Harley Benton SC-450Plus CB Vintage Series

I bought this guitar as an affordable single cut, as I heard good opinions about it. I am using it for learning, playing, and developing guitar effects. It became my main guitar, just with a few modifications.

Build: I must say, this is a well built guitar. Its finish is good, virtually flawless for this budget. The guitar has a real 1.5 cm thick maple top. As expected, the electronics are not shielded inside the guitar body, and the finish in the cavities is raw.
The only flaws I could find, in this respect:
- the cover ring of one tuner is offset a little, the gear inside can be seen (on top of the headstock).
- one screw of the cover of the trussrod hole is lose.
- the top two halves are slightly different in shade, one is darker and the other lighter. Depending on the lighting, this is visible or not.

Playability: It was almost readily set up from arrival. I could set its action very low (less than 2 mm on the low end and 1.5 mm at the high D). Like all Harley Benton guitars I looked into, its fretboard radius is large. Cons:
- the 10th fret is slightly buzzing - I remind that I set a very low action.
- the provided top hat knobs are hard to pull for coil splitting. The shape, the slippery material and the little space between the knob and the body make a strong grip very difficult. Replacing them with cylindrical knobs is a must.

Sound: the two Roswell pickups are quite loud for a vintage humbucker, as they are advertised. Very, very much low end on both pickups, the sound is thick and fat. The bridge pickup is a pleasure to play, to obtain that classic rock tone. Due to the increased low end, it's a bit gritty when driven - in a good or bad way, depending on what you are playing. The neck pickup was barely usable to me from the factory - thick, dark and loud. I modded the electronics to cut some low end and I could obtain a great, balanced sound.

WTF I can't believe this , I just bought this guitar just arrived 20minutes ago and I'm like WTFFFF This is SOOOO GOOOOD , I bought a ST62 Deluxe Vintage and a TE52 Before and now i bought this les paul style to have them all and I can't believe how good it is , how easy it is to play on its like 100000 times easier to play on this than on the ones i bought before . I love this guitar my first les paul , counldn't be happier , Thank Thomann !!! Also the visual of the guitar is 10times better than in the photo i'm just speachless !

When I started to look a new guitar Harley Bentons SCs were one to consider.

I did my homework and browsed through pages after pages thinking what would I like and how much would I be willing to invest. At the end I chose this SC-450Plus with a beautiful red and gold finish.

Of course one knows Thomann and its Harley Benton can bring quality products. But buying a guitar that you have never played or even picked up seemed a bit strange. You miss something when there is no store to visit. No few riffs of rock 'n roll store cliches you try on. No making sure that you get your hard-earned moneys worth.

Reading other reviews there's mentioning on occasional bad apples and returns. But then again also something about how super nice people at Thomann are with their customer support and if you happened to be one that got the bad one they would just replace it with something that works.

I made the purchase and waited for a week or something and then it arrived. I have to say I was blown away how good the guitar is. It's absolutely a piece of art. Well crafted with nothing to complain about. The only minor eyesore I was able to find was two little sores at the nobs. Otherwise craft-wise just perfect.

The only complain I would have about the quality is that there's quite a lot of hum from the humbuckers. But this isn't a deal breaker. Just something that I may have to checkout more and adjust.

The guitar sound so great. Beautiful, strong, beefy, dark sound that absolutely rocks. It's a heavy beast that instantly made me a friend for life. In closing never could I have dreamed how great guitar I could get so cheap.