Harley Benton R-458MN WH MultiScale

I bought this mostly as a project guitar and didn't really expect a lot from it but turns out I won't be doing a lot to it because it's pretty good.

There's little things that bring the quality down like harshly polished frets (which is pretty easy to fix, the ends are phenomenal but the top surface needs a bit touching), paint job in some very minor areas (like in the cutout for the switch there's visible paint drops in the sides), the nut is bit rough (nothing that a bit of #2000 sandpaper and pencil couldn't fix) and little things.
Only big problem with mine is that the tuners are bad. Let's put it this way, I'm used to tune and work with 400€ Squire Strat, cheap Landola acoustic and cheap Japanese Les Paul from the 70's, so bad tuners are nothing new and I don't mind them, but these tuners are extremely sloppy even for me, too sloppy.

I expected a lot worse from this, like so worse I would only use the body and the neck as a base only. But it sounds great, feels great and plays great, just needs better tuners and a bit work.

Overall the build quality is good. The frets are a lot better than i expected. The pickups are ok, but not very high output. The neck feels good although a little bit too broad shouldered near the head.
The only thing that makes it practically unplayable out of the box is the tuners. They are completely useless and don’t keep in tune.

That being said, it’s an easy fix.
I just bought a set of HB locking tuners + 2 single tuners for both sides for less than a 100€.
I also installed an EMG808X pickup and now i got myself a usable and reliable fan-fret 8-string that sounds great. And it still cost me less than 400€!

I'll get straight to it.

Pros:
-The guitar is well built. Having fanned frets and it being an 8 stringer at this price range sounds all too good to be true, but it holds true to what it's advertised to be.
-The important parts, such as the neck is reliable.
-the tuners aren't top of the line but it does the job well enough to warrant as a positive thing for its price point.
-The bridge has great intonation range and its sturdy! wow! That's important! And you nailed it!
-There's conductive shielding paint on the humbucker cavities and the electronics cavities!!! something i didn't expect from a $150 guitar!!
-The fret ends actually had some sort of sanding/polishing done to it! My hands won't get cut going up and down on it!! wowow! Minimal work is required to get to the ideal specs. Big thumbs up.

Cons:
-mine came with a dead capacitor! WOO! Thankfully I'm a tinkering type of person, and I replaced 80% of the original electronics there cause..(segway to the next point)
-The electronics are kinda bad. But that's to be expected for a guitar at this price point. Though QC could've at least noticed the dead capacitor...or at least hear that something is wrong with the output of the guitar.
-lots of blemishes on the neck. A couple of raw unfinished spots, some scratches, uneven finish, and lots of coarseness when you run your hand at the back of the neck. Hopefully it will smooth itself out when it gets worn in.
-some of the frets are already worn?? I don't know what's going on but this isn't even B-Stock and i have crazy inconsistent frets on the one i got. Some frets looked untouched, some looked sanded and scratched but not polished to spec, some already dented by the string. whats going on haha...
-The nut doesn't have a curve to match the neck's radius curve. Nut is flat and requires lots of work to make the strings be at proper height on nut side. That i don't mind as much, just more tinkering for me.

Regardless of all of its issues, I still like this guitar, The cost of this guitar is equivalent to a months worth of Diet Pepsi for a family that drinks a lot of Diet Pepsi, and my family drinks a lot of Diet Pepsi. But this guitar is no sugar drink. It will make you work hard to make it like how you want it to be, but you'll like what you make out of it once you do.

It'd be neat if Thomann sent me a new, better capacitor, and maybe one of them weird German drinks too. I need a break form all this Diet Pepsi.