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.

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.

Initially I was very skeptical about this guitar. But I was on the hunt for something cheap to return to the hobby after years of absence , and after reading reviews as well as hearing all kinds of positive feedback from Harley Benton owners I decided to bite the bullet and get it.
This guitar has no right to be this cheap. Superb quality from the neck and the body all the way to the electronics. It's not a one grand guitar with top of the line pickups or expensive tremolo systems but it's presisely what a new or returning guy needs.
To get started , for cheap and without having a million headaches about all sorts of imperfections or mechanical problems. I specifically write this review for the 7 stringed variant but I am sure one could expect the same quality from the 6 or 8 stringed variant too!

I just got my Harley Benton today and i must say i was expecting much worse quality guitar for this price range.

there are two downsides. the pickups are gives you very low output for a metal player. If you're not into metal you're ok but i think i'll change the pickups with a mid-range pickup.

the other downside is the steel frets. they need to be sanded from the surface. you can hear the scratching sounds when you bend strings but the scratching sounds will be gone with a 1-2 hours of work.

i'm very happy with my purchase. i'll definitely go for second harley benton.