Harley Benton SC-450Plus CB Vintage Series

The Good
It arrived in fine condition via UPS. Upon unboxing, tuning and playing I was pleasantly surprised that there were no major issues and the fretboard was nicely prepared with nicely filed fret ends and the correct amount of bowing in the neck. The inlays on the fretboard are perfectly set. The intonation was also pretty good and the tuners hold tune. The action was a little high but that was fixed in seconds. Also, the flamed maple on my copy is very nice and more pronounced than comes across in the photos. The burst also fades much more gently that is apparent in the photos. The pickups also sound great in my subjective opinion and remind me very much of my 1970s Ibanez Lawsuit Les Paul that I foolishly sold as a young man. Aesthetically, it is a beautiful guitar.

The Bad
It's hard to believe how thoroughly it was really checked by a real human as one of the tone knobs was only half way pushed down onto it's pillar. It was a quick fix, but you'd think that was very obvious. There are a few miniscule bleed spots of stain on the binding and a dollop of varnish from overspray on the body end of the fretboard binding. But these are very minor nit-picks and aren't really visible unless you jam the guitar in your face. Overall the finish is actually pretty nice for such a budget guitar.

The Ugly
One of the bridge post sockets clearly was hammered in at a slightly wonky angle. It doesn't seem to effect intonation that I can tell but it's something that should have been caught in QA. The other complaint I have is about the bridge saddles not having enough travel on the low A and D strings to achieve perfect intonation. It's not terrible but it's probably an issue with the nut which, as others have pointed out, is probably the weakest part of this instrument.

Highly recommended but be prepared to do a bit of fiddling and fine tuning.

I've this guitar for several months now, and I have to say I'm very impressed. The Wilkinson pickups sound perfect for a LP, despite the neck position being a little muddy.

Now, as far as playing the guitar, the neck on mine didn't have any sharp fret ends which is good. The actual fret wire that has been used feels awful. You can easily tell it has been made from pot metal because it feels and sounds like a tin can.

My SC450 did come with a minor dink next to the bridge pickup ring, but that's no big deal. I haven't had any issues with the input jack which is normally a common issue. The volume and tone pots are quite bad. They go from 0 to 10 in 2 notches.

I've been wanting a LP-style guitar for quite some time already. Due to budget restrictions though i was hesitant to go for mid-level guitar, hence why I decided to try out Harley Benton's SC-450 Plus. I'm a guitar enthusiast and I absolutely love playing at home which also contributes to me not wanting to spend too much cash.

Basically, I've been absolutely stunned by this guitar. The only weak point i would say is tuners which don't really hold tune all that great, but other than that this guitar is just amazing for me - it sounds like a Les Paul, it feels like a Les Paul and it looks like Les Paul.

Decent setup out of the box, didn't require much fiddling even with intonation. The overall finish is just spot-on with no imperfections and the top veneer is looking absolutely gorgeous. No crackling on pots, no actual visible issues with it except for weak tuners which I'd recommend replacing first.

Pros: excellent finish and overall look, very good out of the box setup, good sounding pickups, solid pots with split-ability.

Cons: tuners are first to be replaced.

I was looking for a nice budget les Paul in sunburst. The SC450 Plus seemed to offer the best value for money to me due to the Roswell PU's and Maple fineer top.

The guitar came well packed and undamaged.
The shape is slightly different to a les paul, especially at the body/neck joint area and the cutaways. It looks good and makes it very playable.

Finish looks nice, the maple tdoes not look really "deep" so its a thin fineer but looks allright. The burstis spread out different compared to Gibson/Epi and other LP's as the burst also runs into the cutaways. It looks classy altough I prefer the Gibson/Epiphone style on this.

The pickups sound very good and the coil split works fine.
The drawbacks in my opinion are the hardware and the craftmanship. The tuners are not perfectly aligned in the headstock and the switch knob is poor quality and loose. I have fretbuzz on the 2nd and 3rd fret. So don't expect much from the "quality inspection" at Thomann. This guitar offers many features and good value for the money, but don't expect miracles. I think it would be a much better guitar if they invested a bit more in quality rather than features like coil-split. If you have more budget I recommend Vintage guitars.

I was excited to see this package arrive and quickly UN-boxed this guitar. Upon initial inspection the guitar had no visual cosmetic flaws, the switch and knobs all seem to move the bridge was set up a little high, but the neck had the right amount of relief. This is a great guitar for the price. Upon initial tuning I noticed that two of the tuning pegs were not screwed in tight, the screws were not tighten...how it made it passed inspection? Also there was some issues with the tail piece post, but I have experienced working with guitars and was a non-issue. The post was not fasten to the body and when I changed strings, they both popped out. A little tight bond glue (a drop) to keep them in place. Otherwise still a great guitar.