Harley Benton R-457MN WH MultiScale

I'll start this off by saying, I really do love the way this guitar looks. It makes me want to pick it up and riff on it. and it's fun! I've never owned a multi scale guitar before so this was a nice entryway into it. It definitely holds better tuning that my standard BC rich 7 string. which is nice.

But the drawbacks are setting it up. The fret ends we razor sharp so I had to go through and dress the fret ends myself as well as re-polish the frets. They were pretty dull out of the box. Also, maybe because mine went through customs to get to the US, but the box that the guitar box was shipped in had a hole in it and the guitar box inside was not held together with tape. but that's not really a Thomann issue. But last con I'll say is the pickups are a little dull sounding compared to the bc rich I previously had where those pickups were HOT. But I'm fine with how these sound for now but will probably replace them later based on my own preferences. but the pickup cavities had a weird black sharpie line around them... not sure why....

Pros are a lot. The guitar looks KILLER in person. I love it. It is so comfortable to hold and play. The body feels nice to play (both the heel contour and the body contour around the edges too). The bridge is individual string ones so if one of those ever broke or you wanted to change them then replacements are easy to find. the volume, tone and 3 way switch are convenient and out of the way. It feels intuitive and nice.

I really enjoy this guitar a lot and plan on keeping this in mind when I get another guitar. I bought this for better tuning stability and intonation than a tradition fretted 7 string and it is holding up.

I love this guitar! It looks and plays great and at that price you won't find much better than that. Best thing about it is that I could not decide between the 7 string and the 8 string - so I got both! As a South African, I am not used to having nice things, so I enjoy everyone sobbing in awe when I show off this beast and I ignore the comments from people saying that the fan frets looks like it melted in the African sun.

The quality build of the guitar is great and the fretboard is a joy to play! The guitar also has great action and was set up really nice right out of the box. The pickups are a bit muddy and lacking that "pure 7 string hate and destruction" sound, but the pickups can always be upgraded later.

The tuning stability is not bad - it won't just let you down while you are playing, but I keep a tuner around just in case.

Overall, I would vouch for this guitar. I have a lot of fun with it and I will definitely check out more stuff from Harley Benton.

Thanks Thomann!

I'm quite frankly a little speechless. A seven string at this price is amazing. A fanfret one to boot...

The only minor issue I can find is the frets have smidge of roughness, and this is easily fixed with some tape and finegrit sanding paper.

The neck is super comfy, close to wizard-territory.

The fanned frets feel great for power/barrechords all the way - and the edges of the frets are well rounded and can not be felt during playing.

The nut sists snuggly, and the tuners work great.

The bridge stays out of the way, and the controls do not feel cheap at all. Great friction in pots and selector.

But - the real surprise are the pickups. Metal is the name of the game for me, and these puppies do the job really well! I have to add, I have a Behringer TO-800 overdrive in front of the amp (A Joyo Zombie II), and that tightens things up really nice. Even so, this is far better than the price would suggest.

Some suggest the pickups are a bit muddy, and perhaps bassy, but throw in a decent overdrive, and add an EQ in the loop. I'd go so far as to say you'd want that regardless....

The only upgrade so far are straplocks. I was planning on switching the pickups for Duncan Nazgul/Sentient, but I don't know.. the stock ones sound great, and the new ones would outprice the guitar. Twice.

I ordered a pair of Harley Benton locking tuners as well, but I might just wait until the first string change to swap them out. Locking tuners to me are mostly a convenience.

This one gets a warm recommendation, at least for the metalheads out there.

If you're searching an affordable multiscale progressive 7 string, you're in the exact right place ! This one is for you !

So, here's my review, after 5 month playing with this incredible guitar :

So, first of all, for the range of price, IT'S PERFECT. Like I have other guitar that cost arround 650 and they are worst in versatility than this one.

The versatility is perfect, The thin neck allow to really be fluent on the frets, The fret work is perfectly done.

The sound of the guitar is quiet good too, just the bass frequency that is a bit muddy, but it's was not a problem for me.

I'll defenitely will use it on live. Pretty nice job Harley Benton.

Ok, So besides the 2 month wait for the guitar to finally come, as it was out of stock, I expected some things to be off, but boy was I surprised.

Let;s start with the Pros:
-Pickups sound decent
-Body is well built, guitar feels very solid

Now the Cons:
-Scratchy frets, but not one or two...all of them.
-Came badly set up, a bit too much front-bow
-White paint on the bridge pieces
-Pickups can not be height adjusted. The adjustment screws are seized.
-Nut was not slotted correctly
-Tuners are horrible. Can't hold tune at all
-Even though it is a 27" scale on the low string, the string itself still feels sloppy.

Two more things for your consideration:

- On the UK website when I bought it, it said it came with active pickups, they are actually passive pickups.

-Honestly even though I found a QC sticker from factory and a note of QC from Thomann, I suspect someone is not doing their job well.

All in all for the price and strictly as a "Mod platform" it is an amazing buy. Just make sure yours doesn't feel like a lower B-stock when buying new.

Bought this to dip my toes into the 7 string and fan fret world.

Pickups: can be muddy, especially with the tone knob rolled down. Other than that they are fine. These will be the second thing to be changed once I decide where I want to go with the guitar.

Tuning machines: Basic, simple. They semi worked but I swapped them for some locking machines. This solved the tuning stability on the G and high B strings

Neck and fretboard: Straight and clean, fret ends are good, no snags or poky bits. The frets are scratchy, but it's to be expected. neck is smooth and fast and not nearly as wide as I had anticipated. Truss rod needed a quarter turn to fix some fret buzz.

Strings.....were swapped to a new set. Note: nut needed to filed a tad, especially when adding higher gauge strings. But that's only a few moments of work, and they did slot the nut properly for the gauges they send from the factory. I swapped to a light top and heavy bottom set (9-60) after which and a truss rod adjustment I was able to lower the action some and got rid of nearly all the buzz, especially on the low B which initially sounded like an actual bee.

Paint and Body: no blemishes to be found. Routed electronics area is a little rough, only the plate was shielded, with a single stripe of non-conductive paint in one corner of the electronics rout.
Small pots but the actual soldering is good and sturdy and wiring management was actually done better than some name brands I have seen.

Out of the box it needed some care (but don't we all), I am enjoying the fanned frets, swapping the pickups should be simple at which point I'll also swap out pots and rewire as well.
For the price I paid I can easily recommend the guitar, with the caveat that you/a tech will likely have to do some setup and modification to make it 'yours'.
So other than a good setup being needed, there isn't really a reason at this price point to not try it out.

I received this guitar over a week ago now … At first glance it looks the business, great paint job and no sharp fret ends. The neck has a nice smooth feel and not too thick either. When plugging it in into an amplifier is when I was faced with a few problems. 1. Horrendous 50 cycle hum ( although guitar is humbucker equipped) which rendered it almost unplayable 2. Impossibly high action … this was fairly easy to remedy as it was just a matter of using the Allen key provided to lower the bridge saddle grub screws.. 10 mins later I was happy with the action … However the extraneous noise was not going away … so rather than return the instrument I decided to open the back and have a look… what I found was very bad soldering, little to no shielding paint and no ground connection to 3 way switch or tone pot … so I grabbed a soldering iron and copper tape and went to work .. I shielded the entire cavity and grounded it all properly. No hum now and it sounds great ( although the pickups lack treble bite , which isn’t a major problem as you can just turn up the treble on pedals or amps you are using… ) I’d recommend this guitar but I’d also bear in mind that when you receive yours you may need to put some time into it to get it up to a decent playing standard. Also at £150 there are plenty of worse horror story guitars out there which cost twice the price. Happy shredding guys and girls 🙌👍🙌

Was actually reluctant at first, another 7-string? 150€?

This thing is a beast, and as such you might have to deal with a thing here and there.

Sound is amazing, after changing the pickup (EMG-85 now). Really like the bright fretboard, the C shape is a monster, but works well for chords, as there is enough place for the fingers on the fretboard, without it feeling to "broad". With mine there was nearly no fretbuzz, although action is a bit high for my taste, and might get a little tweaking. There are a few "meh" things. There are black plastics covering the string holes on the back. But those covers are only on 3 strings? Side of the fretboard looks like it got dirty when glueing? No major issues in terms of feel, but if you look close it looks weird.

This thing rips with the EMG85, definition on B-string hammering, any amp, riffing is a charm, as well as playing chords. Can match my 600€ Ibanez, and I guess, I'll go down the fanfret road a lot more.

I love that my guitar weighs only 3kg, which is great! (note that others could turn out different)
Other Harley Bentons I own are heavy, so I'm happy this one is light!

Pickups sound better than expected, but are high output, I'll probably upgrade later. They're good though, they have a pleasant sound.
Frets - impressively good, no sharp ends, only a tiny buzz on the last two on the 1st string.
The bridge is not grounded, which introduces hum at high gain - I'll have to fix that.
The pots are stiff, they may loosen over time or I'll change them.
The tone knob's metal cap fell off of it's plastic insert, I'll fix that easily.
The neck is a bit thicker, like most Harley Bentons, but fits comfortably in my medium sized hands.

Overall very minor issues, the guitar plays nicely, sounds good and looks good. I'm happy I bought it and I enjoy playing it.