Harley Benton SC-450Plus VB Vintage B-Stock

I was not impressed with the quality of Harley Benton?s old-shape LP copy, but they seem to have learnt from the past. This is a quality guitar. The body is a two-piece mahogany with a nice flamed top. The neck looks to be three piece, but feels good in the hand. Unlike the first generation, the binding and frets are smooth, with no sharp ends, or the binding coming off. The action is low out of the box and plays well without any setting up. The sound can be a little dark, and the pickups a touch harsh. Rolling back the volume takes some of the bite off the output. Quality wise, the guitar is as good as one would expect for the money. There are some minor imperfections under the lacquer, and around the binding. The plastic feels and looks cheap. Taking the pick guard off really improves the aesthetics. The tone and volume knobs sit several millimeters above the body, which isn?t a good look, but unlike the previous generation, there?s no play, and they turn like they should.

I would recommend this guitar to people who want an introduction to LP style guitars, but don?t want to spend a lot of money.

This is probably the best £115 I have ever spent.
This is my second Harley Benton I have purchased in a couple of weeks. I received it yesterday expecting some issues but I can't find a thing wrong with it. Intonation was spot on , just lowered the string height a tad, tweeked the neck relief and been rocking for hours.
My previous purchase a CST 24 Tol has the same pickups which I found a little too warm so changed them out for brighter pups.
I was expecting to do the same here but in this guitar they sound perfect so will be keeping them in place.
The guitar has a nice weight and neck profile , practically the same as my Les Paul Classic and not far off in terms
of sound. Have been playing it through a cranked up Marshall and can't put it down.
It makes me question the thousands of pounds I have spent on my guitar collection. I will definitely be buying some more HB guitars, just got to find some room.

When the new Harley Benton SC series was introduced I was a bit put off that they changed the shape of the body and the heel but now I love it! The high notes is far more accessible than it is on my L-500 that has the fat Les Paul style heel.

The finish is really god with just some minor flaws around the binding.
The threaded inserts is not counterbore into the body which I already knew before ordering so I took it with me to work where I could do a perfect counterbore which really enhanced the look. In the process I noticed that the flamed maple top seems to be a veneer glued on to the maple top but that was expected for such a low priced guitar.

The nut is some kind of delrin/nylon that is made really good. I intendet to put on a tusq nut as I did on my Harley Benton L-500 that had cheap plastic nut. I ended up putting the delrin nut back on after using the tusq nut for a few days since tuning the guitar was smoother with the delrin nut.

The neck has a really tiny twist in it which gives i a tiny bit more relief on the low E-string side but it´s so small it does not affect how it performs and it´s so small that a little fret levelling would do the trick.
The fret job seems to be really good with all the frets seated as they should.

The pickups sounds really good and warm and is great for clean to hard rock sound.

What can I say, I ordered this guitar on a Friday afternoon and I had it in my hand the next morning the fastest delivery ever. They say a guitar is all about feel and I have to say I have owned a Yamaha RGX420 which is a very well made guitar and I've had more fun with this SC 450 than the the last year and a half with the Yamaha. This puts a smile on your face, sounds good ( for the money ), is well made and looks beautiful.I was expecting a cheap guitar and got a bundle of joy!