Harley Benton SC-450Plus CB Vintage Series

When I started to look a new guitar Harley Bentons SCs were one to consider.

I did my homework and browsed through pages after pages thinking what would I like and how much would I be willing to invest. At the end I chose this SC-450Plus with a beautiful red and gold finish.

Of course one knows Thomann and its Harley Benton can bring quality products. But buying a guitar that you have never played or even picked up seemed a bit strange. You miss something when there is no store to visit. No few riffs of rock 'n roll store cliches you try on. No making sure that you get your hard-earned moneys worth.

Reading other reviews there's mentioning on occasional bad apples and returns. But then again also something about how super nice people at Thomann are with their customer support and if you happened to be one that got the bad one they would just replace it with something that works.

I made the purchase and waited for a week or something and then it arrived. I have to say I was blown away how good the guitar is. It's absolutely a piece of art. Well crafted with nothing to complain about. The only minor eyesore I was able to find was two little sores at the nobs. Otherwise craft-wise just perfect.

The only complain I would have about the quality is that there's quite a lot of hum from the humbuckers. But this isn't a deal breaker. Just something that I may have to checkout more and adjust.

The guitar sound so great. Beautiful, strong, beefy, dark sound that absolutely rocks. It's a heavy beast that instantly made me a friend for life. In closing never could I have dreamed how great guitar I could get so cheap.

Ordered this guitar more than a week ago on a Monday and it arrived a week later on a Monday. Not bad for an international shipment.

As with all Thomann products the packaging is extremely great. The guitar was wrapped in some soft wrapping which was in a box that was in another bigger box filled with giant bubble wrap. This packaging could survive a blast from a tank!

The guitar has some minor flaws which are probably expected for this price but nothing serious.

The finish is excellent. But the product pictures shown aren't very accurate. It's much lighter in color than in pictures. The red isn't as deep as shown and the brownish middle is actually quite yellow, almost like a lemon drop.
Despite that it looks great (maybe even better in my opinion)

The neck is extremely comfortable to play.
The rounded joint where the neck meets the body makes playing high notes very, very, very comfortable.
The binding is a bit rounded so there aren't any edges that you can feel.
No fret buzz, although the frets could use a bit of additional sanding since not all of them are smooth.

The tuners are very smooth and hold the tuning very well.

The nut is plastic. Actually the nut probably is the worst part of the guitar. It's ok but the grooves for the strings are made a bit sloppily..

The description doesn't say this but this guitar comes with coil splitting push-pull pots. Awesome!
Tip: dont try to forcefully remove the knobs. I wanted to remove them to get rid of the stickers more easily that were underneath and I broke my bridge volume pot... 10 minutes after opening the box...
Seriously those knobs are very hard to remove, be careful!

Every plastic part on the guitar (knobs, cavity plates) feels very cheapish, especially the pick guard.

Finally the pickups. These Wilkinson pickups are quite decent. They actually sound good. I like them.

Cons:
Not fully polished/sanded frets
Cheap plastics
Knobs!
Inlay on the headstock isn't symmetrically aligned (but who cares)

Pros:
Easy access to high frets
Coil splitting
Looks fantastic

Final words:
It plays, sounds and feels like a Les Paul. No need to say anything else.

Very impressed at this guitar for the money, or even for 3x the money. Better quality than my Fender Strat in a number of areas. Fret ends finished smoothly, nut cut well and at the right height and width for all strings, action low, no fret buzz, intonation near perfect (just had to adjust 2 strings a little bit), the Roswell Humbuckers sound great with well rounded tones, slightly hot which I like. The coil split opens up new tones which is a nice feature you normally only get on more expensive guitars.

The tuners are nice and stiff and do the job fine, they have held in tune remarkably well. The pegs don't look great, not the marbled effect of more expensive pegs, but doesn't bother me. No tuning problems with the nut which I assume is plastic - strings move freely through the nut and it's easy to tune precisely.

Overall finish is near flawless - just a couple of small blemishes on the neck binding varnish (presumably fret end file damage) and varnish rubbed on top of head stock - nothing worth crying about. One of the tuners is a bit misaligned on the back but you'd never notice unless looking very close.

The paint, varnish and bindings all round are excellent, no colour bleeding or paint spots anywhere. Opened up the back and can confirm it's unshielded so I will probably add shielding in future. Volume knobs are a bit too easy to turn, versus tone knobs which are nice and stiff and very smooth to rotate - feel quality, better quality than the knobs on my Strat. Pickup switch feels good too with a positive action.

The frets came unpolished but perfectly playable, fret ends are all filed well and frets set properly, which I can't say for my Fender Strat . I have already ordered a polishing kit - no big job. Inlays are perfectly set and centered. The Laurel fretboard is lovely and dark - darker than the photos, maybe I got lucky, but it's as dark as a good rosewood board, bordering on ebony (which my Epi Custom Prophecy has). Fretboard is a bit dry so I will oil it at some point. The inlays are well cut and centered and have a nice pearl effect and look nicer than the website photos. The mahogany body is a two piece and looks great on the back side. Neck is a 3 piece and has a nice shape and feel. Neck set joint is flawless.

Weight is slightly heavy as it's mahogany and not chambered. 4.2 kg versus about 3.6 for my Strat. No biggie. It is a Les Paul after all! There is a rounded maple top of about 10mm thickness with I presume a flamed maple veneer on top of that. Arrived well packaged, double boxed with added cardboard packing material. Took 9 days to arrive to UK which is a bit longer than stated.

Been having a blast playing it, really sounds great. Every bit as good as my double bucker Epi Custom SG and Fender Strat, both of which cost many times as much. Already considering my next HB purchase if the 'budget' ones are this good!