Harley Benton R-457MN WH Progressive Series

I've been playing guitar on and off for 25+ years and was wondering if a 7 string would be my kind of thing. This is the perfect instrument to try it out, at an affordable price with decent enough quality. Of course you can expect some problems at this price point, but I was surprised by how minor and manageable they are.

I only found one chip in the finish on the back, which is negligible. One ferule was protruding a bit, which needed a couple of taps to be put back in place. The strings it came with were too light, but I ordered some power slinkies with it anyway. And the frets were a bit dull, some even a bit corroded. All of these things are minor issues and easily fixed with a bit of TLC.

I discovered the worst problem however while polishing the frets: a sub-standard fret job. Some frets were leveled, but not crowned, giving a flat, unpolished surface. This even resulted in one dead spot on the 7th string at the 12th fret, which couldn't be polished or intonated. This will require a leveling and crowning job in the future, so it's not a quick fix. However this is not a deal breaker, the guitar is still very usable and payable.

Overall these sort of problems are to be expected at this price and I am still amazed at the value for money. With a little effort this quickly transforms from a decent enough to a good instruments. This guitar makes me wish entry-level instruments had this kind of quality back in the 90's.

I'll try and keep this simple.

I am not the greatest player in the world, I've struggled my entire playing life to progress and to "get good" which has only been made worse due to a fairly serious hand injury a few years ago. Along the way I've become partial to the "Ibanez Prestige" guitars the neck profile works well with my busted up hands and the build quality keeps my inner gear nerd happy.

When I first started looking for a 7 string I could not find anything local that I liked for under $1000 CAD which was far more then I wanted to spend on something I was not sure that I would like. After reading some reviews I decided to Order this Harley Benton unit.

I had mixed feeling when I opened up the box..

The good:
*Good quality hardware
*The electronics are nice quality and work well.
*Almost perfect set up
*Fantastic finish
*great neck profile
*Really light weight, this may be a double edged sword (see negatives)

The bad:
*Mine came with three good sized dents on the body despite there being no damage to the packaging. i suspect the body wood is soft
*The pickups are muddy down low and lack definition

Overall I am super happy with my guitar, I would say it is as good as the competitions guitars at twice the price.

First venture into 7 string territory and didn't want to spend much. Here's my opinion of the R-457MN WH.

Pickups - not great but passable, and they are either on or off, a small turn of the the volume control and its on full blast, but for the price cant complain and this is the type of guitar that needs to be full on all the time.
Neck - unfinished, Ibanezesque, the fret ends are sharp and need to be sanded/filed down and polished, the neck is relatively straight, an hours work would get a good setup. Its not so wide that its uncomfortable for a 6 string player and access up to 24th fret ok.
Tuners - not very accurate, but my strings are staying in tune ok.
Bridge : had to lower the saddles to bring the string height down. standard block no real issues.
The overall guitar is very light and sits well, the neck is not heavy so it doesn't tip over when standing up.
For the price, this is a very good guitar, with some work it can be better. I'd say it's comparable with the Ibanez GIO but at half the price, this is very good value for money.

this guitar is just awesome. I've been playing a cheap strat copy for 2 years and finally bought my 2nd ever guitar. it's worlds of difference! absolutely no regrets. i love it. its beautifully set up, no sharp frets, no buzzing. tuners work fine, bridge is fine, pickups are ok, the finish is really nice, knobs are fine, everything is pretty decent. and for this price, it's an absolutely amazing deal. thank you so much thomann and Harley benton. i can finally play metal songs!!!
oh, by the way, its just a little bit heavy. and the neck has a tiny damage but it took me like 30 mins to notice that, not a big deal at all.
i actually wanted the fanfret one, i couldn't buy it. i think it would be a better option for me. but this one works just fine. im gonna get some .74s for this and i can finally play some of my favorite modern metal songs in Drop F
oh also, u get a free cable and 2 allen wrenches for adjusting the saddles and the truss rod. thanks a lot for those :D

I'll keep this as short as I can. I have heard many great things about Harley Benton all around the guitar community. I live in Canada, so I can't just go to the store and try them, but I was willing to give them a shot. I am disappointed that I did.

The guitar came with a dented headstock from poor packaging at the ends. This was hardly the start of the issues. Second thing I noticed was a thumb sized blotch of paint on the lower horn. It's like the spray gun was held on that spot for too long. Whatever, it is a cheap guitar. I can deal with finish imperfections.

The next issue was the fretboard. The fret ends are very sharp, but not only that, there is a ton of chipping on the higher frets, and just looks and feels rough and sloppy.

The neck profile is nice, but the finish on the back of the neck is coarse and not smooth at all! It feels like 300grit sandpaper!

The lower b string will not intonate at all. Even with the bridge at the max adjustment point (with the spring removed even), it is still sharp. The other string intonated fine.

The tuners are not good either, but I expected to change those.

Pickups are meh.

All in all, I don't recommend it. You'll spend twice the guitars cost to make it playable and you may as well have bought a better guitar by that point.

I don't mean to fanboy Harley Benton, but being without choice, I had to buy 2 guitars quickly due to stolen goods. Well - I did not expect, that I would order 3rd guitar branded by HB, the 7 string is really a great deal for its price. You won't get a better piece for this price

I've played 7 string Ibanez and the quality between these is really not too far away. I am a drummer primarily, so the opinion might be a bit exaggerated, but not only I have praised the overall quality vs price regarding the instrument.

There was no single scratch, the package came quickly, like it's been sent domestically. 2 guitars came in a slick package, hope that the next one will serve good as well

Frets are distributed evenly and firmly, humbuckers are not muddy at all. Playing through Fender Bullet Amp and audio interface - no noises. Weight distribution is perfect. Scale for long fingers like mine is great, just as fretboard width

After using this guitar now for a few days, I can say that the overall bang for your buck that you get with this guitar is second to none. A quick setup after unpacking and you're good to go.

Fret buzz disappeared after breaking it in with a few days of hard playing.

Pickups are nothing to write home about, but definitely get the job done.

Only bit of quality that I see was sacrificed is perhaps the tuners.

As a workhorse, so far, very satisfactory. However, I purchased this guitar also as a project guitar, I plan to replace some of the hardware on it with some higher output pups, solderless electronics and better tuners, eventually some taller SS frets. Definitely a great starting point for the build of your dreams if you're into the looks, which I find pretty nice overall.

Wish it had a tone knob, but that's nothing some careful drilling can't fix.

I did not experience any problem with the finish that I saw mentioned in other reviews, things happen, and if you're looking for that level of QC, this probably ain't the price-point you want to go for.

Final words, again, for the price, this cannot be beat.

You cannot find a guitar with this much quality at this price!!
I use several high-end guitars and tried this model because of the cheapness, just for fun. I didn't have much expectation, but the finish is near perfect. The frets were a little rough, but nothing that couldn't be covered with a nail buffer. All the parts are quite decent, and most importantly, the pickups are not bad at all. No noises, no muddiness, high clarity. I swapped the pickups though in order to do some studio recordings for my band's album demo, and the sound did not have any backsets. The quality is not best, but it's near it. I cannot imagine a guitar in this price that can actually have this kind of specification. Also, I took a look at the wiring section(in order to change my pickups), and the soldering was neat and tidy as well.
Thanks Thomann for the awesome guitar, and the fast shipping to South Korea!
Will I buy another Harley-Benton guitar?
Definitely yes. I would even go for the same models for different tunings. Harley-Benton is opening a new phenomenon in the guitar market. I hope people in my region(South Korea) becomes aware of this awesome deal!