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Post by henrybraxton30 on May 1, 2019 12:19:05 GMT
Im looking for a beater guitar, my max budget is around 400 euros, I was looking at two harley benton's in particular, the SC custom and the SC-550 both look pretty neat especially for the price. Do any of you have any experience with either of these two or harley benton's in general? Omegle Appvalley
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43 posts
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Post by jayjacque on May 1, 2019 13:00:44 GMT
I think I've had about 8 or 9 Harley Bentons now. Did have the SC-550 tobacco and only sold it to fund something else. If I had it to do over, probably would get the SC-450plus for much of the same but with coil tap Everything Harley Benton I've gotten has been great. Have had to file sharp fret ends a few times, replace the nut and change pickups on a few. Also a few times the tuners weren't great. Almost always I lower the action and intonate. If you're looking for perfection, prob won't get that (though on a couple I didn't have to do a darn thing). But bang for the buck they're unmatched. Across the board most of their guitars are very good. Just read the reviews and listen to youtubes, which if you picked those 2 guitars, you prob already have. I'll also say this, there are a couple different models of SC-550, with HAF (higher gain pickups) in some, LAF (lower gain pickups in others). The difference is probably not huge, but if you're strictly a rocker you might opt for the higher gain HAF pickups, but if you like things sweeter and more versatility like me, you might want the lower gain LAF pickups. Also for 400 Euros you can get their top of the line Fusions, most have the HAF pickups but a few have the LAF pickups. Apparently the Fusion II have improved over the first batch of Fusions. Look some of those over and you might get obsessed for weeks! One other thing about reading the reviews; if you read reviews older than 2018 and 2019 for most of their electrics, realize that's when they started putting in Roswell pickups instead of Wilkinson, so the basic facts about each guitar may still apply, but most models now come with different pickups.
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Post by micoli on May 1, 2019 15:16:30 GMT
I own 9 Harley Bentons including the SC-550 Tobacco Burst. I changed the pickups on the SC 550 but probably didn't need to, but I just like personalising and fiddling around with my guitars.
I agree completely with jayjacque. Most guitars I have had to do some work on but some have been perfect out of the box and just needed to lower the strings. Once they have been set up right I find them great. All mine have very good finishes, with a few imperfections that can't be seen unless under very close inspection. The tuners I find are not too good on the cheaper guitars but are very useable.
There are a lot of nay-sayers out there, and some have had bad experiences with HB's but I think they are great value, and the competition in that price area is, to me, now virtually non-existent.
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3,457 posts
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Post by LeoThunder on May 1, 2019 15:35:24 GMT
Almost always I lower the action and intonate. Of course. Setting up is like tuning. No one ever expects a guitar to come and stay in tune. Action is always safely higher than it must out of the box. If it were as low as possible, any humidity changes causing a tightening of the neck would cause fret buzz and returns. This would statistically happen on half the guitars, so action is set to a safer height. Besides, "as low as possible" is not everyone's choice anyway. Lowering the action reduces the string length, so intonation has to be adjusted to compensate for that.
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freeman
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by freeman on May 2, 2019 5:45:39 GMT
I've had 4 Harley Benton guitars. An SC450 plus, a 450 GT, a TE70 Black Paisley and a JB20 sunburst Bass. I sent the 450 GT back, because it didn't do anything the 450 Plus couldn't do. Apart from that the others were all in perfect condition and very well set up. I even loan out the JB20 with flat wounds for studio sessions. It plays well and the cheap ceramic pickups have a warm, vintage vibe a lot of modern Fenders don't have. OK, so I reshaped the headstock and did some cosmetic work on it, but the rest is stock. Everyone who plays it can't believe it's a 99 Euro bass. The TE70 is great. Sounds like a Tele, feels like one. Everyone who picks it up doesn't want to put it down. My 450 Plus VB even has a bit of mojo about it for some reason. The usual response is "Oh, this is nice".
For the price you pay you get a lot of guitar. When I started playing in the 70's we would have been over the moon to have such instruments. Instead we made do with Japanese copies, which were total crap compared to Harley Bentons. The nuts were badly cut, the hardware was cheap and the pickups dodgy. Good Fenders and Gibsons were out of our price league and for most they still are, so HB is a very good alternative.
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Post by tarn on May 2, 2019 10:22:03 GMT
with a budget of €400.00, revelation guitars is also an option. there just that bit beter, hardware and electronicly wise.
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8 posts
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Post by jackson853 on May 2, 2019 22:08:32 GMT
Revelation make some very nice guitars. I bought the one that looks like the Jazzmaster. It punches well above it's weight.
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bamapaul
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by bamapaul on May 4, 2019 4:07:26 GMT
The Squire classic vibe 50s tele is another good choice in that price range. The hardware and electrics are way better than my HBs and that pine body looks and sounds great.
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