Harley Benton Baritone-7 SBK

I reviewed the guitar on youtube..i know links are not allowed here. but look for "cory mura" on youtube and you will get a lot of informations and sounds about this guitar.thx.

i received the guitar with a good setup,lowered it a little bit...perfect. no dead spots,excellent.
the first thing you notice is the very cool look. agressive but stylish. the finish is something i would describe as "semi-satin"..it still got some shine to it but is satin.
the pickups look almost like BKPs and got much clarity and can handle the 7th string very nice...all 7 strings sounds balanced and can give you nice cleans and work extremely well with gain.
my guitar weights 3.5kg is balanced on my leg and on a strap..no neck dive.
the whole construction is something you wouldnt expect in this price range. the neck-through design is something you will want on every guitar from now on. you can reach the 24th fret without any problems.
i could go on and on here.
so: highly recommended guitar...this machine here competes with everything double the price and higher imo.
dont get fooled by the price tag!
some tiny problems in finish around the neck/body area like always,thats it. i gave it 4 stars in features because most HBs nowadays come with coil split...these pickups here are splittable but they didnt use it...but thats picky.

It is my first 7-string guitar so I can't speak from experience of how well it compares. But I do have other 6 strings. I'm writing this comment 3 months after getting it.

Overall: Really recommended for this price point

Biggest problem: Cheaply cut nut

Body: Pretty much looks the same as in photos and YouTube. The matte black finish looks and feels really nice. Even finish throughout the guitar. Got quite some weight compared to my 6 strings guitars but not too heavy to bear with. The balance is quite good and I feel comfortable playing in most positions.

Neck: The matte finish feels really smooth and definitely helps when playing. The profile is quite thin which suits me and also helps when it houses an extra string.

Pickups and electronics: No experience with higher end products, so all I could say is they all work. The pickups respond well across all strings, having even volume. The toggle switch is usual Gibson design one which I don't like how they could be easily flicked to middle position like cheap Epiphone's one. Volume and tone knobs work as expected, but have some resistance to their motion. One could easily swap out all the above components and instantly upgrade the guitar to a new level. [Pantera mentioned?]

Machine heads: Responsive. No play whatsoever. Smooth and on the effortless side. All the meanwhile doing their job to hold tune. The ratio is a bit fast for me though as it makes tuning the low B string a bit difficult. You could replace them for something slower and more concise.

String: OK quality. The low B string had a dent on the 12th fret so I have to forcefully bend it back to shape. You'd expect to change strings on a cheap guitar anyway.

Nut: The single worst component on the guitar. It is made of graphite, and not the usual hard plastic you'd expect on let's say a cheap Strat. It is softer and produces gummy residue when filed, instead of hard chips. In fact when out of the box it still had gunk all over the nut, so I take a lot of time to clean it up and smooth out the nut-string interface. The only saving grace is that the nut height is setup OK so I don't have to file all that much.

Fret board: I originally thought it had high frets that needs leveling but some persistent relief adjustment fixed them. The big is that they are quite scratchy, like audibly scratchy. Even after polishing work (which I suspect the factory did not bother to do) the high frets on the high e string side are really scratchy when bending notes. Something the factory should have properly sanded out. The fret ends are filed and smooth. Fret board wood looks and feels OK but you can tell they are average wood. Some heavy tool mark and scratches are also presented on certain edges.

Bridge: A pretty reliable tunamatic bridge. No sharp edges and feels good palm muting. Intonation is set up well right out of the box. I dropped the bridge down to the body to get a low action height. Theoretically the string could get even lower but I don't think there's a smaller bridge that could achieve that. The string through design looks good and probably adds quite some body vibration, which feels good when playing.

Verdict: Some things could be improved due to average cheap guitar construction and QC. But you're still getting a really solid platform as a baritone 7 string. There's simply no competitors in this market range and this guitar deserve its place here.

Use:
I bought this guitar in order to get myself into this modern seven string metal guitar trend and I have to say, it's fantastic for its price.

Pros:
- Baritone neck, which increases stability for low tunings (tested as far as Drop D Octave)
- Locking tuners, which give this instrument absurd stability. It is unreal!
- Blade magnet stock pickups - I plan to change them, but they sound quite well and have very good presence;
- Satin painted neck - Smooth, fast feeling and extremely comfortably sized. It is worth noting that it is a bit bigger than a 6 string guitar;
- Very good weight - Despite not having the numbers, I have played with it a lot and I place it between a classic strat and an Ibanez superstrat in terms of weight;
- It chugs and it djents well.

Cons:
- As with almost all HB guitars, this one had a few sharp frets and a few dead ones, but nothing that cannot be fixed;
- The pickups can do metal, very aggressively even, but they lack the definition needed for modern guitar tones and those big seven string chords;

Conclusion:
If you have read this far, simply add it to the cart and take it home! It is a monster machine and it feels great even for people with small hands such as myself. I have done everything on it from recording my solo album to doing covers of bands that range from Sabaton to Feared and to Periphery.

I was a little hesitant but wanted to buy a seven string guitar, I was looking at the fan fret models and some other more expensive ones but pulled the trigger on this one. I made the right choice, what an awesome guitar. The neck feels amazing and is very comfortable, it is a stunning guitar look wise.I love the shape of the headstock and the locking tuners make it stay in tune very well. I love playing this guitar over many of my others, it just feels comfortable.

Use: I'm a professional musician, gig weekly and do recordings. The guitar does a great job and I would not be afraid to take it out for gigging at all.

Clarity: the sound is great, don't compare it to the abasi pickups or something like that but they sound really good. They actually have a clear sound even when distorted.

Pros: Look, feel, neck size, sound, tuning stability.

Cons: I use this guitar in drop runnings and in some o the lower runnings I the 7th string buzzed, and yes I do use a high tension on the 7th string to avoid this. I just adjusted the nut's 7 string depth a little. Zero fret buzz now.

Overall I could not get anything even close to this guitar for the price, it could well be 3 or 4 times the price and still be worth it especially being a baritone guitar with makes it even better. Great job on this one Thomann.