Harley Benton RB-600BK Classic Series

I own 3 other Harley Benton guitars: CST-24, XT-22 and TE-70RW deluxe. All of these 3 guitars are superb value for money and surprisingly high quality fit, finish, playability and tone.

I was therefore slightly disappointed with the RB-600BK. There are no obviously major flaws with it, but overall it's not of the same high standard as my other Harley Benton guitars. The tuning machines are wobbly and have quite a lot of slack. The nut was cut a bit too high making intonation and action adjustment difficult. The fretboard is rough and very dry. The frets were a bit scratched and corroded. The pickups were quite microphonic, especially the bridge pickup which squeals at gig volume. The bridge saddles have evidence of corrosion on them. The bridge was not mounted flush or level. The inside of the body behind the F hole is splattered with glue and paint. One of the knobs broke off when I pulled it to take a look at the pots.

I was able to address these issues, and have now got the guitar up to a reasonable playing standard, but based on my experience, I would pass on this particular Harley Benton model. I do own a genuine Rickenbacker among my other guitars, and I appreciate that the HB model is only 1/10th of the price of the comparable USA made Ricky, but you'd struggle with this guitar unless you have some basic luthier skills required to get it up to the necessary standard for playability.

Looks cool, cheap as chips, playable but will need work to satisfy an intermediate/pro player.
Pros: Good looking tribute to Rickenbacker style,
very affordable, compact sized semi acoustic.
Cons: Finish had some flaws, also a little damage to the tailpiece, Bridge pick up doesn't sound great (I've replaced already), Neck pick up sounds good to me. Frets needed levelling and dressing, but I'd expect that on a sub £200 guitar. It also seemed to me the bridge was too narrow, so the strings didn't follow the line of the neck as it gets wider from nut to bridge. I've filed new string slots in the existing saddles to correct that.
I always intended to to do some tinkering with this guitar, so I'm not unhappy with it - most guitars need a little setting up, even at twice this price, so having to do a little more to get it playing and sounding spot on is fine by me.

I wanted a mid size semi-hollow body to replace my Epiphone es 335. This RB look alike solved this at a reasonable price. My first order from Thomann, 2 days befor Christmas and arrived in Vancouver/Burnaby Canada on Christmas Eve as promised, WOW!
The fret ends and fret levelling were a serious problem, almost returned the guitar, but I have all the proper tools and not much else to do so I took on the task. It was way more work than I thought and the screws for the truss rod cover were so fragile I had to replace them. I changed strings a couple of times and it looks like #9 half rounds suit me, I am a small bodied senior [75 yrs] with small hands and some mobility issues and this guitar fits me nicely. My grandchildren love the Beatles look-alike to it.
All in all, this guitar is a nice addition to my several other models. Cheers