Harley Benton SC-450Plus CB Vintage Series

I bought this guitar as an affordable single cut, as I heard good opinions about it. I am using it for learning, playing, and developing guitar effects. It became my main guitar, just with a few modifications.

Build: I must say, this is a well built guitar. Its finish is good, virtually flawless for this budget. The guitar has a real 1.5 cm thick maple top. As expected, the electronics are not shielded inside the guitar body, and the finish in the cavities is raw.
The only flaws I could find, in this respect:
- the cover ring of one tuner is offset a little, the gear inside can be seen (on top of the headstock).
- one screw of the cover of the trussrod hole is lose.
- the top two halves are slightly different in shade, one is darker and the other lighter. Depending on the lighting, this is visible or not.

Playability: It was almost readily set up from arrival. I could set its action very low (less than 2 mm on the low end and 1.5 mm at the high D). Like all Harley Benton guitars I looked into, its fretboard radius is large. Cons:
- the 10th fret is slightly buzzing - I remind that I set a very low action.
- the provided top hat knobs are hard to pull for coil splitting. The shape, the slippery material and the little space between the knob and the body make a strong grip very difficult. Replacing them with cylindrical knobs is a must.

Sound: the two Roswell pickups are quite loud for a vintage humbucker, as they are advertised. Very, very much low end on both pickups, the sound is thick and fat. The bridge pickup is a pleasure to play, to obtain that classic rock tone. Due to the increased low end, it's a bit gritty when driven - in a good or bad way, depending on what you are playing. The neck pickup was barely usable to me from the factory - thick, dark and loud. I modded the electronics to cut some low end and I could obtain a great, balanced sound.