How to fix your Harley Benton SC-1000 bridge: A step by step guide

[@JoeHasGas]

I went with a 20.00 roller bridge n tail piece I've had this guitar for like 5 years. I put emg 81/85 in there,not bad of a guitar.

[@vandarth]

Nice! With those upgrades it would be very solid. One question, did yours have any grounding issues when you got it? Mine seems like it might not be grounded quite right.

[@fjborg6978]

@@vandarth I changed to a roller bridge too (no springs, uses c-clips instead). My HB SC Custom II Active (similar to your SC 1000) has gold hardware and grounding is not a problem. The black they use to color the hardware on the white ones doesn't conduct the ground effectively. Others have scraped the color off wherever it grounds (stop tailpiece?) and have solved their string grounding issue. The pickups are grounded internally.

[@vandarth]

@@fjborg6978 Ah! Thank you for sharing that! I'll try that on mine.

[@INeverWanted2010]

Interesting. I've never seen a tune-o-matic bridge with springs. I guess it must have been a cheaper part than the normal ones. Thanks for the tip!

[@vandarth]

Me either, it was weird! My Gibsons don't have springs in theirs.

[@chumixblack1465]

I got one of this, very good guitar for the price, i have a little problem with it but in the volume level between clean and distorted, the clean before step on my distortion channel or pedal is too high compared to distorted volume level, maybe the pickups are too high? Sorry for my bad English, greetings from Venezuela... 😎🙌🏽

[@vandarth]

Hello! I did have a similar problem with mine at first. The pickups are pretty hot and were initially too high. I'd recommend lowering them a little especially if your distortion pedal doesn't have a volume knob. Hope this helps!

[@euronymcak8720]

I just bought this guitar as used for 130 euros. I am looking forward to mod it , for example changing bridge with gold or black color , changing knobs same color choice and locking tunners Maybe after a while i will put some emg bridge pickup I think will be perfect for extra 200-250 euros , will be like lttd ec 401 at least

[@vandarth]

This guitar would be awesome with EMG's. Gold hardware would look awesome on it too. I have thought about adding locking tuners

[@pablos-d2u]

I just god mine as B stock from Thomann for 174 USD incl. shipping. I did not have this problem. Actually the intonation was almost perfekt. On the other hand my Epiphone Les Paul for 2.5x the price had some issues with intonation, which I couldn't fix. Thomann is crazy!

[@vandarth]

Maybe they fixed it! It's been almost a year since I got mine. Yeah I agree, I can't believe how cheap they're able to sell them. I'm hoping to snag a couple more sometime soon

[@danimasso3789]

I bought mine by 149€ two months ago and i think is in tune too. Probably they fixed

[@vandarth]

@@danimasso3789 that is good to hear! I'm glad they updated it, it's a nice guitar!

[@billyfubar2748]

I'm buying one And I getting a new bridge and stop piece, nut and tuners.

[@vandarth]

@@billyfubar2748 that is a good plan, it should be a rock-solid guitar after that

[@dcharlies]

You could just flip the saddle and you could go further with tuning point.

[@bdogjr7779]

Bravo🎸《☆》Harley Benton Owes You BigTime Brother. 👍🏾👉🍺My Donner wouldn't Intonate. The FENDER style 6 Saddle bridge has plenty of adjustability. After changing the strings the Intonation was perfect. Apparently the Strings Donner put on it were crap✌😎☯️

[@vandarth]

Oh interesting! I hadn't thought about that being caused by the strings before. I'll have to keep an eye out for that.

[@bdogjr7779]

@@vandarth 🎸《☆》I had a pack of Ernie Ultra Slinky 10-48 on hand. The Donner had some lighter strings on it which are better for bending & they sounded great in Cowboy chords but way out at higher registers. The 10s don't bend very easy on the 25-1/2" scale guitar but they sound amazing. I might see if Ernie 8s or 9s will Intonate on it✌😎☯️

[@vandarth]

@@bdogjr7779 I've tried Ernie 8's but it's been years! I strum too hard so I am most comfortable with 10's

[@bdogjr7779]

@@vandarth 《☆》I broke the 10 gauge E string on my Donner trying to emulate Gary Rossington. He was quite a String bending guitarist RIP🙏🏻

[@vandarth]

@@bdogjr7779 Ohh that sounds like when I tried to learn some SRV songs. I think he was bending 12's or 13's. It was death to fingers!

[@DlFane]

Hello! I recently have aquired a Harley Benton explorer with some HBZ humbuckers combined with a Fender Champion 20 (an amplifier which i had since 2016 and wasn't used for some time). The thing is that when i play on the bridge pickup and play GBE strings, they sound too high pitched no matter what settings i do. Lower the volume from the guitar, the tone, add more bass from amp lower the volume, it will sound loud and high pitched and too loud compared to the other strings. I even lowered the pickup on the side of the GBE strings and still have the same result. I really don't know if it's an issue caused by the guitar or it's my amp. I will be thankful if someone will help me.

[@vandarth]

Hello! It's hard to tell without playing your specific setup. I did find the clean tone to be quite different than my guitars with passive humbuckers. Active pickups do have a different flavor on clean which can sound kind of shocking at first. It is possible that being cheaper pickups, they're more suited for distortion. I just got another guitar with EMG's so maybe I'll compare that clean tone to the HBZ's to see if there's a significant difference with the higher strings. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful!

[@DlFane]

@@vandarth on many tones i have this issue, not only on clean. On clean the guitar itself is loud because of active pickups. I truss rod adjustments, pickup height, lowered the bridge and saddles as low as possible and now b and e are really loud and high pitched. I guess this is some string overtone? I am rrally struggling with this issue

[@vandarth]

Ohh yeah now that you mention it, I did have some issues with overtones. I think that is possibly the grounding. A guitar tech told me on those cheap guitars sometimes the ground on the bridge isn't quite solid. You might try resoldering that. You could also check and see if the pots are the correct match for active pickups. I seem to remember someone saying that HB didn't use the right pots for active humbuckers. If that fails, it's possible it's just the pickups. I

[@DlFane]

When you say pots, what do you mean by that?

[@angusperry2730]

Gibson does NOT do a set up for their guitars either

[@vandarth]

I guess that may be true to an extent. I definitely have seen some bad low end Gibsons that didn't look like they had setups. I've had good luck with the mid-tier Gibsons but I have still had to get the nut worked on. They're better cut than the nuts on cheaper guitars but still benefit from a real setup.

[@jackguisset1160]

Arrete de causer et joue !!!