Harley Benton HWY-25BKS Progressive Series

I have several Harley Benton guitars and this is the one that I have scored the lower, however is not fault of the guitar itself.

Let me start with the pros:
The fret work is excellent no edges that would harm your hand or anything
The look and feel is great, the painting job looks very nice and I have no complains about it, however be prepared cause matte finish will easily get dirty, keep a microfiber cloth handy

Predator inlay and the freatboard looks amazing for this price point, the 3-way switch and the knobs works great and do not seem to be of bad quality

I like the weight on this guitar, it is not that heavy but still feels solid, will be good for your back.

Overall the construction on this instrument is great! would recommend to anyone who wants to start playing or more experienced players that could even modify a few things here and there and make this guitar totally standout.

For this price the guitar is fine, well done!

The cons:
There are 3 things on this guitar, that I would complaint a little about.

1. The humbuckers could be better, they are just not my style, I think even when it says " High output humbuckers " doesn't mean they have to be so noisy, they have that hum noise that bother anyone when using distortion, but my amp does't help to much, ...adjusting your amp settings will help.

2. This one is more a cosmetic issue than anything else, the nut was properly cut in terms of functionality, but it was very scratched, as if the person or the machine that cuts it had a fight with it, still makes the job.

3. Besides the 2 points mentioned above, this is the one that for me would be the most important to describe.

As you can see the reversed headstock on this guitar is very pointy, this is what happened...
Normally the guitar box will have a few paddings for protection, at the bottom, on the sides and on top.
Well... the top padding was not put on this box! that caused the neck literally tear apart the box, when I saw this I thought it was damaged, fortunately the guitar had bubble wrap and the other cardbox on which the guitar box is put on avoided a bigger damage.
However a small section of the reversed headstock less than 1mm has a scratch, I will have to buy some black matte nail paint and make the trick!!! 99.99% is well painted.

But please next time do not omit this padding or any other, they are important, the lack of this padding was a small human error in my opinion, but could have ended worse!! fortunately it was not the case.

This guitar is my first musical instrument and an order of goods from another country. Because of this, I was extremely worried about the delivery of the goods and its safety. Fortunately, the guitar came in one piece, although some dents and cuts were visible on the box.

The guitar looks pretty good. I didn't notice any signs of bad painting, cracks or scratches. For the price of the guitar, I expected a poor quality finish, but I was wrong.
The hardware does not look very high quality. There are traces of corrosion on the bridge tremolo, although the guitar is brand new.
A couple of frets on the neck have come out a little and cause inconvenience when playing.

I can't compare the sound of the guitar with another instance, so I won't be able to determine its quality. (The pickups are working and that's enough for me))

I have concerns that the neck may bend. Looking at it, I saw a small angle, as if it was going by a screw. I think this is due to the conditions of storage or transportation.

In general, despite some disadvantages, I think this guitar is a really good choice for such money. This is just a salvation for a metalhead who wants his guitar to look in accordance with the genre of his music)

Have had this guitar for over 6 months now and have decided to review it after being able to play for a while and get a good idea of how it plays and holds up. This is my first guitar but I have been playing the violin and been in a band for years so had a decent knowledge when beginning to learn.

It arrived in good condition with only a small scratch on the headstock. It is very good quality and the matte black is very nice for the guitar. It is relatively heavy but this isn't too much of a problem and is not too bad considering the weight of many guitars out there. For the price, the body and neck are of a very high quality with a good whammy bar and knobs.

The sound is incredible, especially for a guitar that is so cheap - very good for heavy metal music with great pickups.

Overall, in my opinion one of the best beginner guitars for its price. A very cool looking, and good sounding cheap guitar.

Overall, I was satisfied with this guitar as a fixer-upper, but abandoned the project after a year.

Pros:
- I love the string tension with the tuners on the bottom of the headstock; it makes for good playability and looks cool.
- The neck is super playable! I personally love how chunky and flat it feels. If you're used to a more rounded neck, then this guitar might not be for you.
- The sound is good, but not great. It sounds a bit hollow or bland.
- The matte finish is nice.

Cons:
- It's a very heavy guitar. The first time I picked it up I was a bit disappointed. I once owned a PRS guitar which was really hefty, too, but here it seems unnecessary.
- The nut was awful, reducing playability and tuning stability. I ended up replacing it, but had a difficult time finding the correct nut. After some failed attempts I decided to abandon this project. It was more hassle than it was worth as a beginner modder. Maybe I'll pick it up again someday.
- The tone pot is flimsy and 'came loose' after half a year. It's now barely usable.

This thing is a metal machine, once you get it set up right ( and you might need a soldering iron as mine was buzzy because the ground wire solder had come loose) holy sh*t what a guitar for the price. I have guitars 4 or 5 times the price that can't compete with it. The pickups don't need replacing just put it through a metal zone pedal into an amp with the gain up high and it's instant metal. Mine had no fret edge problems, the frets were reasonably clean but you might want to go over them with a piece of 8000 grit sandpaper. I also replaced the tuners with locking ones, i mean the tuners it comes with are your bog standard cheap ones, they're not great but all in all you get a guitar you can gig with for less than 200 quid, bargain! For beginners I might recommend going into a guitar shop and getting them to set one up for you as it does require you to know your way around a guitar already, it needs a decent amount of set up but still, who can complain for that price?

Tuners, nut, bridge and electrics are cheap garbage. The frets are very rough. However the body and neck are perfect for an inexpensive project guitar.
I got this guitar to do a fret level and polish and upgrade all the hardware, it's perfect for this purpose. I'm extremely happy with the result.
Got a wilkinson trem, axetec locking tuners and a tusc nut, tuning stability, action and intonation are now perfect and it stays in tune even after extreme trem use.
The pickups were a surprise, I was planning to upgrade them but after trying them out, I haven't changed them yet. A real bonus that I wasn't expecting.

What I love about the guitar:
Neck is a nice shape, not super thin like an Ibanez, it's just a bit chunkier like a Schecter
Frets were pretty level, didn't have much work there, but they needed a lot of polishing
Reverse headstock is a great feature, it looks great but even better it gives more tension on the low strings for chugging and less tension on the high strings for bending

My only gripe:
I wish the heal joint was a bit more modern, it doesn't bother me much, but ferrules instead of a back plate and a slight taper would have made this guitar absolutely perfect.

Conclusion:
I paid very little money for this guitar and with a bit of work and a few choice upgrades was able to make it into a very, very good guitar. I have a few £1000 + Schecters and Ibanez guitars and this guitar after the work I did, is easily as good as them. Thankyou Harley Benton and Thomann for providing a great quality guitar for a joke price

My expectations for a 100eur guitar were low. And still I was upset. I ordered a new instrument. The instrument had chips on the headstock and body. Neck damage can be attributed to careless shipping. But damage to the body of the guitar? I suspected that I got a sample from the display case. But no. The tool is completely unconfigured. Minzura (Scale), neck deflection, string height and pickup height. I set everything up myself. I set the string height to 1.8mm. The 6th string rattles at the 12th fret. Pickups give good sound for a budget price. Stable rotation of string pegs. Satisfactory price. Inspect before buying

There is no doubt the standards of skill and craftmanship demanded by thomann far exceed any other maker of guitars in their price range and even rivals that of many "BIG NAME" guitars. I recently purchased 3 Harley Benton guitars...Harley Benton HWY-25BKS Progressive Series...Harley Benton SC-450 CB Classic Series, and the...Harley Benton R-456FR BK Progressive Series. Each of these guitars were impressive for their price point and I could have paid twice as much and would have been just as impressed. To spare you from the boring technical atributes and specifications outlining just how far above and beyond Harley Benton guitars are from what someone would expect from a guitar in this price range....I will end this review with a simple statement. Harley Benton guitars are without a doubt the best playing best sounding best set up - quality crafted..out of the box guitars you can purchase today at this price point...period!