Harley Benton SC-Custom III Purple Satin

Received last Monday - gigged it on Saturday.

I’m blown away that this guitar arrived in tune, intonated and setup well. No sharp fret edges, no blemishes, no noisy electronics and the hardware is on point.

Took it out for a show, expecting to use it for a few songs before changing to a PRS. I played it the whole show, and it was amazing. Sounded great, sustained well, stayed in tune, and just played so easily.

And that finish!

Absolutely incredible value for money. I’d buy another, but don’t think I need to!

It is joyous to look at and joyous to play. That's all you need to know but, if you want more...
I bought it for the colour. It is the band's colour. I did a lot of research first though and just didn't find anything bad being said about these. I was particularly pleased to hear reviewers say that access to the upper frets was very good and it is true. I love it already and haven't put it down since it arrived. The satin finish looks and feels great and the guitar is very comfortable on a strap. Tuning stability is excellent and the tuners feel terrific. Very smooth. I don't know what the ratio is but they make it easy to come up to pitch. Once tuned, it was playable out of the box. The neck relief is miniscule and I thought I'd be adjusting that but it is playing so well I think I'll leave it alone Mind you, the action is a bit high at 2mm so I may have to change the relief yet. I found a few slightly high frets but, like I say, it is playing well so they don't seem to be a problem and likely only need tapping down anyway. They do not need polishing. They are very smooth.
Packaging was excellent. A box with tailored padding and supports inside another box with loose padding and neither box was damaged in any way.
If there is anything wrong with this guitar it is only personal preference. I don't like the fancy strap locks which are supplied with it. I replaced them with normal strap pegs on the guitar (Black of course) and used a normal strap with a rubber doughnut type strap lock. I should mention that Thomann do also give you the strap-side part of their strap lock assemblies in the box (or at least, they did in mine) so, If you want to attach a normal strap you already have to the strap locks on the guitar you can. I don't think they make that terribly clear in the details.
I have not detected any rattles from the tune-o-matic bridge which is very pleasing (The one on my Gretsch won't shut up). The break angle behind the bridge is so steep that the strings hit the body of the bridge on their way to the tailpiece. I guess it doesn't matter But I've never noticed that on any other guitar before. There are no electrical hums or such that I've heard and the knobs are smooth without being loose. The pull-push coil split is very positive. I like the Tesla pickups. They seem clear and powerful. They are not weak or muddy sounding. I say this because the only other Harley Benton I have did sound muddy and I replaced the supplied Roswell pups as a result.
The guitar is a tad on the heavy side at 3.6Kg. Its not too heavy but I'm a weakling.

Hab die gitarre eigentlich nur wegen der farbe gekauft, muss aber sagen, das teil klingt echt geil und lässt sich super spielen.

War überrascht über den switch poti. Einfach mal eben von humbucker auf single umgestellt. Ein feature das ich vorher noch nicht hatte. Geil!

Auch der sound ist knackig. Ich nutze sie eher im rock/punk genre und da ist sie genau richtig.

Lackierter hals sieht gut aus, ist aber mit leicht feuchten händen etwas "klebrig" und lässt sich schwerer spielen.
Hier und da ist die farbe etwas schlecht verarbeitet, aber für den preis kann man echt nicht meckern.