Thoughts on a cheap Harley Benton - the R-458
Sept 7, 2018 16:05:44 GMT
slims, Vincent, and 1 more like this
Post by LeoThunder on Sept 7, 2018 16:05:44 GMT
I had two Harley Benton before and the third has just arrived. It's a cheap one. Not the cheapest, not the ST-20 for 79€, not the "Student" SC or DC something for 89€ but the next level. It is the R-458 MapleNeck WHite for 149€.
I wanted to fool around with an extra string so I got this.
Those I had before were high volume products, an ST-62 and an SC-Custom. The ST-62 is cheap too, and simple. It's a Strat', not fancy apart from a vibrato system which has become so omnipresent it costs nothing to make anyway. The ST-62 is well made because it follows an eternal pattern. Those who make it for Thomann have made it a thousand times for others before. They know what they're doing or they got the recipe (the design data) from others who did (from Squier, from Fender, from DiMarzio, from all those who once outsourced their products). The same goes for its pick-ups. They're good for the same reason.
Strat's are like pizza. Only a bloody beginner can botch them and you'd have to leave him alone on purpose.
The SC-Custom was more expensive. 179€ at the time, now back to 199€. It was more complex too. Set neck, flame maple top, transparent finish on beautiful mahogany (I regret that colour to this day), Grover tuners, Wilkinson pick-ups (I didn't like them but others did). I guess it was quite a challenge to get this done so well at the price, though, but Les Paul copies sell well, so they must have made loads of them.
Now this. Not quite the same target group and not really a copy of anything popular, just an 8-string guitar (all right, it looks like a Schecter), as cheap as possible. So what came out?
Well, I'm surprised and pleased to report that the target was exceeded at the price of agreeable compromises. All the basics work, money was saved on the dispensable or easily upgradable and it has a few unexpected graces.
Basics:
The extended scale (26.5") makes the low strings usable at the proper gauge (I think I'll have to put a 0.080 string in there).
Set-up was as good as I would have wanted it. Straight neck with minimal relief, low action implying the nut is fine too (I might be a little optimistic here but it's easy to play, so I'm happy). Nicely even frets with one single exception (one fret is rocking under the low string). No fret edges on the side.
Tuners tune, work smoothly and didn't fall off. That's all I need from them (I don't change strings often). Intonation is just fine.
There is a rounded neck heel. It's not as slim as on an Ibanez S but way more comfortable than anything you'll get on a Squier or most Fenders. It is also angled so as not to keep the full width of the body.
No edges on the bridge. I can rest a hand on it and it's all flat and smooth. No screws looking up 3mm above the saddles as on the ST-62, even though the action is as low as possible.
It's light. About 4kg, thanks to a basswood body. I like basswood. I know 4Kg is maybe no longer a light guitar but this one has a bloody surf board underneath the strings.
The neck is huge but thin: ~19mm at the 1st fret and ~22mm at the 12th. This is Ibanez Wizard territory.
Compromises:
It's a solid colour. No fancy top, visible woods, sparkling dust, dragon scale pickguard or racing stripes. And when I say "colour" it's black or white, but there is a matching headstock. The white version has tastefully consistent black hardware, from the jack output and strap pins to the nut and tuners with even metallic black knobs. And black offset dot inlays. Nice. Black new logo too. That's the way cost stays low without looking like a Telecaster. This black, white and maple look is something I can enjoy looking at.
No finish on the neck. Or is it a satin finish? Anyway, there is no thick glossy varnish on the back of the neck. It's nicely smooth, but I know it is essentially cost reduction. The fingerboard isn't glossy either. I don't care, I try to put my fingers on the strings (still practicing this).
No coil split. It's only a switch and a bit of wiring work but I guess everything counts at that price level. It's a feasible modification and a cheap upgrade. The necessary part cost 9€. We're not talking about replacing pick-ups here.
Linear potentiometers. Or so I think. Now, this one bugged me at first. Turning the knobs does nothing until it starts doing it all too fast. The word "unusable" comes to mind before you realise that it actually does work if only with a little more patience and subtlety in handling. So I can learn to use them until I decide to replace them. They cost 1.5€ each. Or I'll just tweak the amp instead.
Issues:
Buzzing on the F# string on one fret. Maybe that goes away with a thicker string. If not, I'll file that fret down. No big deal.
The web site says the strings are 10-74 but I think they're 9-74 as for the black version. I'll put 10-80 when the time comes anyway.
It also says "Hi-Gain Humbuckers" which is nonsense. Pick-ups have no gain, only an output level. It's not all that high, actually, but… that's one of the graces.
Graces:
It has a lovely maple fingerboard with unique figurations. I must have been lucky. The back side looks nice too.
This guitar has more sustain than any other I have. I have no idea why but it just keeps sounding and it sounds full. It's a pleasure to play unplugged already and that's with cheap Harley Benton strings. I thought they were bad, now I want more of these. Maybe they changed since last year. Or are they something else? There are no HB 8-string sets… Anyway, good sustain. Is it the huge maple neck, the five screws that keep it tight onto basswood or the simplistic yet sturdy looking bridge? I like it.
Then there are the pick-ups. That's not the grace you'd expect in a 149€ guitar, is it? But it is. They are beautiful. I might not need a coil split, these humbuckers have all the clarity I want. (Well, I might still do it…) Yes, they're nearly all the way down but still. They're full of low end too, sounding beautifully round without getting undefined. It's not only a pleasure to play clean, I'd want to play chords all day (no, not drop E nonsense with half barre chords on the low strings at high gain level, I don't do that). This guitar sounds great. No comparison to the mud of the active pick-ups in the fanfret version (see Cory Mura's review). This is an 8-string to make music with. That's why I said earlier the target was exceeded. I didn't expect to love the sound of this thing. I just hoped it would be decent.
To be fair, I do not find in this guitar the highs and sharpness of my Ibanez. This is not an instrument for Razor Metal or whatever else requires a harpy's screech. It will be great for subtler things.
Conclusion: this is cheap where it can afford to be, where modifications can be made at low cost or simply when it's good enough to be satisfying and it gets all the basics right, with surprising tone quality as a bonus. This is all a cheap instrument should be.
I'm not putting a sail on it.
I wanted to fool around with an extra string so I got this.
Those I had before were high volume products, an ST-62 and an SC-Custom. The ST-62 is cheap too, and simple. It's a Strat', not fancy apart from a vibrato system which has become so omnipresent it costs nothing to make anyway. The ST-62 is well made because it follows an eternal pattern. Those who make it for Thomann have made it a thousand times for others before. They know what they're doing or they got the recipe (the design data) from others who did (from Squier, from Fender, from DiMarzio, from all those who once outsourced their products). The same goes for its pick-ups. They're good for the same reason.
Strat's are like pizza. Only a bloody beginner can botch them and you'd have to leave him alone on purpose.
The SC-Custom was more expensive. 179€ at the time, now back to 199€. It was more complex too. Set neck, flame maple top, transparent finish on beautiful mahogany (I regret that colour to this day), Grover tuners, Wilkinson pick-ups (I didn't like them but others did). I guess it was quite a challenge to get this done so well at the price, though, but Les Paul copies sell well, so they must have made loads of them.
Now this. Not quite the same target group and not really a copy of anything popular, just an 8-string guitar (all right, it looks like a Schecter), as cheap as possible. So what came out?
Well, I'm surprised and pleased to report that the target was exceeded at the price of agreeable compromises. All the basics work, money was saved on the dispensable or easily upgradable and it has a few unexpected graces.
Basics:
The extended scale (26.5") makes the low strings usable at the proper gauge (I think I'll have to put a 0.080 string in there).
Set-up was as good as I would have wanted it. Straight neck with minimal relief, low action implying the nut is fine too (I might be a little optimistic here but it's easy to play, so I'm happy). Nicely even frets with one single exception (one fret is rocking under the low string). No fret edges on the side.
Tuners tune, work smoothly and didn't fall off. That's all I need from them (I don't change strings often). Intonation is just fine.
There is a rounded neck heel. It's not as slim as on an Ibanez S but way more comfortable than anything you'll get on a Squier or most Fenders. It is also angled so as not to keep the full width of the body.
No edges on the bridge. I can rest a hand on it and it's all flat and smooth. No screws looking up 3mm above the saddles as on the ST-62, even though the action is as low as possible.
It's light. About 4kg, thanks to a basswood body. I like basswood. I know 4Kg is maybe no longer a light guitar but this one has a bloody surf board underneath the strings.
The neck is huge but thin: ~19mm at the 1st fret and ~22mm at the 12th. This is Ibanez Wizard territory.
Compromises:
It's a solid colour. No fancy top, visible woods, sparkling dust, dragon scale pickguard or racing stripes. And when I say "colour" it's black or white, but there is a matching headstock. The white version has tastefully consistent black hardware, from the jack output and strap pins to the nut and tuners with even metallic black knobs. And black offset dot inlays. Nice. Black new logo too. That's the way cost stays low without looking like a Telecaster. This black, white and maple look is something I can enjoy looking at.
No finish on the neck. Or is it a satin finish? Anyway, there is no thick glossy varnish on the back of the neck. It's nicely smooth, but I know it is essentially cost reduction. The fingerboard isn't glossy either. I don't care, I try to put my fingers on the strings (still practicing this).
No coil split. It's only a switch and a bit of wiring work but I guess everything counts at that price level. It's a feasible modification and a cheap upgrade. The necessary part cost 9€. We're not talking about replacing pick-ups here.
Linear potentiometers. Or so I think. Now, this one bugged me at first. Turning the knobs does nothing until it starts doing it all too fast. The word "unusable" comes to mind before you realise that it actually does work if only with a little more patience and subtlety in handling. So I can learn to use them until I decide to replace them. They cost 1.5€ each. Or I'll just tweak the amp instead.
Issues:
Buzzing on the F# string on one fret. Maybe that goes away with a thicker string. If not, I'll file that fret down. No big deal.
The web site says the strings are 10-74 but I think they're 9-74 as for the black version. I'll put 10-80 when the time comes anyway.
It also says "Hi-Gain Humbuckers" which is nonsense. Pick-ups have no gain, only an output level. It's not all that high, actually, but… that's one of the graces.
Graces:
It has a lovely maple fingerboard with unique figurations. I must have been lucky. The back side looks nice too.
This guitar has more sustain than any other I have. I have no idea why but it just keeps sounding and it sounds full. It's a pleasure to play unplugged already and that's with cheap Harley Benton strings. I thought they were bad, now I want more of these. Maybe they changed since last year. Or are they something else? There are no HB 8-string sets… Anyway, good sustain. Is it the huge maple neck, the five screws that keep it tight onto basswood or the simplistic yet sturdy looking bridge? I like it.
Then there are the pick-ups. That's not the grace you'd expect in a 149€ guitar, is it? But it is. They are beautiful. I might not need a coil split, these humbuckers have all the clarity I want. (Well, I might still do it…) Yes, they're nearly all the way down but still. They're full of low end too, sounding beautifully round without getting undefined. It's not only a pleasure to play clean, I'd want to play chords all day (no, not drop E nonsense with half barre chords on the low strings at high gain level, I don't do that). This guitar sounds great. No comparison to the mud of the active pick-ups in the fanfret version (see Cory Mura's review). This is an 8-string to make music with. That's why I said earlier the target was exceeded. I didn't expect to love the sound of this thing. I just hoped it would be decent.
To be fair, I do not find in this guitar the highs and sharpness of my Ibanez. This is not an instrument for Razor Metal or whatever else requires a harpy's screech. It will be great for subtler things.
Conclusion: this is cheap where it can afford to be, where modifications can be made at low cost or simply when it's good enough to be satisfying and it gets all the basics right, with surprising tone quality as a bonus. This is all a cheap instrument should be.
I'm not putting a sail on it.