anyone on here play a Harley Benton Guitar?
I have been swacthing youtube video reviews of them for a few weeks now, they look and sound the bees knees for very little coin…
so, I decided to pull the trigger today and bought an SC-Custom in honey flame…. more like an ESP copy than a Les Paul..all for £178 notes (also has a coil tap via the tone knob…

I’ve got a tele and a bass. Both required some work:

The tele needed the nut filing (at least it hadn’t been cut to deep which would have been worse – if yours has send it back). The neck and body are very good. I like it so much I replaced some of the hardware and the pickups.

The bass just required a basic setup and the pickup refitting on some thicker foam. It plays nicely and sound fine.

I have been swotting up on the high end brand guitars needing some kind of setting up as well… 😉
at the price of a Harley Benton it’s a decent platform to work with…

Bought my father a Harley Benton lap steel for his 70th – for the money it seemed alright tbh, but I don’t know much more than that!

I reckon a simple set-up to how you like it would be all you  need. Possibly look at the strings and change them for a good brand. Often cheaper guitars come with very cheap strings. After all it’s the feel that makes you want to play it. innit.

I’m still using the original strings on the bass and five of the original strings on the tele. I moved the b to g and the e to b and put an 8 on e. They feel fine and sound fine. As for durability, I’ve rarely had strings last so long, long enough for fret wear to show.

I’ve got a CST 24 semi hollow.

it was b stock, so a bit cheaper. the fret ends were terrible but that was it really. Took it for a proper setup and its absolutely brilliant. so good I bought another CST24 in the sunburst finish. That was dreadful so I sent it back, the action was so high and the nut was cut really badly

I wouldn’t be put off buying another, I’m trying not to get a fusion 2 HH in purple sparkle….

Headstock looks like an Edwards one – are they maybe the cheaper versions of them, rebranded?

At that price you can easily afford another £40 or so to get a full set up done by a local guitar tech. It may not need it though…

Things I’d look for are:

The strings buzzing when holding notes at different parts of the board, or the strings being too high off the fretboard.
The intonation – using a tuner ( you can get an app on your phone – BOSS one is good) – check that the note when the string is open is exactly the same as the one at the twelfth fret. You can watch some videos on youtube to see how to fix this if they’re off.
Run your hand down the side of the neck, if the ends of the frets are jaggy they might need filed. If you have blood on your palms after, they most definitely do.
Pull the strings up from the fretboard by quite a lot. You’ll not break them. Have a look and see if they feel loose in the nut (where they are held at the top of the neck). That might need fixing. This technique also stretches out the strings and stops them going out of tune (I do this after changing strings).
Do the tuning pegs turn OK? Are they notchy?
Look down the neck from the headstock end. Is it warped from side to side? (it should have a bit of a bow on along its length).
Plug it in and check all the switches and controls work OK and aren’t crackly. Does the guitar lead sit in its jack socket firmly?
Second last thing is to check the … oh damn, forgot the name… the bits the strap goes on. Are they loose? They might just need tightened up with a screwdriver.

Now crank the amp up as loud as you dare, and turn up the gain. Make sure you’ve not split the humbucker with the coil tap. Play a riff then mute the strings. Do you hear a high pitch squealing? (not rock n roll feedback stuff, more dog whistle)? That can indicate the pickups are microphonic. That’s quite possible with a guitar at that price.
It’s only important if you’re going to be gigging with it, or it it happens at the volumes you play it normally. The pickups can get wax-potted, or just replaced for better ones. I wouldn’t worry too much about this at first though – that’s more an issue for down the line.

That’s the basic checks for a cheaper guitar. Apologies if you know all that stuff – wasn’t sure of how much you know about guitars.

Run your hand down the side of the neck, if the ends of the frets are jaggy they might need filed. If you have blood on your palms after, they most definitely do.

On the other hand if the fret ends are too rounded the e strings tend to fall off the end. I had to fit a narrower nut on a Mexican Fender to move the strings away from the overly rounded fret ends.

If I was going to buy a HB I’d take it to a tech and get them to do a set up and fret dress, possibly a new good quality nut as the stock one will be cheap plastic.

changing the tuners can be done easily enough if you think the ones on the guitar are dodgy (as long as the headstock holes are big enough to fit aftermarket ones with a 9mm post from axetech), if you can maintain a bike you can do tuners

aye, can do a quick setup and intonation, Grover tuners already fitted… may swap out the saddles for a rolling saddle…. see how it plays outa the box…. bone nut is a cheap enough replacement…. looking forward to receiving the instrument (ordered it yesterday and the order is still showing as open, even though the webpage stated immediate availability….LOL)

Guitar arrived today…. action was spot on as was the tuners and the finish of the guitar.. all I had to do was set the intonation on 4 strings that were slightly out of kilter…. lovely instrument to play…. far superior to my 2007 Yamaha Pacifica 012

What do you mean by set the inotation on 4 strings, presumably you mean you had to tune it, which is different?

Think he means moving the bridge saddles fore or aft to get spot on intonation.
Play the 12th fret note and then play the 12th fret harmonic, are they the same? If not intonation is out.

Ahh right sorry, I was thinking of acoustic guitars where it’s not so simple 🙂