Harley Benton R-456FR BK Progressive Series

Ostin itselleni hinnan perusteella ja olin oikein tyytyväinen. Tähän hintaan ei ole kovin suuria oletuksia, mutta soitettavuus on hyvä ja floikka pitää hienosti vireen kovemmassakin käytössä.
Kaula omaan käteen hieman liian paksu ja mikit ovat HB omaa, eli ei aivan parhaat. Ylipäätään voin suositella, jos ei halua käyttää enempää rahaa floikalliseen kitaraan, tällä pääsee hyvin kokeilemaan, miltä se tuntuu.

I bought the HB R-456 primarily as a modding platform, so it works okay for my use. Expected to do more setup work for instrument in this price-range. Tuners are not great, they feel loose and not very accurate. One of the tuners had a missing backplate and had glue or other substance in the gear. Got a replacement part from Thomann to replace faulty tuner.

Fret ends feel nice, but you can see filing marks at the ends. Frets are a bit scratchy, but with a quick polish fine. No low or high frets. The D-shape makes neck feel wide at the first frets, even though the nut width is standard 43mm. Fretboard was also bone dry, and required oiling right out of the box.

The stock pickups are as described, high gain to a point that getting a clean sound requires rolling down volume to about 5-6. Even then the sound is quite harsh and trebley, with in comparison little low end. Possibly could be fixed with proper EQ, but don't have a parametric eq in my amp. Pickups are mostly silent when idle. I have a set of Fishman Fluence pickups that I planned to install into the guitar anyway, so for me the pickups were not an issue.

Bridge doesn't feel high quality, but keeps tune, and fine tuners work. My low E-string kept coming off while tuning when i got the guitar, but I assume is a setup issue (not tight enough at bridge end). The trem bar feels nice, and locks into place with the nut which is a nice bonus. Intonation was spot on from the factory.

Electronics otherwise seem fine, selector switch is okay and knobs stay on. The output jack was not properly tightened, but an easy fix.

Finish and feel of body and neck are excellent, no complaints.

All in all expect to do a little bit of setup work and maybe polish on the frets and you've got fast playing low action modern metal guitar.

Ostin tämän koska halusin tutustua Floyd-Rose-tremoloon mahdollisimman edullisesti. Kitara tuli Thomannilta valmiiksi säädettynä, mikä oli hyvä, koska Floyd-Rose näyttää aika työläältä systeemiltä. Aika paljon sain toki viritellä kieliä aluksi, mutta sitten kun sain ne asettumaan, vire pysyi yllättävän hyvin melko railakkaassakin kammen käytössä. En aio käyttää tätä keikoilla, joten toistaiseksi ei tämän kalliimman Floyd-Rose -kitaran osto ole suunnitelmissa. Olen siksi ostokseeni hyvin tyytyväinen.

Stands up to comparison with my Aria Pro II (450€ retail) and Yamaha RGX721DG (750€ retail) from the 90's. Feels and sounds better than a Squire that I had. Intonation is set well throughout the neck, although I could probably get the action slightly lower. Holds tuning well. Sustain is good. It's light. It squeals easily when you want it to, and has good harmonics. It is well-shielded from electro magnetic interference. Pots don't scratch and feel good to turn.

Now the small criticisms, which are unwarranted considering the cost of this guitar. The volume knob cuts off quite abruptly near the zero mark. The tone is a little bit darker than I'm used to (but that's why we have EQ on our pedalboards). To get a completely clean tone I need to roll off the volume a little, but I tend to do that anyway. Otherwise there is a hint of saturation, and it's a bit fizzy (no I'm not clipping the signal). The trem is placed right above the volume pot - my other guitars have more separation.

Quality in the long term? Who knows how long the tremolo will last if you're heavy handed with it. I will be using it for subtle expression, not divebombs. If the wood warps within the next few years, it would still probably be worth it for the price anyway.

It would be perfect if Thomann could sell these trems as spare parts. I'd buy one right now for 80€ - 90€, as a future replacement.

Thanks as always to the purchase and delivery team, and to Correos, who are consistently awesome at delivering to small islands.