nadtom
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by nadtom on May 13, 2020 18:54:55 GMT
Hi, I’m new member here. I would like to buy an eletric guitar set/bundle to start learn guitar. I have no idea what set/bundle would be good for start (which will be good for later also). I would like to play only at home so I don’t need a profi set. I would like to pay 250-300Eur (or less ) for the set/bundle. Please share your opinion, thank you in advance!
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Post by calebz on May 13, 2020 19:03:56 GMT
What kind of music are you looking to play? One of the cool things about HB guitars is that for the classic shapes and styles you can jump right to the top end of the range and still not spend a lot of money.
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nadtom
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by nadtom on May 13, 2020 19:06:18 GMT
I would like to play mainly rock music.
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Post by calebz on May 13, 2020 19:19:32 GMT
If you're looking at the Harley Benton Bundles, focus on the guitar. If you get the best instrument you can afford, you are more likely to continue to be inspired to keep playing. If you continue playing, you will likely find out that you will outgrow the amp that comes with any of the bundles in your price range.
Alternatively, you could up your budget a little and buy a ~$200 harley benton guitar and a slightly nicer amp and possibly be happy for longer.
I love cheap guitars. - But I started playing in the early 80s, I remember how uninspiring a crappy cheap guitar is. The quality of the top range 'classic' shaped harley bentons is light years beyond what was available when I was a kid. Treat yourself right and look at the SC-customs or 550s. Or the comparable price DC series guitars. Generally well setup and very well built. Full of rock n roll just waiting to happen.
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Post by tarn on May 13, 2020 19:42:47 GMT
its beter to choose a guitar that visually pleases you, than buy a guitar for a certain genre.
when i was looking for my first guitar 30 years back, with no internet you only had the shop owner and friends to give you advise. so my first guitar was a cheap strat copy, and when i say cheap it was double the price of the cheapest harley benton. but at te very least 3 times less quality.
i got advised a strat type because of its versatility, but i did not like this type of guitar at the time. in conjunction with the bad quality and not liking the guitar itself, i almost gave up on learning the guitar.
later on i went and bought a guitar that visually pleased me, as so i liked to pick it up to learn to play.
so i played RATM, foo fighters, skunk anansie,....... on this guitar.
this guitar was a samick SAN450, not particularly a guitar often seen in this type of music.
you can play anything on anything, but its true that certain type of pickups sooth certain types of music beter.
as for the amp, theres a lot of choice these days. but don't go for cheapest of the cheap also.
the sound you will produce is a product of the guitar the amp, you, the type of pick you will use, the angle of your hand, the attacks of your hand on the strings and so on.
a journey starts the day you'll buy your first guitar/amp.
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nadtom
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by nadtom on May 13, 2020 19:56:40 GMT
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derekm
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by derekm on May 13, 2020 20:37:50 GMT
I'm a begginer too, Just got the sc custom and a fender mustang 1 V2 which would come in close to what you want to spend, add on a few more bits wont be too much, My guitar hasn't come yet but the other stuff has, The sc custom has really good reviews too.
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nadtom
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by nadtom on May 13, 2020 21:02:54 GMT
The TE-40 and SC Custom and SC 550 have a good review. The choice is very hard (without experience). I pay more for SC Custom or 550 if worth it, but maybe the TE-40 would be enough for me. And there are other possibilities like Fender SQ Strat or Epiphone Les Paul...
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2020 22:54:18 GMT
its beter to choose a guitar that visually pleases you, than buy a guitar for a certain genre. Totally agree with this!! As a beginner, a guitar that you're visually in love with will make you feel almost like a rock star. You will want to pick it up again and again to practice. First hand experience here ;-) Besides that, both the TE-40 and SC Custom would be rock-solid choices to start. SC-550 is in my humble opinion even better (it's my nr° 1 favourite Harley Benton model), but the choice is up to you. Could you give us some examples of the music you want to play? "Rock" is a pretty broad term. Will you be playing a lot distorted, or is a good clean sound more important?
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3,457 posts
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Post by LeoThunder on May 14, 2020 5:58:34 GMT
The TE-40 is a good guitar or the SC custom or the 550s are definitely better? It is a false belief that guitars can be evaluated on a simple value range. This question cannot be answered. Some will tell you that the SC-550 is clearly the better choice because it has a finely detailed flame top (which is true) or looks oh so much like the Les Paul they've been adulating since their teenage years. Others will tell you that the Les Paul shape is a clumsy thing with bad balance and failed ergonomics. The same goes for tone. There is no value scale there either, you might as well ask which of chocolate or vanilla ice cream is better. These three guitars are all fit to purpose. They just have different characteristics. Their objective qualities as a music instrument, which include ability to be set-up properly, hold tune and have functioning electronics, should be roughly equivalent. The more expensive ones might have nicer finishes, big perloid inlays instead of dots on the fingerboard or even smoother, higher precision tuners (on the SC-Custom). The decision between TE or SC is an important one, though. These shapes and sizes are different enough to form habits and those who learn on one are not always happy with the other. The TE-40 clearly has the better ergonomics and will be more pleasant to play sitting, which beginners do a lot. Should one favour the shorter Gibson scale and size, the SG, copied by the Harley Benton DC models, is the answer to the ergonomics and weight matter. Regarding the choice of bundle, the 40W amp with a 10" speaker will be louder than you need for home use, unless your home is in the woods and you live there alone. My 20W Fender Mustang is also louder than I need and I use it with the master volume on 2 out of 10. The larger speaker and enclosure of the 40W amp will very likely have a positive effect on tone but I wonder if this will happen at reasonable, home playing volumes. Hopefully someone with that sort of experience can comment on this. A critical point with such amplifiers is how they distort and at which level they do it. This is why I would rather advise a beginner to start with a modelling amplifier that can do all possible things at low levels. You don't need any of it to learn the basics but I'm sure a beginner wants to be able to fool around with the palette of guitar sounds. The alternative to this is to add a multi-effect device, preferably bought used (I got a VOX Stomplab for 25€ on ebay, it's great). This way, the bundled amplifier can be used clean at any level is appropriate and be fed anything from acoustic simulation to high gain metal and worse (yes, there is worse). Just be aware that the common Harley Benton HB-20 or HB-40 won't provide all possible guitar sounds unless it gets help. The three guitars listed above have humbuckers. If you know what you're doing, fine. If not, check the difference with single coils, just to make sure you don't buy vanilla if you prefer chocolate. Yes, it's that sort of difference. If you find you like both and cannot choose, get a guitar with both or with a coil split function (the SC-Custom has it, not the other two). Some people like to play through headphones. They don't need a big box with a speaker. They can plug into a computer and use free amplifier emulating software. Or just use some multi-effect unit as a replacement for the amp. And if they do want to make noise, that computer or effect unit can be plugged into their stereo or whatever TV or home theater thing they have. I see some talk about guitars and styles. Most guitars can play almost anything. Jimmy Page recorded the first Led Zeppelin album on a Telecaster. If you need to look like you belong in a scene, you need a guitar that looks the part, whatever that is, but unless one aims at replicating sounds exactly, the choice of instrument does not matter much at home. Get something you like to look at and that doesn't stand in the way of the sounds you want. As an example of the latter, if you like clarity and hearing the attack on the string as you get from an acoustic, do not go for vintage humbuckers, they'll swallow it.
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3,457 posts
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Post by LeoThunder on May 14, 2020 10:02:59 GMT
I would like to pay 250-300Eur (or less ) for the set/bundle. Let's see what I paid for my stuff back in 2017 (prices updated to now when possible): Fender Mustang I V2 (used): 85€ "the Snake" Cable: 4€ (better spend some more for a better one like the HB GC-3 PR or PP, "the Snake" kept getting disconnected at the soldering points and I spent hours fixing it). 3m length is good at home but I couldn't play from across the room if I wanted to. 6m are not much more expensive. Clip tuner: 5€ No strap needed but I got one for about 6€. Never used it. A bunch of picks: 2€ Case: 45€ - but a gigbag for 18€ will do just fine. And if the guitar mostly stays at home, the cheap one for 10€ does too. My first guitar dwelled in something of that sort for decades. A good side function for cases or gigbags is to hold all the pesky small stuff that goes with the guitar. I can keep cables, new strings or picks in there. Adding a TE-40 to complete the set: 139€ Total: 251€ to 289€ (with case and better cable) The "bundle 2" comes to the same amount but you get the 99€ HB-40R amp. The used Fender modelling amp I got has made pedals and all sorts of effects redundant. This model or equivalent ones from this or other brands can be found easily used for less than I paid. This barely used Fender Champion 40 will sell for 60£. I would jump on it. Worthy addition: guitar stand, 8€ - quite an important item. It lets you keep your guitar safely in sight and ready to be picked up at any time. I love that. Maybe not too recommended if you have dogs or kids running around. As a conclusion, I wouldn't go for a bundle at all but get a used amplifier of my choosing. It doesn't make things much easier, I know.
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3,968 posts
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Post by salteedog on May 14, 2020 10:39:17 GMT
My primary advice is do not buy a guitar with a whammy bar/tremolo if you are a complete beginner and you wish to minimize the time you need to take to set the guitar up. If you like the look of them any of the Teles are a decent choice. (Note though the TE-52 is heavier than most).
As for an amp - I found having access to multi-effects really made a difference to my motivation - because it's more fun to play through effects. Fender Mustang or Roland Cube are solid choices (aim for nothing smaller than a 8in speaker). You should be able to find these amps on sale second-hand readily.
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3,457 posts
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Post by LeoThunder on May 14, 2020 11:07:34 GMT
My primary advice is do not buy a guitar with a whammy bar/tremolo if you are a complete beginner and you wish to minimize the time you need to take to set the guitar up. If you like the look of them any of the Teles are a decent choice. (Note though the TE-52 is heavier than most). Harley Benton ST's come with the bridge nailed so tight it is virtually a hard tail. There is nothing additional to set-up unless you want to and the thing will not react to bends so it can be fully ignored until the time comes to get interested in it.
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advb
Harley Benton Expert
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Post by advb on May 14, 2020 12:31:03 GMT
My primary advice is do not buy a guitar with a whammy bar/tremolo if you are a complete beginner and you wish to minimize the time you need to take to set the guitar up. If you like the look of them any of the Teles are a decent choice. (Note though the TE-52 is heavier than most). Harley Benton ST's come with the bridge nailed so tight it is virtually a hard tail. There is nothing additional to set-up unless you want to and the thing will not react to bends so it can be fully ignored until the time comes to get interested in it. That's interesting. I wonder how typical it is of entry level Strat type models generally? I picked up my Squier Showmaster cheap with virtually no fret wear and fret numbers stuck on the side of the neck: because the bridge was set up as floating and the nut slots were too high, it was almost impossible to keep in tune. I suspect the previous owner had bought it to learn on but fell at the first hurdle.
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