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What Harley Benton did for the guitar community is more than what any other brand did in 50 years. I wish I had one of those for 25 years ago when I first got a guitar. Have 5 HBs in my collection right now, one more on it's way and will buy more in the future.
I totally agree. 250-300 EUR is maybne not a lot, but it's something, so I expect good quality for it. If I am be able to buy a good electric piano for 300-400EUR, than it's obvious I should get a guitar that good enough for 250-300EUR. Shame that big companies still trying to milk people but guitar fans are also not helpful with their "you need an expensive guitar"... Looks like lots of people from the guitar community thinks that "if you do not have expensive guitars, you can't be a good player"...
Rich, your comment at 12:15 sums it up best. These are "workhorse" guitars. And that's the highest 'honor' ANY guitar can be awarded, really. They're not 'wall art' or 'case queens'. AND BTW, for all the 'guitar snobs', that's EXACTLY what a guitar is for, PLAYING. Thanks, Rich!
Harley Benton RULES !!! They play and sound killer. On a recording I GUARANTEE not a single listener would know if you were playing a Gibson or a Harley Benton.There. You just saved $1,500 bucks (or more !)
@@michaelb.42112 well maybe my harley benton is different since its an Active line sc1000. it certainly sounds different in comparison to my other guitars : ) also sounds bad in comparison towards my EMG Guitar. perhaps i need to replace the battery though.
Anyone criticizing you for swapping the pickup in the t-style guitar is ignoring one of the HUGE benefits of these guitars, which is that they're great launching points for modifications and upgrades.
This is why Leo designed the Tele and Strat; i.e. to be easily upgradeable, and manufacturers like HB subscribe to this instead of selling on the name brand.
simple fact the Pickup in combination with the volume pot is responsible for 99% of the guitars sound. So if you put a proper PU in one of theses HB Guitars, you get a killer axe
I have LOTS of guitars - some expensive, some not. I buy an instrument because it feels right, not because of the price. My two main gigging guitars are my Fender American Original 50s Telecaster (cost about £1,500) and my Harley Benton TE-52 Tele copy (cost about £120). Both great guitars! :)
Thanks for this. I have just bought my third Harley Benton and I'm more than happy with them. I wished we had guitars of this caliber back in the seventies.
Nice roundup. I love my HB 335 copy, so popular it was on backorder for months … great quality for the outlay. Had it over a year and play it regularly. Need a tele style guitar now, HB will be it.
I'm watching this vid whilst applying the final coats of finish to a HB kit. I liked the raw colors of the wood so much, I decided to do a light white wash and truoil finish so it looks like the raw wood.The cheep parts of the kit will need replaced, but the body and neck are amazingly good!
Great demo Rich. Great to see a player using the left hand pinkie ! My old guitar teacher was always banging on about the idle pinkie haha. All three sounded sublime in your hands. Have subscribed.
These are all great guitars. Got an HB Te 52 and it is excellent for the money. I really like the CST24 here and I think you can still buy the hardtail version for even less money! Great playing as usual Rich. thanks
Man, that was a beautiful melodic solo on the CST24T. Great playing in general. I'm lucky enough to have 2 HBs that turned up in perfect condition (black CST24T and the SC450) and they are beautiful guitars. I've got more expensive guitars but the HBs get used as much, maybe more, than the others. Keep up the awesome work!
Yeah, i got hb-35 cherry red (no plus) at used, completely stock and it's maybe my best guitar now, even that, i have other more expensive guitars too. It's so nice for the price. I even like it's stock pickups which is rare thing to happen. I'm gonna keep it stock because it's great as it is.
I only have "cheap" guitars and I could get all of them sound about the same with some eq and a pedal. The important thing is that I feel good while playing and my guitars sound better the older I get, could have something to do with getting better at it...?
I got a SC-450 plus almost five years ago, still impressed with it. but I ditched the wilkinson pups right away. body is 2 pieces of mahogany plus the maple top with a set neck. but I wouldn't be so confident on how replaceable they are, quality varies substantially.
I have at one extreme a Gretsch White Falcon (my avatar) which cost a stupid amount of money and 2 Harley Benson's at the other (plus more in between). I love and play them all equally. Each has its own character and each serves a musical purpose.
Rich Bischoff and my favourite was the te 40. In fact it's so good I'm gonna sell my Squier cv 60s telecaster custom. Thing is I'll lose more money selling the Squier secondhand than what the Harley benton cost 😣
Great review, Rich. I appreciate your review of them after having used them for an extended period. I would love a tele and this is a great possibility to get me into one without breaking the bank.
I believe the fretboard on that single cut LP copy is "blackwood" if they were built after the whole "rosewood" thing happened. I have the CST-24T as well. I put in dragonfire Hexbuckers and it sounds quite a bit better, but thinking since i love playing it so much, I might swap them out for a set of Seymour Pearly Gates. I did put in locking tuners on mine as well, The trem is way better, stays in tune better when using the bar by far, but that's about it. Very cool guitar. It's by far my cheapest, but still probably gets more play time other than my Ibanez Genesis Rg 570.
Thanks! Yeah, I have two HB's I picked up about a month and a half ago. Tremendous for what they're asking for them, and I have some excellent guitars to reference to. I picked up the CST24-T (Black) and a SC-550, and they re awsome. Particularly the Black Flame! No problem with the Tremolo, so perhaps I'm lucky. I took one spring off and it's floating. It simply took a few hours, perhaps days to settle, but tuning is real solid. Had a lot of Fender Strats, and always with a whammy, so it just worked out for me. The 3rd guitar you show, the Telli has me thinking. Lol. May have to jump on that one from HB. Thanks for sharing, and good luck with them. . I can honestly say they have a very respectful product, for new guitar players, or to those that want to grab some of the essence of a fine guitar. Either to keep as-is if it's good, or hot rod it.
Rich I have that CST-24t exactly. I feel the same as you about it, however, I can't play the hell out of like you. I'm helping with your sub numbers. Im shooting for 400 by end of 2020.
Great playing! I love inexpensive guitars! Think I’ll buy the cheap one ..I don’t currently have an electric but have always heard they are best to learn on.
Do not forget that comment about changing pickups. You can find great and still inexpensive secondhand pickups, and try them. Owning a cheap guitar, it is no big deal to cut out larger holes for humbuckers or a different pickup setup. On TH-cam you'll have plenty of experts showing you, how and why. Doing such things yourself is worth the trouble. Most things can be reversed; if not, you can sell that guitar, buy a new one and move on. Have fun!
I have that same exact LP copy. Only thing I did to it was change the knobs for speedknobs. I also got the HB 335 copy, which I replaced the pickups and tuners on. Sounds great.
What a different opinion you have about cheaper made guitars when you hear them played with an experienced great player,,loved this and your tasty skills ,cheers mate.
Thanks for all your videos. I like how honest you are in your reviews. I have bought two Harley Benton (sc450 and st62) and I have exactly the same conclusion as you. They are good guitars that you can use as is or mod them for not much money to become a great guitar. I have upgraded my sc450 with good but cheap Entwistle HV58 humbuckers and it sounds and plays as good as my PRS! For the St62, I have just bought a cheap 15usd single coil sized rail humbucker to put in the bridge and it sounds fantastic. Wish you all the best for 2020.
Searching TH-cam high and low for good reviews of Harley Benton guitars for many months has lead me to this video, which is the best one I've seen! Exceptional playing, I've had these three guitars in my Thomann cart for a while, you've convinced me to pull the trigger! Thank you!
Rich, I stumbled upon your channel like a month ago and I really dig your content and the way you make your vids, best part is they're not 45 min long videos.
I have 3 electric guitars. My first guitar which was dirt cheap 15 years ago something like $100, a Cort X2, it still is in great condition and i only had changed the bridge pickup on it with an emg hz h4 out of stupidity. I played that guitar for almost half a decade everyday at least 4-5 hours. Dropped it a ton of times and it still holds up great. The second one is a Jackson RR3 Japan with Seymour Duncan JB/SH pickups which i paid almost a grand. It is still in great condition except a couple finish cracks. Well i played that guitar for almost a decade and dropped it a ton of times. But man this guitar holds in tune like a dream. Play it for weeks and it still doesn't require tuning. Then there's also this used ibanez rg370 something which i had paid something like $250 with dimarzio pickups i think. It had a giant finish crack with a bit of wood damage near the jack input and well not a big deal. I also still play it everyday and sounds great, holds in tune almost as good as Jackson. I bought that guitar for travelling mostly because it is almost as good as Jackson but i love to abuse that guitar. It's probably even older than my Jackson. All these guitars have a whammy bar with floyd rose like bridge and bolt on neck joint. Still they sustain great and hold tune + floyd rose has become very easy to tune for me. And i ordered a harley benton SC Custom last week, waiting for it to arrive. I am sure it'll still be holding great even after a decade. Guitars don't break as long as they're not utter shit and the player isn't throwing them out of the window. They may need some small adjustments from time to time and maybe a couple modifications out of the box unless they don't have working tuners and a good nut. After a long time abusive use the biggest thing you'd do on an electric guitar would be re-leveling the frets which is relatively easy to do. I had played a shit ton of guitars with better constructions, played an ESP Eclipse, played a Jackson SL1, a Gibson Les Paul US, a Gibson Flying V US, all with neck thru construction and much more expensive price range. They are better guitars yes but are they really over $2000 better? No! Absolutely not! I could easily get my ibanez play better than a $2500 Jackson SL1 out of the box. But both adjusted at their best, SL1 wins by a small margin. If you care about that precise small margin, it absolutely justifies the price you pay. But honestly even two of the same guitars made in the same factory using identical parts don't sound or feel the same no matter how well they're set up. There still is a possibility that a $250 lucky purchase guitar can be a much better guitar than a $2000 bad luck purchase guitar. I most certainly am not willing to bet on that kind of thing.
I came here for the guitar review but ended up listening to your playing. Nice job Dude! I love the cst 24 BTW I have some nice guitars but I really want to try the HB just for the hell of it.
Lp is still Balls deluxe! 😀😁😃, That Cst -24 has been on my radar for some time..Beautiful. guitar that seems to be the most diverse out of the bunch. Thanks for the info about the trem. That Te-30 lol.. You are taunting me..Again.. Thank you for the updates and Happy new year!
Awesome Rich i have the TE52 for some reason as i mentioned in Jonathan Koh's video those HB Telecasters their bridge pickups are just straight rock 'n ' Roll i also have the CST24 same as yours and its such a versatile and well made guitar the Roswell pickups are great Harley Benton Guitars are so great in quality and playability for the $ !!
I love my bentons too, have a sc 550, a sc custom vb and a flying v and they playgreat for the price. Was initially go for the cst 24, but...will do it a bit later lol. Great playing as usual Rich.
Thanks! I have been waiting for a couple of their guitars to get back in stock. For some reason, Harley Benton guitars are cheaper in the US than in the EU. US price for the TE 30 is currently $92 /€83. In the UK it's £84 / €98 . It does cost more to have them shipped here, so it kinda evens out. For some strange reason, whenever I see a used Harley Benton, they cost way more than new. There's one on Reverb now for $163 + $35 Shipping. Not sure why you would pay two hundred bucks for a $100 guitar.
I have the Emerald Cst24t. Pickups average, but replaced them with Vanson alnico 2's, and I have a gorgeous guitar that plays beautifully. For no money 🌴
Very cool video brother......and damn nice chops! Thanks for the info. I'll checking out your other videos for sure! Tomorrow my ST 20 WH and TE 20 HH SBK arrive.....but now I want a TE 30!!! lol and the pickup too!
It's a not a one piece brother. It's called a set neck that's where the neck is one piece the body is another just like a bolt on but instead of screws you glue it in place much better for sustained yet harder to repair than a standard bolt on neck
@@kevincoleman9855 well officer thank God you found me. I made this terrible offense a year ago but I knew I get caught... glad you finally got around to me I was feeling so guilty... well actually it's not a neck through... but you're definitely a troll Nazi... sure am glad you straighten me out sir... what would Society do without you, pointing out the people that are asses by being an ass... keep up the good work, I sure do hope they're paying you well.
Love my Harley Bentons. I currently have 4: CST 24T Paradise Flame, TE 52 NA, ST 62 MN VW, and ST 20 HSS CA. Am considering a RB 612 BK and possibly SC 450CB or SC500 BK. To Fret Man, I have never had any issues with shipping (the guitars are double boxed) and so far, all that I've received have been nearly dead on in their set up. They are cheap enough that I've ordered them two at a time so this cuts down on shipping costs. Keep in mind if you use a credit card you will probably be hit with an currency exchange fee if Euros aren't your nation's currency. (It's not much but it's still a cost).
I have SC 500 White one and it's a beast for the money. It's cheap, neck is thinner, has comfort heel cut and action is low out of box. Cons: it's literally double the weight of my Pacifica, you need to intonate it but that's easy and pickups are weird, Bridge pickup is relatively hot - 9.5 K and bridge is 9.5 K. It's the same pickup, I tried to lower the Neck pickup and it solved problem to some extent but I want to replace them. Nut is made out of plastic and and It broke after 3 months. With new grafite nut it doesn't have any problems, holds tune for days after bending and heavy metal playing.
After 2yrs u still lk em and play em is saying something . Was almost funny , seemed lk u were lil hesitant to say u changed the pup , thts lk breathin rnd here . Lol . Nice to let us kno .thx
I have 4 Harley Benton guitars (I use only cheap guitars). I upgraded them , and I can play live almost 3 times in a week without problems. I think you got bad luck with the CST-24T's tremolo. Mine works perfectly and it's one of the best tremolo I ever had on a guitar in 25 years
Good video and nice playing too. I also have three Harley Bentons and they are all great. I played the heck out of my T type one and I can say its as good as any guitar three times the price. I got an offset for Christmas which was the cheapest one and that came with locking tuners which I wasn't expecting you really can't go wrong with them
Hi Rich, subscribed. Put Harley Benton in the title and i pick the video up ! Big fan of Harley Benton. Besides my own made guitars and pickups of course.. soon i'll open my own channel here. Greets from Belgium.
Great review. I think Harley Benton (HB) guitars are fantastic value for money. I don't mind having to set up a guitar a little (not massive setting up though!) and quite often upgrading a few components is fun and makes your guitar individually yours. I generally upgrade tuners and on the HB tele TE30 I would maybe go for a bridge with brass intonation compensated saddles (some HB teles come with Wilkinson bridges with that spec). Sometimes a cable socket can do with a change up too. Blimey O'Reilly... can you play feller - superb playing :-0)
Hi Rich, just stumbled on this a year + late😱. Great playing as always. If I wasn’t having fun building Kit guitars, I’d get one or,, of these. They get great reviews for the most part, and a beginner, or a guy on a budget, can’t go wrong with one of these. Love Your Channel!!
I had played American Fenders and Gibson and was about to buy a new PSR until my guitars were stolen and American Family insurance found a way not to pay when a friend told me about Harley Benton. I thought worse case I would be out a couple hundred dollars if the XT 22 didn't cover my Gibson Les Paul sounds. It was shipped from Germany to Georgia USA and all I had to do is tune the high E string. I bought a HB 35 Plus in January from a friend who bought it Xmas of 2019. I am so pleased with Harley Benton I just ordered a CST 24 Emerald Green for songs I would have played the PRS a CLJ 503 CE WN acoustic, and a ST 70 Black Paisley to cover my Stratocaster sounds and the ST 70 has a humbucker bridge pickup with split coil. I'm buying a new Harley Davidson with the money I save!
Can people stop saying "excellent for the money"? What the hell does that even mean? When you buy a guitar, does it feel good to play? Yes or no? Does it sound good? Is it motivating you to practice? If answer to those questions is yes, why putting money in as an argument? Price of an instrument or any product for that matter is abstract and the only justification that it has is how much value/emotion it provides to you as a consumer. So, how about we stop comparing instruments based on price? E.g. this is 2000$, it must be 10 times better then 200$ guitar. It makes absolutely no sense.
HB get the fundamentals right, pickups and electronics can be easily changed, however making a guitar that doesn't feel right play nice is much harder. the pickups on my HB fanned fret model are far from perfect, very dark sounding, and overall just a bit of an ear sore at high distortion, but that guitar plays so nicely I haven't had any will to pick up another guitar. And with a bit more money and 30 minutes of my afternoon, swapping the pickups to some BKP Juggernauts, the guitar both plays fantastically and sounds the part. Next on my list is a 5 way selector so I can wire the pickups up in series on the 2nd and 4th positions. After that this guitar is done. Never have I ever had a guitar that just feels this right to me, and have having played far more expensive ESP, Jackson and Ibanez models, my HB is still my go to. Overall they need work out of the gate to sound great, but the play ability and feeling are top notch.
We found a T-30 at a second hand shop for 60 bucks, it was a good looking guitar, so we bought if for a future mod job, it's been almost a year, and we haven't touched yet, it plays to damn good
Wow! Very nice playing! Today I brought home a 1981 Les Paul Heritage Series Standard-80 that I inherited. I probably won’t be playing my SC-550 Paradise for a while. We’ll see! HB’s are definitely a LOT of guitar for what you pay, and Thomann was great to deal with when buying.
Never tried one sound great for the money like any company big names or cheaper you can drop on a good one or bad one the name can make alot of difference when people buy if they sound good and play well thats what its all about nice playing 👍
Yes sir you make them sound like high end guitars , and I’m telling you the same thing , sometimes it’s not the Stick , it’s the Sticker , I picked out 5 myself 2 on the way 😀
Thanks for the demo and the links - they look like great guitars for the money! The link for the CST-24 says the strings are recommended are .010-.046. I like .009-.042. Have you tried lighter strings on that guitar, and how was the intonation?
So why is it that when all I could afford was cheap guitars, I wished ever so much to have a “real” guitar. Now, I have had many high end guitars from fender, Gibson and prs and I all of the sudden I have the desire to buy these “cheap”, “copy cat” guitars. They sound amazing!!! And I could buy like 15 of them for the price of my PRS. With a good setup and, if needed, some modding, they sound amazing!
Boy Rich you are such a great guitarist. You really make those HB guitars sound good. I just ordered. Y 3rd HB,this time the TE70 BLACK PAISLEY DELUXE for $220 shipped its a B Stock,we'll see
Man Awesome Channel Awesome Video!!!!!!!!!!!! I have all my guitars with a treble bleed installed , and I just realized why i never use tele bridge pick-up when I saw you turn the volume down....thanks. I'm surprised every tele isnt both top load and string through at the same time. Top load is the way to go...Jimmy Page
Nice worthwhile video Rich! My only thing is that I wish you would have explained why you changed our the neck PUP on the tele style. Obviously you didnt fancy it, but why? 👍👍
Richie Kotzen, loved his tele sound, it's the pickup he uses in the neck. The stock neck pickup in the Benton, did not have much character. That's why. In a nutshell.
I bought the Harley Benton 2X12 with the V30's in it for $220 more or less. One heck of a cab at that price. 2020 i will finally scratch my Harley Benton Guitar itch with several i have my eye on.
Have had a CST-24HB (hollow body) for some 8 months now. Stock Roswell LAF AlNiCo-5 humbuckers, and a crazy sustain! Modded a piezo inside - two outputs to two amp lines. Works like a dream! Had a slight doubt about the bridge and its intonation settings - no worries, also with .009 string set. All hardware spot on. If only it had just a bit thinner C-neck for my tiny wieners ...
Bought one last year, don't know if it's because I live in the Czech Republic (we always get sent the rubbish here) but the set up etc was terrible.. I sold it on..
honestly for the price harley benton guitars are unmatched. if you want a les paul style the only other option in the price range of $100-$130 dollars your only other option is something like an epiphone SL, and those things just look gross compared to a harley benton. the one i own is an SC500 BK vintage and its *nearly* indistinguishable from a Gibson Les Paul Custom EB GH. another reason they are great is they aren't straight counterfeits, they have their own style and i like the fact that they aren't just chibsons
Hey guys, Thanks for watching! Please remember to like and subscribe, and stop by Spotify to listen to some music. open.spotify.com/artist/3GoaK66hG2Al2gf6ync58b?si=L7XJVS7aTCWMPUMLTpFD3Q&dl_branch=1
What Harley Benton did for the guitar community is more than what any other brand did in 50 years. I wish I had one of those for 25 years ago when I first got a guitar. Have 5 HBs in my collection right now, one more on it's way and will buy more in the future.
Hot take
I totally agree. 250-300 EUR is maybne not a lot, but it's something, so I expect good quality for it. If I am be able to buy a good electric piano for 300-400EUR, than it's obvious I should get a guitar that good enough for 250-300EUR. Shame that big companies still trying to milk people but guitar fans are also not helpful with their "you need an expensive guitar"... Looks like lots of people from the guitar community thinks that "if you do not have expensive guitars, you can't be a good player"...
@@AzoreanProudnot really it’s true
Rich, your comment at 12:15 sums it up best. These are "workhorse" guitars. And that's the highest 'honor' ANY guitar can be awarded, really. They're not 'wall art' or 'case queens'. AND BTW, for all the 'guitar snobs', that's EXACTLY what a guitar is for, PLAYING. Thanks, Rich!
Completely agree, my favorite guitars I own are workhorses
Harley Benton RULES !!! They play and sound killer. On a recording I GUARANTEE not a single listener would know if you were playing a Gibson or a Harley Benton.There. You just saved $1,500 bucks (or more !)
True....but...I'm buying a bunch for man-cave wall-art anyway 😁
@@michaelb.42112 well maybe my harley benton is different since its an Active line sc1000. it certainly sounds different in comparison to my other guitars : ) also sounds bad in comparison towards my EMG Guitar. perhaps i need to replace the battery though.
oh...u mean an under nourished work horse.
Anyone criticizing you for swapping the pickup in the t-style guitar is ignoring one of the HUGE benefits of these guitars, which is that they're great launching points for modifications and upgrades.
and beginners like myself 🤙❤
This is why Leo designed the Tele and Strat; i.e. to be easily upgradeable, and manufacturers like HB subscribe to this instead of selling on the name brand.
simple fact the Pickup in combination with the volume pot is responsible for 99% of the guitars sound. So if you put a proper PU in one of theses HB Guitars, you get a killer axe
@@Slears BINGO!! too bad the "decal snobs" just cannot grasp that!
I can assure you, the Roswell pickups in the HB teles are absolutely KILLER and sound great. Organic, lively, responsive, articulated... The works.
I have LOTS of guitars - some expensive, some not. I buy an instrument because it feels right, not because of the price. My two main gigging guitars are my Fender American Original 50s Telecaster (cost about £1,500) and my Harley Benton TE-52 Tele copy (cost about £120). Both great guitars! :)
Absolutely the best guitars out there for the money
You haven't tried a Firefly!
Chapman’s aren’t bad either!
It helps to hear someone who plays great guitar to demo the guitars! Thanks Rich!
The bell-sound is just so amazing xD everytime I hear a bell similar to this the riff immediately starts in my head...
Thanks for this.
I have just bought my third Harley Benton and I'm more than happy with them. I wished we had guitars of this caliber back in the seventies.
Nice roundup. I love my HB 335 copy, so popular it was on backorder for months … great quality for the outlay. Had it over a year and play it regularly. Need a tele style guitar now, HB will be it.
Thanks rich ,these three are on my hit list ,so great to hear them ,greetings from Dublin ,stay safe
I'm watching this vid whilst applying the final coats of finish to a HB kit. I liked the raw colors of the wood so much, I decided to do a light white wash and truoil finish so it looks like the raw wood.The cheep parts of the kit will need replaced, but the body and neck are amazingly good!
Great demo Rich.
Great to see a player using the left hand pinkie ! My old guitar teacher was always banging on about the idle pinkie haha.
All three sounded sublime in your hands. Have subscribed.
Thanks!
These are all great guitars. Got an HB Te 52 and it is excellent for the money. I really like the CST24 here and I think you can still buy the hardtail version for even less money! Great playing as usual Rich. thanks
Thanks!
Man, that was a beautiful melodic solo on the CST24T. Great playing in general. I'm lucky enough to have 2 HBs that turned up in perfect condition (black CST24T and the SC450) and they are beautiful guitars. I've got more expensive guitars but the HBs get used as much, maybe more, than the others. Keep up the awesome work!
What bridge did you put on the CST? I'm not a massive fan of the 6-screw trem.
Same bridge I just added springs so it doesn't move.
Got myself a 335 HB Plus two months ago and quickly become my favorite.
Nice, I've been wanting to try that one.
Yeah, i got hb-35 cherry red (no plus) at used, completely stock and it's maybe my best guitar now, even that, i have other more expensive guitars too. It's so nice for the price. I even like it's stock pickups which is rare thing to happen. I'm gonna keep it stock because it's great as it is.
That PRS Benton sounds KILLER !! Plus, you're such a great player !!!
Thank you for your point of view
New subscriber, found you because of your earlier Harley Benton Guitars when I was searching last night, then you posted this today. NICE!
Great that you did a follow up. So many don't. Very nice tracks!
I only have "cheap" guitars and I could get all of them sound about the same with some eq and a pedal. The important thing is that I feel good while playing and my guitars sound better the older I get, could have something to do with getting better at it...?
No, the guitar sounds better every day because you play it. Not because you play better.
I got a SC-450 plus almost five years ago, still impressed with it. but I ditched the wilkinson pups right away.
body is 2 pieces of mahogany plus the maple top with a set neck.
but I wouldn't be so confident on how replaceable they are, quality varies substantially.
I have at one extreme a Gretsch White Falcon (my avatar) which cost a stupid amount of money and 2 Harley Benson's at the other (plus more in between). I love and play them all equally. Each has its own character and each serves a musical purpose.
You can't go wrong with harley benton guitars. I got a few of them. Great modding platforms or just as they come!
Agreed!
Rich Bischoff and my favourite was the te 40. In fact it's so good I'm gonna sell my Squier cv 60s telecaster custom. Thing is I'll lose more money selling the Squier secondhand than what the Harley benton cost 😣
Great review, Rich. I appreciate your review of them after having used them for an extended period. I would love a tele and this is a great possibility to get me into one without breaking the bank.
Glad I could help. Check out the te-52.
@@RichBischoff Will do, thanks!
Man, you can play! I have the CST as fixed bridge for quite a while. Love it.
I believe the fretboard on that single cut LP copy is "blackwood" if they were built after the whole "rosewood" thing happened. I have the CST-24T as well. I put in dragonfire Hexbuckers and it sounds quite a bit better, but thinking since i love playing it so much, I might swap them out for a set of Seymour Pearly Gates. I did put in locking tuners on mine as well, The trem is way better, stays in tune better when using the bar by far, but that's about it. Very cool guitar. It's by far my cheapest, but still probably gets more play time other than my Ibanez Genesis Rg 570.
Thanks! Yeah, I have two HB's I picked up about a month and a half ago. Tremendous for what they're asking for them, and I have some excellent guitars to reference to.
I picked up the CST24-T (Black) and a SC-550, and they re awsome. Particularly the Black Flame! No problem with the Tremolo, so perhaps I'm lucky. I took one spring off and it's floating. It simply took a few hours, perhaps days to settle, but tuning is real solid. Had a lot of Fender Strats, and always with a whammy, so it just worked out for me.
The 3rd guitar you show, the Telli has me thinking. Lol. May have to jump on that one from HB.
Thanks for sharing, and good luck with them. .
I can honestly say they have a very respectful product, for new guitar players, or to those that want to grab some of the essence of a fine guitar. Either to keep as-is if it's good, or hot rod it.
Rich I have that CST-24t exactly. I feel the same as you about it, however, I can't play the hell out of like you. I'm helping with your sub numbers. Im shooting for 400 by end of 2020.
Great playing! I love inexpensive guitars! Think I’ll buy the cheap one ..I don’t currently have an electric but have always heard they are best to learn on.
Do not forget that comment about changing pickups. You can find great and still inexpensive secondhand pickups, and try them. Owning a cheap guitar, it is no big deal to cut out larger holes for humbuckers or a different pickup setup. On TH-cam you'll have plenty of experts showing you, how and why. Doing such things yourself is worth the trouble. Most things can be reversed; if not, you can sell that guitar, buy a new one and move on. Have fun!
I just ordered the Harley Benton SC-450 and look forward to its arrival.
I have that same exact LP copy. Only thing I did to it was change the knobs for speedknobs. I also got the HB 335 copy, which I replaced the pickups and tuners on. Sounds great.
What a different opinion you have about cheaper made guitars when you hear them played with an experienced great player,,loved this and your tasty skills ,cheers mate.
Thanks man!
Thanks for all your videos. I like how honest you are in your reviews. I have bought two Harley Benton (sc450 and st62) and I have exactly the same conclusion as you. They are good guitars that you can use as is or mod them for not much money to become a great guitar. I have upgraded my sc450 with good but cheap Entwistle HV58 humbuckers and it sounds and plays as good as my PRS! For the St62, I have just bought a cheap 15usd single coil sized rail humbucker to put in the bridge and it sounds fantastic. Wish you all the best for 2020.
Thanks Joel!
Searching TH-cam high and low for good reviews of Harley Benton guitars for many months has lead me to this video, which is the best one I've seen! Exceptional playing, I've had these three guitars in my Thomann cart for a while, you've convinced me to pull the trigger! Thank you!
Welcome.
Rich, I stumbled upon your channel like a month ago and I really dig your content and the way you make your vids, best part is they're not 45 min long videos.
Haha. Thanks!
Great musicianship..
I have 3 electric guitars. My first guitar which was dirt cheap 15 years ago something like $100, a Cort X2, it still is in great condition and i only had changed the bridge pickup on it with an emg hz h4 out of stupidity. I played that guitar for almost half a decade everyday at least 4-5 hours. Dropped it a ton of times and it still holds up great. The second one is a Jackson RR3 Japan with Seymour Duncan JB/SH pickups which i paid almost a grand. It is still in great condition except a couple finish cracks. Well i played that guitar for almost a decade and dropped it a ton of times. But man this guitar holds in tune like a dream. Play it for weeks and it still doesn't require tuning. Then there's also this used ibanez rg370 something which i had paid something like $250 with dimarzio pickups i think. It had a giant finish crack with a bit of wood damage near the jack input and well not a big deal. I also still play it everyday and sounds great, holds in tune almost as good as Jackson. I bought that guitar for travelling mostly because it is almost as good as Jackson but i love to abuse that guitar. It's probably even older than my Jackson. All these guitars have a whammy bar with floyd rose like bridge and bolt on neck joint. Still they sustain great and hold tune + floyd rose has become very easy to tune for me. And i ordered a harley benton SC Custom last week, waiting for it to arrive. I am sure it'll still be holding great even after a decade. Guitars don't break as long as they're not utter shit and the player isn't throwing them out of the window. They may need some small adjustments from time to time and maybe a couple modifications out of the box unless they don't have working tuners and a good nut. After a long time abusive use the biggest thing you'd do on an electric guitar would be re-leveling the frets which is relatively easy to do. I had played a shit ton of guitars with better constructions, played an ESP Eclipse, played a Jackson SL1, a Gibson Les Paul US, a Gibson Flying V US, all with neck thru construction and much more expensive price range. They are better guitars yes but are they really over $2000 better? No! Absolutely not! I could easily get my ibanez play better than a $2500 Jackson SL1 out of the box. But both adjusted at their best, SL1 wins by a small margin. If you care about that precise small margin, it absolutely justifies the price you pay. But honestly even two of the same guitars made in the same factory using identical parts don't sound or feel the same no matter how well they're set up. There still is a possibility that a $250 lucky purchase guitar can be a much better guitar than a $2000 bad luck purchase guitar. I most certainly am not willing to bet on that kind of thing.
Could you repeat yourself?
Rich, that was a sweet video. Some interest licks show up. Nice playing. Thank you.
I came here for the guitar review but ended up listening to your playing. Nice job Dude! I love the cst 24 BTW I have some nice guitars but I really want to try the HB just for the hell of it.
Hey Rich,. I really do enjoy your videos and appreciate your honesty.
Lp is still Balls deluxe! 😀😁😃, That Cst -24 has been on my radar for some time..Beautiful. guitar that seems to be the most diverse out of the bunch. Thanks for the info about the trem. That Te-30 lol.. You are taunting me..Again..
Thank you for the updates and Happy new year!
Awesome Rich i have the TE52 for some reason as i mentioned in Jonathan Koh's video those HB Telecasters their bridge pickups are just straight rock 'n ' Roll i also have the CST24 same as yours and its such a versatile and well made guitar the Roswell pickups are great Harley Benton Guitars are so great in quality and playability for the $ !!
I love my bentons too, have a sc 550, a sc custom vb and a flying v and they playgreat for the price. Was initially go for the cst 24, but...will do it a bit later lol. Great playing as usual Rich.
Thanks Pascal happy new year!
@@RichBischoff welcome. Wish l played like you haha, should practice more though, haha. all the best for you and your family too Rich.
Thanks! I have been waiting for a couple of their guitars to get back in stock. For some reason, Harley Benton guitars are cheaper in the US than in the EU. US price for the TE 30 is currently $92
/€83. In the UK it's £84 / €98
. It does cost more to have them shipped here, so it kinda evens out. For some strange reason, whenever I see a used Harley Benton, they cost way more than new. There's one on Reverb now for $163
+ $35 Shipping. Not sure why you would pay two hundred bucks for a $100 guitar.
I noticed that also, people are asking more for them on reverb and ebay, weird...
@@RichBischoff HBs becoming collector's guitars? :)
Thank you for the review, I’m convinced I would buy these guitars in the future 👍🤘
Really fantastic playing! Love that Paradise Flame HB! Will have one of my own very soon. Thanks!
Welcome
I have the Emerald Cst24t. Pickups average, but replaced them with Vanson alnico 2's, and I have a gorgeous guitar that plays beautifully. For no money 🌴
Nice!
Had to subscribe. Amazing info and playing.
Very cool video brother......and damn nice chops! Thanks for the info. I'll checking out your other videos for sure! Tomorrow my ST 20 WH and TE 20 HH SBK arrive.....but now I want a TE 30!!! lol and the pickup too!
It's a good guitar and a good pickup. Played it this weekend.
Fantastic Demo Video and I really like your playing....
It's a not a one piece brother. It's called a set neck that's where the neck is one piece the body is another just like a bolt on but instead of screws you glue it in place much better for sustained yet harder to repair than a standard bolt on neck
LP style guitar bodies are almost always 2 piece: slab of mahogany + maple cap. Looks like this one uses 3 pieces of mahogany 1:00
so. maybe the correct term is "neck through" . we all now what he meant. The internet doesn't need more "well actually" folks. It's full up.
@@kevincoleman9855 well officer thank God you found me. I made this terrible offense a year ago but I knew I get caught... glad you finally got around to me I was feeling so guilty... well actually it's not a neck through... but you're definitely a troll Nazi... sure am glad you straighten me out sir... what would Society do without you, pointing out the people that are asses by being an ass... keep up the good work, I sure do hope they're paying you well.
Love my Harley Bentons. I currently have 4: CST 24T Paradise Flame, TE 52 NA, ST 62 MN VW, and ST 20 HSS CA. Am considering a RB 612 BK and possibly SC 450CB or SC500 BK. To Fret Man, I have never had any issues with shipping (the guitars are double boxed) and so far, all that I've received have been nearly dead on in their set up. They are cheap enough that I've ordered them two at a time so this cuts down on shipping costs. Keep in mind if you use a credit card you will probably be hit with an currency exchange fee if Euros aren't your nation's currency. (It's not much but it's still a cost).
I have SC 500 White one and it's a beast for the money.
It's cheap, neck is thinner, has comfort heel cut and action is low out of box.
Cons: it's literally double the weight of my Pacifica, you need to intonate it but that's easy and pickups are weird, Bridge pickup is relatively hot - 9.5 K and bridge is 9.5 K. It's the same pickup, I tried to lower the Neck pickup and it solved problem to some extent but I want to replace them. Nut is made out of plastic and and It broke after 3 months. With new grafite nut it doesn't have any problems, holds tune for days after bending and heavy metal playing.
awesome review thanks dir , I've ordered my Harley Benton .....!!
After 2yrs u still lk em and play em is saying something . Was almost funny , seemed lk u were lil hesitant to say u changed the pup , thts lk breathin rnd here . Lol . Nice to let us kno .thx
TE 30 is the best 90 Euro is ever spent! Period
I have 4 Harley Benton guitars (I use only cheap guitars). I upgraded them , and I can play live almost 3 times in a week without problems. I think you got bad luck with the CST-24T's tremolo. Mine works perfectly and it's one of the best tremolo I ever had on a guitar in 25 years
Same on mine, it holds better then my USA fender strat
Good video and nice playing too. I also have three Harley Bentons and they are all great. I played the heck out of my T type one and I can say its as good as any guitar three times the price. I got an offset for Christmas which was the cheapest one and that came with locking tuners which I wasn't expecting you really can't go wrong with them
Nice!
Hi Rich, subscribed. Put Harley Benton in the title and i pick the video up ! Big fan of Harley Benton. Besides my own made guitars and pickups of course.. soon i'll open my own channel here. Greets from Belgium.
Thanks Bruno
Nice Vid Rich! Great Performance as usual also! Happy New Year my friend and please keep ‘em coming! Cheered from Ohio!
Thanks Rick! Happy New Year.
Great review.
I think Harley Benton (HB) guitars are fantastic value for money.
I don't mind having to set up a guitar a little (not massive setting up though!) and quite often upgrading a few components is fun and makes your guitar individually yours.
I generally upgrade tuners and on the HB tele TE30 I would maybe go for a bridge with brass intonation compensated saddles (some HB teles come with Wilkinson bridges with that spec). Sometimes a cable socket can do with a change up too.
Blimey O'Reilly... can you play feller - superb playing :-0)
The Harley Benton PRS really shines here.
Hi Rich, just stumbled on this a year + late😱. Great playing as always. If I wasn’t having fun building Kit guitars, I’d get one or,, of these. They get great reviews for the most part, and a beginner, or a guy on a budget, can’t go wrong with one of these. Love Your Channel!!
Thanks man!
Great video man, makes me want to buy one. Subscribed!
I had played American Fenders and Gibson and was about to buy a new PSR until my guitars were stolen and American Family insurance found a way not to pay when a friend told me about Harley Benton. I thought worse case I would be out a couple hundred dollars if the XT 22 didn't cover my Gibson Les Paul sounds. It was shipped from Germany to Georgia USA and all I had to do is tune the high E string. I bought a HB 35 Plus in January from a friend who bought it Xmas of 2019. I am so pleased with Harley Benton I just ordered a CST 24 Emerald Green for songs I would have played the PRS a CLJ 503 CE WN acoustic, and a ST 70 Black Paisley to cover my Stratocaster sounds and the ST 70 has a humbucker bridge pickup with split coil. I'm buying a new Harley Davidson with the money I save!
Buying Harley Bentons so you can buy a Harley Davidson, priceless!
Can people stop saying "excellent for the money"? What the hell does that even mean? When you buy a guitar, does it feel good to play? Yes or no? Does it sound good? Is it motivating you to practice? If answer to those questions is yes, why putting money in as an argument? Price of an instrument or any product for that matter is abstract and the only justification that it has is how much value/emotion it provides to you as a consumer. So, how about we stop comparing instruments based on price? E.g. this is 2000$, it must be 10 times better then 200$ guitar. It makes absolutely no sense.
Because its highly unlikely they feel/sound as good as their multi-thousand dollar equivalents.
HB get the fundamentals right, pickups and electronics can be easily changed, however making a guitar that doesn't feel right play nice is much harder. the pickups on my HB fanned fret model are far from perfect, very dark sounding, and overall just a bit of an ear sore at high distortion, but that guitar plays so nicely I haven't had any will to pick up another guitar. And with a bit more money and 30 minutes of my afternoon, swapping the pickups to some BKP Juggernauts, the guitar both plays fantastically and sounds the part.
Next on my list is a 5 way selector so I can wire the pickups up in series on the 2nd and 4th positions. After that this guitar is done. Never have I ever had a guitar that just feels this right to me, and have having played far more expensive ESP, Jackson and Ibanez models, my HB is still my go to.
Overall they need work out of the gate to sound great, but the play ability and feeling are top notch.
We found a T-30 at a second hand shop for 60 bucks, it was a good looking guitar, so we bought if for a future mod job, it's been almost a year, and we haven't touched yet, it plays to damn good
I know, right.
Killer playing as usual! Lovely review!
Big Harley Benton, they sound wonderful !!!
Great job on the vid, man. You give the axes some nice context.
Subbed. :)
Thanks brother!
I love my Bentons and so do most of my visitors, my friend refuses to believe my SC Custom has the standard Wilkinson pickups in it
Well, I got a SC 450 plus with Wilkinson pick ups as well. It's an older model, that's why.
Sounds killer !! i am jonsing for the gold top p90!!!
Wow! Very nice playing!
Today I brought home a 1981 Les Paul Heritage Series Standard-80 that I inherited. I probably won’t be playing my SC-550 Paradise for a while. We’ll see!
HB’s are definitely a LOT of guitar for what you pay, and Thomann was great to deal with when buying.
Congrats on the Les Paul!
I made a guitar out of a yard stick, a cardboard milk container and fishing line, I have a feeling this guy could make that sound epic.
Haha
Never tried one sound great for the money like any company big names or cheaper you can drop on a good one or bad one the name can make alot of difference when people buy if they sound good and play well thats what its all about nice playing 👍
DillionGuitars makes good LP, PRS and Fender copies. I've had several over the years and still have 3. A strat and 2 LPs.
Awesome job on this rich & well said !!
Between Harley Benton and the Jet JS series guitars.... i leave mine stock and they are the bomb
That Tele sounds superb for a guitar that cost less than a Squier bullet!
nice review & nice playing thanx
Yes sir you make them sound like high end guitars , and I’m telling you the same thing , sometimes it’s not the Stick , it’s the Sticker , I picked out 5 myself 2 on the way 😀
You have great skills, great recording skills, great amps(?) it just sounds amazing. well done.
Thanks for the demo and the links - they look like great guitars for the money! The link for the CST-24 says the strings are recommended are .010-.046. I like .009-.042. Have you tried lighter strings on that guitar, and how was the intonation?
Intonation is great, I play 10-46 so I haven't tried lighter strings sorry.
Great shredding Rich! We have a mutual friend... but besides that, I like what you do.
Thanks Orrin!
Awesome overdrive tone!
happy to see you still have the 339 p90 !
Of course. Love that guitar!
@@RichBischoff I still have mine,too! Can't find a better, reasonable p90.
So why is it that when all I could afford was cheap guitars, I wished ever so much to have a “real” guitar. Now, I have had many high end guitars from fender, Gibson and prs and I all of the sudden I have the desire to buy these “cheap”, “copy cat” guitars. They sound amazing!!! And I could buy like 15 of them for the price of my PRS. With a good setup and, if needed, some modding, they sound amazing!
If you buy a bunch of them, the fascination will wear off quickly. Trust me.
Boy Rich you are such a great guitarist. You really make those HB guitars sound good. I just ordered. Y 3rd HB,this time the TE70 BLACK PAISLEY DELUXE for $220 shipped its a B Stock,we'll see
Thanks Ed, hope you get a good one!
Did you do any cavity shielding on the Tele?
I didn't.
Man Awesome Channel Awesome Video!!!!!!!!!!!! I have all my guitars with a treble bleed installed , and I just realized why i never use tele bridge pick-up when I saw you turn the volume down....thanks. I'm surprised every tele isnt both top load and string through at the same time. Top load is the way to go...Jimmy Page
La Te-30 Harley Benton , me gusta para comprarme una, saludos desde México 🤘
They look good, sound good, but play well.
lol
Nice review...I just found out about this brand a few days ago... thinking about picking up one of the new tele style with humbuckers🤔🤔🤔🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
Do it!
Nice worthwhile video Rich! My only thing is that I wish you would have explained why you changed our the neck PUP on the tele style. Obviously you didnt fancy it, but why? 👍👍
Richie Kotzen, loved his tele sound, it's the pickup he uses in the neck. The stock neck pickup in the Benton, did not have much character. That's why. In a nutshell.
Awesome playing great Sounding guitars great Demo 🎸❤👍👍😊
Thanks brother!
I bought the Harley Benton 2X12 with the V30's in it for $220 more or less. One heck of a cab at that price. 2020 i will finally scratch my Harley Benton Guitar itch with several i have my eye on.
Nice!
Nice video nice shredd i have one sc550 with sd pickup
The Hollowbody CST 24 is the one i am interested in, among numerous others of course :)
Have had a CST-24HB (hollow body) for some 8 months now. Stock Roswell LAF AlNiCo-5 humbuckers, and a crazy sustain!
Modded a piezo inside - two outputs to two amp lines. Works like a dream!
Had a slight doubt about the bridge and its intonation settings - no worries, also with .009 string set. All hardware spot on.
If only it had just a bit thinner C-neck for my tiny wieners ...
Had one for like a year now, good for the buck I don't think you'll find many guitars in that range with that quality and body type
Bought one last year, don't know if it's because I live in the Czech Republic (we always get sent the rubbish here) but the set up etc was terrible.. I sold it on..
Germany is right next to Czech so why would Thoman send you rubbish?
honestly for the price harley benton guitars are unmatched. if you want a les paul style the only other option in the price range of $100-$130 dollars your only other option is something like an epiphone SL, and those things just look gross compared to a harley benton. the one i own is an SC500 BK vintage and its *nearly* indistinguishable from a Gibson Les Paul Custom EB GH. another reason they are great is they aren't straight counterfeits, they have their own style and i like the fact that they aren't just chibsons
Check out guitargardens.com they have good looking les paul models.
@@RichBischoff i will do! thanks im always looking to expand my knowledge