Harley Benton SC-Custom II Ocean Flame

I wanted a humbucker single cut guitar for home recording, and thought the Harley Benton SC-Custom II would fit the bill. The guitar came well packed and in good condition, with a surprisingly low action. This is a cheap guitar, but it looks very nice. Only when you hold it close can you see some imperfections - a few spots inside the finish, some not so nice binding around the neck, a little rough around the pots. But the flame finish actually looks just as good as my PRS SE at a third of the price! It plays great - but there is one thing that makes this a 4 star instead of 5: The frets. The fret ends are good, but while even and level they are very scratchy. Doing bends out of the box feels like playing 20 year old rusted strings. After a complete steel wool polish they are much better, but still not perfect. The tone pot is also very ineffective. One of the strap lock buttons were not working, but Thomann sorted that out quickly. But for the price this is a very sweet, warm sounding rock/blues machine!

PROs:
- Very playable, nice neck, good tuners and bridge
- Decent pickups (but warm - a little muddy)
- Comfortable and good looking shape
- A lot of guitar for the money!
- Solid tuners and hardware

CONs:
- Frets very scratchy, needs work
- Weak tone pot, most of the range is at the end of the travel
- Small cosmetic imperfections

It took me a while and a lot of you tube viewing, so disregarding the snob remarks decided to obtain what appealed to me visually. Blue being my favourite colour the SC Custom 11Ocean Flame was my choice. I was not disappointed. None of the nit picking seen on YT was present, the bridge adjusters were the right way round. No defects could I find, the tuners perfectly aligned, the string heights and neck clearance spot on. The tone and tuning also spot on and this out of the box. This is a beautiful guitar for the money. As an ex engineer I am almost disappointed there is nothing I can adjust. So I highly recommend this product with the greatest pleasure. Thank you Thomann.

Love the guitar! Well built, great sound and plays very very nicely. The color was not exactly as it is in the picture being a bit more on turquoise side but it looks great, I love the way it looks. This guitar is very versatile in tonal quality. All the way around this is an awesome guitar.

The only troubling point is the set up. The intonation on the Low E string seems to be giving me trouble. I've adjusted the saddle all the way back making the string as long as it can go and cannot get it in tune at the 12th fret, it's still just a little sharp. It's very close but I want it perfect. Still I cannot complain for the price and over all the guitar just sounds absolutely amazing. Maybe after a bit more tweaking I can get the intonation in tune on that string with a bit of bridge and possibly some truss rod adjustment. All other strings, I have been able to set up the intonation perfectly. Other than that, the action is very nice on this, needed a little further set up out of the box but that is just my preference. The guitar was very playable as is minus the intonation being off which is why I rated this at 4 stars

I got this SC Custom in ocean flame blue and must say it's gorgeous.
My other contender was an Epi LP, but in the end, I decided on this Harley Benton because I wanted to try a different brand, and it didn't disappoint.
I learned a couple of things with this purchase:
First, sticking to the same old brand is quite absurd when you see better and nicer guitars in the same price range.
Secondly, this guitar IS a custom-like guitar. I couldn't find anything similar in the same price range.
All about this guitar is right. The fretboard is thinner than expected, and its nicely polished.
The body has those ergonomic cuts that fit really nice when seated.
I don't know... it's such a nice guitar.
I recommend this guitar to someone who wants a quality instrument and is ready to explore new brands that can compete with the more established ones.

Negative first
Sound 4/5 - the pickups sound ok but they were not quite as full sounding as I would have liked for rock and punk, very playable and fair for the price but not 5 star

Quality 4/5 - there were a couple of spots where the blue had crept up onto the binding, and the side dots were not perfectly aligned but hat is it only superficial items, nothing that affected playability or that I cared enough about not to keep it.

The Good
I am super happy with this guitar, it had all the important features I was looking for - thin lightweight and comfortable body, thinner neck profile, push/pull option for single coil tones, good tuners. It also comes with strap locks although the description doesn't mention it. I also loved all the aesthetic choices colour/binding etc that made this purchase easy. The finish has a little more green in it - closer to the photos for the SC Custom Plus - which is what I was hoping for, the colour is amazing.

Playability is great, the neck is super comfortable in my hand and the tuning stability is great. I think the total package on this guitar is awesome but even more so given the price point. I have recommended HB guitars to many friends based on how pleased I am with this guitar.

Harley Benton - if you see this I would suggest a darker (black) fretboard colour to really make everything pop.

I was told that Harley Benton Guitars were packed with value, but for the price, I’ve got to say that my SC-Custom 11 Ocean Flame may be one of the top 10 values on the market! I was looking for a Single cut LP looking model at a moderate price when I ran across this unit. I watched all of the reviews I could on line and they pretty much said the same thing, Awesome Value, so I bought one. I loved the design and color but you never know until you get to see it up close. It’s really very beautiful and the Fit, Finish and Set up right out of the box was really very good! More than anything the thing sounds so much nicer than anything around it in price! All I can say is that this being my first H/B product, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another at any price. Quality, Playability, Affordability and Just fun! If you find a better value, let me know! Thanks Thomann for the Harley Benton! It’s a Winner!