Harley Benton DC-600 VI Vintage Series

I have played through many guitars, but this is by far the best...And i say this having played with a 800$ Les Paul, and a 650$ Ibanez...

1) Exterior Design: Ok this guitar is a copy of a Gibson SG model, costing aroud 5000$, and i have to admit that its look is astonishing...Those golden Roswell pickups along with that vintage ivory body, give awesome vibes...The neck is just a typical C-type, very easy to handle, and the fretboard is as smooth as it needs to be (no sharp fret ends).

2)Sound: Ok, WOW....At the moment, i have a low tier amplifier, but i managed to record some incredible riffs at a really good quality. The E A D strings sound like melted gold, and the guitars offers a bassy sound by its nature, while having 3 H pickups lets you experiment with a plethora sounding options.

3) Delivery: Ok, to be honest i waited a while for this guitar, exactly a month. I ordered it at 5/10 and it was supposed to be here until 26/10, because it was out of stock. That last date was also postponed, and the guitar was on stock at 31/10, when the shipment started. It was delivered just 6 days later, wich was surprisingly early, given that im from greece, with absolutely zero problems.

4)The only con: Ok, everything in this guitar was great, but a slight detail. The stock strings... When it arrived, this guitar had .10 Harley Benton strings. I started playing and my fingers became quickly metal-blackened, and also in the first slight bendind of the e string, the string broke...I had to go to my local guitar shop and change the strings to .9 D'addario. But trust me, IT WAS WORTH IT..!

5) OVERAL: This guitar is an underated gem. I can't help not seeing it in the top 100 sales rank. To be honest, i had put my eyes on it, since it started being on the catalogue (2015). If you are looking for a 1st guitar, or if you want to expand your collection, or even if you have the most expensive guitar in the world, YOU SHOULD TRY THIS GEM xD....Biggest recommendation in my entire life!

Still wondering how HB can manufacture such quality instruments at such low prices!
I own 2 now:
The DC-600 VI Vintage Series SG and the SC-450 P90 GT Classic Series Goldtop LP....ZERO COMPLAINTS! Looks great, feels great, sounds great, plays great!...HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS?!?! I've owned FAR more expensive guitars that had at least intonation or tuning issues. Not these!
I've owned Gibson's, Epiphones, ESP's, Fenders, you name it...Harley Benton guitars are easily comparable to ALL of them!
In fact, I'd take my HB LP over my REAL Les Paul without a second thought!
I'm about to buy 3 more for myself and my son for Christmas!

The Harley Benton DC-600 VI offers very good value for money at £179 and would be an excellent first guitar for someone requiring a wider range of sonic possibilities.
I bought a Vintage VS6 SG second hand a few months ago for a song on eBay and this has become my favourite guitar so I thought I would treat myself to a three pickup version for my birthday when I saw the HB.
I will start with the things that I like:
The guitar was very well packed. The first thing that struck me was the cream paint job. Absolutely flawless and beautiful. The neck is also very nice and the action is low. The overall weight of the guitar is pleasing and I would say perfect
The fretboard is ok but not perfect. It looked a bit dry so I gave it a coat of lem oil. The inlays have been put in well but there were a couple of wood imperfections on a couple of frets.
The frets have no sharp edges which are often present on cheaper guitars. More on them later.
The electronics work perfectly and the pots have a lovely smooth feel and are easy to use with the top hat knobs. The pickups are ok for clean stuff and offer a wide range of tone with the three volume and one tone set up. They don't offer the same quality of sound when playing through distortion as the Vintage VS6 SG However the latter guitar is twice as expensive!
Now the things I didn't like as much:
The electronics backplate was very badly cut. I had to take it off, smooth it off with a file and wet and dry paper. The screws for it also weren't countersunk. The pick guard screws holes had also been countersunk too deeply.
The intonation was way out on the D string. I had to remove all the strings on the guitar ( which weren't put on professionally- didn't stay in tune) and reverse the intonation blade on the D string to set it up properly. The intonation screws have Phillips heads which I have never seen on a tunamatic bridge before and don't like them! What's wrong with normal flat head screws on tunamatic bridges?
I used a Rolson flat head screwdriver to adjust them having had previous problems with Chinese Phillips screws stripping in the past. The most annoying thing however were the frets weren't polished which lead to any string bending producing a horrible grating sound and feel when initiated.
Who wants to be getting out masking tape and wire wool on a new guitar to polish the frets. Not me!
However now that's done and I've put on some Ernie Ball 10's
( properly). The guitar sounds a lot better and stays in tune.
In conclusion as I said the guitar offers great value for money but isn't perfect for an experienced guitarist. It could have been if a little more effort and care had been taken. I do realise that every second counts in terms of costs on these guitars. It would be better to put the price up to £200 and rectify the faults I've mentioned I believe.

Great guitar. Roswell pickups are very close to originals vintage PAF but in a way different I even might say, i have no such pickups in my collection and are absolute must have. LAF neck is darker sounding, like jazz pickup but also very rich for blues, works excellent with distortion. Neck pickup is also very good. Fretboard is made of Pau Ferro. Its very nice wood, black like Ebony, but it's a soft wood, much softer than rosewood, so Fretboard is not glossy perhaps because Pau ferro is half as hard as jatoba. It's not bad but I am just saying it plays different whatever it means. Tuner are OK but I've installed Gibson G-force tuning system, which i have to change on my Gibson SG. It didn't work with Gibson, but works excellent with Harley's. Now I have realised that that's really amazing system, very handy and very easy to use and very reliable. The raster is not the same, so i had to have fill (glue) the existing holes and make new ones. I also installed split coil switch on tone pot. The middle pickup is alternate with bridge and neck and is for colouring. Its single coil, when others are humbuckers and vice versa. I've also installed out of phase switch, but it's not very useful. You also had to do some fret polish. In general very good guitar, made for customising. very nice build and a lot of fun working on it and than playing. If you are not a fan of customising you have to buy Harley Benton custom

This machine arrived the evening before Thanksgiving, an American holiday that falls on the last Thursday of November wherein the post and private parcel delivery companies take the 4 day weekend off. I bring the holiday up only because I was a little concerned I'd have to wait over the weekend before I could sate, though temporarily, my GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome, to the uninitiated).
She landed on my doorstep on 23 November after arriving in the country the day before. Yes, from Kentucky to Oregon, three time zones west.
Frida, the guitar, was packaged well and carefully and it seems that Thomann took care to keep her safe. However, the accessories were sort of tossed in the main box as if an afterthought. Strings and replacement knobs, that sort of thing, so I was not bothered by that much.
She arrived with a straight neck, well-dressed, rounded frets, clean, with one tiny blemish on the neck binding on the little E side up by the neck pickup. I really have to look to find it.
She came with perfect action; I like it low and it was so, and there was zero buzzing. She was a little out of tune, all flat of course as it travelled around 9K miles to get to my eager hands.
I believe in bending notes like I bend the rules, and remarkably, she was still in tune. No lie. I mean, I bend notes like David Gilmour and Billy Corgan had some bizarre love child, who in turn ate a half ounce of mushrooms, then picked up a guitar. Not the mushrooms that taste great with steak, but the ones that make you giggle for 8 hours.
I have jammed. I have tested modelling software. I have run her through crunchy Orange Crushes. I'm telling you I have ridden her hard and she goes out of tune by a few cents, only. I have not yet needed to tune her since the first time, even after she adjusted to the climate. I tell no lies.
I know I won the lottery with this guitar, that axes this well-built are unicorns, but it seems I got locking tuners (I did not, but you see my point) with a straight neck and perfect intonation at nut and 12, and 24. Not only was she growling and ready right out of the box, she was set up by a pro and it shows.
Get this guitar and both of you will squeal with delight.

I waited for 8 weeks after ordering this guitar. I finally got it yesterday - great free delivery! - and I was delighted. I examined it very carefully for any sort of imperfections and found...none! The intonation was perfect out of the box. The action was ok but I like it very low so after I changed the strings for 9s - my own choice - I polished the frets and filed a TINY amount out of the nut slots. Amazing! Great feel and great sounds. Turning the middle pickup down to 0 gives normal 2 humbucker tones as you would expect. Dialling it back in gives another dimension. Fabulous guitar - I have played inferior Gibson SGs for many times the price. Great value again from Thomann...an all mahogany body w/set-in neck for 158 euros delivered - Ohhhhh! If you want one but you are dubious about the long wait for the guitar to come back into stock - it's WELL worth the wait! The cons? It seems very popular so there's a long wait. The only construction criticism is the control cavity backplate which is a bit flimsy. But hey - if that's the only place that enonomies have been made... In the cavity the wiring is very neat and well done - no criticisms there.

Surprisingly good quality at this price point. Fit and finish are excellent, frets are even and smooth, only minor tweaking was necessary for set-up right out of the box. There is some kind of grey dust or something on the guitar, so make sure you wipe it down well with a slightly damp cloth and oil the fret board with some 3 in 1 machine oil (or something similar) as the baked fret board is very thirsty upon arrival. The multiple switching combinations on the PUPs is great. But, what really makes this guitar stand out is the TONE, it is simply KILLER!!! It sounds better that the SG Special I owned decades ago. If you're on the fence for this one, get off it! You cannot go wrong with this guitar at this price!!

Most of the other reviews for this guitar will tell you that, for the money, this guitar punches way above its weight. I'm glad to report that this is absolutely true.

I have wanted one of these 3-pickup "double cut" guitars for a while, although the cheapest option for so long was still a grand... until I stumbled upon this beauty. For the price (even with freight) I couldn't pass it up, so I took the leap knowing I could be in for disappointment.

Well the guitar arrived today, and I must say that my expectations were well exceeded. It feels really solid, the pots have a weight to them that you'd expect on any high-end guitar, the finish is spotless - it was even almost in tune when I took it out of the box!

I must admit this was my first Harley Benton product as well as my first purchase from Thomann, but I am 100% satisfied. We'll see how this guitar stands the test of time, but out of the box it's perfect.

I'll just add that I'm no luthier, so it's possible that some setup work could be necessary, but for my taste it plays as good as any guitar out there. The sound of three humbuckers is very interesting - major props to HB for putting three volume controls on this guitar.

If you're on the fence, just do it. I live in the US and this was delivered less than 7 days after my order was placed!

I wanted this guitar for two main reasons. I wanted something different than what I already have, and I didn’t have anything SG like. Secondly I wanted something that was well built enough not to necessarily need work but that was within a certain range that I dont have to worry about messing it up.

There arent any finish flaws or dings etc.

Its very Light and quite resonant

The hardware is just on the passing side of acceptable but that’s what i was looking for. The nut is poorly cut and is the number one issue but I’ll fix that eventually

The pickups sound fine, but the wiring is a little confusing and the guitar didnt ship with a pup selector diagram which is sorely needed.

Overall i cant find any real deal breaking problems. The neck is skinny but thick, it’s very comfortable and feels like a “real” SG. Ive played A few and actually i prefer this. It feels much more solid. I think because of the extra material on the upper horn.

Well worth the price. I can see why people want to boycott HB, they make better guitars for the money than the big G brand.

I own many HB guitars all perfect 5 stars… with the exception of the one I wanted to love the most the DC600VI SG. I always wanted a real one but to pricey, this was a dream when I saw HB made one. The back of the neck is bumpy, the best way to describe it. Not smooth as a neck needs to be. Not sure what happened as the paint covers up the issues. If cut by a CNC machine something went wrong. The guitar other than that looks great but it’s simply uncomfortable to play with humps and bumps. Let’s see if HB addresses this. I’ve owned it for a year and tried to ignore the neck, but it simply doesn’t feel good in the hands I’m a player of 50 years now, so not un experienced. To be clear I love Harley Bentons!, the DG Strat I received is better than any real fender I have ever owned! The Guitar bass I received is equally better than fenders similar offering. Intonation when adjusted by me Perfect! Fenders have an issue.