Harley Benton R-457MN WH MultiScale

I always been wondering what a 7 stringed guitar plays like, even more so what a fanfret guitar feels like.

That's when I noticed this one it's price and looks actually got me interested in trying it out, although at the same time it's price kind of made me fear it would feel very cheap.

A few days later and now I received it so lets go through my observations.

Build quality: Ok this is by no doubt the thing that caught me the most of guard, I did not expect the finish and quality this feels like for this price, sure have no doubt- I can tell it's not a an expensive guitar, but it certainly plays in a higher division than guitars from other brands in the same price range when it comes to build quality over all.

I could not find any obvious imperfections on my copy, body, neck, fretboard is all alright considering it's price.
Additionally it seemed to be well setup from out of the box, I basically just had to do some minor tuning, the tuners work fine for what they are btw.

The fanfret board really feels nice to play, there are areas that however feels like the frets are slightly rough if you bend the strings- but it's not that bad and it probably goes away after a few sets of strings.

So physically everything been alright so far.

Now the big con, I eventually plugged the guitar in- and yes this is where it's obvious it's not competeting with higher end guitars,
the equiped electronics sounds rather bad for a lack of a better word, but my biggest complaint is that it picks up noise in what seems to be a radius of 5-10 meters. And it's even so bad that I need to run my noise gate at maximum level to squelsh it- but it does work and yes you could argue you wouldn't hear the noise at a high gain, but at the same time a high gain makes the problem even more apparent.

So in conclusion I think this should be seen (and that may be reasonable considering it's price) as a practice guitar rather than anything else, you can get the hang of playing 7 stringed, you can get used to fanfret (to be honest both are a lot easier that I anticipated).

Considering the physical aspects are good however perhaps it's worth upgrade the electronics, I'm not sure what route I will take eventually.

Would I recommend this guitar despite the negative tone in the later part of this review?

Yes absolutely- I have absolutely no doubt it's worth what is asked for, I mean about 160 euro is basically nothing when it comes to playable instruments- this is by all means playable. I think the pickups are the main issue with the guitar as it is- they just feel toygrade while the rest of the guitar feels like it has a higher standard.

So i got this because i was curious about trying out a 7 string and it didnt disapoint. Plays okay, not like anything special but good for a budget guitar. Fretboard does feel a little bit plasticy but on the other side looks nice!
And you cant go wrong with the coolness factor of having a fanfret guitar, unlike what i though before i got it, its not harder to play at all, feels really natural and atleast i had no issues at all adjusting from only playing traditionall fret 6 strings.

Sound wise its got a bit to much low end and lacks punch in my opinion but other than that its a great guitar.
Slap some pickups in it and give it a good setup and you'll have a good time with this instrument!

Stunning fanfret with immense quality compared to the price tag.

Pickups are alright and does the job, but needs replacement if you want to get satisfied. They pick up pretty much everything, which can be good and bad. At gig volume they sadly produce nasty feedback.
Tuners were really bad, replaced them and now it holds tuning even with some serious bending.

Some fret ends were sharp but that's an easy fix.

I've had several other 7-string guitars from more expensive brands and this really stand up on it's own and it's A LOT cheaper than others.

Highly recommend this guitar.