Review of the Harley Benton SC-450 P90 GT Classic Series Electric guitar. Where to buy it?

I’ve been playing for 47 years now as both a semi-pro and amateur/hobbyist, and a lot of great instruments have passed though my hands over the years. This is one of them. If you have some basic knowledge of how to properly setup, care for, and modify guitars there is no reason you couldn’t have a Les Paul every bit as good as the real thing. For me, the only modifications I’ve made was to 1) swap out the tuners as they had a tendency to not immediately catch or engage at times, and 2) put on an Earvana Compensating Nut (which I automatically do to ALL my guitars). There was nothing wrong with the intonation and, in fact, the intonation was perfectly setup right out of the box! However, I mostly play around the first 4 frets where intonation is problematic on ANY guitar (even $20,000 ones!) and the Earvana solves that problem. Regardless of the "catching" problem, the tuners did work and the guitar had no problems staying in tune. I choose to replace the tuners with the Wilkinson EZ-LOK tuners which retail for about $20 USD and work great, so it hasn’t proven to be a deal-breaker.

The fit and finish are simply flawless! This is a beautiful looking instrument. My "gold" top is actually a little more on the copper side (too much red pigment?), but I’ve come to really like it this way. It still looks fantastic and it makes mine unique (I hope)!

As far as the neck and frets go: I see no issues whatsoever with the neck or frets. Frets are smooth and polished with no sharp ends. The neck feels and plays simply great. for those concerned about neck-dive, this model is well-balanced and there is no neck-dive with it. One thing I especially like about the neck is that the headstock is at a 14° angle like the Epiphones and not 17° like the Gibsons. This means there’s less (unnecessary) tension on the neck/headstock so that the neck is more resistant to breaking while still providing all the tension you need. Why Gibson continues to use a 17° is beyond me as it’s completely unnecessary and only weakens the neck. The SC-450 also has a scarf joint which aids GREATLY in preventing neck breakage. Yes, I like scarf joints and you should too. Nice touch, Thomann!

The inlays are perfect and centered. The bindings are perfect with no gaps or marring.

The weight is pretty hefty although not as heavy as an actual Les Paul.

The electronics, knobs, and switches are all solid and there are no problems there. The P90 pickups, which is WHY I got this particular gold top model are simply luscious! Nice beefy sound with a nice tonal range. Everything you’d want in a classic P90. If you know P90s you either love them or hate them. I love P90s and the Roswells are outstanding. Yes, they’re a bit noisy, but that’s all P90s (which is why some people hate them). You learn to deal with the hum because nothing else sounds like a P90. This thing grinds/rocks like a champion!

The bridge and tailpiece are solid and I see no problems there.

This guitar just smacks of amazingly good quality and craftsmanship and it astounds me as to how Thomann can do this for so little money! This is my first experience with an Harley Benton Les Paul and based on this I will be buying more HB Les Pauls. Right now I’m looking at that beautiful white one!

(This is actually the second one I had shipped to me, as the first one had a number of problems--uneven or "rippled" or "wavy" neck/fretboard, a visible shim in the neck joint, badly mismatched/miscolored body wood (and I mean BADLY mismatched--really light color with really dark color--visible a mile away). It was clearly B-stock or worse, and Thomann quickly remedied the problem (top-notch customer service, by the way!) by replacing it with a new one. So, this review is of the second one they sent me.)

I think either this model or the SC-450 Plus (if you need the mahogany body and neck) is the best guitar value at Thomann (I have both models now). After I bought the 450 Plus (which I absolutely loved!), I really wanted a model with P-90s. But I was a bit hesitant about the basswood body and maple neck (not certainly not classic les paul specs!). But after playing the SC-450 P90 GT back and forth with the SC-450 Plus, I really can’t hear much of a difference. Maybe the Plus sounds a wee bit "tighter" and the P90 a wee bit "looser," but that may also come down to the difference in pickups. IMO, the tone character is in the same ballpark, and the P90 model sounds as much like a classic les paul as the Plus model. So don’t let the basswood dissuade you from buying it.

I really, really love these guitars. The price is absurdly low. But the quality strikes me as being about 3 times what it actually costs. The contoured heel makes a big difference in terms of playability. I love it. Fit and finish is excellent (there is a bit of wood "scratching" that you can see in one spot under the gold sparkle finish, but you have to really, really be looking for it to notice it). It’s fretting out a bit around the 14th or 15th fret, but that should be remedied with a professional setup, which nearly all new guitars need anyway. The pickups are surprisingly nice sounding for such a cheap guitar. I assume they are ceramic. But they sound really nice--raunchy and growly, but they also clean up real sweetly. I already had an alnico II P90 to put in the neck, and an alnico firebird to put in the bridge (Neil Young-style), so I’ll be doing that shortly. But it’s a solid player as is. Pots also seem solid. No problems there. I’m planning on putting a cheap Chinese bigsby-style tremolo on it (just to go full Neil Young or Daniel Lanois). If I weren’t, I’d probably upgrade the bridge with a Gotoh or something like that, because the stock bridge appears to be on the cheap side. I’ll also be upgrading the nut with a tusq. I haven’t yet made up my mind on the tuners. So far, they seem to be good enough. I’ll revisit them after I upgrade the other stuff.

In other words, I see this as an excellent guitar for modding. For the price, it can’t be beat. Apart from the cheap components (bridge and nut in particular), it’s a real solid guitar to build on. The neck feels great in the hands and the body has a lot of les paul heft to it. Good resonance, sustain and mid-rangey and growly les paul tone. Highly recommended.