Review of the Harley Benton HP-42 Signature TT Roasted Electric guitar. Where to buy it?

This is my second Harley Benton guitar. My first was the Harley Benton Fusion-II HH FR Roasted FBB, which I was very impressed with. I wrote a review for it, as well, which you can read on the product page. I was hoping that this guitar would be as good as that one. It definitely is.

Just like with my Fusion-II, I could find no finish flaws at all. The color of this guitar looks very green on the product page, but in person, it truly is a turquoise color. That shouldn’t have been a surprise, but it was. Just a little bit, anyway. It wasn’t a bad surprise, though. It’s a beautiful guitar and I’m still very pleased with the way it looks.

The neck is a very fast, satin-finished, delicious-looking caramelized color. The soft V profile makes chording an absolute joy and the moderately flat radius also allows for easy string bending. I’ve owned dozens of guitars over the past 31 years and this guitar has one of the best necks I’ve ever played. Yeah, it’s really that good.

The pickups were a bit of a surprise, too. I own a somewhat similar guitar, a Yamaha Pacifica 611HFM, which is also a hard-tail guitar with a bridge humbucker and a P90 neck pickup, too. That guitar has Seymour Duncan pickups in it, so it obviously sounds great. To my ears, though, the Roswell pickups in this guitar sound just as good, if not better. Perhaps they’re not top quality, but these pickups just seem to match the tonewoods used in this guitar so well that I have no plans to change them.

The coil tap and phase switching makes this guitar very versatile. It can sound bright, warm, loud, soft, and sort of odd with the phase inversion switched on, but all of the sounds are nice and usable. I wish I could say the same for some of my other, more expensive guitars.

The GraphTech nut and locking tuners are very nice touches, as well, and completely unheard of in this price range. My Pacifica has both of these features, too, but it also cost almost double what this guitar did. Kudos to Harley Benton for caring enough to install such quality parts, because the tuning stability is very solid as a result and sometimes that’s all a good guitar needs to become a great guitar, like this one is.

Overall, this is an excellent guitar that looks sharp, plays smoothly, sounds sweet, and stays in tune very well. I’m very happy with it.

If you’re thinking that this somewhat unusual guitar might be right for you, then you’re probably 100% right and I highly recommend it without a doubt.

I play at home or with friends, so I’m not a pro by any measure.

I ordered a Harley Benton HP-42 Signature Sunday night and the UPS lady was knocking on my door Wednesday morning! From Germany! Through customs! I thought it would take a couple of weeks at least! Thanks Thomann.

BACKSTORY: My existing guitar is a BC Rich Mockingbird I, which is a good guitar for 180USD. I wanted an upgrade for less than 500USD, and spent months trying out guitars, but didn’t find anything that impressed me all that much. After checking hundreds of reviews on YouTube I decided to take a big chance and go for the HP-42 sight unseen.

UNBOXING: Well, the packaging doesn’t look that great, and I was a bit apprehensive opening the box.

Unbelievable! This thing is off the charts beautiful! I spent an hour searching for the slightest flaw and found nothing to complain about! Not a single scratch, chip, or dent. I know the laminate top is 2-piece, but I almost need a magnifying glass to spot the seam. The roasted maple neck has a lot of pretty banding and the satin finish feels flawless. The frets are nicely finished with no rough spots. The nut is nicely done and the strings sit at the correct height. The chrome hardware is all premium, and just plain looks classy.

SETUP: It comes setup almost perfectly. The neck is dead-on straight. The only thing I might change is the string height. It comes a little high for my taste, but I will try it out for a while before I make any adjustments. It should just be minor adjustments to the bridge saddles. No string buzz anywhere. The D’addario strings are a nice touch. The QC was signed off by John. KUDOS John!

COMFORT: This is the most important thing for me. Almost any electric guitar can be made to sound good with a decent amp and setup, but comfort and play-ability depend on how the guitar is physically constructed, and that is difficult to change.

I think all guitars suffer from neck dive, but the dive on the HP-42 is minimal. It sits well balanced when sitting. Add a strap and the neck dive disappears because the neck strap button is located far out over the neck.

The deep sculpting at the top of the body is really comfortable, and adds to the balance. The sculpting for accessing the highest frets 21 & 22 could be just a tiny bit deeper, but that isn’t a big deal. I’m not going to be doing bar chords that far up the neck.

It is the most comfortable guitar I’ve tried with the possible exception of a 2000USD Ibanez.

SO HOW DOES IT PLAY?: In a word, Fantastic! I’m not sure why, but difficult chords are suddenly easier. In fact, everything is easier. Maneuvering the full length of the neck is slick and fast. The glossy stainless frets make bending easy. Natural sustain is good due to the heavy hardwood body.

The biggest surprise is the bridge; it makes palm muting a snap because it is so clean and flush!

The tone and volume controls have huge range from soft to loud, and super mellow to glass breaking bright. The single coil pickup is as good as any pickup at any price point I have tried. The humbucker is good but it just can’t compare with the single coil.

The switches offer so many tone combinations I haven’t gotten them all figured out yet. I may want to turn the toggle switch 90-degrees from UP/DOWN operation to LEFT/RIGHT because the location makes it easy to accidentally flip positions when strumming. That is an easy change.

IN SUM: I love it! The HP-42 is pretty, comfortable, easy to play, and versatile. I don’t think there is another electric that offers this kind of value at this price point. If you want the best bang for the buck at under 500USD then YOU GOTTA GET ONE OF THESE!