Harley Benton SC-1000 WH Progressive Line

As I've seen a lot of videos on youtube about HB and thought about trying out a LP-shaped guitar I've decided to buy this particular model as it sounded pretty good to play metal.

What I have received though, is a mess of a guitar. Every bit has a flaw - be it neck, pots, humbuckers, body. It feels like winning a lottery, expect I've lost in every way possible. I didn't send this guitar back as I have spend pretty much 50% of its rrp trying to make it playable.

This guitar needed complete fret dressing, oiling and even cleaning as it had dirt all over the place and my hands were black just after holding the guitar. Soldering felt like it was done by a guy who has never done it before, wire 'management' in the cavity was also pretty bad as there was no untangled wires. There are 500k pots used, which is wrong for active pickups and the capacitor used was leaking direct current. Neck pickup's output is 10 times stronger than f/e EMG 81, which is just absurd and it's leaking huge AC. I've tried contacting support for an electric schematic which they supposedly 'didn't have'. I haven't sent this guitar back as I have spent a decent amount of money and time trying to make it playable.

Anyway, this guitar made me learn a lot about the things you can mess up while making a guitar. Thank you ;)

In general I am quite happy with this guitar, it looks great and feels like a more expensive guitar.
Don't get me wrong, this guitar looks stunning but there are some minor visual flaws (coloring and binding on the edges looks to be a bit rushed). But this is on the sides and places where regular eyes don't seem them; also nothing is visible or looking bad from a step away. I would simply bring this on stage on how it looks.

The pickups and pots need to be changed. While it sounds OK for heavier stuff like metal (and I was surprised), I will be changing the electronics and pickups for proper EMG. There is just too much gain so you would need to dial this down A LOT, it's not possible to get any proper clean sounds from it like some other reviewers have also stated, even with extensive tweaking.
On the positive side, sustain is massive and it will ring out for ages.

Neck feels amazing, action was good from initial setup but there are 1-2 dead notes higher up on the neck. Needs proper setup after receiving and most likely needs some work. But for this price it is expected.

Overall, I would reccommend this if you are looking for a guitar with such looks - for the money you pay it's worth it and the neck is pretty decent. Don't simply expect that this is something that you can play right out of the box, as it most likely needs additional work. Great for a hobby project. Great for it's money, but not perfect and fully playable as is.

It looks nice, but I'm going to have to spend a lot of time and some money to upgrade it to a decent guitar.
The volume pots are basically useless, i.e., they work essentially as a switch (I'm guessing they are the wrong value). Comes with cheap dime-sized pots, and the wiring is sloppy, e.g., wires twisted together with a piece of tape over it. Not really impressed with the tuners; they feel kind of sloppy so I will probably replace them. Knobs rub on the body of the guitar. The plate over the electronics on the back doesn't sit flush on the guitar. The action came set crazy high, so I had to adjust it way down and, of course, the pickups as well. Was not really happy that the adjusting screws on the bridge came tool damaged. Of course, the frets are going to need work, i.e. polishing and filing the ends. Necks a bit on the beefy side, kind of like the old Gibsons. Other than that, it sounds pretty good, but I'm already considering changing the pickups. I thought it would be nicer considering I have another HB guitar that I love.

The guitar appears to have been carved from a chunky piece of Mahogany, so the sustaaaaaaaaaaaiiinnnn goes on forever. My only gripes are with the neck which is rather fat, maybe too fat, for my liking and feeling r that reason doesn't lend itself well to high speed soloing in the high register. Add to that the majority of the frets that needed filing down before making the guitar playable, and it all contributed to my overall low rating. Having said that, the paint job is outstanding and on a par with guitars four or five times more expensive. The active pickups were not to my liking and so I replaced them with passive ones. One thing I wish to add is the usual high professionalism from the guys at Thomann. My guitar arrived with a big chip on its back, in my opinion caused by mishandling on the part of the courier. Anyway, on informing Thomann about my issue, after providing them with photographic evidence of the damage, they didn't hesitate to offer me a discount on the price. I can't say 'Fairer than that'.

My first HB. Delivery was fast, arrived in 3 or so days. The headstock has 3 points without paint but it doesn't affect anything and it is at the back, so I can't even see it normally.
Build quality is good, I'll probably just adjust string height and intonation, it is a little higher than I would prefer. Fret ends feel nice, just need some polishing, oil, and string changing
As for the sound, it is very responsive, has a sustain that goes on for days and has a great tone with heavy distortion. I bought the guitar with the thought of upgrading to EMGs in mind but I'm quite happy with the HBZ. Playing with cleans is a little bit harder, you need to find the sweet spot with the volume knob to balance output and clarity.
The neck feels similar to my other Les Pauls, not particularly thin but definitely not thick.
At this price range it is impossible to imagine any manufacturer getting even close to the quality, especially considering that it uses active pickups, bindings all over the guitar, different headstock, etc.
Comparing to a Squier that I had in the same price range, the HB feels much higher quality, even the unbranded tuners are better.
I can't really point a negative but you need to keep in mind that this is a budget option!