HBS580 Review

It's a good guitar for the money. If you want a very cheap replica, Harley Bentons are good choice.

Features:	9
Sound:	8.3
Action:	7.7
Reliability:	8
Impression:	8.3
Overall rating:	8
Reviewer rating:	8.3
Users rating:	7.7
Votes:	73

Reviewed by: unregistered, on april 03, 2006

Price paid: $ 167.58

Purchased from: Thomann

Features: Featuring two humbuckers, one three way selector Switch and 2 volume and tone knobs this is as close to a real Gibson SG as you'll get for the money. A Tune-O-Matic bridge and standard chrome tuners complete the classic look. The rosewood fingerboard and mother of pearl inlays provide instant coolness for little money. // 8

Sound: This guitar is designed to handle anything you throw at it and is solidly built, because of this it has a real meaty tone perfect for punk, blues or metal. Not ideal for dropped tunings as strings rattle excessively but in standard tuning there is little problem. // 7

Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar as I recieved it was given a fairly basic factory setup but this did a solid job and withstood my hectic playing style. Pickups as always are a personal thing to how high you want them and they were slightly too low for me but easily adjusted with a phillips. No flaws and believe it or not the guitar came better finished than many Gibsons I have seen. // 8

Reliability & Durability: The hardware is solid and well designed to stand live and home use. This guitar has been dropped a couple of times and has survived every encounter with the floor. One slight criticism is the strap buttons can be dodgy and the strap has a tendency to fly off if the guitar is slung too low (not handy for punk). The finish is four layers thick and will never wear down. // 8

Impression: This guitar is definitely a beginners/intermediate guitar but is extremely good for the money! If this was stolen I would buy a new one but if I broke it I would move up to a Squier. Wish it had a whammy bar though. // 8

overall: 9.6

Reviewed by: GuitarPro92, on september 20, 2005

Features:
- Alder body
- 2 humbuckers
- 3-way toggle Switch
- 2 vol, 2 tone controls
- Bolt-on maple neck with rosewood fretboard
- Saddle width 44mm
- 22 frets
- Scale 64mm. // 10

Sound: It suits very greatly my music styles, though I play everything from rock 'n' roll to heavy metal and grunge. I use heavy distortion and crunch with it, and that sounds so incredibly great! With this guitar you can play just everything! The sound is very rich and it's not noisy at all. A bargain, isn't? // 10

Action, Fit & Finish: When I first got it, I was like "wow." I started rockin' for hours, until my fingers got messy. The pickups were adjusted perfectly, everything was just great, but it has some finish flaws in the fret borders, but they didn't harm at all. // 8

Impression: I play rock, and this guitar fits my style well. I have been playing for almost 1 and a half years. I have a DigiTech RP80 FX pedal and an 50 watt amp. If this guitar will be stolen I'll painfully and slowly kill that asshole. I love it because it's my first guitar. Have a nice day and peace to the world. // 10

Reviewed by: unregistered, on september 18, 2012

Price paid: € 129

Purchased from: thomann.de

Features: Harley Benton HBS580BK (this review is for the Left handed model)
- successful copy of the original
- alder body
- 2 humbuckers
- 3-way thomann toggle switch
- 2x vol & 2x tone controls
- bolt-on maple neck with rosewood fretboard
- saddle width 44mm
- 22 frets
- scale 628 mm
- colour: black

Made in China (as are all Harley Benton guitars anyway - Thomann has a deal with Saein, which produces guitars for Ibanez, Epiphone/Gibson and Peavey. It's not a coincidence most HB guitars are Gibson copies). // 9

Sound: As far as entry-level instruments are concerned, this is a good guitar to start playing with. Since I play mostly rock and metal, I found its sound acceptable. Clean sound also is clear, and a bit bluesy. It should be noted that I use a Fender Frontman 10G amp, which no doubt plays an important factor in the end result. I have tried it with a friend's Marshall MG50FX amp as well, and the sound was satisfactory. I'm afraid I don't know how the guitar would sound with other amps, especially the crappy ones made by Harley Benton/Thomann.

One note: while this guitar handles itself fine in standard EADGBE, I wouldn't recommend dropped tunings, as strings tend to rattle. // 8

Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar I received had the basic factory setup. Most guitarists - including me - usually modify the adjustment of the pickups, but since it is a personal thing to how high you want them, it can't be considered a flaw. I noticed that the body had some slight traces of use - although it was expected, as it was clearly stated by Thomann in their cyberstore page. Other than that, the finish was ok, in fact better than many mid-range and even high end models I have received from time to time. // 7

Reliability & Durability: The hardware is solid and well designed to stand home use, and perhaps a bit of live playing. However, the strap buttons are not as solid as I would like. It's not the guitar I would choose as my main live instrument (although it would be a decent backup). // 6

Impression: This guitar is without doubt a beginner's instrument. I doubt more experienced players would find anything interesting about it. Compared to other guitars of this price range, HBS580BK is actually a really good choice: in comparison to the Epiphone Les Paul Special II (same price in Thomann) this Harley Benton copy of an SG has better sound, in my humble opinion. All in all, I would recommend this to an aspiring guitarist that wants to start off with a rather decent instrument, without having to pay much. // 7

Comments

[Overdosed]

Beautiful guitar, good sound for the price but the pickup start do feedback when I put my hand close to play palm muting. I play it in drop-C, bands like devildriver, hatesphere and between the buried and me. I had a jackson with seymour duncan humbuckers and the only thing I don´t like about this pickups is that they don't give you much "power" when palm muting, but overall they have a good sound. I'm very happy with my purchase.

[GuitarPro157]

This is my first electric guitar and im very pleased with it its very good

[whencowsfart101]

An SG with a bolt on neck? For the same price you could buy a Vintage SG with mahogany body, mahogany set neck and plus it looks more like the original SG.

[rv_phoenix]

Not to mention the sound of the two Wilkinson PAFs that come with the Vintage: wonderful pickups, as good as the original Gibsons, and without the microphony of the original PAFs (because of better wax-potting). HB's pickups sound like pure, genuine crap.