Harley Benton SC-550 II DFB

I bought this SC-550 II DFB to compare to a smokehouse burst Gibson Les Paul Studio that I bought at the same time because I loved the color and always wanted a Les Paul. The Gibson was $1500 US, the HB SC-550 was $269.

Now I do wish HB would put ivory tuner knobs instead of those ugly green ones and I also would have liked to see the nut an ivory color instead of white so that it matched the binding but the green tuners were a blessing in disguise.

Both guitars arrived one day apart and Thomann is going to love this. I prefer the SC-550. It looks absolutely beautiful and with a little work, it plays beautiful. The sound is almost as good, the LP pickups being a bit more powerful but it is nothing for which the amp can't compensate.

Mind you the Gibson costs $1500 and it comes Pleked from the factory but has no locking tuners nor stainless frets. I disliked the green tuners on the HB-SC so much I installed chrome D'Addario PWAT-331L self trimming locking tuners . They cost $59 and you do have to drill out the headstock and fill 6 screw holes but no one but me can see that side and they looks beautiful compared to the stock green tuners. I also put on a new set of EXL110-3D strings and for a $369 investment and a bit of setup, I have a guitar that holds rock solid tune that I like better than the Gibson Les Paul. In fact, the LP is going up for sale because, as you may have deduced, having "Gibson" on the headstock means less to me than the value the HB-SC offers.

I own several guitars from a £300 basic Ibanez to a £4000 Gibson Les Paul Custom but for some reason I was drawn to this HB SC-550. Probably the ridiculously low price! At £195, even if it was a pile of junk it would still make a lovely piece of wall art. It arrived today, exactly to the hour that Thomann said it would, a very impressive timescale all the way to the UK from Germany. I’ve given it a quick once over and was immediately impressed by the quality of the fit and finish. I was dubious over the claim that it was finished in an AAAA Maple top but to my surprise the top is absolutely stunning. I thought that Harley Benson just printed the flame tops for this range, it seems I was wrong. It is a little bit yellow compared to the online images (I do have a calibrated PC monitor) but its still ultimately beautiful. The body is a good lump of mahogany (Meranti) and the rosewood fret board (Pau ferro) is slick enough. I know these are towards the cheaper end of the mahogany and rosewood family trees, (no pun intended) but the whole guitar felt good, strong and well made. It tuned up well, and stayed in tune for some basic thrashing but my first job was to lower the action as it was a little high for my taste. The guitar reacted well to this change and I managed to get it pretty low without any fret buzz. Next was the sound test and to my amazement the sound was almost identical to my Gibson Les Paul Classic. I was shocked! I played both guitars back-to-back with the same settings through the same amp too! I would’ve thought that this guitars price point would be around the £700-£800 mark, maybe mid to top end Epiphone standard and quality. It would have benefitted from coil taps and the tuners may want swopping out for something a little better in the future but that’s being really fussy. Don't be a brand snob, if a lesser known organisation can create this quality at this price, the big boys need to take a good long hard look at themslves in the mirror. I’ll give it some more vigorous testing in time but as of day one I am very, very impressed.

What can I say? I’d seen so many video reviews of this guitar, in which all say, (with differing blogger credibility) that it’s astounding for the money and worth buying. Being a Harley Benton fan, and owning a few Gibson Les Pauls myself, even though a single cut is not my go-to design, I do use them in the studio so thought it was worth a punt to see if the ‘hype’ was true.

Straight out of the box it was playable. Only a couple of personal set-up tweaks to get it how I like it and … WOW! It really lives up to all that is said about it. The HB-SC550 Deluxe (as it says on the rear of the headstock) I don’t think can be beat for twice the money. It looks beautiful and it plays beautifully. The body seems to be 3 slabs of mahogany, one even has a flame that is visible around the side of the guitar. An improved neck heel allows easier access to the dusty end of the neck, whilst the 22 chunky frets are clean and even all the way over the fingerboard, allowing great contact and good grip on the strings when bending.

I did an A/B test with my LP Standard (a 1991). OK, it doesn’t feel the same, but I have played more modern LP guitars that are not far off and you soon forget you’re playing a Harley Benton. The Tesla pickups are not quite as bright maybe as the Gibson’s, especially the Tesla neck which is even a little darker, but they ring nicely and are comparable. I don’t think the Kluson style machine heads are any worse than the real thing either but maybe a new set, maybe locking would improve things. The volute whilst being a nice looking addition to the neck, will undoubtedly reduce the likelihood of neck breaks.

It’s a very useable guitar, which I will use often, as I do my other HBs. My only gripes, and they are little ones, is that the body binding could have been thicker and more visible, and whilst the figured top is very nice, I think I may have preferred it more plain and simple. Flames and quilts seem to be the big trend and they are everywhere. Regardless, the HB SC-550 is a stunning guitar. It would be worth it at twice the price, however, the price is good as it is and will sell far more units than if it was higher.

For those like me who really don’t need another guitar or can’t justify a huge cash outlay for a new working instrument or for a little fun, or for someone needing a great guitar to learn on, this guitar cannot be beaten.

I'd thought about ordering an HB SC-550 since the beginning of Covid and never pulled the trigger. I loved the pics of the Desert Flame Burst and knew that if I ordered one ... that would be the one.

I have friends who said at Thomann's price on these guitars you have to expect to change a lot and put a lot into it to get it "playable", therefore turning the price into what you would pay for an Epiphone or LTD by the time you were done. Not the case here.

To keep this as short as possible, let me just say that the Desert Flame Burst had me speechless. I waited for the right time and got the right SC-550 in version 2. The guitar has stainless steel frets, Pau Ferro fretboard, your standard mahogany found in LP types, a chambered body but still has some LP heft to it, a 6mm maple cap with what appears to be a photo flame but who cares ... it takes your breath away. What I care about when it comes to a guitar is how does it look, how does it feel and how does it sound. This guitar looks, feels and sounds amazing! I must have said "Wow" 5 times before I put it down. The fretwork was spectacular, the cavity for the pots was neatly put together with full-size Alpha pots and Tesla pickups with 4 conductor wires.

This guitar truly makes Harley Benton its own respectable brand of guitar if many were not thinking so before. Actually more than respectable because I have some much higher-priced LP guitars that this guitar runs an extremely close second if not takes 1st place to me depending on the moment. I would say get one while they last. This is one of the best guitar purchases I have ever made. Outside of some minor setup to my preferred action and the pickup height adjustment, there was not a lot to do to get this guitar ready to play. And I pulled out tools to measure to a baseline, before I dialed in my preferences, that Gibson would use on their Les Pauls. Out of the box, this guitar fell within spec.

I'm still a little stunned by the quality and I have a friend who owns a guitar shop who was also a bit taken back by how nicely the guitar came in. Shipping was fast in it being about 6 days from order to at my door in the states from Germany. That is unbelievable in itself! I have to admit that I would purchase another HB if it were a PRS style with these features... or if I just wanted a different color SC-550 II. I would love if Harley Benton produced an Anaconda Green in this guitar. It would be in the basket now if they had one! There is really nothing bad to say about the guitar because it came in better in every way than some Epiphone, Gibson or Fender guitars. Thomann has hit it out of the park with this guitar. Everyone has something they would change on almost every guitar and for me with this one, it would be the pickups ... not because these are bad by any stretch of the imagination. Purely because I like Alnico 2s. That's it! If you have been thinking about getting this model, don't second guess yourself. Order it now! Cheers!