Harley Benton HP-42 Signature TT Roasted

This is my second Harley Benton guitar. My first was the Harley Benton Fusion-II HH FR Roasted FBB, which I was very impressed with. I wrote a review for it, as well, which you can read on the product page. I was hoping that this guitar would be as good as that one. It definitely is.

Just like with my Fusion-II, I could find no finish flaws at all. The color of this guitar looks very green on the product page, but in person, it truly is a turquoise color. That shouldn't have been a surprise, but it was. Just a little bit, anyway. It wasn't a bad surprise, though. It's a beautiful guitar and I'm still very pleased with the way it looks.

The neck is a very fast, satin-finished, delicious-looking caramelized color. The soft V profile makes chording an absolute joy and the moderately flat radius also allows for easy string bending. I've owned dozens of guitars over the past 31 years and this guitar has one of the best necks I've ever played. Yeah, it's really that good.

The pickups were a bit of a surprise, too. I own a somewhat similar guitar, a Yamaha Pacifica 611HFM, which is also a hard-tail guitar with a bridge humbucker and a P90 neck pickup, too. That guitar has Seymour Duncan pickups in it, so it obviously sounds great. To my ears, though, the Roswell pickups in this guitar sound just as good, if not better. Perhaps they're not top quality, but these pickups just seem to match the tonewoods used in this guitar so well that I have no plans to change them.

The coil tap and phase switching makes this guitar very versatile. It can sound bright, warm, loud, soft, and sort of odd with the phase inversion switched on, but all of the sounds are nice and usable. I wish I could say the same for some of my other, more expensive guitars.

The GraphTech nut and locking tuners are very nice touches, as well, and completely unheard of in this price range. My Pacifica has both of these features, too, but it also cost almost double what this guitar did. Kudos to Harley Benton for caring enough to install such quality parts, because the tuning stability is very solid as a result and sometimes that's all a good guitar needs to become a great guitar, like this one is.

Overall, this is an excellent guitar that looks sharp, plays smoothly, sounds sweet, and stays in tune very well. I'm very happy with it.

If you're thinking that this somewhat unusual guitar might be right for you, then you're probably 100% right and I highly recommend it without a doubt.

I play at home or with friends, so I'm not a pro by any measure.

I ordered a Harley Benton HP-42 Signature Sunday night and the UPS lady was knocking on my door Wednesday morning! From Germany! Through customs! I thought it would take a couple of weeks at least! Thanks Thomann.

BACKSTORY: My existing guitar is a BC Rich Mockingbird I, which is a good guitar for 180USD. I wanted an upgrade for less than 500USD, and spent months trying out guitars, but didn’t find anything that impressed me all that much. After checking hundreds of reviews on YouTube I decided to take a big chance and go for the HP-42 sight unseen.

UNBOXING: Well, the packaging doesn't look that great, and I was a bit apprehensive opening the box.

Unbelievable! This thing is off the charts beautiful! I spent an hour searching for the slightest flaw and found nothing to complain about! Not a single scratch, chip, or dent. I know the laminate top is 2-piece, but I almost need a magnifying glass to spot the seam. The roasted maple neck has a lot of pretty banding and the satin finish feels flawless. The frets are nicely finished with no rough spots. The nut is nicely done and the strings sit at the correct height. The chrome hardware is all premium, and just plain looks classy.

SETUP: It comes setup almost perfectly. The neck is dead-on straight. The only thing I might change is the string height. It comes a little high for my taste, but I will try it out for a while before I make any adjustments. It should just be minor adjustments to the bridge saddles. No string buzz anywhere. The D'addario strings are a nice touch. The QC was signed off by John. KUDOS John!

COMFORT: This is the most important thing for me. Almost any electric guitar can be made to sound good with a decent amp and setup, but comfort and play-ability depend on how the guitar is physically constructed, and that is difficult to change.

I think all guitars suffer from neck dive, but the dive on the HP-42 is minimal. It sits well balanced when sitting. Add a strap and the neck dive disappears because the neck strap button is located far out over the neck.

The deep sculpting at the top of the body is really comfortable, and adds to the balance. The sculpting for accessing the highest frets 21 & 22 could be just a tiny bit deeper, but that isn't a big deal. I'm not going to be doing bar chords that far up the neck.

It is the most comfortable guitar I've tried with the possible exception of a 2000USD Ibanez.

SO HOW DOES IT PLAY?: In a word, Fantastic! I’m not sure why, but difficult chords are suddenly easier. In fact, everything is easier. Maneuvering the full length of the neck is slick and fast. The glossy stainless frets make bending easy. Natural sustain is good due to the heavy hardwood body.

The biggest surprise is the bridge; it makes palm muting a snap because it is so clean and flush!

The tone and volume controls have huge range from soft to loud, and super mellow to glass breaking bright. The single coil pickup is as good as any pickup at any price point I have tried. The humbucker is good but it just can't compare with the single coil.

The switches offer so many tone combinations I haven’t gotten them all figured out yet. I may want to turn the toggle switch 90-degrees from UP/DOWN operation to LEFT/RIGHT because the location makes it easy to accidentally flip positions when strumming. That is an easy change.

IN SUM: I love it! The HP-42 is pretty, comfortable, easy to play, and versatile. I don’t think there is another electric that offers this kind of value at this price point. If you want the best bang for the buck at under 500USD then YOU GOTTA GET ONE OF THESE!

Trying to keep this as short as possible!

It is my first Harley Benton guitar, and I couldn't resist ordering this one as it was as if I were to design it in terms of absolutely everything!

It is absolutely amazing how you can get a guitar with these kind of specs and quality for the money! There were very minor issues, such as a small dink near the nut, and some finish "flaws" at the back of the body in the wood grain and at the lower horn on the binding, but those didn't bother me. However, the biggest flaw in the entire guitar (visually) was the space between the neck and the body at the lower part of the neck pocket: you could easily fit a business card in there. But these kind of things are also sometimes present on guitars that are up to 3 times more expensive than HP42, so complaining will be acting like a spoiled person. Also, non of these issues affect the playability and tone, as far as I'm concerned. I'm just going to take it to the luthier to consult about the neck pocket, as the neck might need a bit of a shift/tightening or etc. No big deal, really.

In case of this guitar, you may say that the get more for what you payed for!

The electronics (pots, knobs) might not be as durable as in higher-end guitars, but that is understandable. The knobs have little resistance when turning.

The sound, the playability, the versatility, the looks... You probably can't go wrong with these specs!

The rest is almost identical to the photos! Best guitar in its price range! I have retired my Gibson SG Special 2008 and now almost exclusively play this one during live shows and at home.

The weight is fine, the neck is smooth and just the way I like it, and the overall ergonomics are wonderful.

This one's for a lifetime for me! I'm a semi-pro musician, and it suits my needs perfectly!

The setup was spot-on out of the box!

Thank you, Harley Benton, thanks to the artist, who's signature guitar this is, and a special big thanks to Thomann for the great overall service!

I had seen Harley Benton guitars on you tube a few months ago,
At first I just watched, thinking they can not be that good at the price point that everyone was saying, At that time there wasn't a thought in my mind of purchasing one for any reason.
I own 30 plus guitars with a majority of those being Gibson so all though these looked good I was just a sideline watcher.
Knowing that Henning Pauly knows a good guitar when he gets his hands on one, I decided to give has signature Harley Benton a shot, paid the expedited shipping and three days it arrived.
( Now the packing was RIDICULOUS for a package sent around the block let alone half way across the world, Okay, it wasn't that damaged other than a mark on the headstock where the inter box with nothing else around it had flew around in the larger box and wiped out the styrofoam at the end of the box and the headstock ripped through the cardboard).
Pure luck, back to the guitar, simply put its a very beautiful guitar and plays great ,fit and finish are spot on it stays tuned up and sounds great.
Don't know if i will be a repeat customer over the packaging issues.
couldn't imagine buying a top of the line Les Paul and it arriving that way.
In conclusion if you decide to get this guitar you won't be disappointed, ROCK ON

Having watched the progress of the design of the Harley Benton HP42 signature guitar - I watched Henning play one of the first of the public batch release and promptly ordered one for myself. It was delivered by UPS to my home in Milton Keynes, UK. a week ago and having unwrapped it and stared at the sheer beauty of the build and finish - I allowed the guitar to acclimatise after its 4 days in transit and then picked it up to play. the only strings out of tune were the bottom low E an A - all the others were pitch perfect. I have hardly put this guitar down since - its an amazingly well built musical instrument that doesn't justify its low price. I have PRS core American built guitars and have bought them in favour of Fender and Gibson models, yet this beautiful Harley Benton signature model has cost me less than a PRS SE standard model and sounds more like a full blown PRS core model. All praise to Thomann for offering such quality merchandise at such low price points - I'm now looking to purchase a semi-acoustic model in the very near future!

I bought this guitar mainly for personal use. No gigs intended since playing guitar is only a hobby.

This is my second Harley Benton.
First was a T-Style kit I built with my son a few years ago. Good a DYI and for a beginner.

I was looking for a P90 equipped guitar and I came across Henning Pauly's signature model.
I liked besides the versatility - a bridge humbucker with single-coil option and a P90 neck pickup - the quality of the build and the components. And the story behind building it.

What I received exceeds my expectations. Sounds great - even for my (lack of) experience. And it looks much better than the pictures. Harley Benton products are no longer "cheap" but rather "affordable". Great products for their price range!

If I have to find a flow that was the action that was set a bit higher but other than this it was ready to go.

I was looking for something different and something that was versatile and this guitar sure delievers.

It has many options sound wise with coil spliting and also out of phase options and the pickups especially the P90 sounds very good. This is by no means a metal axe, the clean tones are lovely if you are into blues and funk, for rock the P90 and humbucker sounds great driven and gives you a lot of classic rock and punk rock/alternative rock vibes.The locking tuners are also a huge plus as this guitar when the strings are stretched will hold tune very well.

The fit and finish is good for this price point . There is very little to complain about,a few flaws here and there but for the price can be forgiven. The maple top and maple neck and fretboard feel and look wonderful, all I needed to do was adjust the intonation and it plays very well.

Overall this is a great guitar and I adore it, Harley Benton and Henning Pauly did a great job on this model and for the money the fit and finish, sound and features are insane