Harley Benton Sc450 P90 Gt Classic Series Review
Harley Benton SC-450 Review & Prices
Compare
- From Harley Benton's 2015 Classic serial
- Made in China
- 6 strings
- 24.75"'' calibration
- xiii.78" Fretboard Radius
- Basswood body
- Maple cervix
- Roseacer fretboard
- Span pickup: HB Humbucker (Humbucker/Passive)
- Neck pickup: HB Humbucker (Humbucker/Passive)
- Melody-O-Matic Bridge bridge
- 2 book and 2 tone Bell knobs
- 3-mode Switch
- Harley Benton C Set neck
- 22 Medium Colossal frets
- Closed Die-Cast Machine Heads tuners
Verdict: is The Harley Benton SC-450 a Good Guitar?
Made with inexpensive labor to reduce costs, but that doesn't necessarily mean you'll get a bad product. It'south a guitar with decent playability. It doesn't come with the best pickups, and then you might want to upgrade them somewhen. Information technology's a well-counterbalanced guitar for playing solos and chords. In full general, it offers a expert amount of features for the toll. Merely you might want to check other guitars with a better score if you lot have the budget for it.
Final Scores and Tone Evaluation
Tone Evaluation
- Heavy Metal
- Difficult Rock
- Jazz
- Dejection
- Funk
- Country
Strengths & Weaknesses
Harley Benton SC-450
- Neck-Through Build
- Push Knob or Extra Switch Pick
- Weight Relief
- Tremolo
- Stays in Tune (Evertune)
- Locking Tuners
- 21:one Tuner Ratio
- Stainless Steel Frets
- Compound Radius Fretboard
- High-Quality-Standards Country
- Strap Lock
- Expensive Wood
- Loftier-Quality Nut
- Acme Pickup Brand
- Luminescent Inlay
Price Comparison
These are chapter links. We'll earn a pocket-sized fee if you purchase after clicking. We show you here all the prices nosotros found online in the last 24 hours on Guitar Eye, Reverb, Thomann, Sweetwater and Gear4Music. We are not a store, nosotros're non endemic, nor are nosotros related to these retailers in any way beyond receiving a fee from qualifying purchases. We'll always show you the best prices we find regardless of the bounty we receive. Some links and prices shown hither might non belong to the right production, so brand sure to confirm before buying.
Is the Harley Benton SC-450 a Skilful Bargain?
Its average competitor'southward price is $440, which means that the Harley Benton SC-450 is around 64% cheaper than the competition. This takes into account all guitars in our database with vi strings and Stock-still bridge that are made in Red china.
The Harley Benton SC-450 was released in 2015 and is part of the Archetype series. It is made in China (but behave in heed that mass production guitars change factory frequently). We'll be taking a look at its build quality, tone, playability, versatiliy and some extras to determine how 'practiced' this guitar is. We'll use these aspects to determine a last score for this guitar, which you lot can see at the top of this page.
But since we know that this isn't always possible, we'll try our all-time at reviewing this guitar for you.
More than Guitars From Harley Benton's Classic Series
6 Strings
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Fixed Bridge
22 Frets
6 Strings
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6 Strings
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6 Strings
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six Strings
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6 Strings
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How well is the Harley Benton SC-450 Built?
Where is the Harley Benton SC-450 Made?
Knowing where the guitar is produced is a skilful way to know how well information technology's built. Some manufacturing countries are known for having higher quality standards. For case, nearly expensive guitars are fabricated in the United states of america or Japan, but in that location are some uncommonly neat countries—like South Korea—that are edifice a good reputation.
The Harley Benton SC-450 is made in Cathay. And so you can expect lower build quality when compared to others made in Korea, Nippon or the U.s.a.. Guitars fabricated in this country are meant for mass production, which translates into less attention to detail and quality control. This doesn't mean the product is made poorly at all. Chinese products have a bad reputation since long ago, but they've definitely improved a lot the last few years.
Still, call back that we're taking most Harley Benton here, which is a make with practiced renown. They know how to use cheap labor in this country without sacrificing too much quality. And so you shouldn't end upwardly receiving a useless or ugly instrument.
Now, let's take a look at the quality of the materials used to build this guitar.
Quality of Woods Used in the Harley Benton SC-450
As an electrical guitar, type of wood won't impact the tone and sustain much. Instead, the hardware will be much more than important. However, wood is still important for the expect and experience of the guitar in general.
These are the types of forest used in the Harley Benton SC-450:
The body is made of Basswood. This is a soft type of forest that is very calorie-free and easy to piece of work with. It'south cheaper than many other kinds of wood used for guitar edifice, but it doesn't mean it's low quality. In terms of sound, information technology accentuates the mid-range, which matches the frequencies that a Humbucker produces.
The neck is made of Maple. This is 1 of the about pop types of forest used in all kinds of guitars. Information technology's heavy, potent and meaty, which makes information technology great for necks. However, information technology's also used for fretboards, bodies and tops due to its lite color, resistance and beautiful patterns. When information technology comes to tone, it highlights the mid and high frequencies.
Finally, the fretboard material is Roseacer. It's just thermally treated maple wood, or in other words, roasted maple. This process removes almost water from the wood, making it more stable than regular untreated maple forest.
Span
The bridge is a Melody-O-Matic Bridge. The reward of fixed bridges is that they don't require any kind of set up-up. This makes it extremely piece of cake when irresolute strings because y'all don't demand to suit anything too tuning the guitar. Also, the fact that the span is directly attached to the torso will help to increase sustain. The disadvantage is the lack of versatility since you tin't create the aforementioned vibrato effects as with tremolo bridges.
Nut Material
Some other important matter to analyze is the nut fabric, every bit it's i of the nearly important aspects that can affect the sound and playability of your guitar. A well-cut nut will make sure the guitar stays in tune and will get in more comfortable to play.
In this case, the Harley Benton SC-450 has a Plastic nut. This is a low-quality nut that you might desire to consider upgrading soon. Bone and TUSQ nuts are the best for guitars with a fixed or simple tremolo bridge.
Neck Articulation
The neck joint is the office where the neck of the guitar meets the body. There are iii master techniques to attach both parts together: Set-In, Commodities-On and Cervix-Through. The latter two provide dissimilar advantages, although neck-throughs are the virtually expensive.
This guitar has a Set cervix joint. This type of neck articulation consists of using different pieces of wood for the neck and the body of the guitar. Both pieces are then glued together. This is more than expensive to brand than a bolt-on cervix, but it's cheaper than a cervix-through guitar. Some people believe that this gives more sustain than a bolt-on neck due to both pieces having a 'meliorate connection' than with bolts. Still, information technology'due south something difficult to prove.
Nevertheless, this type of neck articulation does accept the disadvantage of not allowing you lot to hands swap the neck for another. This makes this type of neck joint less mod-friendly.
Build Quality Score
Does the Harley Benton SC-450 Sound Skilful? Tone Analysis
Like we already wrote, wood will have little influence in the final tone of an electrical guitar. Instead, nosotros'll have a look at the hardware used—mainly the pickups—to decide what kind of tone you can expect.
Pickups
The first footstep to choosing an electric guitar should be deciding what type of pickups you want. At that place are multiple configurations and each offers different advantages.
Unfortunately, it doesn't come with pickups from one of the top brands. This doesn't hateful y'all will become bad pickups, merely you might want to consider a pickup upgrade after some time. The good affair is that pickups are easy to alter, so you can do information technology at home.
These are passive pickups, and then you can look a moderade level of hot output instead of the overwhelming output that distinguises agile pickups in metal.
The Harley Benton SC-450's configuration is HH. With this pickup combination, you'll get warmer tones and more output than using single coils. Humbucker pickups cancel the noise that unmarried-ringlet suffer from, which as well results in a warmer tone. This pickup combination isn't just for high-gain music like Hard Rock or Heavy Metal. Their warmness is besides popular for Jazz, Indie, R&B, Blues and more.
Next, we can take a expect at the quality of the pickups. Some brands like to build their own pickups, but it'south preferable when they feature a specialized pickup brand like Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, EMG, etc. Unless we're talking about Fender or Gibson, since they build excellent pickups too.
More guitars with the same pickups
22 Frets
Stock-still Bridge
HB Humbucker Bridge Pickup
HB Humbucker Cervix Pickup
24 Frets
Floyd Rose Bridge
HB Humbucker Bridge Pickup
HB Humbucker Neck Pickup
24 Frets
Fixed Span
HB Humbucker Bridge Pickup
HB Humbucker Cervix Pickup
24 Frets
Fixed Bridge
HB Humbucker Span Pickup
HB Humbucker Cervix Pickup
24 Frets
Fixed Span
HB Humbucker Bridge Pickup
HB Humbucker Cervix Pickup
22 Frets
Stock-still Span
HB Humbucker Span Pickup
HB Humbucker Neck Pickup
22 Frets
Fixed Bridge
HB Humbucker Bridge Pickup
HB Humbucker Neck Pickup
22 Frets
Fixed Span
HB Humbucker Bridge Pickup
HB Humbucker Neck Pickup
Versatility
Permit'south evaluate how much liberty this model gives you to play with more tones, playstyles and genres. We'll take into business relationship things like curl split, fret number, tremolo and the pickup combinations you can take.
Let'south start with the switch options. It comes with the popular 3-fashion switch that is present in most guitars. For more than versatility, guitarists tend to prefer a 5-way switch, although it all depends on what you want to utilise your guitar for.
Unfortunately, information technology doesn't come up with more options for gyre dissever or coil tapping. This makes information technology less versatile than some competitors.
Here's the diagram showing the different pickup combinations y'all can get out of this guitar model:
What music genre is the Harley Benton SC-450 skilful for?
As a 6 strings, Solid Body guitar with HH configuration and Passive pickups, nosotros'd recommend it for genres like Hard Rock or similar. Nonetheless, y'all can use almost whatever guitar for whatever genre. This is but the typical type of music for this kind of guitar.
Sound Score
Is The Harley Benton SC-450 Easy to Play?
The Harley Benton SC-450 meets 6 out of our 8 criteria items for beginner friendliness, which ways that it's a good guitar to start with as a complete beginner. This takes into account the type of frets, scale length, nut width, bridge type, fretboard radius, and neck profile to determine the easiest combination for new players to get used to.
Now permit's take a look at the most important measurements and features that will determine the playability of a guitar:
Nut Width
The Harley Benton SC-450 has a nut width of 43mm (i.693''). This size is also known as 1 11/sixteen'' and information technology's the most common size found in electric guitars. It offers a good balance of string separation at the nut. It'southward the size that most guitarists adopt as it gives them merely enough space to play open chords without muting the strings, merely without spreading the strings as well wide and making bar chords difficult to perform.
Scale Length
Scale length is the distance the strings will span betwixt the bridge and the nut. It can tell you a lot about the overall playability and tone of the instrument. A longer scale length ways longer distance betwixt frets, brighter tone and more cord tension—which means lower activity, but more difficult angle of the strings.
Hither's the Harley Benton SC-450's 24.75" scale length compared to other common sizes:
This is the scale length used in most Gibson guitars. If you similar the playability of a Gibson, this guitar will feel pretty similar. It'south a lot shorter than the typical Stratocaster (25.five'')
Every bit you lot tin meet from the moving picture above, a shorter calibration length likewise means shorter separation betwixt frets. If yous got really small hands, you lot probably volition feel more comfortable playing this guitar than a Fender Stratocaster.
This calibration length also allows for easier bends and vibratos considering the strings will accept lower tension due to the shorter calibration.
Finally, some other affair affected past scale length is tone. A shorter scale will give less room for the harmonics, thus resulting in a warmer, more 'bassy' tone.
However, remember that yous string judge plays an of import office in all of this. A lighter judge volition brand it easier to perform bends, vibratos and will likewise give you lot a brighter tone.
Neck Profile
The neck profile tells yous the thickness (cervix depth) and shape in cross department. Every difference will completely change the feeling and comfortability of the neck. This is a highly subjective matter, but almost players indeed prefer sure types of necks (like Cs and Ds) because they feel nice in most hands.
In this example, the measurements of the Harley Benton SC-450'southward neck shape is a thickness of approximately 0.898'' (22.8mm) at the starting time fret, and 0.931'' (23.6mm) at the 12th.
These measurements were taken either from the official Harley Benton website, or, in example this information wasn't provided, by researching multiple online marketplaces and forums where owners of this model have posted their measurements.
It has a C type neck. C-shaped necks like this have been the almost pop for the last years. The reason is that they feel skillful in most hands. It's generally a thin neck that doesn't arrive your way when playing fast, but that also has plenty mass to requite your hands a comfortable grip for chords if they aren't too big.
Sparse necks like this make it easier to motion your manus across the cervix and it helps when playing fast solos, especially if yous like to leave your thumb costless while playing high on the fretboard. However, thinner necks are also weaker and will need aligning more than often than a thicker neck.
Fretboard Radius
When information technology comes to fingerboard radius, personal preference will dictate which one is meliorate for y'all. Even so, almost people seem to agree that a more than curved (lower) radius volition arrive easier to play chords while a less curved (higher) radius is better for soloing and angle.
The Harley Benton SC-450 has a fingerboard radius of thirteen.78". Here'southward an image comparing this guitar's fretboard radius to other popular choices:
This makes information technology more similar to Gibson guitars (12'') than Fender (9.5''). It'southward slightly flatter than most mod Gibson fretboards though, strong>which makes it more than comfortable for single notes, bendings and vibratos, but less comfy for chords./strong>
Compound radius fingerboards requite the all-time of both worlds. Unfortunately, the Harley Benton SC-450 has the same radius beyond the lath.
Playability compared to main competitors
24.75'' Scale Length
C Neck Profile
1.693'' Nut Width
13.78'' Fretboard Radius
24.75'' Scale Length
Asymmetrical Neck Contour
1.693'' Nut Width
12'' Fretboard Radius
24.75'' Scale Length
D Cervix Profile
1.688'' Nut Width
12'' Fretboard Radius
24.75'' Scale Length
Asymmetrical Neck Profile
1.693'' Nut Width
12'' Fretboard Radius
24.75'' Scale Length
Asymmetrical Neck Profile
i.693'' Nut Width
12'' Fretboard Radius
24.75'' Scale Length
C Neck Profile
1.693'' Nut Width
12'' Fretboard Radius
24.75'' Scale Length
C Cervix Profile
one.693'' Nut Width
xiii.78'' Fretboard Radius
24.75'' Scale Length
C Neck Contour
1.693'' Nut Width
12'' Fretboard Radius
Hand Size Comfortability
After taking into account the cervix profile, calibration size, fretboard radius, and nut width, we can conclude that the Harley Benton SC-450's construction favors people with relatively pocket-size hands.
Even so, this comes downward in the end to personal preference. Make certain you test this guitar—or another one with similar characteristics—before ownership.
Frets
The Harley Benton SC-450 has 22 frets. Even though 24 frets has get really pop, at that place'due south withal a good reason to go fewer frets; the pickup at the cervix position will exist further away from the bridge. This makes the neck pickup achieve a warmer tone. Yous might desire this if you're playing Jazz or similar genres.
However, if you don't care well-nigh the warmer neck pickup, more frets will e'er exist better. It'due south always prissy to have the option to play higher notes if you lot want to.
Finally, these are nickel silver frets, then they won't concluding as long every bit stainless steel frets. If you use your instrument a lot, you'll need to supercede the frets after a few years.
Fret Size
Finally, allow's talk about fret size. Some people prefer tall frets considering it's easier to press the strings and perform bends since there'south less friction against the fretboard. On the other hand, some people like shorter frets because they like to bear upon the fretboard when playing, or because they got heavy hands and tend to press also much on the string and alter the of the note pitch accidently.
The Harley Benton SC-450'southward frets are Medium Jumbo size. These sit down somewhere between a Jumbo and a Medium fret. They're non quite every bit tall as a full Colossal, then yous'll notwithstanding feel the fretboard, but you won't feel it equally much as with medium frets. This is a adept size if y'all want to get in like shooting fish in a barrel to printing the strings but would as well similar a little fleck of ''feedback'' to know when to stop pressing then the notes don't go out of pitch.
Playability Score
Well-nigh Popular Comparisons With The Harley Benton SC-450
Harley Benton SC-450 Specs
Full general
Make: Harley Benton
Year: 2015
Configuration: HH
Strings: half dozen
Made in: People's republic of china
Series: Classic
Colors: Black, Red Burst
Left-Handed Version: No
Trunk
Type: Solid Body
Body Material: Basswood
Span: Melody-O-Matic Bridge
Neck
Neck Joint: Ready
Tuners: Closed Dice-Cast Auto Heads
Fretboard: Roseacer
Cervix Material: Maple
Decoration: Trapezoid Inlays
Scale Size: 24.75"
Shape: Harley Benton C
Thickness: 1st Fret: 0.898'' (22.8mm) - twelfth Fret: 0.931'' (23.6mm)
Frets: 22 Medium Jumbo
Fretboard Radius: 13.78"
Nut: Plastic
Nut Width: 43mm (1.693'')
Electronics
Switch: 3 Fashion
Knobs: Bell
Volume Controls: 2
Tone Controls: ii
Bridge Pickup: HB Humbucker (Humbucker / Passive)
Cervix Pickup: HB Humbucker (Humbucker / Passive)
Source: https://findmyguitar.com/reviews/Harley-Benton-SC-450-review.php
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