Harley Benton R-456FR BK Progressive Series

136

Electric Guitar

  • Body: Poplar
  • Bolt-on neck: Maple
  • Neck profile: D
  • Fingerboard: Blackwood
  • Neck radius: 350 mm
  • 24 Medium jumbo frets
  • Offset dot inlays
  • Scale: 648 mm
  • Nut width: 43 mm
  • Pickups: 2 x Hi-Gain humbuckers
  • 1 x Volume control
  • 1 x Tone control
  • 3-Way toggle switch
  • Floyd Rose special locking tremolo system (black matte)
  • Black Deluxe hardware
  • Colour: High gloss black
  • Strings: 009-042
Available since March 2016
Item number 374229
Sales Unit 1 piece(s)
Colour Black
Body Poplar
Top None
Neck Maple
Fretboard Blackwood
Frets 24
Scale 648 mm
Pickups HH
Tremolo FR-Style
incl. Bag No
incl. Case No
Shape ST-Style
Soundboard Basswood
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$183
The shipping costs are calculated on the checkout page.
In stock
In stock

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136 Customer ratings

4.4 / 5

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94 Reviews

N
Better than a Squire
Nebul 16.06.2021
Stands up to comparison with my Aria Pro II (450€ retail) and Yamaha RGX721DG (750€ retail) from the 90's. Feels and sounds better than a Squire that I had. Intonation is set well throughout the neck, although I could probably get the action slightly lower. Holds tuning well. Sustain is good. It's light. It squeals easily when you want it to, and has good harmonics. It is well-shielded from electro magnetic interference. Pots don't scratch and feel good to turn.

Now the small criticisms, which are unwarranted considering the cost of this guitar. The volume knob cuts off quite abruptly near the zero mark. The tone is a little bit darker than I'm used to (but that's why we have EQ on our pedalboards). To get a completely clean tone I need to roll off the volume a little, but I tend to do that anyway. Otherwise there is a hint of saturation, and it's a bit fizzy (no I'm not clipping the signal). The trem is placed right above the volume pot - my other guitars have more separation.

Quality in the long term? Who knows how long the tremolo will last if you're heavy handed with it. I will be using it for subtle expression, not divebombs. If the wood warps within the next few years, it would still probably be worth it for the price anyway.

It would be perfect if Thomann could sell these trems as spare parts. I'd buy one right now for 80€ - 90€, as a future replacement.

Thanks as always to the purchase and delivery team, and to Correos, who are consistently awesome at delivering to small islands.
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A
Perfect Guitar for the price!!
Akashr 18.01.2021
A Floyd Rose special bridge alone cost about €80!! So having an €80 trem system on a guitar that cost only €150 is the first thing that attracted my attention! Besides having heard good reviews of HB guitars, I decided to give it a try although in the past I've always been very apprehensive about buying low cost guitars with a Floyd Rose!!
It only took 6 days to ship to my doorstep!! I'm in Mauritius!! So having it shipped from Europe that fast was surprisingly satisfying considering the fact that most items I order online from anywhere else take way longer than that!!...
The guitar out of the box was perfectly set up!! Plugged it and was amazed that it was in tune!! Tuning stability is excellent!! No matter how hard and extreme I used the whammy bar, the guitar stayed in tune!! So it was a great relief as well as a great sense of joy!!
The pickups are high gain Humbuckers!! So it's not really a guitar for clean sounds!! With distortion however, the sound you get is absolutely perfect and it made me realise that the natural sustain of the guitar very very good!!!
If you are more into Rock and Metal stuffs and love the heavy distorted sounds, this guitar is a must have!! Not only for the price, but also for it's look, build quality and playability!!...
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MJ
Absolutely amazing value for money.
Mark Jenkins. 04.09.2022
Harley Benton progressive series. Arrived Wednesday, but only today I've been able to have a play/set it up to my tastes.

So I thought I'd write a quick review for people - especially those who are looking at the Harley Benton range as a backup/spare etc.

(as always, this is my personal opinion, yours may be a different experience altogether)

First impressions out of the box - it's very well put together. No dodgy screws, wiring is perfect, no scratchy pots or buzzing/earthing issues.

The neck is a bit wider than I expected, but also quite narrow in depth so it's extremely comfortable overall. Frets are perfect, no rough spots or lifted areas. Fret ends are good too, I had one that was slightly protruding past the board, but a quick file sorted it out. I'd say it's somewhere between Fender and Gibson spacing, very comfortable and quite easy to adapt to as well.
I will say that the board was quite dry when I received it, so it's been given the VIP lemon oil treatment as well as part of my setup routine.

Pickups - they're pretty good for the heavier stuff, no loss of clarity in high gain, and really glassy/chimey sounding on clean. Sustain is V good also.

Floyd Rose Special bridge - not as complicated as I thought (Thomann has an excellent series of video guides on YouTube!) It holds tuning perfectly, and who doesn't love a good pinch harmonic into a dive bomb haha!!

Overall, I'm extremely happy with this guitar. Took a week for shipping (over UK Bank Holiday weekend too!) Total price including shipping - £159.

So in conclusion, I think it's a freaking fantastic guitar for the price, especially considering the FR Special tremolo can be £80+ on its own. The neck feels gorgeous, some lovely tones available and overall its just brilliant value for money IMO.

In conclusion, if you're looking for a backup/spare guitar for gigging or different tunings, you will NOT be disappointed with one of these. So much so, its now becoming my favourite guitar from my collection.
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n
Where do I start..
nflannell 07.07.2022
The good - this thing is a beast. You will never find another brand new guitar of this quality with a Floyd Rose for this kind of money. I was really surprised at how nice it actually is. The frets are huge, fret ends are filed down super nice, neck is fast as hell, and the pickups sound great. I've seen other comments about the Floyd and the tuners being junky, but thats not been my experience yet at all.
The bad - right out of the box, I had to make an adjustment on the input jack because the cable wasn't making a good connection. Very simple fix, and nothing to complain about. I noticed the frets were very scratchy when doing string bends.
Considering I knew I was changing strings and drop tuning anyway, I went ahead and pulled the factory springs, polished the frets, treated the fretboard with some lemon oil (it needed this badly), threw on a new set of Paradigm stings, and did a complete setup. A couple hours worth of work made a world of difference in this guitar. Its quickly becoming the new favorite in my collection.
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