Harley Benton SC-1000 SBK Progressive Line

This guitar is amazing in both price and quality. The guitar came in a pretty solid shipping container (Guitarbox within a big carton box) and came without shipping/transportation damages.

First look:
The first thing i noticed is it's awesome look. Expect to get what you order in terms of looks. The mat body is really well done and in terms of color is this a great piece for this amount of money.

Detailed look:
I noticed the elements were not inline. the bridge element was slightly crooked in relation to the bridge one. the volume knobs were poorly finished so that the knob wiggle a little when you turn it. the 3 way switch was impressingly sturdy but it did not align well with the body (clicked in a slight angle)
the frets were well done and the neck looked really good without tinkering with it.
the inlays were not all that great and contained some open little gaps between the inlay and the wood. the inlays looked pretty good for what you expect for a guitar in this range.

I wanted to change the tuners with grovers immediately, but after some playing and bending they held on pretty well! (suprised)

the head is pretty well done and contained no defects.

PLAYABILITY.

This guitar is incredible easy to play (out of the box) they did a good job on making it "plug and play". so on that part it is a very good job for Thomann. The guitar contained a sign that it is well tested and i can kind of believe that.

The guitar plays great with the set of string it comes with. the electronics work just as intended and no real defects detected there apart from the slightly bad job on cosmetics.

It is incredible good to play and after some intonation the guitar tends to be pretty clean! (in terms of frequency)

the neck feels right and every note is easy to play and slide to on this guitar
the guitar is pretty heavy but that is because i am used to ibanez guitars.

THE SOUND:
The sound of this guitar is pretty decent. It's better than average from a guitar with stock pickups. The HBZ stock pickups tend to generate a lot of noise, but that is expected for active ones. I played this guitar through the folowing chain => TS808 -> Marshall JCM800. and the sound is incredible for this price.

The action does needs some working and sadly you can't set the action per string but that is not much of a problem, and if it is you can easily replace the bridge.


Final Verdict:
For a guitar of this pricerange it is a solid 10/10 The quality you get is decent and after some tinkering this guitar is going to be my #1 rocking device for stage and recording.

Even after 15 years of playing this guitar seems pretty on par with the other ones i have, in terms of sound and quality.

Expect a Amazing guitar for this pricerange but be realistic. It is not going to be perfect and flawless!

This is my first guitar with active pickups. I'm a huge Metallica fan, and love the sound that Hetfield gets from his guitars with active pickups. I ordered the L-1000VB fully understanding it wouldn't compare to a much more expensive Hetfield model ESP guitar. With that being said, I was blown away when the guitar arrived.

The finish is a cool looking matte black. The pickups are also black, which gives it a very cool look when paired with the gold hardware. The flag inlays also add to the look of the guitar. So aesthetically it looks awesome.

The tuners on this guitar are sort of loose and imprecise. I was surprised because the chrome hardware on my other Harley Bentons was quite good. The guitar came with D'Adario strings which was a nice plus. Most guitars these days seem to come with terrible strings that you have to replace right away. The D'Adario's are nice. The guitar also came with a 9V battery, which is nice. Would suck to get the guitar and not be able to play it because you didn't have a battery laying around. The guitar is silent until you put the battery in the compartment in the back of the guitar. Like I said, I've never had a guitar with active pickups, so I don't know if all of them behave that way.

The sound quality is very good. The pickups seem to be quite hot, which I was very happy about. Hammer ons, pull offs and tapping are all very easy to do. Also get some nice sounding pinch harmonics and a nice chug when I palm mute the E string. Sounds very dark and heavy when tuned down.

Now the bad part:
I ordered my L-1000VB along with a L-450Plus. Both guitars were shipped in separate cardboard boxes. Then each box is loaded inside of another outer cardboard box. The only sort of padding was a couple of air bladders that were wedged in. This prevents the guitars from shifting, but offer very little in the way of protecting the guitars. Both the L-1000VB and L-450Plus arrived damaged.

The L-450 had a broken 3 way switch, and the L-1000VB has a crack on the corner of the headstock. It looks like it was dropped. It cracked the clearcoat and the wood underneath is splintered. It's really a pity, because I love this guitar. Thomann really needs to figure out a better way to ship these guitars so they are better protected. I've ordered guitars from China that are packaged in styrofoam and they arrive in pristine condition. Cardboard boxes simple don't offer any sort of protection. I have to send photos of the damage to the guitars, and the boxes to Thomann so they can investigate. Hopefully I can get a pristine L-1000VB once they review my photos.