Harley Benton MultiScale-8 QEB

To put it short, it’s the best guitar of its specifications within its price bracket, however with this price bracket comes some obvious cutbacks by Harley Benton which knocks it down a few pegs.

Pros:

The overall finish of the guitar is spectacular, being a matt/satin finish that feels smooth to the touch, as well it’s back carved providing excellent support through long periods of playing. The neck carve is lovely, and such a nice playing experience up on higher frets.

The neck is a thinner C shape, which is comfortable and smooth, not too hard to operate.

The overall balance is perfect, either sitting or with a strap.

The bridge is stellar, I love the individual pieces and would consider them to be my favourite considering how comfortable they are when palm muting.

The tuners are great, a cheaper option for locking tuners, but they’re the most stable in my collection, which is a nice addition considering the extended range.

The fanned frets are exactly what I hoped for, they do the job without influencing my playing with their overall quality being about a 8/10 as they’re not very well polished and the fretboard is dry as a bone.

Cons:

The controls are a little delicate and feel slightly cheap, such as the selector switch being spongy and the knobs feeling light and tacky.

I think the controls would benefit from being recessed slightly, as they standout quite abrasively with the overall aesthetic of the guitar being sleek and smooth, they’re quite an eye sore.

The pickups are lacklustre and very under whelming, I would strongly suggest replacing these for some actives considering the genres of music you’d most likely be playing. The output is on the realm of literal jazz guitars, and I’m not sure what they were thinking here.

The edges of the fretboard are slightly sharp and could do with being slightly more rounded, this sharpness is pronounced as you have to reach father over the fretboard to reach the bass notes, and the edge catches your inner thumb. On that note, the cleanup work that seems to have been done before shipment is sloppy, with grinding marks following the high E along the fretboard as well as grinding residue from the nut stuck to the fretboard.

The fretboard is also unconditioned and the frets are slightly scratchy, however the overall makeup of the frets is sound.

Personally I found the setup I received to be peculiar, as the strings provided are solid as a rock with a very high action.

Overall:
The majority of issues mentioned are fixable and would be fixable during a string change, such as the fretboard and frets.
However, I feel as if hardware elements are where this guitar really shows a cut in the budget.

The pickups in my opinion are unusable for distortion and lend themselves to clean smooth tones, which isn’t fitting for a guitar with these specifications, meaning you’d have to factor in a multiscale-8 string replacement, which is easier said than done.

A guitar is in many cases including this one, as good as it’s pickups, and these really let the guitar down.

The finish is also (subjectively) not as stunning as I’d have hoped, the satin feel is great, but it doesn’t allow the quilt veneer to pop, and overall the top looks exceptionally flat.

The fretboard damage and overall setup also shows a serious lack of attention in quality control, which might lead new players to fork out to get a professional to have it set up or fixed, which in my opinion is unacceptable for a final product.

However, if you’re savvy with guitar setup and maintenance and are looking for a guitar of these specs, it’s definitely worth a try, and with some tlc and maybe a few design changes, this could be a stellar instrument.

For £338, I could not have hoped for a better 8 string guitar. Almost everything about it is fantastic. The frets are all level, the neck is great, the finish on the body is great. The only downside to this guitar is the pick ups aren't amazing, but they get the job done and can always be swapped if you really want to as they are active routed. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for their first multi scale 8 string guitar