Harley Benton SC-Custom II FR Vintage Black

It's an very nice Floyd Rose Single-cut guitar for this price.

It's the cheapest guitar with an Floyd Rose 1000 unit, fitted for an Single-cut. The Floyd Rose unit is nice, and it stays in tune.

The only drawback I have, is that this guitar is somewhat longer so it doesn't fit the Thomann Single-cut guitar case, so you need to purchase an Gator Single Cut Guitar case, like this one...

Gator Single Cut Guitarcase

And to get an really good experience with this guitar you also should purchase some Floyd Rose items for some easy string change and then it stays in tune almost every time you change the strings.

The items are....

Schaller Sure Claw -> Schaller Sure Claw

Allparts LT-0868-000 The Key -> Allparts LT-0868-000 The Key

My pro tip is to get an tremolo arm that's easy to replace, and this tremolo arm is an real gem.

Schaller FR-Style Tremolo Arm BC -> Schaller FR-Style Tremolo Arm BC

And you also could get an Allparts EVH D-Tuna Drop D, but it's not an easy fit on particularly this guitar, but it's doable with some fiddling and an fixed sustain block and the correct string tension that the "Schaller Sure Claw" gives, and the "Allparts The Key" makes it easy to change strings and stay in tune without an setup of the Floyd Rose every time you change some strings.

I had absolutely no expectations for this guitar. But it did really impress me.

My first impression was ; damn, it’s beautiful !
Because it is indeed a really cool looking guitar, it’s even cooler when you have it in your hands.

My second impression was the material quality, I was scared about one thing ; the strings. Well, I usually change them instantly but the ones pre-installed are actually decent ! I still have them and they’re in perfect shape.

The materials used seem pretty solid as well, I don’t feel a difference between this one and the Gibson LP so it’s a good sign!

The first and only problem I encountered was with the strap. Well, you do get strap locks in the box (which is impressive..) but I personally don’t like them so I had to buy my own. And also ; it’s. really. heavy.
I’m used to playing with heavy guitars but this one starts to hurt after literally 30 minutes of playing while standing up.

The thing that surprised me the most is the sound ! This guitar sounds INSANELY GOOD !
Like, objectively good ! The difference between this and an actual Gibson LP is so slight I just couldn’t believe it.
Though, I don’t really like it because I play thrash and black metal.

Last thing ; the floyd rose tremolo is really good. It does get out of tune sometimes, but just as much as a 1000$ axe !

In conclusion : If you’re looking to play something clean, blues, or rock, you’re really gonna want to purchase this guitar. It feels like a way more expensive guitar, I still don’t get how it’s only 400€. The floyd rose makes it even better…

Though, if you wish to play metal, ehh, think about it first. I personally feel like the sound isn’t agressive enough, you can of course buy it but I highly recommend changing the pickups…

Hope this helped !

Pros:
Definitely more pro's than cons. I bought this and love it. The styling with a Floyd rose is insane especially at this price. Quality is better than the brand new fender I bought a couple of years ago. Neck is lovely and thin and similar to my basic Ibanez wizard 3 neck. No rough fret ends, it was set up perfectly straight out of the box. other than the 3 points below just assume this is perfect! Would I buy a second if I could afford it? Hell yes!

Cons:
It is quite heavy. less so than a mahogany Les Paul and I dont get shoulder strain like I would with my LP but the main time I notice an imbalance is if I play it on my knee. This is my only guitar where I have to have a foot raiser/rest, else trying to keep it stable with your fretting hand can interfere with playing. It might be the shape of the curve rather than the weight.

Whammy bar - The bar itself is a screw with a pin through it to allow movement. I found from the very start that the threads seemed to get crossed and you would think it was in tight only to find 3 or 4 songs later it would fall on the floor. I bought an aftermarket genuine Floyd push in and locking position bar which took about 90 seconds to install and now I'm really happy with it (its "Dusty gold as opposed to just "Gold" if you are looking to match the colour)

Sound - I was a bit worried this would be high gain metal and thrash only from the vids I had seen. I generally play punk and rock and this is fine although it can sound a little thin through a katana head (most guitars seem to). Its such a lovely guitar I would use it for all styles but its definitely more wired for a "rock or heavier" sound. having said that with both pickups on, its noticeably more rounded and if you pull the splitter knob out it has a really tight, clear sound without making them tinny. I leave them split for almost every song and unlike the youtube vids I'd disagree that they immediately need upgrading to make this sound fantastic.

One other side note which might be my technique and not the guitars fault. On open E chords or the first fret, I find the head (which thankfully isnt set back anywhere like the Les Paul, so chance of snapping if accidents occur) sometimes interferes with my thumb. I have a bad habbit of not keeping my thumb inline down the far end so that may be more me and not the guitar.

I cant recommend this guitar highly enough for the price and its pretty much all I play live now.

I have two Harley Bentleys in the past that I liked so I placed another order for the SC Custom II FR Vintage Black. After two months of waiting, I received an email it was shipped, 2 weeks early.

The Good

The process buying a guitar from Thomann to the USA is easy. Thomann takes credit cards, they do a pending hold for a day or two then the pending comes off. When shipped your credit card is charged. They use express FedEx. The guitar was shipped on a Friday via FedEx and I was informed it would arrive on Tuesady. 4 days. Wow. You need to track the package on line and if you have any questions you need to contact the international shipping department. Not having done much in overseas imports, I was surprised that the package had already cleared customs on Sunday. When I asked what duties/taxes I owe the answer was none as the total cost was under $800.00. Keep in mind the shipping costs on separate orders versus the duty tax on combined orders which can range between 5-14%. The shipper in this case Thomann, takes care of all the paperwork. If I had any questions, my emails were answered no later than two days. The process of getting your guitar is easy.

The Bad

I got the guitar. It was shipped rather questionable as the box the guitar was in did nto have any packing around it. I also ordered the accompanying case. The finish was perfect, no flaws. There were two issues. The pickup selector switch had to have contact cleaner sprayed in it… Happens with higher price guitars too and the cleaner fixed the issue. The tremolo system was not parallel to the guitar body so I had to have the FR tremolo worked on. The only other issue was the installation of the spring mechanism for the Floyd Rose type tremolo (I do not think it is a real one due to the overall cost of the guitar). It was not seated properly so the cover to the tremolo unit on the rear of the guitar doesn’t sit flush. This does not effect the paly of the guitar and is noticeable if you give it a good look, Regarding Floyd Rose double locking tremolos… cool to have… luthiers hate working on them… you should too… lots of going back and forth adjustments so you can bend the strings in both directions and supposedly the strings stay in tune.

When dealing this issue, I was asked to send in a video which I did. (It wasn’t easy sending a 120 MB video over the net… Customer service (CS) had me use WETRANSFER.COM. Works great.

I also got a 1-month unlimited phone card to Germany as I wanted to deal with the switch issue in real time. When I spoke to CS which acknowledged receipt of the video it had not been looked at yet. They were waiting for me to go to the luthier. Though I had a setup done . The luthier did not charge me to clean the switch so I did not ask for Thomann to reimburse me anything. It would have been nice if they offered a credit in the range of $10-20 for my time as I could have sent the guitar back and the shipping would have been a lot more. The CS overall was above average. Thomann keeps detailed notes and acknowledges communications and they re willing to work out any issues you have.

The not so Ugly or the Pretty Good

5*****. The guitar plays very nicely. Very good action. Coils split… Humbuckers sound pretty good. Fret work is nice. Interesting strap nut at the end of the guitar that needs to be removed so the guitar can fit in the case. Finish is excellent. The case is high quality. Overall, an above average guitar for a very good price.