Harley Benton SC-450Plus VB Vintage Series

Am primit chitara dupa vre-o doua esecuri de livrare al UPS din cauza logisticii defectuase.
La deschiderea coletului am fost placut surprins de finisajul lucios, dar culoarea reala este este putin difuza, blurata, cu accente portocalii – deci nu chiar sunburst ca in fotografii…
Surpriza maxima (neplacuta) a fost momentul cand am observat ca la imbinarea griffului cu headstock-ul existau doua crapaturi vizibile de-o parte si de alta a griffului si lacul sarit. Capatul fretboardului era si el desprins de griff, se pare in urma unei lovituri puternice in timpul transportului. Catastrofa. M-am gandit sa o returnez. Si totusi trebuie sa spun ca am cunostinte ca luthier amator, asa ca dupa o inspectie amanuntita, am decis sa incerc sa o repar, asumandu-mi riscurile. Am reusit.
Mai departe am sa expun punctele forte si cele slabe:
- Minus: Taste care zgarie la capete si trebuie finisate si planate pentru o mai joasa actiune (la fel si nut).
- Trussrod-ul nici slabit la maxim nu permite realizarea curburii corecte a griffului.
- Comutatorul de doze are un joc foarte mare, este relativ instabil si nu comuta ferm doza bridge.
- Machine head-uri slabute, deocamdata stabile.
- Fretboard (Laurel?) foarte uscat si cam aspru iar dupa tratament cu lemon oil Dunlop, doar putin mai bine.
Finisajul putea fi mai bine facut (alte branduri acorda mai multa grija).
Plus: Raportul pret-calitate este bun, lemnul folosit pentru corp si griff este inrudit cu mahonul, iar sunetul overall seamana cu al unui LP original dar putin mai luminos. Pickupurile (Roswell) fac parte din clasa medie si atenueaza putin tonurile inalte date de ansamblu in sine (griff+corp). Doza bridge trebuie pozitionata destul de aproape de corzi pentru a fi echilibrata cu cea neck, suna cam inchis, neclar, recomand upgrade.

Dupa ceva timp de cantat si inspectat, pot spune ca:
- Machine head-uri foarte slabe, deja una a cedat (a capatat joc foarte mare) dupa schimbarea unui al 3-lea set de corzi.
- Planarea griff nu se poate face deloc din trussrod, asa ca actiunea ramane foarte inalta, deci greu de cantat.
- Fretboard in continuare uscat, necesita multa imbibare cu uleiuri.
- Dupa inlocuirea pickup-urilor (roswell) cu epiphone probucker, sunetul a devenit mult superior.

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.

I had heard very good things about this guitar on youtube and through the reviews but I am positively dissapointed.

Although the guitar has a great tone there is a lot of work to be done of it in order that I can have fun playing it and keep wanting to pick up. For now my Yamaha pacifica V212 gets the upper hand every time because of the fact that:

* It's intonationed properly.
* The frets are correctly leveled.
* Low action and easy to play

All of these things are missing on the Harley Benton SC-450.

Negatives:

When I first got it out of the box, the pickup switches plate immediately fell off. I thought, alright, not a good sign but easy fix, and screwed it back on.

There is also a slight twist in the neck, it's not very much (not as bad as my Harley Benton ST-62 which I decided to send back, I'm still undecided on this one) but it's there.

The guitar is not intonated properly, and there are a lot of uneven frets that need leveling.

One of the pickups are not properly mounted and moves around if you touch it.

Positive:
This guitar has decently low action .

I really like having the option to coil split, just for the fun of it.

It sounds good and is was very fun to play until the faults become too much to overlook.

I don't recommend getting this guitar unless you are ready to put extra time into correcting the mistakes made in production. It's very unfortunate because the price of getting it fixed by a luthier is as much, if not more than what the guitar costs. There is atleast 2-3 hours worth of work needed on this guitar for it be playable, which is very sad considering that someone took the pride to put a tag with their name on it on this guitar (I wish I had kept it so I could put his name here, because he really did a terrible job on both my HB guitars).

But if this is what you want, I would recommend this guitar. Otherwise, be very strict in your notes when you order it of how you want it setup and perhaps they will do it to save the pain of having another guitar sent back.