jumped on the hype with Harley Benton, wanted to test out for my self if all the hype is indeed true. For most parts I understand the hype and find it hard to get this much guitar at this price point. Many compare it to Epiphone around the 500 - 800 Euro price point a comparison I don't think do the Epiphone justice. The feel and tone of the Harley Benton is not of the Epiphone 2020 inspired by series, which has better components overall, but is also 2.5 times more expensive.
Straight out of the box the SC-450 wasn't perfect, I had to polish the frets, lubricate the fretboard, adjust pickup height, strings and do an intonation of the guitar.
The volume pot for neck pickup was faulty, rolling to zero didn't turn off the guitar. Thomann quickly returned 50 euro for this mistake, which I'm happy with.
The guitar doesn't stay in tune that well, which I believe is down to the plastic nut.
The Roswell pickups are what they are, the bridge is bright and sound pretty good. The neck is too dark and muddy for my taste (sounds good coil splitted though).
I'm going to replace all electronics with better quality and replace the nut with a graphtech.
The pickups will probably also be replaced with Seymour Duncan JB/Jazz.
Overall build quality is good, nothing to point a finger at.
Seems like alot of negative for this guitar, but for a pricepoint of 160 euroes you get an excellent platform for personalizing a guitar. For beginners I'm sure this guitar will bring a lot of joy and excitement for years to come.
