Harley Benton MultiScale-8 QEB

Les 8-cordes, j'en avais déjà une. Mais une plutôt "injouable" et au son plutôt bof (une Ibanez RGIR28).
Donc quitte à renouveler l'expérience, pourquoi ne pas tenter cette Multiscale-8 ? Sur le papier, elle a des specs qu'on ne retrouve pas souvent sur ce segment de prix, idem pour la finition. Le risque était presque de 0.

En pratique, compte tenu de son prix, c'est vraiment une super guitare. Arrivée d'usine parfaitement réglée (sauf les micros, trop bas pour moi), sans aucun coup (ce qui peut arrivée) ni rien, bien que la touche fût aussi sèche que le désert. Et qu'est-ce qu'elle est belle ! La finition est vraiment à tomber, même si on peut voir la démarcation entre les deux morceaux constituant les deux moitiés de la table. Mais bon, à ce prix, on ne va pas chipoter. Par contre, le double truss rod (je suppose) était parfaitement inattendu, et pourtant il est là.

Cette guitare est vraiment super confortable à jouer, le multiscale a la frette "neutre" là où il faut (pour moi, en tout cas). Pas trop lourde non plus, sonne bien à vide (merci la construction neck-through).

Une fois branchée, les micros sont bien pour ce prix, mais pas non plus exceptionnels. Mais ça sonne, et on n'est pas déçus.
Bref, pour le prix, ce serait vraiment bête de s'en passer. J'ai mis ma RGIR28 de côté, la Multiscale-8 l'a totalement remplacée.
Je prendrais bien une autre en finition QBB, tiens...

Au déballage , c est une magnifique guitare , et basse ? mais qui impressionne, le manche est énorme . Action des cordes est basse ,le tirant fort, l accès aux aigus incroyable elle est jouable après quelques heures. La couleur est dark , il faut aimer le vert , moi j aime. La table est magnifique.
Côté son il faut baisser un peu les aigus et ça roule , attention à l amplification adéquate basse fréquence . Sur un bon transistor ça fonctionne.
Côté défaut , le sélecteur est gênant sous la main si on veut jouer des petites rhytmiques, attention au vis du chevalet sur corde mi aigu qui peuvent griffer la main.
Côté médiator il faut du 1,5mm minimum , sinon jouer au doigt c'est cool sur les grosses cordes façon basse .
Je recommande vivement cette guitare mais attention c est spécifique , elle ouvre de nouveaux horizons .
Excellente pour le prix , rien à dire où plutôt beaucoup tellement elle est différente !

To put it short, it’s the best guitar of its specifications within its price bracket, however with this price bracket comes some obvious cutbacks by Harley Benton which knocks it down a few pegs.

Pros:

The overall finish of the guitar is spectacular, being a matt/satin finish that feels smooth to the touch, as well it’s back carved providing excellent support through long periods of playing. The neck carve is lovely, and such a nice playing experience up on higher frets.

The neck is a thinner C shape, which is comfortable and smooth, not too hard to operate.

The overall balance is perfect, either sitting or with a strap.

The bridge is stellar, I love the individual pieces and would consider them to be my favourite considering how comfortable they are when palm muting.

The tuners are great, a cheaper option for locking tuners, but they’re the most stable in my collection, which is a nice addition considering the extended range.

The fanned frets are exactly what I hoped for, they do the job without influencing my playing with their overall quality being about a 8/10 as they’re not very well polished and the fretboard is dry as a bone.

Cons:

The controls are a little delicate and feel slightly cheap, such as the selector switch being spongy and the knobs feeling light and tacky.

I think the controls would benefit from being recessed slightly, as they standout quite abrasively with the overall aesthetic of the guitar being sleek and smooth, they’re quite an eye sore.

The pickups are lacklustre and very under whelming, I would strongly suggest replacing these for some actives considering the genres of music you’d most likely be playing. The output is on the realm of literal jazz guitars, and I’m not sure what they were thinking here.

The edges of the fretboard are slightly sharp and could do with being slightly more rounded, this sharpness is pronounced as you have to reach father over the fretboard to reach the bass notes, and the edge catches your inner thumb. On that note, the cleanup work that seems to have been done before shipment is sloppy, with grinding marks following the high E along the fretboard as well as grinding residue from the nut stuck to the fretboard.

The fretboard is also unconditioned and the frets are slightly scratchy, however the overall makeup of the frets is sound.

Personally I found the setup I received to be peculiar, as the strings provided are solid as a rock with a very high action.

Overall:
The majority of issues mentioned are fixable and would be fixable during a string change, such as the fretboard and frets.
However, I feel as if hardware elements are where this guitar really shows a cut in the budget.

The pickups in my opinion are unusable for distortion and lend themselves to clean smooth tones, which isn’t fitting for a guitar with these specifications, meaning you’d have to factor in a multiscale-8 string replacement, which is easier said than done.

A guitar is in many cases including this one, as good as it’s pickups, and these really let the guitar down.

The finish is also (subjectively) not as stunning as I’d have hoped, the satin feel is great, but it doesn’t allow the quilt veneer to pop, and overall the top looks exceptionally flat.

The fretboard damage and overall setup also shows a serious lack of attention in quality control, which might lead new players to fork out to get a professional to have it set up or fixed, which in my opinion is unacceptable for a final product.

However, if you’re savvy with guitar setup and maintenance and are looking for a guitar of these specs, it’s definitely worth a try, and with some tlc and maybe a few design changes, this could be a stellar instrument.