Harley Benton SC-450 P90 GT Classic Series

I've been playing for 47 years now as both a semi-pro and amateur/hobbyist, and a lot of great instruments have passed though my hands over the years. This is one of them. If you have some basic knowledge of how to properly setup, care for, and modify guitars there is no reason you couldn't have a Les Paul every bit as good as the real thing. For me, the only modifications I've made was to 1) swap out the tuners as they had a tendency to not immediately catch or engage at times, and 2) put on an Earvana Compensating Nut (which I automatically do to ALL my guitars). There was nothing wrong with the intonation and, in fact, the intonation was perfectly setup right out of the box! However, I mostly play around the first 4 frets where intonation is problematic on ANY guitar (even $20,000 ones!) and the Earvana solves that problem. Regardless of the "catching" problem, the tuners did work and the guitar had no problems staying in tune. I choose to replace the tuners with the Wilkinson EZ-LOK tuners which retail for about $20 USD and work great, so it hasn't proven to be a deal-breaker.

The fit and finish are simply flawless! This is a beautiful looking instrument. My "gold" top is actually a little more on the copper side (too much red pigment?), but I've come to really like it this way. It still looks fantastic and it makes mine unique (I hope)!

As far as the neck and frets go: I see no issues whatsoever with the neck or frets. Frets are smooth and polished with no sharp ends. The neck feels and plays simply great. for those concerned about neck-dive, this model is well-balanced and there is no neck-dive with it. One thing I especially like about the neck is that the headstock is at a 14° angle like the Epiphones and not 17° like the Gibsons. This means there's less (unnecessary) tension on the neck/headstock so that the neck is more resistant to breaking while still providing all the tension you need. Why Gibson continues to use a 17° is beyond me as it's completely unnecessary and only weakens the neck. The SC-450 also has a scarf joint which aids GREATLY in preventing neck breakage. Yes, I like scarf joints and you should too. Nice touch, Thomann!

The inlays are perfect and centered. The bindings are perfect with no gaps or marring.

The weight is pretty hefty although not as heavy as an actual Les Paul.

The electronics, knobs, and switches are all solid and there are no problems there. The P90 pickups, which is WHY I got this particular gold top model are simply luscious! Nice beefy sound with a nice tonal range. Everything you'd want in a classic P90. If you know P90s you either love them or hate them. I love P90s and the Roswells are outstanding. Yes, they're a bit noisy, but that's all P90s (which is why some people hate them). You learn to deal with the hum because nothing else sounds like a P90. This thing grinds/rocks like a champion!

The bridge and tailpiece are solid and I see no problems there.

This guitar just smacks of amazingly good quality and craftsmanship and it astounds me as to how Thomann can do this for so little money! This is my first experience with an Harley Benton Les Paul and based on this I will be buying more HB Les Pauls. Right now I'm looking at that beautiful white one!

(This is actually the second one I had shipped to me, as the first one had a number of problems--uneven or "rippled" or "wavy" neck/fretboard, a visible shim in the neck joint, badly mismatched/miscolored body wood (and I mean BADLY mismatched--really light color with really dark color--visible a mile away). It was clearly B-stock or worse, and Thomann quickly remedied the problem (top-notch customer service, by the way!) by replacing it with a new one. So, this review is of the second one they sent me.)

I think either this model or the SC-450 Plus (if you need the mahogany body and neck) is the best guitar value at Thomann (I have both models now). After I bought the 450 Plus (which I absolutely loved!), I really wanted a model with P-90s. But I was a bit hesitant about the basswood body and maple neck (not certainly not classic les paul specs!). But after playing the SC-450 P90 GT back and forth with the SC-450 Plus, I really can't hear much of a difference. Maybe the Plus sounds a wee bit "tighter" and the P90 a wee bit "looser," but that may also come down to the difference in pickups. IMO, the tone character is in the same ballpark, and the P90 model sounds as much like a classic les paul as the Plus model. So don't let the basswood dissuade you from buying it.

I really, really love these guitars. The price is absurdly low. But the quality strikes me as being about 3 times what it actually costs. The contoured heel makes a big difference in terms of playability. I love it. Fit and finish is excellent (there is a bit of wood "scratching" that you can see in one spot under the gold sparkle finish, but you have to really, really be looking for it to notice it). It's fretting out a bit around the 14th or 15th fret, but that should be remedied with a professional setup, which nearly all new guitars need anyway. The pickups are surprisingly nice sounding for such a cheap guitar. I assume they are ceramic. But they sound really nice--raunchy and growly, but they also clean up real sweetly. I already had an alnico II P90 to put in the neck, and an alnico firebird to put in the bridge (Neil Young-style), so I'll be doing that shortly. But it's a solid player as is. Pots also seem solid. No problems there. I'm planning on putting a cheap Chinese bigsby-style tremolo on it (just to go full Neil Young or Daniel Lanois). If I weren't, I'd probably upgrade the bridge with a Gotoh or something like that, because the stock bridge appears to be on the cheap side. I'll also be upgrading the nut with a tusq. I haven't yet made up my mind on the tuners. So far, they seem to be good enough. I'll revisit them after I upgrade the other stuff.

In other words, I see this as an excellent guitar for modding. For the price, it can't be beat. Apart from the cheap components (bridge and nut in particular), it's a real solid guitar to build on. The neck feels great in the hands and the body has a lot of les paul heft to it. Good resonance, sustain and mid-rangey and growly les paul tone. Highly recommended.

Like a lot of people I'm passing through the "How do they do that?" phase with HB guitars. This is my second and will not be my last. I know Thomann have cut out lots of middle men in the process of the guitar being designed, made, distributed, and being in your hands, which significantly reduces the price, but it still feels ridiculous/unfeasible to have a guitar that sounds this good, and plays this well, for this amount of money.

When I was young, which was a long time ago, cheap guitars were unbelievably bad in every way, and still give me nightmares. These HBs good enough for me to stop buying posh brands and have a larger, more diverse, and interesting collection.

The science bit/scores on the doors.

Positives:
Finish 99%, as good as anything else I have with nothing out of place. The basswood body is a nice change from mahogany, and the back colour is lighter than the photos.

Sounds/Pickups 200%, they do what a P90 should from jazzy clean to high gain via classic rock and with no hum from my amp. No need to change these at all, for me these are the stand out feature and put this guitar way futher up my goto list than expected.

Playability 90%, I have do guitars with a lower action, but not by much, and they cost lots more, or were professionally set up. I also have guitars with a higher action which also play well.

Intonation is accurate and better than some more expensive guitars I have with chords beyond 12th fret still sounding correct.

Hardware is functional and does what it is supposed to with the guitar remaining in tune despite my aggressive playing style.

The neck joint deserves a specific mention as it is much nicer than a bolt-on and gives better access than other designs.

Price, I'm still coming to terms with how good value this was, especially as I had a few vouchers resulting in almost 50% off an already well priced guitar.

Negatives are very few and minor...
The control pots do stick out of the body more than the HB Deluxe range, a small cosmetic thing.

Others observations:
The frets are a tiny bit taller than average in my collection.
It needed new strings as originals were 9s, and I broke 1 fairly quickly (aggressive playing style/heavy pic/etc). With nut oil and my preferred 10s tuning is stable and no more string breaks.
The neck is a fairly large C and out of the box I thought "oh dear, not my bag". 30 seconds after plugging in I had forgotten as it disappears under your fingers when playing. It is thicker than the 60s neck on the HB Deluxe range.
2 day delivery to the UK.

Rather than costing many thousands and being a "true historic, 60s reissue, hand made in the USA, custom shop, weight relieved, hot glued, blessed by St.Paul, blah, blah, blah, blah....", this is just an honest, good quality, affordable instrument, that sounds great.

More of that please.

P.s. I'm not an HB fanboy, but like many vids on YT the price/quality combination is shockingly good.

For years I wanted a Gibson Gold Top with P90s, but also for years I've been aware that the Tokai (Japan) Gold Top was rated more highly, so I actually wanted that in preference. However an offer by my poorly Mum to 'buy what I wanted for the Christmas' just gone, still seemed churlish to spend so much seeing as we had her care home fees to pay, so I plumbed for the Harley Benton after seeing YTube demos. Sadly, it turned out to be her last gift to me, but boy has it not disappointed! If ever there was a legacy to live up to - this Gold Top and its P90's does it! I have had to get used to the raw tones of these P90 PUPS, but EVERY demo online of either the Tokai or Gibson reveals EXACT same tonal qualities. The biggest surprise was the fit and finish and the neck profile and playabillity. Out the box the setup was perfect; intonation/fret finish string action too. In fact all I have done is tune it! Make no mistake, this is not a pale imitation, shrinking violet - it rocks your face off! I have a plethora of quality tube and solid state classic amps (13) and a good tone is to be had through each. These P90s are fiercely powerful and will push an amp hard, so little added gain is required. It feels nicer in the hand than my Les Paul Custom but they don't compete on tone as are in different camps. I initially thought this was to be a stop gap just for some much needed fun until I could justify a top brand option, but is no-way I am spending upwards of £1600 for the Tokai or £2300 for the Gibson when this delivers in spades. So, *Thank You Mum*, your legacy will live on in my hands every time I pick this up to play... xx

So I have had this guitar for close to 2 months I think and so far it has been wonderful experience.

If you are a type of a guy like me who likes to tinker with guitars out of the box, set them up and modify then this guitar might be for you because it came out of the box pretty unplayable, luckily only slight truss rod and bridge adjustment was needed.

P90 pickups sound pretty good but I will be swapping them for some better ones because this is an awesome modding platform.

Guitar shipping was terrible, UPS delivered me a box with a huge hole in both boxes but guitar was somehow undamaged (I have a picture to back it up)

Overall for a 120€ guitar this guitar plays and feels awesome, finish is pretty well done with pretty minor QA faults but they are close to invisible.

This guitar is worth buying but it is recommended that you give it to someone who knows how to intonate it and lower the action because it wil most likely be unplayable out of the box.

I bought it because the reviews seemed too good to be true, and I haven’t been disappointed…

The most important features of any guitar (Neck, frets and intonation) would not be out of place on an expensive professional instrument.

Good points: It is a joy to play.. Anyone whether learning from scratch, or honing their skills, could have this as their only guitar with confidence…

If it were three times the price, I might criticise the choice of ceramic magnets in the pickups, the machine heads (Tuners) and the quality of the electronic components.. But it’s not three times the price… And those parts can be easily and cheaply upgraded if you’re very picky, Putting it in the same class as many desirably badged guitars…