Harley Benton MS-60LH VW Vintage Series

I just received my MS-60LH. Ordered May 9 delivered to New York, USA May 22. The MS-60 was made in Indonesia. I was ready for some minor flaws or problems but after inspecting it I am very happy to say that it appears to be in perfect condition. The vintage white body and the pickguard are both far better looking than in the Thomann website photos. After seeing un-boxing videos I was expecting the outer box to be filled with air bags and padding. It wasn't. Just some crumpled up kraft paper and a few small pieces of cardboard. The guitar box wasn't even taped closed so the headstock was sticking out of the box. That was worrying but the guitar survived without any apparent damage. It is pristine. The only thing I've seen is some slight corrosion on one or two of the strings. The neck is very nice Roseacer and seems properly set up. It looks nicer than my Fender Rosewood Mexican Strat necks. The Roswell pickups sound very nice. I had expected the bridge pickup to be shrill and planned to replace it but both pickups sound really good. I had also thought that the electrical components might need replacing. They seem fine. The knobs are smooth. I have replaced the chrome volume & tone knobs with Fender Stratocaster knobs because I don't like the looks of the chrome knobs. I may also replace the string trees. Other than that I'm extremely happy with my first Thomann purchase and I'm considering sending a Harley Benton SC-450Plus to my nephew. At $164 delivered the MS-60 is an incredible guitar.
An update now that I've had my MS-60 for awhile. Something I didn't mention is that this guitar is pretty heavy for a basswood body, I was hoping it would be lighter. Also the tone control is pretty much an on-off affair, it'll need a different capacitor to be more effective. I still stick by my earlier rating. It's not really a true Mustang but it's a good guitar.

So I bought a Harley Benton guitar and was very pleased so I naturally bought another , I've never seen a mustang clone in left hand before , always wanted one so I thought for £110 with postage I'd give it a shot and I cannot say I'm disappointed at all.
The guitar is really nice, as I've said before thomman have really ramped up the quality control, it's always reassuring when a company offers B grade stock as that's a sure sign they are checking up on things which adds to their already great rep.
As always the nut was too high , there were 3 slightly raised frets m action was high and the intonation was off to a degree that I had to turn the saddles round to get it right but to an experienced person these things are usual in cheaper guitars and it frankly refreshing that's all really.
So after 45 mins I'd lowered the nut , sanded the frets down , oiled the fretboard, tweaked the tremolo, set the action and done the intonation , I've put a vid of the unboxing and the adjustments on YouTube , check it out.
Anyway that's what was wrong this is what's right, basically everything else. It plays and sounds really good although I will say that the bridge pup is quieter that the neck and I cannot raise it further so I had to lower the neck till they were in unison and turn up a bit more in the amp . The tremolo is good , I couldn't get a left hand one for love or money when I made my jazzmaster so I put a right hand one on and it never worked correctly and even then it cost nearly half the price of this guitar just for that tremolo , the tone pot is a on off switch really but that's pretty common and I'll be modding this further by stripping out the pots and putting a mustang control plate in as wel, plus I might get a mustang bridge as well if I can find one that fits the post holes , I like the pick ups but I'll swap the 2 way switches for 3 way ones and wire it up exactly like a mustang so it's got the out of phase options as well , maybe some kluson vintage tuners as well so in the end I'll spend about £200 with the guitar costs to get a great looking and sounding mustang but don't get me wrong if you buy this guitar and leave it completely stock you'll have a great guitar it's just it's screaming mod me.
As akways thomman are awesome , great customer service , packaging and speed of delivery , you can't go wrong at their prices either , Harley Benton are by far the best budget brand on the market easily as good as squire classic vibe series ...now make me a jaguar clone .....

I bought this on a whim after desperately seeking an affordable left handed, mustang style guitar. Fender and Squire don't make any such guitar with the only one available for lefty's being the Cobain signature which i'd love but it comes with a hefty price tag for a student. When i found this i read all the reviews and watched some demonstrations on youtube and decided to take the plunge. On arrival the guitar was set up well and had no obvious manufacturing issues. Unlike some of the reviews i've seen mine arrived with a well oiled fret-board, new strings and the frets were smooth against the edge of the neck with no spikey rough pieces. Plugging it in i was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the pickups ranging from warm mellow tones to aggressive treble. I like the scale of the guitar as a whole, its a nice easy to handle piece of kit and considering its made from basswood it has a very surprising weight to it which i really appreciate. Overall this is definitely worth picking up and i shall definitely investing into more Harley Benton guitars in the future.

Guitar came in and the neck was straight, the body looked good. Both really positive for a budget guitar.

On the downside, there seems to be a grounding issue with the electronics because there is a ton of feedback when my hand isn’t in contact with the strings.

Next, there is very little play in the truss rod for adjustment, so not much can be done to set the guitar up for tunings other than standard.

Intonation has been a pain, but I’ve been able to set it up, just with high action, so it doesn’t play the best.

Lastly, the tremolo bar doesn’t sit in the arm holder, the holder isn’t threaded, neither is the arm, so it falls out when it moves and it can’t be tightened, and the nut on the back of the arm holder wasn’t tightened so the first time I used the trem bar, the arm holder broke loose and sink down into the bridge plate, so I had to take it off and fasten it myself.

I knew not to have crazy expectations for the price, but it’s playable. I expected it to be cheaply made, but didn’t expect so many features not to work as intended.

It sounds pretty good, besides the feedback.

Definitely not the first guitar I will reach for, but it is what it is.