Before You Buy! Harley Benton's SC-1000 Progressive Series Review and Demo

Want to hear what a $175 guitar with active electronics sounds like? What's the build quality and what's the catch? This review will explain everything you need to know about Harley Benton's SC-1000 Progressive Series guitar with active HBZ electronic pickups. You'll see close-ups of the fretboard, neck, inlays, binding and paint job, plus I'll play the SC-1000 through a Mesa Stiletto Tube amp mic'd with a Royer R121 ribbon mic. The pickups are quite hot and are great for hard rock, metal, classic rock and more. The clean tones are a little hot and dirty but it might be possible to counter this by lowering the pickups. Watch the review and see if you think it's worth the $175 plus shipping! I bought mine on Thomann's website. It's probably the best budget electric guitar I've played. What do you think of this guitar? Is it a satisfying ESP Les Paul clone? Let me know in the comments!
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Visit Guitar Center's Homepage: guitar-center.pxf.io/c/471383...
0:00 - Intro
0:52 - The HBZ Active Pickups
0:00 - The neck's appearance and quality
3:03 - The fake binding and finish flaws
5:09 - The Bridge has a problem!
6:08 - Stainless Steel Frets - Zero maintenance!
7:32 - The back and 9v battery access panel
7:58 - The cutaway
8:22 - DEMO - metal, rock distortion and crunch
11:14 - Cleaner crunch
12:03 - Clean
12:44 - METAL!!!!
13:23 - Overall Impressions
14:02 - Link to video: How to fix your SC-1000 Bridge (Intonation problem)
#harleybenton #guitar #guitardemo #guitarreview #gearreview
Harley Benton SC-1000 BK
Harley Benton SC-1000 WH
Harley Benton SC-1000 SBK

[@raymartin9146]

Good review man. Thanks!

[@vandarth]

Thank you!

[@INeverWanted2010]

Great review!

[@vandarth]

Thank you!

[@patrickwaynecrosby86]

Digging this review, dude. Just bought 2 Harley Benton guitars and I've been very happy with them. Was really considering snagging one of these. I love my pricier guitars but it's been fun budget shopping to expand my at home collection for DIY recording sessions. Side note: I was in Presomnia with Shane, back in the day. I'll keep up with you page for more content, like this. Hope all is well, with you.

[@vandarth]

Hey man, thank you, it's been forever! I miss gigging with you guys. Which Harley Benton's did you get? I have an 8-string of theirs too that I'm also happy with too. They're fun guitars for the money.

[@patrickwaynecrosby86]

@@vandarth I snagged a JA-60CC and TE-62CC just to add some diversity to my current line up. I’ve been writing all over the place so I wanted to have some variety to work with. I need to mod them, though. Definitely needing better pickups, tuners, potentiometers and whatnot. They’re cool as is but wouldn’t hurt to give them a little extra.

[@vandarth]

Yeah, I've actually had my eye on both of those models as well. I really like their Fusion model that looks like a Fender Showmaster with a roasted maple neck!

[@patrickwaynecrosby86]

@@vandarth only real complaint I have with both are the pickups. There just isn't any noticeable diversity in pickup positions. This will sound crazy because the pickups are pricier than the guitar itself but I'm looking at swapping out the TE-62cc pickups with the Fishman Fluence Greg Koch "Gristle-Tone" Signature Telecaster Single Coil 2-piece Pickup set.

[@vandarth]

That would be awesome. Nah I don't think it's crazy. If you like the way the guitar feels, it's worth it to upgrade the electronics!

[@bdogjr7779]

Awesome《☆》Nice review & Jamming. I don't like Active Pickups but for $200 delivered I could do a Duncan or Dimarzio swap & still not have too much invested. I almost bought a Zakk Epiphone Bullseye LPaul several years ago when they first came out. The Stainless Steel Frets are the Gift that keeps on giving with Harley Benton✌😎☯️

[@vandarth]

Yeah this guitar could be interesting with a DiMarzio Super Distortion or similar!

[@bdogjr7779]

@@vandarth 🎸《☆》I bought an 06 Tobacco Sunburst Epiphone LP several years ago on Craigs list. It's got cream color Dimarzio SDs. I didn't care for the sound or playability so it stayed packed away till a few months ago. I was looking for a certain clean sound that I wasn't getting from my Donner Tele. These Dimarzio pups had to be Optimized with the individual pole peices to match the height of each string. It's still like a brand new guitar since I didn't play it much. The Dimarzioz have amazing Distortion but also clean up really well. The LP had high action. I brought the strings down & made progressive neck adjustments. Now it's got the lowest action of my stable✌😎☯️

[@vandarth]

@@bdogjr7779 very nice! I'll have to think about getting a DiMarzio Super Distortion pickup sometime. I have my eye on a couple other Harley Bentons that it'd be perfect for. Epiphone makes some nice stuff. I dig their recent SG Customs

[@vaudronphilippe5415]

Hey man ! Funny ! Bon tu devrais avoir des cheveux ou persique pour headbanger lol 😝 Et un conseil range tes doigts de la main droite pour gérer les bruits parasites et être relax en aller retour ! Sinon elle est cool cette guitare 🎸 J’ai vu des vidéos avec des update niveau micros , bridge et mécanique etc et ça devient une tuerie

[@ealdydar]

Not sure the deference's but i have 2 L-1000's I got in 2019. Looks to be the same guitar. It came in damaged in shipping. Pickup selector was sticking out of box and broke and looked to be dropped with damage to were it would sit on your ribs. i glued it back and sanded the area out and cleared that area. It had binding around the body not painted. i plan on relicing the rest of it so that area makes sense. As i said i have 2. They let me keep that on and sent me a new one. Getting low action on the strings is a pain and the volume knobs do nothing until the last 10% of turning down.

[@vandarth]

I did notice the volume knobs have an odd response! I think I hear a little bit of a ground issue when I touch them too. I think that would be easy to fix though, I just have to open it up. It's cool that they sent you a replacement!

[@KevinWillson-nf3gh]

I just got the black version and was surprised to see that visually, it has some differences from older iterations. I got the progressive series and was happy to discover the l-1000c on the fretboard has been removed and the cheesy progressive logo on the headstock has been replaced with a nice design that had me thinking they sent me the deluxe version on accident. Im not a huge fan of the pickups so im swapping em out with emgs, but that was the point for me. I wanted a guitar i could mod and upgrade and the sc-1000 is perfect guitar for me to work on.

[@vandarth]

Awesome! I originally wanted the black one but they were sold out for months. At that time there was a version with EMG's available but I haven't seen it on Thomann's website for awhile

[@DC-op7wu]

Got mine in black coming in two days. What is your take on the tuners?

[@vandarth]

Awesome! I originally wanted black but they were sold out at the time. The tuners aren't too bad, I tightened the screws in them a little bit and they seem okay to me. I don't plan to change them so I guess that's a good sign! Hope you enjoy the guitar!

[@danielcarter3928]

how do you like it? any issues with pickup noise? i’m considering one to test out actives for heavier styles

The "th" in Thomann is like the "th" in Thomas or in Thames. The cosmetics flaws… really, as you said, if you use a microscope (or at least a magnifying glass) you'll find stuff. But then… please take the same magnifying glass to some more expensive gear, say 5 times the price? Still less than a thousand bucks, and you'll find shit too. Heck, you might even find such microscopic flaws in stuff that costs a couple thousand. And all that in times of "relicing" (which is a shitty idea to begin with, just as shitty as buying new jeans with holes… "distressed" or "aged" is the old term that nobody would dare to use for "relicing", even though it's the exact same -thing- shit). The rest of you points of course are valid, because the paint job is… not irrelevant but not that important either, especially at this price point.

[@vandarth]

Thank you for the clarification on the pronunciation. I had heard both and I'm glad to know which one is correct now! After having the guitar longer, and also having picked up a Korean PRS Torero SE with EMG's (which I do really like), I think this guitar is a gem. Sure it may have some minor issues like grounding, but it feels amazing for the price. I was going to sell it when I got the PRS and I just can't bring myself to do it. It actually feels better than the PRS, although the PRS has a slight edge on tone (to be expected with EMG's). The HB just continues to grow on me.

[@MoonMulligan]

I just purchased one with the EMG upgrade. Cant beat the price

[@vandarth]

Ooh! I couldn't find that on Thomann's website anymore last I checked, except for the one with vintage EMG's. Lucky!! That would be a great buy!

[@MoonMulligan]

@@vandarth I found it on Reverb. I ordered it. We'll see. It looks super sick. It's all white, with the white EMGs.

[@vandarth]

@@MoonMulligan very nice! Haven't seen one with White EMGs yet!

[@jameslucas1137]

Hey man, thank you for your time in making this video. I had bought one of these Bentons back in 2020 , when ot first came out, only for the looks and because i cant afford buying and LTD Eclipse , since I already have enough guitars. I have even changed the bridge pickup to EMG81 and i can say that the factory one , suits the guitar better. Its a greatt piece of gear, use it on my rehearsals , it sounds massive . And one of the things i think of doing is change the bridge to maybe Tonepros and also the keys on the headstock. Thank you once again, its great sharing thoughts on Bentons globally!

[@vandarth]

Thank you! That is good feedback on the pickups, I had been considering upgrading to an EMG81 too so that's good to know. I kind of like the factory pickups myself. I think you're the second person to recommend a Tonepros bridge for this guitar so I may have to look into that!

[@dc3763]

TNX man! How heavy it is? :)

[@vandarth]

It feels relatively light to me for an LP-style design. I have a weight-relieved Les Paul and they both feel about the same to me. Not quite SG-light but not heavy.

[@treelaxing6761]

I’m new to playing guitars, and I'm thinking of buying a Harley Benton. Although, I’m quite nervous to what others may think about it, I don’t want to be that person who has a cheap setup, can they be used for gigs, and are they good? What is the main difference between a cheap vs expensive guitar?

[@vandarth]

Hello! In my experience, Harley Benton has a solid reputation. A lot of people haven't heard of them but those who do seem to view them as diamonds in the rough and ideal guitars to "hot rod". I think their cheaper models are great beginner and intermediate guitars. You could theoretically upgrade one to be more high-end, or just buy one of their guitars in the $400 range. I recently bought a PRS with EMG'S thinking it would replace my Harley Benton SC-1000 but I just can't bring myself to sell it. The neck is just too good and fun to play on. If I were going to gig with it very often, I would upgrade the tuners and maybe work on the nut a little. The pickups are decent, not as good as high-end pickups but definitely serviceable. Hope this helps!

[@treelaxing6761]

@@vandarth Thanks for the reply, would you recommend me to buy the SC - 1000? Or are there any “better” options?

[@vandarth]

I would recommend the SC-1000 but Harley Benton has had a version of it with upgraded pickups off and on. If you see a more expensive variation with EMG's that's it. I love the Fusion series and have heard great things about them. I would like to get one of those eventually myself. They make an explorer shape with EMG pickups too if you want to go for the best tone.

[@leemclaughlin619]

The model sc1000 doesn’t include stainless steel frets?

[@vandarth]

Hmm I had read that all Harley Benton's come with them before I did this review, but now I'm wondering if maybe the site I read was incorrect. I have e-mailed Harley Benton to verify. Hopefully I'll hear back tomorrow!

[@vandarth]

Ah, you were right! I heard back from Harley Benton, this model does not have stainless steel frets. I guess that review I read about Harley Benton's was incorrect, only the models on their website that specifically state "stainless steel frets" have them. Thanks for pointing that out!

[@gus3333]

Quality wise, this one looks like it is at the same level as my LTD EC256, which is x3 more expensive

[@vandarth]

The neck and fretboard really are impressive. I would like to compare the body to the LTD sometime. My guess is the detail on the LTD around the binding will look better and more precise, but I'm not totally sure. It is a pretty impressive copy overall. I saw that it's on sale as a Harley Benton loyalty offer for like $130 plus shipping right now. Absolutely crazy!

[@gus3333]

@vandarth thanks for letting me know about the sale, I bought the white one immediately! I will be able to do a proper comparison soon. I guess the biggest difference are the pickups, easily replaceable because active pickups can be really noisy

[@vandarth]

Awesome! Oh, were you getting a buzz or hum?

[@gus3333]

@vandarth maann it's 95% identical to my LTD 256 (made in Vietnam), I bet they are made in the same factory. To my surprise, the HB pickups are decent but super hot. Reducing the gain in your Amp should work fine. Nice addition for 150 euros.

[@vandarth]

@@gus3333 Wow that's awesome! I'm glad you like it. I was so impressed by the neck. I kind of like how hot the pickups are too, I might record a song with it sometime soon for a tone test.

[@IhorSyvenkyi]

Is it b-stock?🤔

[@vandarth]

I almost went for a b-stock but I ended up deciding to get a new one instead since it was only like $15 or $20 more

[@psycojuggalo1642]

Tell me you like punk without telling me you like punk

[@vandarth]

Lol! Ok power chords and skateboards!

[@jann_rygh]

if you look under a microscope 😂 killin me 😂

[@vandarth]

Lol! I probably meant that metaphorically

[@user-bb7te4yo3y]

3:55 dude you taking the piss? Have you seen Epiphone’s Les Paul Custom like Matt Heafy, Prophecy etc? The paint on these guitars on that spot is horrendous.

[@vandarth]

I've always wondered what the Matt Heafy and Prophecy models look like in person. Especially the Explorer Prophecy in black. So you're saying it doesn't look good up close either?

[@user-bb7te4yo3y]

@@vandarth no I’m saying is sloppy af, especially on those £1000+ models is unacceptable. Got an Epi Matt Heafy White Origins and the paintjob, fretwork, binding etc had issues. For 200$ this is golden!

[@user-bb7te4yo3y]

@@vandarth don’t get me wrong, the guitar was GORGEOUS, just QC issues so it’s hit or miss with these. I’m planning on buying one directly from Epiphone this time, cause every single domestic store had very poor ones , returned or has been on display for months so was very tired looking.

[@jessetate9701]

Who cares lol