Harley Benton MultiScale-8 QEB

To put it short, it’s the best guitar of its specifications within its price bracket, however with this price bracket comes some obvious cutbacks by Harley Benton which knocks it down a few pegs.

Pros:

The overall finish of the guitar is spectacular, being a matt/satin finish that feels smooth to the touch, as well it’s back carved providing excellent support through long periods of playing. The neck carve is lovely, and such a nice playing experience up on higher frets.

The neck is a thinner C shape, which is comfortable and smooth, not too hard to operate.

The overall balance is perfect, either sitting or with a strap.

The bridge is stellar, I love the individual pieces and would consider them to be my favourite considering how comfortable they are when palm muting.

The tuners are great, a cheaper option for locking tuners, but they’re the most stable in my collection, which is a nice addition considering the extended range.

The fanned frets are exactly what I hoped for, they do the job without influencing my playing with their overall quality being about a 8/10 as they’re not very well polished and the fretboard is dry as a bone.

Cons:

The controls are a little delicate and feel slightly cheap, such as the selector switch being spongy and the knobs feeling light and tacky.

I think the controls would benefit from being recessed slightly, as they standout quite abrasively with the overall aesthetic of the guitar being sleek and smooth, they’re quite an eye sore.

The pickups are lacklustre and very under whelming, I would strongly suggest replacing these for some actives considering the genres of music you’d most likely be playing. The output is on the realm of literal jazz guitars, and I’m not sure what they were thinking here.

The edges of the fretboard are slightly sharp and could do with being slightly more rounded, this sharpness is pronounced as you have to reach father over the fretboard to reach the bass notes, and the edge catches your inner thumb. On that note, the cleanup work that seems to have been done before shipment is sloppy, with grinding marks following the high E along the fretboard as well as grinding residue from the nut stuck to the fretboard.

The fretboard is also unconditioned and the frets are slightly scratchy, however the overall makeup of the frets is sound.

Personally I found the setup I received to be peculiar, as the strings provided are solid as a rock with a very high action.

Overall:
The majority of issues mentioned are fixable and would be fixable during a string change, such as the fretboard and frets.
However, I feel as if hardware elements are where this guitar really shows a cut in the budget.

The pickups in my opinion are unusable for distortion and lend themselves to clean smooth tones, which isn’t fitting for a guitar with these specifications, meaning you’d have to factor in a multiscale-8 string replacement, which is easier said than done.

A guitar is in many cases including this one, as good as it’s pickups, and these really let the guitar down.

The finish is also (subjectively) not as stunning as I’d have hoped, the satin feel is great, but it doesn’t allow the quilt veneer to pop, and overall the top looks exceptionally flat.

The fretboard damage and overall setup also shows a serious lack of attention in quality control, which might lead new players to fork out to get a professional to have it set up or fixed, which in my opinion is unacceptable for a final product.

However, if you’re savvy with guitar setup and maintenance and are looking for a guitar of these specs, it’s definitely worth a try, and with some tlc and maybe a few design changes, this could be a stellar instrument.

Ill keep this somewhat short and to the point.You'd be challenged to find a better product with these specs in the price range offered.For $350 U.S my guitar came in 4 days from Germany packed with care.The QC was on point despite what other reviews reflect.I had no issues aside from a minor finish imperfection.The guitar was set up nicely out of the box and the fret ends are smooth.I paid 3 times this amount for a name brand Fender last year with sharp frets multiple qc flaws and poor packaging.Getting the quality guitar i did at a fraction of the price from Thomann was refreshing and I couldn't be happier, it's one of my daily drivers now.😀

Bought this as my first 8 string, been playing 11 years and wanted to try something new. Package came to the uk I damaged and very well protected, no problems at all.

The bottom line with this guitar is that it’s incredibly well spec’d and made for the price. The build quality, qc and parts used are all nearly on a level with my Ibanez rg921 (which costs three times this guitar!), the only exception being the pickups. They aren’t particularly defined, definitely lacking clarity. But not bad at all for £350!! No sharp fret ends, smooth and pretty accurate locking tuners, no grounding issues and a lovely satin finished neck!! Overall very happy with this instrument :)

Pros:
-Fit and finish, nicely playable out of the box, no sharp frets
-Pure amount of features for the price, multiscale, separate saddles, neck through
-The colour!!

Cons
-One string off on intonation, action a tiny bit uneven (nothing a 30 minute service can’t fix!)
-Pretty muddy pickups, especially when using the bottom 2 strings, though far better than other guitars of the same price.

Got my 2nd unit after the first one arrived from the factory with banged-up strings and frets, something mustve happened in shipping I guess. The tuning pegs also don't line up properly AT ALL. The tuners line up okay, but the screw holes are misaligned which causes most of this problem. Nut was misaligned and quite high.

The replacement I got did not have scratches but the tuning pegs are still horribly misaligned, and nut is just a tiny bit high and needs some filing. Minor finishing flaws on the back of the guitar, no big problem though. It's HEAVY -- 4kg-4.2kg on average. And a little bit of neck dive as well. Use a good strap when you play it!

But in good news:
- The pickups are moderate. 17-18K ohm impedance and sound is acceptable, as an 8-string entry-intermediate guitar. The potentiometers on this are 500K ohm. Pickups are passive. I'll replace them with a set of Fluence 9-string modern pickups later (9-string pickups, NOT 8-string!).
- I was able to fit a 74 gauge string in the peg so that was nice, the factory tuners are alright and do the job. Not superb or horrible by any means. Factory strings are horrible, so you'll want to replace them.
- The nut is made out of NuBone which is somewhere between graphtech and bone in terms of feel. I don't see a need to replace it at the moment, I'll post an update later if I do swap it out. I did have to file it down to have proper intonation at on the 1st fret
- The fretboard and frets needed the usual polishing but I can live with that. For any fret leveling, be careful because obviously you wont be able to remove the neck from the body.

In conclusion:
If you are really new and just testing the waters with 8-strings, this and the R-458 Multiscale are awesome options. The R458 is more modular with bolted neck and 8-string pickups, and it's 150 euros cheaper. For 150 euro you can get it professionally setup. And because of that, it is more future proof so I would suggest buying the R458 instead of the Multiscale8. (Although the multiscale 8 looks much hotter!)

Fanfret 8 string neck through for this ridiculous price is absolute win! Guitar came set up pretty well, low action, almost no fret buzz. Quality build and paint is on point (remember, sub 400€ price) , the impression it gives easily compares with +1500€ instruments. Electronics are basic, but sound is in your signal chain, not pickups ;) locking tuners are also welcomed, tuning stability is very good even if you're heavy handed. The only mishap there is finish of the frets, not a big problem if you're handy with your tools, but some edges stick out, can scratch softer hands, also top of the frets was rough, you could really feel strings scratching during bends. Frets polishing would definitely add to a quality factor here.
Other than that very well rounded and inspiring to play instrument.