Harley Benton SC550II Unboxing & Review
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- čas přidán 20. 07. 2021
- Today we #review possibly the best value #singlecut #guitar around... The Harley Benton SC550II.
Skip straight to the tones at 10:09
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I'm a cabinet maker, I can see the veneer in your close up. It is a maple cap with 0.5 - 0.8mm veneer. Nothing wrong with that though.
Same here and I agree 100%..
Absolutely nothing wrong with a veneer. Just don’t look and remind yourself when doing pickup swaps
I am a bit baffled by that part of the video. Even a one-eyed blind person can see its a veneer. lmao
Nothing wrong with the veneer. Every guitar manufacturer uses them for the fancy maple tops. Even Gibson doesn’t make flame top maple Les Pauls with 2” thick blocks of flame maple.
@@Winterhe4rt same
I hope you recover quickly mate from cancer. I'm sorry to hear that your going through that. Definitely no fun. I will continue to keep you up in prayer, I wish a miracle in your life. God bless mate.
Excellent review and demo, loved the exploration of the more jazzy sounds. Obviously a quality guitar at an affordable price; I have 4x HB’s so I know how good they can be. Tempted, definitely.
Great for the new camera! It was about time. As always excellent review!
Great review and playing RJ! I'm happy I found this channel,
it's a full maple top that has a flame veneer on it.
Apparently not .....
Outtro was amazing John, I got the sc550 in desert burst last year, I'm really happy with mine but now they've upgraded it, I'd love one in one of the other colours..... need to save some pennies up! Great value! Good catch that one John!
It's highly likely it's a carved plain maple top, with a flame veneer. Still an outstanding guitar for the money. Entry level gear is in a totally different class now, compared to where it was when I first picked up a guitar.
Guitars are made way better now.
what if its highly likely your wrong?😳
@@johnmcguigan6717 Wow. I think it's highly likely you're a bit late with this reply. 😁
I love new guitar day!! I have veneer tops, full tops, solid single piece guitar bodies and every combination in between (including 2 guitars made from 22 pieces of pine pallet wood). Each has a unique sound and look and I can't imagine making a decision (other than a "resale" value) based on whether its a veneer or solid top - especially at the price point. If you want silly priced Gibson Les Paul with gold hardware craziness go for it (I have one - it sits in the case in the dark waiting for a new friend). If you want to have FUN or take it to play at a show like all my buddies locally who play Squiers and have big crowds at their gigs - this guitar should fill the bill just fine. Great job as always John!
What a cool looking and great sounding guitar, of course the player certainly helps.Great review John!
Hey John thx for sharing that review on the HB SC 550ll; I subscribe to your channel and enjoy your insights on guitar stuff. Your review was very informative and helped me decide to order the guitar. I own several higher end guitars and been playing since the 60’s. Hopefully the guitar will encourage me to play more and inspire me. Thx brother 👍 Ed A from AZ in America
As a lifelong Fender man, the LesPaul has never been on my list of must- have guitars. However, the British Plexi section had me transfixed to the lino. I might even buy one. Thank you for an honest appraisal of this instrument!
By the way, the Outro is absolutely bangin’!
Congratulations on new guitar. The best part - it seems you really like it - and that's the most important. And value for money is wow worth it!
Congratulations on your new guitar John. Lovely sounding/looking thing.
Your chord knowledge is so refreshing I absolutely need online classes from you for certain...
Nice job on this John. I have a Les Paul Deluxe and an Epi Les Paul Special. I also have 3 Harley Benton's and I have always been happy with the quality of the builds at the price point. I have been waiting for the SC-450 P90 GT Classic Series for a while as I am just curious as well. I do think that based on your review I will try the 550 guitar while I wait. Thanks for the solid review.
I am a great fan of Harley Benton, I have several. Great demo. My only critic is I hate amp SIMs and I think guitars are better tested through proper amplifiers.
Thank you for the video especially for mentioning Dickey Betts' tone.
Thanks to your review, I bought this exact model axe to replace my Ibanez Deluxe 59'er in tobacco sunburst that was "disappeared" my a disreputable luthier with alcohol-abuse issues. It truly is a beauty...fit/finish, features, playability and TONE are superb. Only mod I did was to install Gotoh Keystone 15:1 tuners in place of the supplied Kluson-type machine heads. Kudos, John! :)
Another fantastic review. Thanks John.
Well John on the strength of your review I purchased one last night (.albeit a bit drunk) looking forward to playing it when it arrives . Thsnks for all your reviews I really enjoy your CZcams output.
I've only gone and bought the Harley Benton SC-550 II DFB after your review, John. Should be arriving this week after a couple of weeks of re-stocking delay. It will join my Epiphone 1960s tribute plus, Sire Larry Carlton L7, and my Vintage V100 Icon with Tesla Opus-1s. It was the Tesla upgrade in the VIntage that persuaded me to get the SC550II. To my ears, they sound almost as good as the genuine Gibson 57s in the Epiphone.
Brillant stuff!! Very interesting. Subscribed and look forward to next video
Spot on John, I still have my old Yamaha 112 Pacifica, must be 20yrs old and play it more than any of my other guitars, the Benton looks like a real steal...
Same here😊👍
Good honest review John! Didn't know how Yamaha changed the game with electric guitars. We know how they changed the game with affordable acoustic guitars back in the 70s. So many musicians here in the states will only consider Fender, Gibson. Martin. I could only afford a Yamaha FG 300 in 1971...still have it and it plays and sounds great. Today we have so many affordable options that are decent quality. Are you going to replace pickups with Vanson's?
For us to buy Vansons in the States means paying high shipping rates. Always on the lookout for solid affordable replacement pickups.
Hey John, another informative video buddy. I ordered this aswell and feel the same about the tuners. Can you do a vid on what tuners you are going to use and if you replace them , then a vid on that would be great. Thanks for your content buddy.
John, good review Mate. I just got that guitar, and am loving it. Reminds me of the Gibson Standard, Ice Tea, I sold a while back, to get cash together for my Gibson Custom Shop '61 reissue. I am going to sell my 2 Epiphone Customs, which should sell used, for more than what the Harley Benton cost, $275 plus shipping to the States. I just lowered and changed the strings, had a pint or two , and rocked out, on my back porch, the neighbors loved it! Hope you enjoy the guitar as much as I am digging mine, Cheers!
I had seen the video from a few weeks ago in which the reviewer spoke of a full maple top, and I had doubt. Now I hear it again and get the Thomann service department saying it is so as well. I can't argue because I don't have this model. I have 2 of the SC-550's from the first series and those were sold as veneer's. The tops look great with the veneer's as well. I really love the sound and feel of these model's. Perfect weight and balance. Nice vid.
I replaced the tuner's on both my SC-550's. They now have Grover Deluxe. I did have to widen the holes to make them fit, but with the correct tools it is no problem. The rings are larger and the posts are shorter. The amount that these tuners extend out are sour to look at as sold from Thomann.
Excellent informative video my friend. Love the deep purple SHIRT...BRILLIANT !
The first Harley Benton I've ever ordered was a CST after your review. I didn't trust any of the other CZcams reviews, but did trust yours. The same for this guitar, I may sell my vintage v100 and order this guitar instead.
Thx for the review mate.
I will continue to say it : " I have a few Harley Benton's. They were recommended to me by a dear old friend, Peter Schwenk ( R.I.P ) who raved about the quality to price ratio and who had a lovely collection of HB guitars ( electric, acoustic and basses ). It took me a while to try my first HB guitar ( which was the TE52 NA ) and after a few upgrades, it really is one of my favourite guitars. I now have a TE90 QM. a Fusion T HH EB OCT and a wee GS Travel Mahogany Acoustic.They are all fabulous ( especially the Fusion T - I LOVE it - at the price it is astounding value ) This SC550II looks ( and sounds ) like another superb guitar. Harley Benton really are raising the bar for budget friendly guitars. I salute them.
I had a feeling you couldn't resist the siren song of the LP. It looks and sounds great. The hiccough is that nut. For the price, it's a great buy. Great demo and call to customer service.
Great review John. The LP style isn't my cup of tea, but the point is Harley Benton guitars are nothing to sneer about, especially for the price.
Thx, John, for this review. I share Your opinion about the SC-550 II in DFB. It is really a great instrument.
That is a whole lot of guitar for twice the money! Hard to beat! Good show, boss!
I might buy one of these. Nice review. Back in the day I got 1980 Columbus Les Paul copy. £100 new but bought second hand for £80 on a wage of £60 per week before tax. Neck like a banana, sounded like a 4 engine prop plane taking off regardless of pickup chosen or tone settings, had to drop from 10's to 8's if I remember rightly to straighten the neck. The truss rod moved it 1/4'' one way or 1/4'' the other nothing in between (not that we had much of a clue of what we were doing and guitar techs laughed at us if we turned up with something like that). The good old days.
As for frets wearing down. I bought a £350 Yamaha FG830 3 years ago and play it lightly. Frets are already wearing down in places, unlike my 25 year old cheap Aria which gets a daily thrashing.
I could easily be considered a gear snob because of my gear that being said... because of your content I will be buying this guitar.. because I keep all my guitars anyway so resale isn't it an issue..if it looks great if it feels and sounds great it's all a keeper for me...I will be checking it out.. thanks again.
I ended up purchasing The Oldtimer 1959 PAF pickups from Alegree there in the UK, installed them in my Harley Benton SC 550II, they sound very articulate and have great tone, just over $100 shipped to the US. I think it’s a good upgrade to the guitar.
I got a HB CST24T p90 loaded obvious clone of a PRS,2 of which I own.£200 inc customs fees.Beautifully made and the p90s sound fantastic.What a turnaround.I also own a Yam pacifica 112M bought new in 97 for£230.Still my favourite axe of the 9 I now own.A fantastic guitar,then and now.
I think its a good Time to play Guitar. I started 20 Years ago with playing and the Budget Gear was terrible. I have a SC 550 cause I dont have Money for a Gibson. Its having the Sound I am so in Love. No need to spend a lot of Money for a Gibson. I Love Harley Benton Guitars. Thanks for your Videos. All the Best for you and please go on with your Videos. Lovely Greetings to you from a Fan from Germany 🤗🥰
Well I always make sure to have a pot of coffee ready for your videos Mr Robson ;)
At the end of the day, it's all about the connection you get with the instrument. I found myself going back to my modded first guitar instead of the Gibson Studio LP I bought, simply because I didn't bond with it (end up selling it).
Nice video
I did the same with my Gibson LP studio. Was a glorified cricket bat. Awful guitar.
HB really have got some very nice affordable guitars in the range now. Nice one. The new camera looks very Good too.
Great video. As for the tuners I want to give you a good suggestion. Replace the tuners with Kluson Revolution locking tuners. These have the same footprint as the Harley Benton tuners. They are the standard two-hole vintage-style tuner except they are a modern sealed diecast tuner which is much better by design than the vintage style stamped Steel tuners. They look just like vintage style tuners. They are Kluson brand with the lines on the back and they look just like the Vintage ones except they are locking tuners and they're 19:1 ratio. The Kluson revolution locking tuners tuners are super accurate and they are a direct retrofit with the same exact footprint requiring zero modifications. All you have to do is unscrew the tuners on the Harley Benton and the Klusons will screw right in place without any hole drilling, any enlarging of holes or anything. They have two Styles, the collared and non-collared. One style fits the Vintage small 8.8mm holes in the headstock with press in bushings and the other style fits the modern 10mm holes in the headstock. The modern-style has a nut that screws down tight to hold the tuners in place. Both Styles have two small screws that screw into the back of the headstock. The Kluson Revolution locking tuners line up perfectly with the tuners on the Harley Benton, have the exact same footprint and will not make a different imprint in the wood. In addition The Kluson tuners have ivory-colored tulip buttons instead of that putrid green color and they match up much better with the cream colored trim. These are the best tuners on the market in this particular style. The last set I installed was on a brand-new Epiphone 335 Pro Christmas 2020. The Epiphone tuners were Wilkinson's and they are just mid-grade tuners. They were the press in bushing Style vintage with 8.8mm holes in the headstock. I left the press in bushings that came on the Epiphone in place. I didn't want to take a chance on chipping the new finish on the guitar by removing them) and they fit perfectly on the Kluson tuners so I saw no need to them. The tuners on the Harley Benton look to be the modern 10mm hole tuners but I can't swear to it. Either way Kluson makes both Styles so they are a direct retrofit requiring zero modifications. They have nickel, chrome and gold finish. There is zero play in the Kluson tuners. No I matter which way you turn them there is no sloppiness in them. I guarantee you will love these tuners and once you have used a set you won't use anything else on a guitar that has the vintage style 2 hole tuners. Graphtech makes their Tusq XL Nuts in an aged/cream colour and black also if you can't get on with the white nut. You'll probably need the Tusq XL Nut that fits Epiphone's and other Asian made Guitars.
God Bless You & Yourn!!
Jimmy in NC....
PS. I hope this helps You!!
I agree with you on the Kluson tuners mate. I swapped the Gibson 'Deluxe' on my Les Paul (not sure why they call them deluxe because there's nothing deluxe about them) for the Kluson Revolution ones, and yeh, they're much better.
I wouldn't go down the Grover route because I didn't fancy plugging the screw holes to accommodate the Grover lugs. I wouldn't normally care about such things but as it's a Gibson I don't want to give some tyre kicking scrote the opportunity to knock me down for cosmetic damage if I ever need to sell it on 😆
I've still got those original Gibson Deluxe tuners, I keep meaning to put them for sale on eBay, I should be able to get about £30 for them considering the amount of people who buy Chibsons and replace all the parts with genuine Gibson parts.
I've got Grover tuners on another of my guitars and never really understood why people rate them so highly, I think they're a bit overpriced myself.....if I hadn't bought the Klusons for my Gibson, I would've stuck with the Wilkinson EZ Lok tuners which are my go to tuners that I use on most of my guitars, they cost about £27 from Vansons and are probably the best tuners I've ever bought 👍
@@JammyGit You might consider keeping the original tuners just in case you do sell your Gibson it brings the value of if you have the originals even though they are inferior to the ones you have now. If you have a guitar Gibson or any other guitar that has the Grover tuners with the V shaped foot and single hole straight down at 6 O'clock you should try the Gotoh Delta Series 21:1 Locking Tuners. These have Teflon Electroplated Gears and are the Best Tuners on the Market. Order them with the P-4N Buttons for a Gibson. These are the Ivory Coloured Tulip Buttons. These match the Grover Tuners that come on most Gibson's nowadays. They require Zero Modifications. I never replace Tuners with ones which require drilling and plugging. Ruins the look and drops the value of any Guitar. It's so much simpler to install Direct Retrofit Tuners. The Kluson Revolution Locking Tuners for the 2 hole mount. Gotoh Delta Series for the 1 hole (Grover Style) mount. Between these two You pretty much have Gibson covered.
God Bless!!
Jimmy in NC....
Any chance you could provide a link to the Kluson Revolution and Graph Tech Tusk XL product models needed to upgrade?
Got mine a couple of weeks ago.
It’s a keeper.
Thanks for your review
Looks and sounds great John... I did look at one of these before I bought the slightly higher priced and slightly higher spec Vintage TC!100 that i currently have. Guitars in the 250-400 pounds/ euros price point are insanely good for the money these days. BTW....i'd be interested how the HBSC550 ll sounded through a Harley Benton Tube15 amp..... these are also very good value for money. :)
I'm wondering about this too. I've been scoping them out a lot lately.
I agree with others that the flame is a veneer because we can clearly see no seam in the maple, other than the veneer seam. If it were not a veneer on top, the grain would be mirrored in the center and the video clearly shows it isn't. Still a rather nice guitar that I would have no trouble playing out with, and I own 2 real Les Pauls. I also own several other HB models and enjoy them all. When my band mate played my HB-35Plus, he liked it so much that he bought one(even though he has a vintage Gibson 335).
Wow John. Looks and sounds great.
Hi from Spain again! And I do hope you are well. Well I wrote to Johann Thomann and got a very positive response, they are replacing the "B" stock model with a normal model. Now I just need to learn to play it as well as you, kind regards, John.
I started gigging with a mk1 sc custom years ago just because its a hard on your guitars and especially gibsons because of the risk of the neck snap! So I bought one just because i needed a humbucker guitar and its served me great ( now has iron gear pickups). They are great guitars for the price point and are not far off a epiphone or say a classic vibe. I did buy the tele p90 HB but I didn't like it at all so sold it. I have been eyeing up the new harley benton sg junior p90 as it looks awesome in blue... God the sidewinder was awesome and the only guitar I could get in Windows Newcastle in left handed in about 86 ish...I think all the chinees vintage tuners have that crappy green plastic keys.
Hi John, great looking guitar that sounds amazing, just proves you dont have spend thousands to look and sound great. Sorry I can't join you for a beer tomorrow because I am out for my 65th birthday cheers for now👍
Hi from Spain I hope you are well! I did send a comment some time ago with the problems I have had with my SC-550 II. Having returned it for repair a second time it arrived back with both pick up volume and tone controls not functioning. So I sent it back again for repair. Yesterday three months after buying it they sent my money back which I did not want, I told them I would be happy with any model of the SC-550 II but because I bought a "B" stock they said they did not have one at the price I paid of 245.00 Euro. They also told me to return the hard case I bought with my original order. Of course I had to pay for the repair to the graphite nut and all the traveling costs to my city post office three times. Maybe I was unlucky, but it seems to me all the Thomann promoted reviews the guitars are always perfect, at least your reviews are honest and fair, take care, John.
Seems like you had the same experience with Harley Benton that I had with Amplitube.
Fab review and great guitar for the money. The body shape follows the contours of the Aria Japanese PE series that came out late 70s/early 80s. Andy Summers used one on tours alongside his Tele. Veneers can be very, very thin. Remember the ‘foto-flame’ tops too?
New fan... I truly enjoy your content.
Thank you 🙏
Thanks mate 👍
@ 4:20 what you have circled is the annual rings of the tree / looking down the tree. we call this end grain. notices the annual rings are complete from left to right that makes it on piece in that area. so the top is likely 3-5 pieces off lower grade maple. being a cabinet & chair maker i can say that it is flat sawn with the center off the tree it's core pointing upward. what this means is the solid may cup/warp at some point and the edges will break free as that is where the most stress is.
New Guitar, new camera and new glasses - Christmas come early!
Nice review, though you seemed to have cooled off a bit on stainless steel frets. I remember you waxing lyrical about them on a Harley Benton Fusion Pro guitar you reviewed a couple of years ago. So much so, in fact, that you were adding stainless steel frets to your custom guitar spec wish list! Did they make it on to your Scott Guitars signature model in the end?
One concern I would have about stainless steel frets on a non-roasted neck is that fret sprout would be a lot more difficult (or at least a lot more work) to deal with. I don't know if that is a legitimate concern or not, but maybe you'll find out with your new HB SC550II!
Kind of looks like a. 5inch of maple cap with a veneer. Used to be the HB and Vintage v100 had a. 5in maple cap with veneer only on the AFD models. Appears to be built like the PRS SE guitars as far as the specs on the maple cap goes.
Love the Deep Purple t-shirt John, my favourite band.
Just purchased this guitar due to your review.
That is absolutely full size maple cap with a flame maple veneer on top and it is way more then 6mm thickness. I wish they make same guitar with plain top. Great review, thanks.
I have the same 550 deluxe and grover tuners is a plus but I paid 200 cash and 100 for Gibson pick gaurd and love it its my favorite for sure.im so happy with it play everyday can't put it down and looks amazing,perfect to me
Great video John, oddly enough I had a 112 back in the day and wish I'd have hung on to it instead of chopping it in.
Most informative and loovely guitar!
Sounds pretty good to me John, a bit of a bargain I'd say. Mind you, I am a believer that a good guitarist (like yourself) can make any guitar sound good. Having said that, if it feels good to play as well as sounding good, that's brilliant because as you know it inspires the player to be creative.
I know that once again you mentioned not being a fan of reliced guitars, but I still would love to see you opinion of the latest Vintage V100MRPGM. After all, it is paying tribute to a specific icon guitar.
Cheers, Steve.
Woww!! That is a solid figured maple top!! I think too?! I'm super surprised!! Like you said most at this price point do just the maple top with a thin figured maple veneer. Which are still nice, but a solid one piece figured maple top through in through is friggin awesome mind the language! I own a import vintage v100 lemon drop LP. It is a copy of peter green and gary moore's famous "greeny" 59' les paul. Awesome little guitar!! High recommend it! But it was $600 american dollars new and only has the maple top with a thin flame maple vaneer cap. So for an import harley benton to use real deal solid flame maple top for under $300 dollars is pretty amazing. Your definitely getting your moneys worth right there. Swap the stock pickups out for some vinage style PAF's. Put tones pros hardwear throughout, bone or tusq xl nut, kluson or grover tuning pegs and bam you got a pretty raging more than semi authentic les paul. Maybe if your good enough sand it down and put Nitro finish on it... Thanks for sharing very cool guitar man! Rock on!
Looks good and now with vat included l will buy off them again.liked the music at the 12 min mark.
I have Harley Benton's version of a LP jr. Absolutely love it.
I am looking for a LP custom.
Harley Benton, here I come again!
It has a "full maple top", and on top of that they have a flame maple veneer. As sid bonkers said, there is no joint (the grain is perfectly aligned from left to right) in the top inside the pickup cavity, but there is a joint in the flame maple. Nonetheless, a great guitar and even better value for money.
What I see as well !
You are right. A maple top with a bookmatched maple veneer. Flamed maple is just for the looks. It does not effect the sound. At least not more than straight maple.
Totally agree
Yes, I was going to post separately, but I'll just add my agreement here. The cosmetics are a veneer on top of what is presumably a piece of maple.
www.mylespaul.com/threads/ngd-but-1st-this-is-a-solid-flame-maple-top-right.435689/
This page shows pictures with a solid flame maple top.
I'm only posting this with the intention of helping people who are considering buying this guitar. It's a great guitar. The answer from Thomann was that "it's a real maple top" which is accurate (some older Epiphones were all mahogany with a flame maple veneer). This guitar looks better and has better specs than most Epiphone Les Pauls at 2x the price.
I have an SC-550 II PAF, and a XT-22 Paradise Flame, among a couple others. Other that some fine-tuning, fret dressing, etc, they're great guitars and are my regular players.
Hello John, nice guitar - and as ever perfect playing!! I could not join the group last week because i had to evacuate my mother out of the "west german flood" - i had to take a look into hell - so it is so positive and peaceful for me to watch your video now - Greetings Thomas Kowalewsky
If you watch one of the videos on the PRS SEs you can see them apply a veneer to their maple top. It seems as if it's thinner than paper. So, I suspect this is a super thin veneer on a full thickness maple cap....which is basically the same difference as a full figured-full thickness top IMO - either way - BRAVO to HB for doing this.
SC550VII looks good and sounds better than good, in the hands of John! Harley Bentons are pricey to import to Canada, so I keep modding my old 2008 Korean PRS SE SC Trem as I can afford. BTW, the new high res video is awesome, wall-axes look even better!
Wonderful playing
6mm is hardly what I’d call a “full maple top” but it’s thicker than a veneer (or a “photo flame”as they used to call it decades ago) which could be 1-3mm thick. I would’ve removed the painted shielding from other cavities (anyone can repaint those with an acid brush and experience with nail polish) to examine more of the wood grain., but that’s just me. You did well enough for this video. 👏🏽
You can see with your eyes that cap is more like 16mm possibly 10mm plain maple with 6mm veneer on top of that.
John you are a great host with a shit load of knowledge and you are also a fucking incredible player!!!!!
Thanks mate 👍
Well done Sir-thanks!
Great! Thank you John and grettings from Germany
It has a maple top but it is not book matched as can be seen in your picture. They put a veneer atop of the maple top to make the book matching. Nothing wrong with that because is a matter of price. Nice guitar.
I agree with you on Dicky Betts' tone on Live At The Fillmore. I would add Gary Moore to that list for "Still Got The Blues" live for the neck pickup tone.
In my brain, maple top, figured maple veneer. Still a nice step up for an affordable LP type.
Spot o . €300.00. Nice to find some sense among all these Samsung luthiers
It's a maple top....with a veneer. In your pic, you can see the grain of the maple cap dosent change. But does it matter... no not in the tiniest bit. You can change pups to change tone, change amp to change tone.... even a pick ( plectrum ? lol)
I have a old SC 450 vintage. I changed out everything. Rewired it to 50' wiring, Lallor low wound Imperials pups hipshot locking tuners bone nut. $300 usd pickups in a $160usd guitar ha. It's a dream to play and hear now.
$625 in all I think, but it's way better then a $800 ephiphone.. . It just what you make it
Maple cap makes it have to right combo, paper thin veneer just make it look awesome!!!
Great, my modified V100 PGM does me for Les Paul stuff but that Harley looks great, I'm about to add Split Coils to my my Vintage so that it can do most anything I need it to - plus I just got a second hand 'String Butler' for £22 (half price) and that should hopefully make the tuning rock solid as Les Paul Tuning peg arrangement forces the middle strings into a bit of a tight angle that can cause binding at the nut and I noticed sometimes when the Distortion is off (I know, why would you do that?) they can sound a bit off - it's all so I can switch into Dire Straits mode with just the Les Paul when playing live and naturally everything is done on a budget just for the hell of it...
1) I understood, but am far from sure the Vintages and the HBs are from the same factory. 2) Coincidently recently I was looking for a Peter Greenish guitar. Vintage have some, it seems, over 400 quid, but the spec are very unclear and there are at least two models that seem to qualify, 3) I have two Vintage DCs, but they both broke down within a week, and one of them has the plasticides dripping from the wiring. So I'm not to keen on that brand. 4) I think/hope/ would suggest HB might make a Peter Green electrics LP, since Epiphone does too.
sounds really nice. 6mm doesn't seem like a lot, is this fairly standard? I had a Peavey guitar years ago, it looked like it was all maple, not sure if that was really the case, it weighed a ton i know that for sure.
I was waiting for this review John before I ordered one. Now I have to choose between the Cherry finish and the desert flame. What's your experience with gold plated hardware? Does it wear off easily? Had a band mate who owned a LP black with gold plated hardware and it looked pretty bad with the gold worn off everywhere! But that Cherry HB SC-550 II looks real nice!
Yeah, gold hardware always looks great to begin with, then it starts to look knackered & it spoils the aesthetic to my eyes
Great guitar! Well worth the money. 👍
Yeah, it's got a maple top. But the flame is just a veneer, there was no join under that shielding paint. Not for 240 quid. I mean,my epiphone is a veneer and that cost twice that much.
This video tipped the scales and I bought one in this finish. Very very good. It took me a few times to adjust where I wanted it. But it screams.
Hi John, thanks for the review. HB looks and sounds great. Does the price you paid include taxes and delivery etc? I understood that, now UK is not in the EU, there are a lot of added extras like import taxes and so on. Thanks.
The price on the website is what I paid mate 👍
@@JRobsonGuitar That's good to hear. Thanks John :-)
Hi John.ive got 3 harley bentons.i used to have a sc450 but it was a ton weight. I wonder if this is lighter as it says its chambered?
it is veneer over a solid maple cap 3:57. notice a center seam in the very top but no vertical seam going down in the maple
really good video. I want to play that tele on the wall.
Almost bought the sidewinder in 88..ended up with another ply plank..the columbus series 3 superstrat, in a guitar shop on bond street in Ealing....still have her..just to remind me!
I’ve got a PRS Zach Myers which is the combination of maple top but finished with a quilt maple veneer.
So - based on this review I bought one too. My thoughts:
I'm in broad agreement with you, this is a phenomenal guitar, not just for the money but in general. For me, out of the box, the action was way too high - which took all of 15 seconds to fix but the intonation was perfect. There are no extraneous paint blobs or anything like that. I did have a few frets near the nut sticking out a bit, but 2 minutes with a file cleaned that up and I've had to do that with guitars that cost 10 times as much. It sounds amazing! It's relatively lightweight (so about half my 82 Les Paul Deluxe)
I don't fully agree with you regarding the tuners. Granted they look a bit strange but for me, the number one thing I need is that they hold tune, and these ones are rock solid. Lots of bending doesn't affect them at all and there's no obvious backlash that I can feel, meaning tuning is really easy. They're also comfortable to grip when tuning, so I'm not going to change them.
I do have one scratchy tone pot. I'll try blowing some air into that. If that doesn't work, I'll change it but if I do, this will be my only extra expense on a guitar that cost me less than 300 Euros.
Hi Justin, did you use a regular fret file instead of a levelling beam and sandpaper?
This is my only concern with this guitar when I receive mine, obviously the stainless is much more destructive on the tooling so just wondered the best approach to sort it.
Thanks
Dave
@@3rdtonefromthesun I used a fret file and levelling beam. Truth be told, the frets were only sticking out a tiny bit, so it wasn't a big deal. It was more of a minor discomfort when playing rather than rip your hands to shreds that I've had on other guitars.
@@Justin_the_Analog_IC_architect Oh fair, was it out enough to cause fret buzz or just a discomfort thing?
@@3rdtonefromthesun They were protruding off the side of the fretboard. It was a discomfort thing. It was really minor. I could feel it, but I couldn't really see it and it was just the first 4 frets nearest the nut. Last guitar I bought prior to this one had nearly all the frets visiby sticking out and mentioning no names, it came from a factory in Fullerton California.
@@Justin_the_Analog_IC_architect ah great, I was worried about fret buzz big time after recently sending back an Epiphone…
Sounds like you had a Fender Bender!!🤣
John is your SC550II like mine. I just got my SC550II today and the Bridge is backwards. The wider cut saddle is on the high E and the narrow cut saddle is on low E. It's a real pain to take apart the entire bridge and move all the saddles around. I loosed all the strings put on a Capo unscrewed the tail piece and flipped the bridge around; then reset the action height and intonate. As shipped the action was higher on the bass side, so I lowered it and noticed how lopsided it appeared. That's how a I discovered that the saddles are flipped.
Greeting from Canada! Great review, I'm just wondering if I would be better off buying this model Harley Benton SC Custom 11 Vintage Black for about the same price as it has Grover tuners ( you said you'd be replacing yours) and a coil split, thanks.
Awesome video love the jazz song name that tune please rock on
Nice video. Great demo. Do you still have the CST 24? What is your main guitar?
Cheers mate. Yes, I still have the CST24 & my main guitar is my signature model from Scott Guitars UK 👍
By the way, like the outro music.
Very GM inspired. 😁