Harley Benton DC-580 CH Vintage Series

I own several guitars . Vintage and new. The American BIG 3 and (replica) models. I have to say, the HB DC- 580 CH will take it's place, on the GO - TO rack, among the Fender, Gibson , and Electra group. This guitar has a basswood body Canadian maple neck ,the humbuckers are good, good tuners, solid smooth feel. Granted, the electronics and hardware are probably not top of the line, but , they do the job , pretty well. I gigged with it the first week I got it. No one in the band could believe it. They were surprised, with the sound .I used it, to play all 4 sets. The rhythm player says, "he's gonna buy one, now". This is a well made, tight and together guitar. looks good, plays good, and sounds good. This would also make fantastic guitar, for someone to mod. with their own aftermarket parts, if desired. But , as is, it's a great guitar. Mine came, action set up, bridge, neck set up and frets finished, For the price, I don't think you can find another guitar that plays, looks, and sounds, as good as this Harley Benton, for the price. I also think you would pay 2 to 3 times, or maybe 4 to 5 times as much,
for one of its quality. I have another "import guitars", that I purchased new in 1978, (SLM Electra, very good guitar), and I payed , twice as much, then,( in 1978), as I did for this guitar. I will say, I think , they are, very closely comparable. Shipping may take a little longer than usual,(about 6 weeks for mine), had to wait for it to be back in stock. But it's worth it. Every guitar player should own, at least one Harley Benton. I have ordered three more.

I'm not a pro guitarist, I'm learning again from the beginning, having not picked up a guitar for almost 30 years. It started about 6 months ago I bought a strat, and a Epiphone SG. The strat doesn't suit but the SG does, I love SG's.
When I heard from various reviews how Harley Benton had upped it's game on their guitars, I just had to have one. Of course being a SG fan I choose the DC-580 CH. I can say with my hand on my heart that I am blown away by the quality of this guitar for the price. It's finish is absolutely flawless, the feel is wonderful. Of course there is neck dive but that's a minor thing, and common in other SG/SG style guitars. The neck is wonderfully smooth, as are the frets. The sound is very pleasing too, these pickups do a great job, not the best on the planet, but very capable for what I need, an AC/DC sound.
What do I use the DC-580CH for?? Well , my Epiphone SG is in standard tuning for the newer AC/DC stuff, and the DC-580 is half a semitone down for the older AC/DC stuff, saves time retuning all the time!
If I am totally honest, I prefer to play the older DC stuff, which means I have the Harley Benton guitar plugged in more than the Epiphone, which suits me fine 😁
To finalise: I am blown away that such a guitar exists for such a low price point, I love it! Don't be a brand snob, so many people who know what they're talking about, love this guitar!
Next step: I'm definitely getting a Harley Benton DC Custom in the next week or so.

This is very good for the price. Here are some general observations. My opinions are subjective, they're simply what I've found with what I received.

Fretwork seems very good. No sharp fret ends or sprout. The binding is very neatly done

Body appearance- the painter is darker and a littlee duller than the web photos. The finis is slightly transparent. The Body is three piece and because of the transparent finish you can see a centre piece with very different wood grain. It looks ok but might bother some. It would be better imho to make the paint opaque unless the grain/matching is attractive. But again that's just an opinion.

Sounds- neck pickup is warm and pretty fat. Not as good as the Roswells in my other HB guitars, but this guitar is 139 euro!!

Tuners are ok. They work but are not very smooth or precise. They will be replaced eventually.

Comfort. It exhibits pronounced neck dive. I play sitting as I'm a hobby player. but you may not.

Nut:- well seated, will need a little filing as there are plastic burrs left in some of the slots. No biggy.

Overall:- I bought it to mess around with. I don't own any high end guitars, my most expensive is a Harley Benton Fusion T (299 euro) which is markedly better quality than this guitar, but that's ot be expected. I will use it for occasional use in my garden office, some blues noodling, rock power chords and won't worry too much if I damage it.

Good for:- a complete beginner- a great starter guitar. Maybe as a living room guitar. With better tuners and pickups you could probably use it on stage, but I can't comment specifically because I'm not in that world.

Overall a very nice guitar for the money. It costs 139 euro and has a set-in neck.

After much thought and comparing different products I finally chose to buy the DC-580. Ordering was simple and a brief (computer) glitch with the order was remedied very quickly and without fuss or drama.
Guitar arrived as promised within 4-6 days with great protective packaging and in perfect condition. Guitar, after a minor re-tune, played perfectly straight out of the box. I love this guitar great tone, low action, plays beautifully and looks wonderful.
I cannot praise Thomann enough, I thoroughly recommend the Harley Benton product and the fantastic staff at Thomann to everyone and can't wait to buy again from them in the future.

This was my first purchase of a Harley Benton. I had always wanted a SG like guitar with 24 frets Les Paul Scale and the input on the side. Because of the input jack i avoided getting a Gibson or Epiphone. This guitar feels like an extension of myself. The pick ups sound amazing and the guitar was playable right out of the box, tuning was slightly flat but playable. the set up is great, feels like butter in my hands. I had them install Grover locking tuners and they included the original tuners with the shipment. this has become my favorite guitar followed by my Les Paul and Jackson soloist. it feels and plays so much better smoother and sounds so good! I cant believe this was so low in cost yet so high in quality. when i play this guitar i feel inspired like I did with my first Gibson Les Paul. I will be getting one of these for my sons birthday who has decided to move from the violin and Baritone Sax to guitar.

We All Know that Pickups, Strings Machine Heads Knobs ETC. Can be improved so Go And Spend 3 Grand Then. and there will be something you don't like on that one as well. Trust me I know , That's the way Guitars are, we are all different people with different Tastes in things. some people like low action others High, some people like a chunky neck, others don't, All im saying is for the money guys you cant beat it. If you have a few skills in setting a guitar up then theres no problem ive been playing guitar for 40 years. I Bought this for Home use Only In My Studio and was very impressed. Straight out of the box the Action was very good, But I did tweak it a little as I like really Low Action. Id like to see a Smaller Neck some Day on these Guitars about a 40mm Nut with a Softer C Shape profile ( That's just my preference ) The Quality of the build of the guitar was Insanely Fantastic Overall for me Just Fantastic value for the money.

This is an acceptable guitar. I can’t picture anyone famous wanting to wear this as bling but it is good enough for me. I am a heavy effects user so I can't comment on the sound. Lately I been playing country so with a good eq you can get whatever sound you want. Without eq it sounds good, and to me, how a guitar should sound. I can't give this a true review which I feel should be based on visiting the store to use its resources to test the guitar (I don't have an amp just 2.1 computer speakers. I live on a different continent. Live knowledgeable staff to assist and inform as to what the differences are between it and high-end guitars that look similar). My first order from Thomann on April 1, 2023, which included this guitar, was the first time I bought a guitar new and oh what a different experience. I am of very low-income and wanted a good sounding, quality guitar. I never heard of Harley Benton and my research for a manufacturer who was providing exceptional quality for its price lead me to Thomann. I notice that the volume knobs roll nicely; not stiff at all. I watched many, many reviews of instruments by HB on Youtube prior to purchasing. The first thing I checked was for any blemishes or imperfections Youtubers showed on their videos; none. Only my experience of past used-guitar purchasing had put the fear-of-god into me; making me decide to make sure that the guitar was professionally setup by Thomann prior to its arrival to my remote area. The cost to have it professional setup by Thomann is about 1/5 the price to my area; around 40 euros. This was discovered after much correspondence. Mind you if things went smoother by Thomann I probably wouldn't be making mention of this because although I saved money on luthier skills I had to have more-than-average patience with the staff of Thomann to figure out how to have it setup prior to shipping (add in comments at checkout and the staff will change your order).

This guitar is special, as I am sure all of their budget guitars are, and it gets the job done which is why I had bought it. It is special in the way that it is not black, unlike the other guitars I had ordered in the same order that only came in black. I prefer budget guitars when they have no tremolo (because I am not pro and have no desire in my life atm) and at this price I really couldn't care less if I put a dent in it. You can use any guitar that works as it should for any purpose if it is put together well, which this item appears to be. This includes recording. Only problem I have with this guitar is that out of the box the jack needed to be replaced because it was making that noise when the cord shifts (crrrrrr, crrrrr); to me this is a minor flaw. The bent metal in the inside of the jack where the end of the cord is held in place was the cause. It is really loose. Hard to believe it was missed by the staff of Thomann. I still haven't opened the jack up to check it out but will once the replacement part Thomann sent me arrives (no charge). I offered to repair using my many years of experience of using a soldering iron; no big deal to me.

The cover for the electronics maybe stuck in place. Could be that it has glued itself to the curing paint of the guitar idk. Mine definitely won’t come out without the assistance of a tool. If I ever need to check the electronics it will be short-of-a-miracle to get that cover off without marking anything.

This guitar was setup by Thomann with nothing specific done to it other than to change out the strings to a set of my choosing (their HB valuestrings which are not like the cheap ones you find on ebay, Amazon or Aliexpress). Seriously though. I gotta make mention of the HB valuestrings. They sound as good as any reputable name brand you see advertised in guitar magazines and I am glad I ordered a near lifetime supply in my first order. When I do something I try to do it to the best of my ability with the expectation of the end result to be as near as perfect as planned, but I gotta say, I really lucked out on purchasing those HB valuestrings. I had asked the staff the comparison of their HB valustrings to other cheap strings prior to purchase but they couldn’t make comment of the other strings and that their HB valuestrings sounded great; which they do. They are heavier gauge and better quality than the cheap strings sold at those other sites mentioned.

Low price, good sound, yes please! My specific need was for a guitar to have a quick on/off switch (volume on neck pickup turned to 0) that I could throw around which this does and at an affordable price.

This is the second Harley Benton guitar I've picked up from Thomann, the first being the TE20-HH matte black Tele style. That one was excellent, just what I wanted. So is this one! I've always wanted an SG style guitar, but never got around to it until buying the previous Harley Benton and figured the Tele style was so good, I could take a chance on this. Finish was pretty much perfect, no discernible flaws I could find. Tuners hold their tune well. No fret sprout on mine, and the hardware and electronics are all solid, work as they should. Plays so well, it's hard to put it down! If you're looking for a solid player in this style, look no further. This is definitely as good as it gets in this price range, and would beat out many instruments costing more.