Harley Benton BS-20BK Rock Series

I didn’t expect this to be great but dude I pulled it out the box and it was nice and shiny, almost in tune and had a good weight. Plugged it into my Orange and my pedal board and played King Diamond Welcome Home. Sounds good, the pickups actually surpassed all expectations, I feel bad I’m cutting them! The neck is awesome, it’s one of those make you want to learn necks (this is one of those “no neck is the same because wood is never the same” things.
I bought 2 because my singer wants to learn and we are old BCR fans and users. The two guitars are vastly different in good ways, my singer’s guitar is heavier and doesn’t quite sound the same. This is perfect for a beginner if they want METAL! Can’t find anything bad and Thomann customer service is awesome!

I bought this guitar knowing the first thing I will do is upgrading it.
Straight out of the box the guitar was not sounding great and playing on it was not that comfortable. But! After:
- changing the strings
- adjusting trussrod
- adjusting string height on bridge
- adjusting intonation on bridge
It sounded very well and the string action was okay!

I will change the keys, pots, nut and bridge so I can only say of the base of this guitar - neck and body is pretty great.

CONS:
- Guitar was not packed very safely and one of the 'horns' of the body was messed up in delivery - it's only about 1 cm of the lacquer though in the back so not a big deal,
- One of the tunning keys is little bit rusty in few places, but I will replace it nonetheless.

My first electric guitar (I've owned 2 bass guitars so far) so I don't have much to compare it to but for the price I have very little to complain about.

The only things I'd consider as negatives are that the strings it came with were okay but nothing special. I re-strung it with a £7 pack of DR DDT-10's and it sounds great! Also I'd have preferred a thru-body tremolo-style bridge as I've heard they have better sustain than the Tune-o-matic bridge this has but it's fine for a beginner like me.

The meh is that it needed a bit of a set up, but that's fine as that can be needed on more expensive guitars too.

Pro's then. I can't find any faults with the finish, overall build quality is great and I love the design, practicality be damned! It's not too heavy and the tuners are fine and smooth. Sound is great too though I'm sure the humbuckers it comes with aren't the best, but again it's perfectly fine for a beginner like me. Finally the price, way better than I was expecting for this kind of money!

I knew going in that this was a "B-Stock" item, so I expected a slight blemish or two. I did NOT expect a large chip out of the paint and wood on one corner. This guitar should have been listed as damaged or "C-Stock", as the defect is rather large and obvious. That said, once cleaning, oiling of the fretboard, and setup was done; it sounds rather good overall. The looks on stage are killer! The weak point (again) are the pickups and possibly the tuners, but those are easy upgrades. Considering the cost of the guitar, I would not hesitate to spend a few hundred on upgrades. Overall, great offering by Harley Benton. Just need to get some wood filler and gloss enamel paint to repair the glaring defect.