Harley Benton R-457 Active SBK

Ik wilde een 7 snarige gitaar aanschaffen naast mijn les paul std. Na het lezen van de goede reviews, heb ik de gok gewaagd. Tot zo ver geen spijt van.

Pluspunten:
- hals kaarsrecht
- geen uitstekende frets, alles netjes gelijk. Ook geen scherpe randjes.
- snaarhoogte goed afgesteld
- intonatie OK, geen verloop
- mooi design, matte lak is erg strak

Minpunten:
- de actieve pups zijn echt luid. Maar na terugdraaien gitaar volume en gain van de amp, en tweaken van de tone, komt er echt een prima geluid uit. Misschien dat ik in de toekomst de pups nog eens vervang voor een passief exemplaar.
- de volume/tone potmeters zijn erg flimsy
- de stemknoppen voelen te losjes aan naar mijn mening. Stemming lijkt wel redelijk constant te blijven.

Ik heb deze gitaar gekocht om lekker lage metal te spelen. En daar werkt hij echt perfect voor. Hij speelt prima, klinkt met de active pickups erg mooi. En zoals in andere reviews al staat is de output daarvan zeker heel hoog. Maar het is absoluut niet onmogelijk om er een clean tone uit te krijgen, dat kan nog steeds.

Hij is goed afgewerkt, en kwam netjes verpakt.

Voor de prijs is dit absoluut een top gitaar, zeker aan te raden!

First off the thing looks great, really nice matte black finish that looks and feels great, I tried to find imperfections and couldn't find any that I didn't make with my grubby hands, very easy to leave shiny marks.

The frets are all seated properly, no sprouting and no sharp edges, could use a light polish but that's to be expected. Full marks there!

The neck is pretty thin, my first thought was that it looked like a floorboard had been shaped into a neck but when I started to play it I was thankful for that thinness because it's wide but it's still really easy and comfortable to reach that B string (I'm a bassist primarily so that might not be true for guitar players looking to experiment with 7 strings, I find the B on this easier to play than the E on my 6 string) there is a pretty glossy finish on the back that I found kind of sticky, easy fix with some fine grit sandpaper or something like a scotchbrite pad. Mine arrived with a forward bow but that's an easy fix with truss rod adjustment. The only thing losing marks for this neck is the part where the headstock angles back is pretty thin, it's fine but I think for my peace of mind I might make a sort of volute that I can glue on to add a bit of support (that it probably doesn't need)

The bridge seems well made but the action on my guitar is still kind of high with the saddles all the way down so I may need to shim the neck to get it to where I want it, easy job and not something I mind doing on a guitar in this price range but might be an issue for beginners (though if you're brave enough to get a 7 as your first guitar you'll find the courage somewhere, it's a reversible mod anyway)

The pickups are... not great. They're REALLY hot, totally usable for really high gain playing, they aren't very articulate but the can be fun to bash out some of your favourite metal riffs (first thing i played on it was LoG walk with me in hell, the fun bit, not the hard bits haha) but they're damn near impossible to get clean tones out of, makes sense considering this is definitely a metal focused guitar but worth mentioning. I bought this with the intention of replacing the pickups anyway but I was hoping the stock pups would be a little better than they are, if I were more of a gear head I might be able to get them to sound much more usable but right now I feel like if a fly landed on the headstock I'd hear it through the amp which brings me to my last point, this thing is surprisingly resonant! I'm super impressed by how great it sounds unplugged, sustain is great too, I'm really happy with my purchase as I wanted to swap pickups anyway and I think this will sound great with my planned SD Invader in the bridge.

I would recommend this as an excellent mod platform or for someone who want's to start experimenting with extended range guitars, not so great for beginners (I wouldn't recommend 7 strings to a beginner anyway but this price makes it pretty attractive to new comers so worth mentioning)