Harley Benton SC-Special TV Yellow

Highly recommended! What a great take on the classic LP special.

Bought this because last week I bought the HB DC-Junior faded cherry single p90-pickup guitar. I was so impressed with that Indonesian made guitar, that when I saw this was available and made in Indonesia (probably the same company) I knew I wanted it.
I've been playing, building and fixing guitars for over 50 years. I went over this guitar inch by inch when it arrived. It's FLAWLESS.

The finish, fretwork and setup is spot on. Intonation is almost perfect (I'll be setting that up later when the guitar gets used to the humidity here in Nashville TN) . The nut is cut perfect and feels like bone. The neck is straight with no dead spots. Pickups sound great with minimal buzzing, so probably good shielding inside. Pots sound good and spin well. Fretwork is very nice with no sharp edges and reasonably polished for this price point. The fretboard wood looks and feels exactly like ebony - really! All the side markers are in the right position and spaced perfect. The wraparound bridge is well made and solid as a rock. Plays like butter and sustains well. Good balance, no neck dive when you hold it.

Like others.. I'm astonished at the value you get for the price. I know guitars, this guitar literally is a good as guitars costing thousands more. More importantly, it is really fun to play. It sustains and sounds good "unplugged" which makes you want to play it more.

Note: The finish is not "satin". It's gloss (just like in the photos). Mustard color is exactly like in the photos. Also, I'm pretty sure the neck is one of the "fat" necks that HB sells on their "Jr" models, because it's thicker than my DC-junior. Guitar weighs 6 pounds 14 ounces (almost 7 pounds). Looks like the body could be 2 or 3 pieces of mahogany glued together.

I'll be doing a full "set up" on this guitar later.. but I won't be changing much. Someone who knows nothing about setting up electric guitars could pull this out of the box, tune it up and play it with no changes.

Cons: This guitar is new and shiny and sparkly. It's covered with polyurethane and not nitro. So if you are looking for a vintage look, this is not the guitar for you.

Hats off to Harley Benton and Thomann regarding this guitar, quality control is spot on.

Update Dec 2020. This thing acoustically rings like a bell! My personal test of any electric guitar. You can always swap pickups... but if a guitar is dead you can't do much about it.

This guitar is "Alive"

My 2nd Harley Benton and again very happy i bought it.
Body: Really nice processed. No faults at all. Color isn't TV yellow but light brown leaning more to orange then yellow. No complaints - I like it.
Bridge: Ok. I had to file sharp edge on 6th saddle that was hurting my palm. Not a big deal. Design of the bridge is a little problematic if you only need to change one of the strings since pickup is very close to string holes. But I think most wraparound bridges have same issue.
Pickups: Ok but not so happy as I am with Roswell Filtertronics on Harley's FLT90 Telecaster. They sound decent but my ear missing something. Can't say exactly what. Always had trouble explaining sound to others. It's not so important since sound is very subjective thing. I'll just say that they don't match so well in my setup as the rest of pickups I already own (setup: Marshall JVM with 4x12 Greenbacks 25).
Elektronics: Great. Feels and works even better than on HB FLT90.
Neck & fretboard: Really nice. Feel and shape is almost the same as on my Gibson SG 2008. Really comfortable to play. Some frets needed sanding. No sharp edges - good job on fret ends. Fretboard was really dirty and all frets needed polishing but I am not counting that as a bad thing.
Nut: Not cut as it should but it's not a big deal.
Tuning machines: Great. They don't hold tune so well but that could be cause of the headstock design (eternal Gibson problem) or because of the nut not cuted as it should.

Why I gave 4 stars on quality?......Bridge desing is very high so you cannot raise pickups close to the strings. Because of that I had to put 8mm thick wood shimm, screw it underneat bridge pickup and drill holes through it for pickup screws. Now its posible to raise or lower bridge with ease. If any of you going to do the same you don't need 8mm shimm, 5mm thickness should be enough.

Would I buy HB again?.....Of course.

Rock on!

Let me tell you my story. I bought a Gibson Special Jr in faded cherry with two P90's used and absolutely loved the way it sounded, but couldn't keep it in tune for even one song. That is ground zero critical for me. I lubed it, and did what I could without spending as much as I did for the guitar with string locks, Gibson fine tune bridge, tuners etc. so I sold it. The guy who bought it from me worked in a Guitar Store, and I almost cried selling it listening to it in my Fender Blues Deluxe Tweed Tube amp; the tone was that incredible. Well the guitar used in price has gone up double since then. I wish I knew about the String Butler back then. So, this has been a heartache I have never satisified until now.
One day I woke up and thought, for this kind of money, why don't I take a chance and buy the Harley Benton SC Special? What if I luck out and get the same tone, and for even way less money. So, I took the chance, and WOW, BINGO, hit the lottery kind of joy. This thing sounds amazing, plays like a dream, and is mint/flawless in every way. Sounds every bit as good as the one I sold. The fretboard edges are smooth, the frets are polished, I lucked out and got one where the mahogany was so even in color it looked like it was a one piece block of wood, and only upon very close inspection along the edges did I see that, yes it was 3 pieces.
I actually have 3 Harley Benton guitars with P90's and they all sound like they are in the same ball park, but this SC Special with solid mahogany throughout has an edge in tonal qualities. It's hard to describe, but it has a special clarity in there, a little more pronounced mids, and sparkling highs especially in the middle position sounding like bells, but without any chiminess, and yes, having full depth of tone there as well. I am blown away by this guitar. Just walking by it, seeing it there in the case, I have to go over and take it out, plug it in, and smile, especially considering what I paid for it. I could see this selling for ten times this price, and being even better than the ones that do in the big name brand. I'm thinking if they come out with one in Cherry red, I might even get another one. Not that I don't have enough guitars already. Highly, highly recommended.

It's hard not to jump on the Harley Benton bandwagon as it really is worth hitching a ride. I'm of an age when guitars at these prices (allowing for inflation) would have been sold by Woolworths and been awful in every way. If Woolworths sold products like these, they'd still be in business.

One thing I've personally started to notice is that the extra £40, pushing these guitars up to the £200 mark, is rewarded hand over fist. In particular, the guitars have acquired much more personality IMHO. The Tesla pickups in my DC-DLX Gotoh and these P90s just have that certain something. This guitar is full of personality and vibe which is the one thing that is slightly (not entirely) missing at the lower price points. I have the HB Jazzmaster homage and that is a fantastic guitar but the pickups have no "personality" whatsoever. It was £40 cheaper! Like many, I originally came into Harley Benton expecting that I'd like the lovely necks but upgrade their pickups. On this guitar (and the DC-DLX) that really isn't going to be necessary. The neck is indeed a thing of beauty. Can a neck be yummy? Also, worth saying that I had to re-check the specs as these frets seemed as smooth as the DC-DLX which has stainless steel ones. Bonus.

I also feel that the finish quality is a bit better for that extra £40. That may be me but either way the finish on this was perfect. In fact, the only mark on it is a ding on the back, bottom edge - not by HB but I knocked it on the corner of a table two days after it arrived. Arghhhhh! Fortunately, we now live in a world where I can call this "reliced" so my Harley Benton has now increased in value.

I love the TV Yellow/Dirty Mustard colour which is much nicer in the flesh - more depth and gloss. As it's not a totally solid colour, you may see evidence of the wood grain. This means there may be less consistency and perfection visible through the finish than you would find on a more expensive guitar. However, that soon fades away when you pick it up. It's quite light and is dripping with vibe (in case I didn't mention that earlier). Again, this may be a personal thing but other reviews would indicate otherwise.

I know everybody says the first thing they do on many HBs is change the tuners but personally I find these to be massively inconsistent across all guitars, manufacturers and price points so have given up worrying. The HB DC-DLX Gotoh I have has, shocker, Gotoh tuners! These don't seem any better than these to me. If it's out of tune, I tune it. They all do that job which is good enough for me.

Quite how Epiphone can charge double is a complete mystery. I read one review a while ago which said we should buy HB now before the secret gets out and they start resting on their laurels instead of pushing the envelope. I hope that doesn't happen because this is the shake up the guitar industry has needed. I'm certainly doing my bit for the cause. So, buy it, you won't be disappointed. In the unlikely event you are, send it back. Win-Win!