Harley Benton SC-Custom II Ocean Flame

I wanted a humbucker single cut guitar for home recording, and thought the Harley Benton SC-Custom II would fit the bill. The guitar came well packed and in good condition, with a surprisingly low action. This is a cheap guitar, but it looks very nice. Only when you hold it close can you see some imperfections - a few spots inside the finish, some not so nice binding around the neck, a little rough around the pots. But the flame finish actually looks just as good as my PRS SE at a third of the price! It plays great - but there is one thing that makes this a 4 star instead of 5: The frets. The fret ends are good, but while even and level they are very scratchy. Doing bends out of the box feels like playing 20 year old rusted strings. After a complete steel wool polish they are much better, but still not perfect. The tone pot is also very ineffective. One of the strap lock buttons were not working, but Thomann sorted that out quickly. But for the price this is a very sweet, warm sounding rock/blues machine!

PROs:
- Very playable, nice neck, good tuners and bridge
- Decent pickups (but warm - a little muddy)
- Comfortable and good looking shape
- A lot of guitar for the money!
- Solid tuners and hardware

CONs:
- Frets very scratchy, needs work
- Weak tone pot, most of the range is at the end of the travel
- Small cosmetic imperfections

It took me a while and a lot of you tube viewing, so disregarding the snob remarks decided to obtain what appealed to me visually. Blue being my favourite colour the SC Custom 11Ocean Flame was my choice. I was not disappointed. None of the nit picking seen on YT was present, the bridge adjusters were the right way round. No defects could I find, the tuners perfectly aligned, the string heights and neck clearance spot on. The tone and tuning also spot on and this out of the box. This is a beautiful guitar for the money. As an ex engineer I am almost disappointed there is nothing I can adjust. So I highly recommend this product with the greatest pleasure. Thank you Thomann.

Love the guitar! Well built, great sound and plays very very nicely. The color was not exactly as it is in the picture being a bit more on turquoise side but it looks great, I love the way it looks. This guitar is very versatile in tonal quality. All the way around this is an awesome guitar.

The only troubling point is the set up. The intonation on the Low E string seems to be giving me trouble. I've adjusted the saddle all the way back making the string as long as it can go and cannot get it in tune at the 12th fret, it's still just a little sharp. It's very close but I want it perfect. Still I cannot complain for the price and over all the guitar just sounds absolutely amazing. Maybe after a bit more tweaking I can get the intonation in tune on that string with a bit of bridge and possibly some truss rod adjustment. All other strings, I have been able to set up the intonation perfectly. Other than that, the action is very nice on this, needed a little further set up out of the box but that is just my preference. The guitar was very playable as is minus the intonation being off which is why I rated this at 4 stars