Harley Benton Victory-BK Classic Series

For the price of this guitar, I can't argue that its great.

The neck is a really nice thickness, its fast, and the frets are a good size to allow for comfortable chords and easy riff and lead work.

The balance of the body is better than nearly any V shaped guitar I've played. Absolutely 0 neck dive, even if the top strap pin feels like its in a slightly.. odd place. But it doesn't get in the way for me.

The pickups are bright and agressive, I use them for punk/black metal tones and they cut well for recording, they're quiet and have plenty of clarity. I will say, if you're into crystal clean tones, this probably isn't gonna be for you.

The tunes are fine, nothing special, but they do the job, not having to retune often. I might change them out in future, but until then, they're good enough for me.

The whole construction, fit and finish are all top notch, especially for something that cost just a little over £100, I've owned more expesnive guitars that can't contend, this and my other HB's are great. Especially for experimenting with new shapes and styles without busting the bank.

There is however, one tiny little issue.

The pickup selector doesn't like to stay in place. It loves the middle position, but will sometimes ping back from the bridge setting, or flat out refuse to stay in place in the neck one.

Its not great, but I'm fine with it. I take the neck pickups out of most of my guitar because I don't use it at all live, and have a bunch of options for neck pickups when recording. I'd obviously prefer if it worked, but worst case scenario a £2 part and 10 mins soldering as and when I may change the pickups and its fixed.

Very pleased. Nice one, Harley Benton.

Love it, better as i expected!
You can't get this v from gibson anymore*, but the HB is great fun!!!!
*Well..now they have one for 16 x and one for 34 times this price...

Good looks, plays well, frets are nice, good electronics: pots turn nice, switch is ok, , sound is really great: blues, jazzy, rock...(All on a full tube Marshall and a handbuild 5 watt tube job )
Had to do some set-up of course, not much. Looks as Thomann has a really good quality control, at least with my 2 guitars.
Will have to give the fretboard some oil treatment, but not yet: the strings are in good condition! * well after half a day i oiled and cleaned the neck and put 010 d'addario's on. Way better.
The nut is a tiny bit wrong, not a big problem, i will change it in time. You can't have it all for ?99, Edit: the nut has settled in now. ok.
btw: Humbuckers are open, with sort of silk tape protection. Might be like the real thing.
* after checking the internet: originals look the same. Plastic protection foil took a long time to get of, broke a pot trying to get a volume knob of... Lucky i had a 250K spare :( (yes, they are 250K)
For home use it's lots of fun. will probably try it with the band, but with a flashy axe, you have to play really well :)

It's not as heavy or massive as a mahogany Gibson of course, rather lightweight. Better not bump into things, but it plays well sitting or standing.

EDIT:
I changed the stock pot for 500k log ALPS, large.The capacitor for a 0.22 (mallory), the toggleswitch for a gibson switch, the input plug for a neutrik (Switchcrafts is really good too)
More dynamic sound, since it was original 250k and 047.
The nice knobs fit exactly on the ALPS, had to clear the holes for the pot a little bij hand (8.5 drill)
Volume replaced to the long side, tone nearest to the bridge.
Damped the pickup cavity with old foam my telephone came with.

This one is now such a great guitar!!!! And the humbuckers are very good indeed. ;)

This one is different but just as nice as the more expensive HB gold top/P90. And that is a really good guitar.

i'm still having fun, from T-rex to Metallica ;)
Are there no bad things? No, not for this price. Wishes: the highs notes, 20 fret and up on the e and b string don't sustain as long as my 35 year old strat.
Long enough of course, and with a pedal you won't notice it at all. The neck and tuners had some trouble with the hot weather last month, but are settled in nicely.

I had been eyeing this guitar from Thomann for a while but was a bit hesitant to order it due to the international shipping. I was worried that the guitar might arrive damaged or that I might have to deal with a lot of hassle to get it in working order. But, I finally took the plunge and ordered it. To my pleasant surprise, the guitar arrived in perfect condition and was packaged very securely.

When I opened the box, I was blown away by how beautiful the guitar looked. The craftsmanship was outstanding, and it was clear that a lot of care had gone into making this instrument. I was even more thrilled when I picked it up and played it for the first time. The sound was incredible, and I didn't have to make any rod adjustments at all. The string's action was perfect, and the fretwork was impeccable. I could tell right away that this was a high-quality guitar.

Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with my purchase. The Thomann guitar exceeded my expectations in every way possible. It's clear that this is a product that's made with a lot of care and attention to detail. I would highly recommend this guitar to anyone who's considering a purchase. Don't let international shipping scare you off. This guitar is worth every penny and will provide you with years of joy and musical inspiration.

First off, my ratings are based on what you get for the price, as obviously you can't fairly compare a $160 Harley Benton to a $3,000 Gibson.
So here we go.
I can't believe this guitar costs only ~$160 Canadian! Do I have better guitars? Yes, but they all cost $600 or more. This guitar is easily on par with my ~$400-$500 Epiphones. The finish is great, with only a few barely noticeable defects, the pick-ups are a tad muddy, but do the job just fine, the tuners work very well and feel solid and smooth, fretwork was mostly quite good. No fret sprout or sharp edges to speak of, the frets are all levelled well (NO fret buzz at all!) but they are a bit rough to the point where string bends are more difficult than they should be. Easily fixable. The action is a bit high, but still very playable. Again, fixable. The guitar arrived from Germany to Canada in 4 business days set up, tuned and ready to rock!
Very happy customer. Will buy Harley Benton again and I would tell you if you are thinking about it, DO IT. These are good guitars.

So where do I start with reviewing this guitar?
It's nothing short of amazing (especially for the price)!

It's sleek, plays very well (and fast!), looks and feels like a dream.

Use: Although this guitar looks like your typical metal axe, the stock pickups are versatile enough to cover a wide range of styles (Blues, Jazz, Rock, Pop, Metal, you name it!) [Though I want to clarify I changed my pickups out to Dimarzio Evolutions for preference and it sounds great with a wide variety of different pickups)

Pros and Cons

Pros:
*Price - Can't be beat for how the guitar is setup, honestly I could expect to spend another $500 for something that plays and looks like this.
*Playability- This thing is my favorite guitar to play, it's neck is that perfect balance between fast for shredding, but fat enough to easily and clearly voice chords I can honestly say I can switch to a variety of different styles of playing EASILY on this beaut.
*Feel- The guitars neck doesn't dip, and it's lightweight but still packs an incredible sound, it's also HUGE for such a short scale length!

Cons:
*The initial setup could have been a tad bit better, had to do some fretwork and change the action to get it where I wanted but they were easy and quick fixes.

If you're looking to get a new axe but don't know where to start, then go for a Harley Benton, even better go for this V maybe you'll fall in love with it like I did!

Thank you Thomann and Harley Benton for my new favorite guitar!

This was my second purchase from Thomann. Having bought the telecaster kit and been delighted with the quality I decided to try one of their harley benton branded guitars.
Out of the box I tuned up strapped on plugged in and rocked out! The pictures don't do this guitar justice. The finishing of the product is extremely good, It has good weight, and excellent sustain. I've been using the guitar all week now as its my new baby and it hasn't slipped it's tuning yet. The build quality is that of an instrument nearer to 400euro rather than the 100 I paid. The finish is a beautiful deep piano black. The neck makes playing bar chords effortless, indeed playing my 12 string seems quite a chore after playing this.
The pickups are good, with nice clear tones. The only negative is the positioning of the strap hooks (which is the same on all the v style guitars) so an investment in a padded strap is definitely on the cards. Also for lap play a strip of black rubber is necessary to stop slippage. I've played more expensive guitars but none have been as much fun to play...........oh and your cool will be suitably enhanced.

I picked up the Victory because I was curious to see what the quality was like. I did not expect much due to the very low price.
I have to admit that I am very surprised with the quality of the guitar. It sounds great the frets are smooth with no sharp edges. Intonation was good out of the box. The Hardware is better than I would expect from a cheap guitar but it is nothing to write home about.
My only real complaint was that it was shipped with the strings still tight. This did not cause an issue this time but it could definitely cause problems.
That being said the shipping time was extremely fast. I am in the US and the guitar arrived in 3 days. It blew my mind that it showed up so quickly.
I will gladly buy more Harley Benton products in the future. I am very happy with this purchase.

I really can't fault this guitar at its amazingly low price and this should be borne in mind when reading this review.
The guitar was shipped to the UK in the usual Thomann bomb proof double boxing and on un boxing looked as good as the pictures on the website. On very close inspection I found a couple of tiny paint blemishes on the sides of the body but they were too small to worry about. The guitar was well set up with the action being 2mm on the bass side and 1.5mm on the treble which is about right for a standard factory set up, the intonation was spot on. I was able to lower the action to suit my preference with plenty of room left under the bridge for further adjustment. The neck relief needed no adjustment. The strings supplied on the guitar were a bit rough and I replaced them with a set of my usual brand. Machine heads can be a problem on inexpensive guitars but the ones on this guitar operate smoothly and hold their tuning well.
I was not expecting much from the pickups on a guitar at this price and was not disappointed, the pickups, which had no adjustable pole pieces sounded terrible to me and I've changed them for a pair of alnico 5 pickups with a classic humbucking tone. I also changed the 250k pots to 500k ones at the same time and the guitar now sounds awesome and plays like butter.
As I stated at the start of this review this guitar is amazing value for the stupidly low asking price. I realise that guitar tone is very subjective and it's not beyond belief that some players will love the tone of the pickups on the guitar but they just were not for me.