Harley Benton R-446 Blood Metallic

I bought this guitar to by my "heavy" guitar for downtuning. I still keep it in standard for the time being and it plays and feels great. No flaws, I could see, only the fretboard is dry, as always with new HB guitars. The neck is thin, very fast. Tuners are surprisingly good, wasn't expecting that. I am bringing it to my luthier soon, so I will possibly update this review, if he finds some major flaws, otherwise keeping it as it is. A very good guitar and beautiful.

An update after a year or so: now it is downtuned to C, strings are 13s. The pickups were slightly low output for my use, so I have switched them to Seymour Duncans. Everything holds well, the guitar feels and looks really nice.

Harley Benton has been lately dropping some bomb instruments.
I have quite a collection of them + other brands that I can easily compare.
This for example its very very similar to the Ibanez RGA42EX-BAM.
Neck its pretty thin. Not as thin as the wizard neck from ibanez, but not much different also. almost identical.
Ultra comfortable at the hand.

PICK UPS: this is where they step up their game. As also an owner of a 446 with floyd rose (previous model) this pick ups are high output and can be felt with a bit of gain. More if you add an overdrive to the amp's gain.
Low response its also there and quite delicious for some chugs, yet the mids are very juicy. very present.
Cleans are very well rounded. This artec pick ups do deliver.
Previous model was not really well rounded and had too much high output, but this ones are the ones

The switch has a very interesting and usefull selction as you can use the bridge in single coil, both as humbucker, both as single coil and obviously bridge and neck alone.
I find the single coil neck reduces the gain on it at the point that using them on a clean channel, dont bring that distorted humbuckerish sound as if the amp its at the limit of breaking the clean tone.

Tuners are beyond usable. I have this guitar tuned to C standard with strings 12 - 60 and so far (of course after stretching them) havent had any major tuning problem. Tuning pegs are responsive at the point that Im not worried on updating them to locking tuners as I thought I would.

Fixed bridge its also a plus. since I have this guitar tuned quite some tones down, I had to intonate the guitar and the screws were really smooth when turning.

I dont know how else to describe this instrument, but a pretty good deal.
I,ve got the red and the pink one just to compare, and although the pink one its VERY pretty, the metallic red had something too appealing.

To add something else, the majority of the fret edges are decently filed by default. just 1 could be better filed, but not even enought to cause discomfort while playing, just there you would notice if you are looking for it. Obviously no dead frets on mine.

This guitar worth everything and more for the price they are asking for it. 100%

The finish is excellent - in fact it is just as good as, if not better, than the finish on my £375 Yamaha TRBX304 Candy Apple Red bass guitar!
I have 3 HB guitars and they are all excellent. The paint finish on this is not perfect, but the only issues are a very small blemish in the paint under the lacquer (but it is just a small dot) and on the back around a couple of the neck bolt holes the paint around the edge is a little rough (but it is on the back so you'll never really see it).
Overall the paint work on the body is stunning. The fret board needs oiling and the frets are a little scratchy, but that is easily and cheaply dealt with. The PU rings are a little warped - I think that the holes in the rings and on the body don't match exactly, but again I think that can be easily resolved.
I think that for a £125 guitar it is amazing.
The rest of the hardware is fine. The setup out of the box was fine but I did need to raise the string height just a little for my preferences.

Overall, it is amazing value for money. I bought it just so I can "throw" it in the back of the car when I go on holiday, or I am staying overnight in a hotel, whilst away on business and not have to worry about damaging it, rather than taking more expensive guitars with me. But actually, it is so nice I will make sure I look after it.


Update: after very little use but great care a small flake of the paint has disappeared in a very noticable place in the body. I'm not sure if I should be unhappy or at this price, just philosophical

Another update: I just got it out of a gig back where it has been sat for about 3 months and it is still in tune. Wow.