Harley Benton SC-450 P90 GT Classic Series

I bought this because I had severe GAS on p90 guitars. I first opted for the SC special one, but I just don't dig the mustard colour. This one is also way cheaper so it's was an easy choice!

It arrived within 3 days after ordering on sunday. Awesome!

The guitar looked great but out of the box there were some small issues. The setup was not great (although not bad) and there are a few little finish flaws. But hey, for this money you can't expect perfection.

Tuners are ok, not going to swap them because they hold tune just fine. They also turn smooth, the throw is a bit short, so when tuning just be really careful.

The nut is cut fine, it's plastic but I don't care. I put some pencil graphite in there and it's now smooth as any nut. EDIT: the nut was causing major tuning issues. Installed a graphtech nut and it holds tune very well. The tuners are really good enough.

Fretboard looks nice, was very dry an needed some oil.
The frets were a bit rough, needed some polishing with 0000 steel wool. Be sure to mask the pickups with tape when using steel wool!

There are a few high frets here and there. Nothing really disturbing. I've set the action on 2mm low e and 1.5mm high e. It buzzes a little, but can't hear it when playing on the amp. I do however want to try a fret level on this one to see how this goes. A guitar this cheap is a nice practise object. EDIT: I leveled the frets. It was my first attempt and I improved the playability. Still 2 or 3 frets that are a little higher. I might spot level them with the next string change.
EDIT: I don't know if the wood in the neck still thinks it's alive. I've done a second full fret leveling as 13 frets were again uneven. It's now completely level and plays great. Hope it stays this way, because I'm not doing a third leveling ;).

The pickups sound ok but not for me. They are ceramic of course and I don't like the boomy attacky sound of ceramic magnets. I ordered some alnico IV magnets to put in these p90's to see if they can sound the way I like them to sound. EDIT: the alnico IV magnets are installed. It didn't really change the tone much. I might go for some vintage voiced alnico 2 pickups. EDIT: A new set of p90's are on the way. A combo of A2 neck + A5 bridge with low output.

The pots are the cheap mini pots and they put linear pots in for the volume control. I like log pots better so I will swap them at one point. They do work fine though and they are not scratchy. I think I will buy Alpha pots, because CTS pots have too wide bushings. You need to ream out the holes and I'm not going to bother doing this :). EDIT: Yeah so I've grown to love linear volume pots... So much better volume control! Really the whole range from 10 to 1 is usable now, instead of most action happening from 10 to 7 on log pots.

The switch is cheap, but works fine, no need to replace.

Oh yeah one nice tip: when ordering I placed a remark asking if they could select a lighter weighing one for me. And they did! Mine weighs about 3.8kg (8.4 lbs) which is pretty lightweight for a Les Paul style!

Because the colour is more copper than gold, I also ordered black plastics for the pickups, switch and knobs. Looks awesome!

All in all I'm happy with the guitar. It's a love/hate relationship with this one. By far the worst HB guitar I've had, but I learned to level frets on this guitar and I dig p90's. I might sell it on later, but will definitely need a p90 guitar in my arsenal.

This is the second p90 style guitar I've bought. The other was priced higher but not close to this in terms of sound or finish.

My review is subjective and based on my limited experience of playing and owning guitars (2 years)

The pros
Great sound, warm, fat, great sustain, puts the higher priced p90 style LP copy I owned to shame

Great finish, lovely gold top, plays well.

The minuses
Few, strings feel cheap, they don't feel or look like the D'Addarios that come on other HB guitars. Please Thomann put good strings on all the HBs, there's nothing worse than having to immediately change the fitted strings

Minor quality control issue, my guitar had something loose inside rattling around, a screw or a part, didn't want to take risk of invalidating warranty so I rang Thomann to arrange a replacement.

A really nice guitar just a little disappointing to have to immediately return it as it was lovely to play

Update- July 2019 - I just bought another one of these guitars to replace the previous one which I sold (and regretted) comments pretty much the same. The one I just bought was B-stock and generally it was fine, a couple of the blemishes it was hard to tell whether they were just cosmetic or structural.

There was a small ding on the neck near the nut which I thought was a wood crack but seemed to be just a minor ding. At the side of the fretboard there was what looked like a crack which was filled during manufacture (the lacquer was covering it) On the back of the neck at the body join are some cracks in the finish. These I can live with, they seem cosmetic and for the B-stock price, they're fine, if any of them turn out to be more serious or worsen I'm confident based on previous experience that Thomann will make it right (they've been very good with warranty stuff so far).

There were also some other annoyances, dirty and dry fretboard. The low E and A strings don't align properly with the pick-up pole pieces on the neck pickup.

As for playability this new guitar is pretty much the same. The same awful cheap strings, frets needs a polish they are very scratchy (this is partly the strings too I suspect).

The retail price of 149 is 20 more than I paid originally in 2016, but it's not clear where the extra money is going, at 129 this guitar was a steal, at 149 with the same types of issues and the same cheap strings it's not clear where the extra money is going.

Overall HB guitars are good, but different models seem more consistently good than others. My 119 euro ST-62 was more or less perfect and has D'addario strings, this 149 euro guitar has far more issues. I think different HB models are made in different factories and therein perhaps lies the explanation for the QC variation between models.
That being said, for 109 euro I can live with the issues on my B stock SC-450 P90 GT

Everything was pretty much ready to go and played well out of the box. Great for beginners as is, but If your an experienced player and need something that meets your reliability needs for recording and gigging you will likely need to upgrade it.

A new nut. The one that comes is plastic and cut poorly. It looks cheap and feels cheep and slightly harms the intonation.

Better tuning machines as there is some minor slippage if subjected to agressive styles.

Some minor fret levelling, pretty good out the box only 1 fret was high and 5 mintues with a file and it all works with no buzz.

New pickups, the ones that come sound like p90s but are a little harsh and not very well rounded. Replace them with quality pickups and seat them at your desired height and you have magic.

Swtich has excessive play but works. Replacing it will something more sturdy and longer lasting would be a must. I doubt it could live through use as a killswitch for more than a day.

New pots and wiring, the mini pots do the job but dont add much to your sound or are helpful musically. Replacing with full sized pots and your caps of choice will have your pups reacting more how you want them to.

Only other issue is cosmetic. The tailpeice is not fully seated and instead of taking the time to seat it properly and raise the height they opted to just only partially sink it on one side. Not an easy fix if it bothers you but not exactly something that will affect performance.

If you want a cheap guitar you can upgrade to something playing and resembling something much more expensive then you can absolutely do it with this guitar. A couple of hours and another 200 to 300 on parts and you'll have a stellar instrument.

First of all a disclaimer, this guitar was playable as received but, it needs work to be a professional quality instrument. I'll start from the top on down. The tuners are Gotoh style keystone tuners, the ratio is 14:1. This is acceptable, no problems with them. Next is the nut, it was well cut, strings move smoothly while tuning. The strings themselves were no name brand 10's. I always use D'darios. Next the fretboard, as other reviews mentioned the black comes off on your fingers, after using lemon oil applied 2X this was not a problem. The frets were O.K. no buzzing but I polished them. The neck itself was perfect. Intonation was spot on. Hardware was good for this price point. Next the electronics. The pickup selector switch was wobbly, it worked but not what I would want on any guitar I was playing out with. Next the pots, they are mini, I don't have a problem with mini pots, but these had to be replaced, as the tone pots were either on or off, they did not taper the tone. As I was going to replace the pickup switch anyhow, I replaced the pots along with them, and shielded the cavities while I was at it. Next the pickups, I love them, the only thing I did was remove the foam backing and replace it with springs. They are the coolest sounding P90's that I've played, sort of hot but not a big 60 cycle hum associated with P90's. Last, but not least, the cosmetics. The gold top is flawless. The model shipping now has a dark back, I like it all, bindings are perfect.
In summation, for $50 U.S. and some hours work, I was able to bring this up to a high standard guitar. Could I have played it out of the box? Sure, but with the upgrades that I mentioned, it plays like a guitar 5X it's price point. Anyone who has been longing for a P90 Goldtop, this could be the one for you.

The moment I took it out of the packaging and grabbed the neck, I thought, "This is a great guitar!"
When I removed the packaging and looked more closely, I found a crack in the head inlay.
I pulled myself together and told myself that it had nothing to do with the sound, but when I looked more carefully, I noticed that the angle of the P-90 on the bridge side was abnormal.
Due to the nature of the Les Paul-style body shape, it is tolerable to a certain extent, but it was leaning too far toward the tailpiece.
I could adjust this myself, so I didn't think it was a problem and let it go.
When I continued to look, it seemed like the pickguard was too low. I gingerly removed the pickguard, and found that the bolts that held the pickguard stays in place had dug into the beautiful body, causing it to cave in.
It was a very disappointing experience, as it was such a beautiful, great-sounding guitar.

I bought this for a friend as a retirement present.
The guitar sounds amazing. Really great for hard rock and blues. Even sounds better playing jazz than a 335. Love the bridge pick up. This thing just fills the room.
It feels like a real piece of gear. The neck is for sure an old school thick c. It brings a sense of power and presence without making it clunky. Smooth but solid. I really hope all the old school guitars HB makes have the “baseball bat” neck!

Honesty time:
The one I got was not gold. It was copper.

Luckily, it feels and sounds so good my buddy fell in love with it. Named it “penny”.
If you’re on the fence, don’t hesitate. I liked this one better than the American LP standards.

4 out of 5 stars
-O’Malley the Alley Cat