Harley Benton R-457BK MultiScale

This is a great option for those who want to venture into the territory of extended range: 7 multiscale strings are not easy and not cheap to come by, so this price point is simply killer, and gives everyone the opportunity to try something special for less than a fortune.

That being said, you also get what you pay for, more so than on most other Harley Bentons I've bought over the years.

Out of the box, the setup was alright given the guitar's stock features, but there was a lot of room for improvement:

- The nubone nut was a bit loosely set and fell off, so I had to reattach it with superglue;

- The nut's slots deserved to be filed down a full millimeter on every string, its top trimmed down by 2-3mm, its corners rounded and sanded (otherwise they protruded too much and got in the way of playing on the first fret);

- about a third of the frets were high, so I gave them a complete levelling, dressing and polishing:

- the stock humbuckers were okay but very dark and muddy, so I replaced them with Fishman Fluence pickups and electronics (that kit alone cost almost twice as much as the guitar, but Fishman pickups sound amazing, so totally worth every penny);

- The stock tuners were decent but 1:19 ratio locking tuners (also from Harley Benton) are much better for stability for these heavy strings;

- The string ferrules on the back of the body all fell out when I destrung the guitar: their holes are a tiny bit too big in diameter, but a blob of Loctite on the side of each ferrule solved that issue;

- When properly intonated, the springs of three out of seven bridge saddles got so loose that they rattled. You either need to put longer springs in there, or add pads of some sort to compress the springs and cut out the parasite noises (I used small strips cut out of a leather strap);

- Finally the blackwood fretboard is acceptable, but be careful with lemon oil: it soaks it up quickly and spits it back for days. My biggest grievance though is this: why on earth is there no second marker at the 12th fret? Especially as there are three of them at the 24th!

Note also that the stock pickups were base-mounted and their routs are too narrow for any top-mounted alternative, including my Fishman humbuckers. So I had to get the Dremel out, rout the cavities wider (thank God it's a basswood body!), drill deeper into the body to get enough clearance for the top-mounting screws, and craft and attach home made pickup rings for top-mounting, as the guitar has no pickguard.

A nice touch is that the back control cavity was covered in shielding paint ex factory. Another positive is that the maple neck is really sturdy, stable, well shaped and smooth (I nevertheless wet sanded the back of it with some 600 grit paper for even better feel). And the overall guitar remains relatively light for something this big, and exactly balanced. No neck dive whatsoever.

Once all of the above was done (roughly 3 days of work), I could do a proper setup, adjust the trussrod, lower the action, perfect the intonation, and... ENJOY WHAT IS NOW A REAL HEAVY METAL MONSTER \m/ THAT'S ALSO VERY EASY TO PLAY, EXTREMELY VERSATILE SOUNDING, AND DEAD ACCURATE FROM FRET 1 TO 24. The last bit of buzz that remains is just because I missed a high spot on fret 13. It will soon be fixed.

Agreed, if you add the extra parts I used and the manhours I spent, this project is in the end not any less expensive than some of the entry level and even mid range alternatives from Ibanez, Jackson or Schecter, but I still love it, and have greatly enjoyed the upgrade process. Plus now my guitar is truly unique.

I was hesitant to order a Harley Benton since I was busy researching and playing different extended-range instruments over the last couple of months.

I was initially looking at the CST24T but they were out of stock and only due to return in a few months until I saw a B-Stock. I decided to bite the bullet and just pick up one of these with the CST24T considering the cost and this also gives me a good overview by comparing two guitars from Harley Benton.

Delivery took 4 days and the packaging was really good.

After unboxing there was a big difference in setup and first impression quality between the CST and this The CST felt amazing and was essentially perfectly setup unlike this (no problemo I like getting my hands dirty). The frets were very sharp as well as the nut nearly to the point where it might cut my hand/finger. The wood was really dry indicating that it might have been sitting somewhere for a while.
Something to take into account when buying this is that you will need to do some basic TLC. At first, the tuners felt like it was cheap, however, I would advise playing around with them a bit by turning them around a few times. They are pretty decent now. I have also replaced the strings which help with tuning stability on drop G.
Pickups are really hot, maybe a tad muddy, however nowadays it's easy to get around this with a nice setup EQ/Compression and playing with the volume knob.

Positives - After spending, let's say few hours on TLC and setup this thing is a BEAST. I am planning on upgrading the pickups and tuners in the future, however, I am really happy and struggling to put this down. The guitar is also REALLY light which I enjoy the balance is on point and the neck feels really fast.

TLDR
If you are on a budget and don't plan on spending 700 euro + on a guitar you might as well just get this.

Out of the box, minimal setup was required. A little fret buzz on string 7, but shipping from Germany to the US with assumedly very little climate control I am not prepared to blame that on the set up (if any) from Harley Benton or Thomann. Truss adjustment and raising the action a tad and we were cruising.
So build quality was ok, but given the price, pretty impressive. I did have some minimal cosmetic damage to the back of the body, but once again, a risk you run when shipping. The guitar is surprisingly light, but not sacrificing sustain with the cheaper wood options. The fretboard was dry and the fret wire could use a polish, but the ends of the fret wire are adequately finished as to not snag on the strings or dig in to your fingers.

Feature wise, this is about what you would expect from an entry level anything in guitar land. Volume and tone pots have a surprising amount of resistance but I accidently pulled of my tone nob when giving the guitar once over. Simple press fit, so jam it back on there. 3 way blade switch does what its supposed to do.
Finally, the tone. Maybe there were recent changes to the pickups used, but I can't say I agree with the common complaint that the guitar sounds muddy. Out of my Boss Katana MkII with no EQ or patch changes from my normal, I found it the guitar to produce adequate tones, with solid dynamics and sustain. Felt very in expressive in the mids and highs, which is right in the pocket I like to be for my metal playing.

Overall, for the price, I can't say I have played anything better. Even with shipping half way around the world, I still was under $250 USD, placing this guitar as the only option I would recommend (so far) for players wanting to give extended range and/or multiscale without obscene financial commitment.

It is my third guitar, first was acustic Yam. f310, second was Ibanez RG421. In standart E Ibanez is wonderful, and I`m heapy enough. But unfortunately I can`t always change tuning down and back. So, I decided to by 7 string guitar to drop the tuning down. It was the cheapest one with the normal size of scale of the bass strings, firstly I wanted Jackson js22-7, it has well size scale too, but the prise is about two times bigger.
So, I ordered R-457:
Delivery was good, guitar looks ok, all pickups positions work right, but I haven`t checked anker. Quality is really good, but three tuning pegs quiet folter(not fatal), I tightened the nuts, no effect, at all -- they works normal; metal of strings scale regulation screw-bolts(in bridge) and furniture is too weak(like in all cheap guitars). Fanften is beautiful, nothing to say more because it only consequence of multi-scale, as for me, and I haven`t any discomfort. Multi-scale is a really interesting thing to make a bass sound. Pickups are well-working(but not Ibanez) in standart A with 13-50+59 dunlop, I`m completely satisfied. For me it lies on my hands and leg very comfortable.
Conclusion: it seems like the best and the cheapest 7-strings guitar at February 2022 for Russian consumer with one allowance that I don`t know prise for js22-7 in the other countries and experience of it

General points:
1)normal pickups and quality for the best price
2)multiscale and 7 string

I bought this since I wanted to try out a multi-scale seven string and I was not disappointed. The finish is flawless. Everything feels sturdy including the often wonky budget switches you can find on cheaper guitars. The neck feels great although it might take some time to get used to the width of a seven string. The fanned frets only took about an hour or so to get used to and any guitar without them feels quite unergonomic now.
The tuners were a bit annoying in the beginning, the tuning stability was fine, but they had some dead spots and were very sensitive to turning. This has however stopped being a problem over time. You might want to turn them a few times without strings whenever you next change strings however.

I did however find the pickups were too muddy, luckily for me howerver, that is easy to fix. What I did was unsolder the wires running from the pickups to the pots and simply soldered them directly to the switch. Now the pickups have all the bite I could ever ask for.
If you want to retain your volume and tone controls you might want to get new pots that are 1 Meg Ohm instead of the stock 500k ones.

All in all: I doubt you can find a better guitar for the price and even if they added more to the price it would still be good value

This guitar is really impressive. After playing and recording with it, the Harley Benton R-457 Fanfret has turned out to be a great choice.

Firstly we'll look at what I don't like about it:
- The strings it comes with are not great. That doesn't matter, you're just gonna put new ones on when you get it.
- the (passive) pickups can be quite muddy. You'll have to manage the amount of gain you have set because the sound gets messy with these pickups. It doesn't bother me that much and maybe it's just a personal preference thing. It shouldn't bother you too much unless you're trying to record with it.
- the neck had a few patches where it didn't feel very smooth but not noticeable when playing.

But these are minor inconveniences for me. The guitar is pretty amazing, especially at this price (I got mine for £149). There are plenty of things that I do like about the instrument:
- The neck feels similar to Jacksons I've played, obviously it is wider to accommodate the low B string but it's still thin and feels good to play on.
- I like the weight of the guitar and it doesn't have much neck dive even with the added string.
- The cutaways allow for easy access to the top frets, and the frets are the best thing about it.
- The fanned fret design is very comfortable and the frets are not rough or sharp.
- there are no issues with the finish

Overall I would definitely recommend the R-457 Fanfret to anyone who wants to try a 7 string or a multiscale/fanned fret guitar. It costs such a small amount of money yet it performs so well. If this guitar cost £300 I would think that's a reasonable price, but Harley Benton/Thomann consistently deliver high quality products for lower prices, allowing anyone to experience these features usually reserved for far more expensive guitars.

I have waited for several months before writing this review. Several months of use. These are not my 'first impressions'.

Limitations/Cons:

The nut is cut a little strangely, and sharp at one edge. Can be easily fixed.

The back of the neck isn't the smoothest. I am comparing it to a Jackson Soloist and an American Stratocaster. This is to be expected.

The pickups are a little too muddy for my tastes. Pickups are easily replaceable.

PROS:

- Fun to play.
- Came with perfect intonation out of the box. Zero fret buzz. Every fret articulated well. I didn't need to adjust anything.
- The pickups aren't to my tastes, however they still sound good if you understand basic amplification and audio production. Clients *loved* what I could do with this guitar.
- Fanned frets are super comfortable.
- Light weight.

REVIEW:

I got way more than I bargained for with this guitar. It should not exist for this price.

If I were to upgrade the pickups and change the nut, it would be a solid and reliable guitar to gig with, or certainly a good back up guitar.

Congratulations to Thomann and Harley Benton on a superb product.