Harley Benton SC-450 P90 GT Classic Series

Rengeteg tesztet néztem meg a gitárról és véleményeket is olvastam sokat mielőtt megrendeltem. Már egy éve meg akartam rendelni csak mindig közbejött valam ide múlt év végén úgy döntöttem, hogy karácsonyra meglepem magam vele!

Már rendeltem előtte egy SC400-as matt feketét, ami jó kis gitár volt az áráért de végül nekem a nyaka nem jött be annyira. Előtte volt egy régi sorozatú TE90QM még Wilkinson P90-ekkel és azoknak a hangja nagyon tetszett, ám később eladtam de már akkor megfogadtam, hogy lesz még P90-es gitárom és azért is nézegettem ezt a gitárt olyan sokat!

A rendelés leadása után négy nappal már nálam volt a gitár és izgatottam bontogattam a csomagot de igazából semmi probléma nem volt bele! A nyaka nagyon jó vékony és kényelmes, a gitár építési minősége és kivitele nagyon jó, egyetlen dolog volt amiben esztétikailag bele tudtam kötni, hogy a hátlap sőtét festése ahol találkozik a domború fedlap arany festésével az kicsit bután van megoldva, picit egymásba lóg a két szín de ez alig észrevehető, szóval ennyi!

A hangja nagyon jó, nincsenek éles bundvégek, a beállítás is elég jó volt kivéve a dobozból, teljesen játszható, a hangolást jól tartja, szóval nem csak az árához képest hanem abszolút módon is egy jó gitár! Meglepő de a kerámia P90-neknek nagyon jó hangja van! Tiszta és torzított módon is!
Ha valaki nagyon maximalista akar lenni akkor szépen fel lehet csiszoltatni a bundokat hangszerésszel, meg esetleg finomhangolni a húrmagasságot, húrnyomást és kicsit kezelni a fogólapot citromolajjal mert picit száraz de nem kötelező. Én a gyári húrokkal használom még mindig, nagyon jó gitár, bátran ajánlom mindenkinek!

Ja annyi még egy lassan három hónap használat után, hogy a hangszedő választó kapcsolón lekopott a "rythm, treble" felirat mert olcsó festés csak de ennyi. Azóta is tökéletesen működik. Most rendeltem a Thomann-tól ilyen kör alakú kis műanyagot, két darabot a kapcsoló alá, meglátjuk azok hogy bírják! :)

A régebbi HB termékekkel voltak fenntartásaim, de úgy tűnik sikerült orvosolniuk ezt a hibát.
A hangszert kicsomagolva ,már csak hangolni kellett, és játszani rajta.
A hangszedőket nem árt cserélni, de nem rossz az eredeti sem.
A kidolgozás is sokkal igényesebb.
Ilyen áron ingyen van szerintem.
Jó hangszer.
Ismerek nagyobb neveket, amik nem hoznak sokkal jobb minőséget.
👌

I bought this because I had severe GAS on p90 guitars. I first opted for the SC special one, but I just don't dig the mustard colour. This one is also way cheaper so it's was an easy choice!

It arrived within 3 days after ordering on sunday. Awesome!

The guitar looked great but out of the box there were some small issues. The setup was not great (although not bad) and there are a few little finish flaws. But hey, for this money you can't expect perfection.

Tuners are ok, not going to swap them because they hold tune just fine. They also turn smooth, the throw is a bit short, so when tuning just be really careful.

The nut is cut fine, it's plastic but I don't care. I put some pencil graphite in there and it's now smooth as any nut. EDIT: the nut was causing major tuning issues. Installed a graphtech nut and it holds tune very well. The tuners are really good enough.

Fretboard looks nice, was very dry an needed some oil.
The frets were a bit rough, needed some polishing with 0000 steel wool. Be sure to mask the pickups with tape when using steel wool!

There are a few high frets here and there. Nothing really disturbing. I've set the action on 2mm low e and 1.5mm high e. It buzzes a little, but can't hear it when playing on the amp. I do however want to try a fret level on this one to see how this goes. A guitar this cheap is a nice practise object. EDIT: I leveled the frets. It was my first attempt and I improved the playability. Still 2 or 3 frets that are a little higher. I might spot level them with the next string change.
EDIT: I don't know if the wood in the neck still thinks it's alive. I've done a second full fret leveling as 13 frets were again uneven. It's now completely level and plays great. Hope it stays this way, because I'm not doing a third leveling ;).

The pickups sound ok but not for me. They are ceramic of course and I don't like the boomy attacky sound of ceramic magnets. I ordered some alnico IV magnets to put in these p90's to see if they can sound the way I like them to sound. EDIT: the alnico IV magnets are installed. It didn't really change the tone much. I might go for some vintage voiced alnico 2 pickups. EDIT: A new set of p90's are on the way. A combo of A2 neck + A5 bridge with low output.

The pots are the cheap mini pots and they put linear pots in for the volume control. I like log pots better so I will swap them at one point. They do work fine though and they are not scratchy. I think I will buy Alpha pots, because CTS pots have too wide bushings. You need to ream out the holes and I'm not going to bother doing this :). EDIT: Yeah so I've grown to love linear volume pots... So much better volume control! Really the whole range from 10 to 1 is usable now, instead of most action happening from 10 to 7 on log pots.

The switch is cheap, but works fine, no need to replace.

Oh yeah one nice tip: when ordering I placed a remark asking if they could select a lighter weighing one for me. And they did! Mine weighs about 3.8kg (8.4 lbs) which is pretty lightweight for a Les Paul style!

Because the colour is more copper than gold, I also ordered black plastics for the pickups, switch and knobs. Looks awesome!

All in all I'm happy with the guitar. It's a love/hate relationship with this one. By far the worst HB guitar I've had, but I learned to level frets on this guitar and I dig p90's. I might sell it on later, but will definitely need a p90 guitar in my arsenal.

I've been playing for 47 years now as both a semi-pro and amateur/hobbyist, and a lot of great instruments have passed though my hands over the years. This is one of them. If you have some basic knowledge of how to properly setup, care for, and modify guitars there is no reason you couldn't have a Les Paul every bit as good as the real thing. For me, the only modifications I've made was to 1) swap out the tuners as they had a tendency to not immediately catch or engage at times, and 2) put on an Earvana Compensating Nut (which I automatically do to ALL my guitars). There was nothing wrong with the intonation and, in fact, the intonation was perfectly setup right out of the box! However, I mostly play around the first 4 frets where intonation is problematic on ANY guitar (even $20,000 ones!) and the Earvana solves that problem. Regardless of the "catching" problem, the tuners did work and the guitar had no problems staying in tune. I choose to replace the tuners with the Wilkinson EZ-LOK tuners which retail for about $20 USD and work great, so it hasn't proven to be a deal-breaker.

The fit and finish are simply flawless! This is a beautiful looking instrument. My "gold" top is actually a little more on the copper side (too much red pigment?), but I've come to really like it this way. It still looks fantastic and it makes mine unique (I hope)!

As far as the neck and frets go: I see no issues whatsoever with the neck or frets. Frets are smooth and polished with no sharp ends. The neck feels and plays simply great. for those concerned about neck-dive, this model is well-balanced and there is no neck-dive with it. One thing I especially like about the neck is that the headstock is at a 14° angle like the Epiphones and not 17° like the Gibsons. This means there's less (unnecessary) tension on the neck/headstock so that the neck is more resistant to breaking while still providing all the tension you need. Why Gibson continues to use a 17° is beyond me as it's completely unnecessary and only weakens the neck. The SC-450 also has a scarf joint which aids GREATLY in preventing neck breakage. Yes, I like scarf joints and you should too. Nice touch, Thomann!

The inlays are perfect and centered. The bindings are perfect with no gaps or marring.

The weight is pretty hefty although not as heavy as an actual Les Paul.

The electronics, knobs, and switches are all solid and there are no problems there. The P90 pickups, which is WHY I got this particular gold top model are simply luscious! Nice beefy sound with a nice tonal range. Everything you'd want in a classic P90. If you know P90s you either love them or hate them. I love P90s and the Roswells are outstanding. Yes, they're a bit noisy, but that's all P90s (which is why some people hate them). You learn to deal with the hum because nothing else sounds like a P90. This thing grinds/rocks like a champion!

The bridge and tailpiece are solid and I see no problems there.

This guitar just smacks of amazingly good quality and craftsmanship and it astounds me as to how Thomann can do this for so little money! This is my first experience with an Harley Benton Les Paul and based on this I will be buying more HB Les Pauls. Right now I'm looking at that beautiful white one!