will probably also be replaced with Seymour Duncan JB/Jazz.
Overall build quality is good, nothing to point a finger at.
Seems like alot of negative for this guitar, but for a pricepoint of 160 euroes you get an excellent platform for personalizing a guitar. For beginners I'm sure this guitar will bring a lot of joy and excitement for years to come.
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j
Absolutely worth the money
First of all, the reference pictures don't show how beautiful this guitar looks like in real life. Worth the money just for the looks already.
Pretty much arrived "ready to play" out of the box. Just tune up, plug it in and you will have a really nice piece to start with.
A few notes and thoughts:
Overall construction: A bit on the heavier side, but nothing too much. Everything is put together well and no obvious flaws on the paintjob or binding. The pickguard was a bit loose, but that's fixed simply by tightening the screw.
Pickups and the sound: Rosewell Alnico 5's sound great. Nothing bad about them to be honest (might replace them later on but that's a personal preference pretty much). All I had to do was adjust the pickup heights to my liking. Coil tap is a nice feature.
The neck: This is why I'm rating it only for 3* for quality. Don't get me wrong, for the money you get an absolute unit but just to be brutally honest, there are some minor issues that can be taken care of from the QC department. First of all, the frets were not polished at all - very grindy when bending the strings. This I fixed with some 0000 steel wool and general polishing. Secondly the fret ends around the 15th fret and upwards were quite sharp. Fixed by filing and sanding. It seemed like someone had already tried to file the frets around that area, as the binding on the fingerboard is a little bit damaged. Fortunately it's on the bottom side, so it doesn't bother me.
HB SC-Custom I bought a year ago had perfect frets for example. Might just have been the case of QC rushing with the guitars during the holiday season..
Tuners and tuning in general: The guitar seems to hold it's tuning quite well, tuners are tight and not slipping in any way.
Overall it's a amazingly great instrument for the price. After polishing the frets, dealing with with the sharp ends around 15'th fret and changing the strings (obvious first job for any guitar) it's something that well deserves a place in my collection. That's actually already 3'rd Harley Benton guitar for me and definitely not the last one.
Pretty much arrived "ready to play" out of the box. Just tune up, plug it in and you will have a really nice piece to start with.
A few notes and thoughts:
Overall construction: A bit on the heavier side, but nothing too much. Everything is put together well and no obvious flaws on the paintjob or binding. The pickguard was a bit loose, but that's fixed simply by tightening the screw.
Pickups and the sound: Rosewell Alnico 5's sound great. Nothing bad about them to be honest (might replace them later on but that's a personal preference pretty much). All I had to do was adjust the pickup heights to my liking. Coil tap is a nice feature.
The neck: This is why I'm rating it only for 3* for quality. Don't get me wrong, for the money you get an absolute unit but just to be brutally honest, there are some minor issues that can be taken care of from the QC department. First of all, the frets were not polished at all - very grindy when bending the strings. This I fixed with some 0000 steel wool and general polishing. Secondly the fret ends around the 15th fret and upwards were quite sharp. Fixed by filing and sanding. It seemed like someone had already tried to file the frets around that area, as the binding on the fingerboard is a little bit damaged. Fortunately it's on the bottom side, so it doesn't bother me.
HB SC-Custom I bought a year ago had perfect frets for example. Might just have been the case of QC rushing with the guitars during the holiday season..
Tuners and tuning in general: The guitar seems to hold it's tuning quite well, tuners are tight and not slipping in any way.
Overall it's a amazingly great instrument for the price. After polishing the frets, dealing with with the sharp ends around 15'th fret and changing the strings (obvious first job for any guitar) it's something that well deserves a place in my collection. That's actually already 3'rd Harley Benton guitar for me and definitely not the last one.
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C
Goede kwaliteit voor weinig geld!
Last year In December I ordered this HB SC 450 plus guitar for €159 during a Thomann promotion. As usual, it was delivered very quickly, a big thumbs up to Thomann for this!
Appearance:
The guitar seems fine in terms of finish, no high end finish but one should not expect this for that price, in any case there is certainly little to criticize here and for a budget guitar this is top!
Playing the guitar:
The adjustment of the guitar is less positive, the action of the bass strings is high and difficult to play smoothly. At the very least, a visit to a guitar technician is required, resulting in extra costs, that is if you cannot solve this yourself.
The problem:
Too high action of the strings with buzzing on the E and A bass strings at the level of the fifth fret. Adjusting the truss rod and lowering the bridge are not a solution here. The nut is nevertheless correctly cut and the height on the 1st fret is also good. I removed the strings, completely flattened the neck and checked all the frets with a fret rocker on the left, middle and right side of the fingerboard. I come to the conclusion that 14 frets are placed too high in one or more places of the fingerboard. After a few hours of careful filing and finishing everything was aligned and I could set the action of the strings very low without any noise. Now this is a great playable guitar!
The question is..
Is this a guitar that a beginner can buy with confidence? Yes, if you are willing to spend some extra money on a skilled guitar technician to make the guitar optimal. For the purchase price and these extra costs you will have a very good LP style guitar anyway at a very affordable price. I understand that this can be an additional burden for a beginner to look for a guitar technician and is a barrier to purchase. if the problem is too big for you, Thomann's excellent service still gives you the option of returning the guitar and ordering another one. All copies do not have the same shortcomings, there will always be something that is not perfect, this can also be the case on a more expensive guitar.
For a more experienced guitarist that is not shy to work on the instrument..
If you can solve this yourself, this is an absolute bargain because this guitar also sounds good and offers several setting options.
I definitely recommended this guitar!
Appearance:
The guitar seems fine in terms of finish, no high end finish but one should not expect this for that price, in any case there is certainly little to criticize here and for a budget guitar this is top!
Playing the guitar:
The adjustment of the guitar is less positive, the action of the bass strings is high and difficult to play smoothly. At the very least, a visit to a guitar technician is required, resulting in extra costs, that is if you cannot solve this yourself.
The problem:
Too high action of the strings with buzzing on the E and A bass strings at the level of the fifth fret. Adjusting the truss rod and lowering the bridge are not a solution here. The nut is nevertheless correctly cut and the height on the 1st fret is also good. I removed the strings, completely flattened the neck and checked all the frets with a fret rocker on the left, middle and right side of the fingerboard. I come to the conclusion that 14 frets are placed too high in one or more places of the fingerboard. After a few hours of careful filing and finishing everything was aligned and I could set the action of the strings very low without any noise. Now this is a great playable guitar!
The question is..
Is this a guitar that a beginner can buy with confidence? Yes, if you are willing to spend some extra money on a skilled guitar technician to make the guitar optimal. For the purchase price and these extra costs you will have a very good LP style guitar anyway at a very affordable price. I understand that this can be an additional burden for a beginner to look for a guitar technician and is a barrier to purchase. if the problem is too big for you, Thomann's excellent service still gives you the option of returning the guitar and ordering another one. All copies do not have the same shortcomings, there will always be something that is not perfect, this can also be the case on a more expensive guitar.
For a more experienced guitarist that is not shy to work on the instrument..
If you can solve this yourself, this is an absolute bargain because this guitar also sounds good and offers several setting options.
I definitely recommended this guitar!
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d
Nice looking LP variant, with a few visual QC issues
This is the second LP type guitar I've had from Thomann recently. The other was the SC400 SGT (gold top). I seem to have similar visual QC issues with this one and I'm deciding whether to keep it or not.
Here's a few observations
Weight: (They vary a lot apparently, even for the same model) I would say this is on the lighter side for a mahogany body.
Looks: From a distance the vintage burst looks great. When you get close you can see every wood join in the body, a very visible scarf joint at the neck. The ivory binding has dark paint flecks in various places.
These are minor annoyances and the SC400 had similar paint issues.
In terms of fit and feel, the neck feels really nice, no sharp frets. The frets themselves though are badly in need of a good polish, They feel scratchy and unpleasant when you bend a note. This is not helped by the cheap included strings which feel poor.
Tuners work, no dead spots, quite responsive. However they look and feel really cheap. Really, rather than being 'authentic' in look it would probably be better to just stick better tuners on there, even if they don't look the part. The plastic feels really like it won't last. But we'll see.
For me the real QC let-down is the misaligned tuner fitting on the rear of the headstock, I'm not a carpenter but given a symmetrical headstock I think I could do a better job of lining them up. No two of the three pairs align. I'm not sure what angles or means of alignment were used but I'd question it.
My SC400 SGT has the same issues (paint bleed and misaligned tuners) The SC400 was worse and I returned it. This one I will play with for a day or two before deciding. Although Thomann's service is great, returning guitars and waiting for refunds is a pain, so we'll see.
It's one of the weird things with Harley Benton guitars. Some are great for the money (my TE-90 FLT cost 20 euro more and there is a large chasm in quality difference). Even the ST-62 I bought at the same time as this SC450 Plus has better finish.
Overall Harley Benton guitars have been good for me, but a little tightening up of quality and consistency would be good. It's not unreasonable to expect that if you spend 150 euro on one HB guitar and it's great, that if you buy a different 'model' for the same price that the quality is equally good.
Will see with this SC450 Plus, will update review when I've decided whether to keep.
Update: returned the first one. Eventually ordered a replacement. This one looks better overall, but once again the tuners are misaligned!! This was QC passed. It seems like whoever is making these SC guitars doesn't care about quality, and that Thomann are willing to overlook this, because the guitar is a "certain price". I've bought cheaper LP copies than this which didn't have these issues. So it is possible if there is the will. And I'm afraid the old "look at the price argument" doesn't stack up. If I was a guitar repairer/tinkerer/luthier, I'm sure I would just shrug my shoulders at this, but I'm not. I'm trying to be a guitar player, and only have time to learn to play, or learn to repair, I can't do both.
As borne out by my recent experience, sone HB models arrive with few or any flaws, some with lots. It seems, a the moment that it's the LP copies that are problematic. I returned a problem SC-400 gold top, SC450-PLus and I have a SC-450 P90 which has so many issues that it's a bit of a joke, Thomann offered me a substantial discount to keep that one.
Update, I ordered a replacement about a month later and the second one was much better. Happy to hold onto the second and it is now one of my favourites
Here's a few observations
Weight: (They vary a lot apparently, even for the same model) I would say this is on the lighter side for a mahogany body.
Looks: From a distance the vintage burst looks great. When you get close you can see every wood join in the body, a very visible scarf joint at the neck. The ivory binding has dark paint flecks in various places.
These are minor annoyances and the SC400 had similar paint issues.
In terms of fit and feel, the neck feels really nice, no sharp frets. The frets themselves though are badly in need of a good polish, They feel scratchy and unpleasant when you bend a note. This is not helped by the cheap included strings which feel poor.
Tuners work, no dead spots, quite responsive. However they look and feel really cheap. Really, rather than being 'authentic' in look it would probably be better to just stick better tuners on there, even if they don't look the part. The plastic feels really like it won't last. But we'll see.
For me the real QC let-down is the misaligned tuner fitting on the rear of the headstock, I'm not a carpenter but given a symmetrical headstock I think I could do a better job of lining them up. No two of the three pairs align. I'm not sure what angles or means of alignment were used but I'd question it.
My SC400 SGT has the same issues (paint bleed and misaligned tuners) The SC400 was worse and I returned it. This one I will play with for a day or two before deciding. Although Thomann's service is great, returning guitars and waiting for refunds is a pain, so we'll see.
It's one of the weird things with Harley Benton guitars. Some are great for the money (my TE-90 FLT cost 20 euro more and there is a large chasm in quality difference). Even the ST-62 I bought at the same time as this SC450 Plus has better finish.
Overall Harley Benton guitars have been good for me, but a little tightening up of quality and consistency would be good. It's not unreasonable to expect that if you spend 150 euro on one HB guitar and it's great, that if you buy a different 'model' for the same price that the quality is equally good.
Will see with this SC450 Plus, will update review when I've decided whether to keep.
Update: returned the first one. Eventually ordered a replacement. This one looks better overall, but once again the tuners are misaligned!! This was QC passed. It seems like whoever is making these SC guitars doesn't care about quality, and that Thomann are willing to overlook this, because the guitar is a "certain price". I've bought cheaper LP copies than this which didn't have these issues. So it is possible if there is the will. And I'm afraid the old "look at the price argument" doesn't stack up. If I was a guitar repairer/tinkerer/luthier, I'm sure I would just shrug my shoulders at this, but I'm not. I'm trying to be a guitar player, and only have time to learn to play, or learn to repair, I can't do both.
As borne out by my recent experience, sone HB models arrive with few or any flaws, some with lots. It seems, a the moment that it's the LP copies that are problematic. I returned a problem SC-400 gold top, SC450-PLus and I have a SC-450 P90 which has so many issues that it's a bit of a joke, Thomann offered me a substantial discount to keep that one.
Update, I ordered a replacement about a month later and the second one was much better. Happy to hold onto the second and it is now one of my favourites
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W
This guitar is too good for the price.
It is well made with no visible blemishes.
Looks good and plays well. The neck relief was fine at .010”. I lowered the action a tad with no buzzing evident.
The colour is much redder than the stock photo, but I rather like it.
The tuners are adequate, and I may change them, but the pickups sound great.
This is my seventh HB, and third HB SC.
Love them all.
Bought another one which clearly missed any quality control.
Action VERY high. Truss rod nut slack.
Colour not as red a first one, but not as amber as I wanted.
Sharp frets.
Neck pickup will not sit correctly. Something interfering.
Some minor blemishes.
All will be sorted, but if are not guitar savvy beware. A bit disappointed with Thomanns on this example.
Looks good and plays well. The neck relief was fine at .010”. I lowered the action a tad with no buzzing evident.
The colour is much redder than the stock photo, but I rather like it.
The tuners are adequate, and I may change them, but the pickups sound great.
This is my seventh HB, and third HB SC.
Love them all.
Bought another one which clearly missed any quality control.
Action VERY high. Truss rod nut slack.
Colour not as red a first one, but not as amber as I wanted.
Sharp frets.
Neck pickup will not sit correctly. Something interfering.
Some minor blemishes.
All will be sorted, but if are not guitar savvy beware. A bit disappointed with Thomanns on this example.
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A
7 years later (older version)
I bought this back in 2015. I do have the older version with the Wilkinson Pickups which sound great for the price. Mine also doesn't have the push/pull. Even while my older version is less feature packed it still holds up well. Few small issues like the plastic plate around the input jack is cracked and the input jack is prone to loosening, same with the pickup switch but if that's the only issues I have from a guitar at this price 7 YEARS later, that's great.
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A
Most underrated ever?
So I ordered this guitar out of pure curiosity and the massive amount of good reviews it has. Besides that it looks killer!
I love how thick this neck is and the full, rich and beefy sound the mahogany body gives. Honestly it can keep up with my Lee Malia signature which is my main. Still is and always will even though I've played supremes. And if this guitar doesn't come second in my list well it got to be darn close. Alright I am exaggerating a little bit, but for the price being? Nothing can beat it. I mean 160 euros for this? I've payed much more for the same quality!
So, where's the catch? Alright, I got to play around a bit and changed strings few times, drop the tuning etc etc... And here's the only mistake that bothers me. Suddenly I've got fretbuzz out of nowhere, like really bad and the thing is it's not because of the frets. How do I know that? Well, it only happened to my B string. I've figure out that my nut was cut to deep for my B string, not out of the factory but because I was tuning and detuning so much. So the nut was just poor quality but hey, spend another 10 euros more and you'll get a nut for a lifetime.
Secondly, 'cause I'm a bit perfectionist I've noticed that the middle of my flamed maple isn't the middle of my guitar. They fucked up a bit in the factory, but it's alright I can live with that. If you look closely, between the pick ups it should be fine. Once you've got past the bridge it start to take a turn which I find it funny now.
In summary:
Super great guitar for the price. Nice sound, great play ability, nice set up straight out of the box, etc... Beware that at this price point you might get into trouble with one or some of the components. Chinese factory tend to care less about perfecting the finish, but I would still recommend this to friends and family and hell even a fucking stranger.
I love how thick this neck is and the full, rich and beefy sound the mahogany body gives. Honestly it can keep up with my Lee Malia signature which is my main. Still is and always will even though I've played supremes. And if this guitar doesn't come second in my list well it got to be darn close. Alright I am exaggerating a little bit, but for the price being? Nothing can beat it. I mean 160 euros for this? I've payed much more for the same quality!
So, where's the catch? Alright, I got to play around a bit and changed strings few times, drop the tuning etc etc... And here's the only mistake that bothers me. Suddenly I've got fretbuzz out of nowhere, like really bad and the thing is it's not because of the frets. How do I know that? Well, it only happened to my B string. I've figure out that my nut was cut to deep for my B string, not out of the factory but because I was tuning and detuning so much. So the nut was just poor quality but hey, spend another 10 euros more and you'll get a nut for a lifetime.
Secondly, 'cause I'm a bit perfectionist I've noticed that the middle of my flamed maple isn't the middle of my guitar. They fucked up a bit in the factory, but it's alright I can live with that. If you look closely, between the pick ups it should be fine. Once you've got past the bridge it start to take a turn which I find it funny now.
In summary:
Super great guitar for the price. Nice sound, great play ability, nice set up straight out of the box, etc... Beware that at this price point you might get into trouble with one or some of the components. Chinese factory tend to care less about perfecting the finish, but I would still recommend this to friends and family and hell even a fucking stranger.
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VK
good for your money
at the time of purchase, it was the cheapest les paul, it would be a miracle if it even looked like a musical instrument, but it is also comfortable, vintage tuners do not get upset, which I think is unique. Good tool. There are flaws in cosmetics, but for such money, it’s a sin to complain.
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A
A whole lotta bang for your buck!
As the title suggests, this guitar is absolutely phenomenal for its price.
As a guitarist with a habit of wanting many different guitars to keep a variety in my arsenal of axes, it was, and still is, a very strange experience to have this guitar, but im loving every second of it to this day.
Why? Because it is one of the ONLY guitars that wont ever leave my side if its up to me!
As the descriptions tells you, you have a lot of great features for the price. If you ever felt the need to give a cheaper brand a go, this beauty will make you regret you never did it sooner.
The pro's:
-Wilkinson vintage pickups!
-great sustain
-sturdy neck, despite the design to save wood.
-tuners dont give easily to stress, keeping the strings in tune very well
-great playability if you like a fat neck. If you always play thin necks, dont worry, you will get used to this neck fairly quick.
-did i mention Wilkinson vintage pickups?
Cons:
-perhaps the top could have been better aesthetically, but not a real con for me since it looks beautiful to me.
Conclusion: buy it!
As a guitarist with a habit of wanting many different guitars to keep a variety in my arsenal of axes, it was, and still is, a very strange experience to have this guitar, but im loving every second of it to this day.
Why? Because it is one of the ONLY guitars that wont ever leave my side if its up to me!
As the descriptions tells you, you have a lot of great features for the price. If you ever felt the need to give a cheaper brand a go, this beauty will make you regret you never did it sooner.
The pro's:
-Wilkinson vintage pickups!
-great sustain
-sturdy neck, despite the design to save wood.
-tuners dont give easily to stress, keeping the strings in tune very well
-great playability if you like a fat neck. If you always play thin necks, dont worry, you will get used to this neck fairly quick.
-did i mention Wilkinson vintage pickups?
Cons:
-perhaps the top could have been better aesthetically, but not a real con for me since it looks beautiful to me.
Conclusion: buy it!
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B
Great guitar for an excellent price
For the price everything about this guitar is excellent for the money except the tuners and the sound is fantastic. Buy a set of locking tuners, replace the ones that come stock first thing, do a simple setup you will have no complaints.
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