Harley Benton Aeolus Frost Flame

Got the guitar when it was originally released - the version with the grover locking tuners. Whilst the top wasn't super stunning (the venner halves were misaligned and one side doesn't show full figuring unless you look at an angle) and the inside of the body looks a bit rough around the back plate, the guitar has a ton of mojo and playability.

I was wary of the neck at first as it's quite chunky, but it quickly became one of my all time favourites, round but fitting the hand perfectly. The roasted maple is very smoothly finished and is a joy to play. The frets are level and there's no sprout, but they were a bit scratchy for the first week or so of playing.

The pickups are quite versatile - from playing clean, jazzy ballads to drop tuned alt rock styles - they work perfectly. My bandmates said it's quite surprising to see a hollow body and hear the rock/metal tones come out of it easily!

The testament to how great the guitar is to me was the fact that I sold it to a friend a year ago and bought it back as I missed it dearly - and now it's here to stay!

I can highly recommend the Aeolus - my favourite out of ~12 Bentons that I owned throughout the years!

I play music in several bands, and this review is based on three gigs I had this weekend.

Aeolus looks stunning. I have the frosted flamed version and it really looks classy. The maple veneer tops looks like real maple, color fading is smooth, and the roasted neck really compliments the look. I would only prefer neck inlays to be block instead of dots. Smaller chrome logo looks better than any other previous version, and I like the “a” logo on the headstock. If you are picky don't look at the soundholes. Guitar interior looks unfinished and f holes edges are not smooth.

Playability wise, guitar is set up perfectly, intonation is impeccable and 10 gauge strings feel smooth and easy to bend.

Sound is the most important thing to me and Aeolus really delivers. I was wondering how guitar will behave with overdrive on loud stage – I feared uncontrolled feedback, and presumed single-coil splitting will be useless, but I am happy to report both of those concerns proved to be unfounded. When I played guitar at home I instantly loved the neck pickup but bridge pickup did not impress me; I though it sounded thin and uninspiring.
Playing guitar live showed its true sound capabilities: neck pickup is just stellar in any combination – humbucking mode allows full clean sounds and singing smooth overdriven sound (but not woolly or muddy), and single coil mode really matches the good single coil tone I get from my strats. Really impressed here – I believe this is not only due to pickups but this is a maple/maple neck guitar, and the string length is between Strat and Les Paul, so I presume this contributes to tone.
Bridge pickup really thumps well with overdrive. When used with high gain sound I needed to be careful and not stand close to the wedge monitor to avoid feedback, but it is important to say the feedback was controllable and in-pitch. It was not the uncontrollable squealing I feared.

I really like the neck satin feel. Stainless steel frets are well done, but the fretboard was dry when I received the guitar. After a week of playing (and three sweaty gigs), it lost the dry feel and scratching sound of strings rubbing the fretboard.
One thing I don’t like about the neck is the profile: this is a thick, chunky C profile. It is quite substantial and since I have small hands this is challenging for me. After a couple of all-night gigs (7-8 hour sets) my left hand felt really tired. At the end of second night I had to switch to a superstrat – what a relief for my left hand! Players who prefer thick necks will like this chunky profile.

There is just one complaint: I broke the first string during the third song of the gig. This almost never happens to me. After the set I was replacing it with a fresh string – and it broke again immediately, at the same spot – right at the locking tuner! So, I guess the Grover typed locking tuners might have sharp edges of the locking mechanism. - I then replaced it with a thicker gauge string (011), and it did not break again. Yet…

Overall, this is a really good instrument for any price range and a ridiculously great value.

Hey! I'll start with that overall I'm happy with this guitar. It looks bewitching and plays and sound great. I'm glad that I've purchased it, but I couldn't rate it all 5 stars, let's go

I’ll start with the positives. Satin Mapple Vinier looks just awesome. It has a prominent wave texture and a noticeable gradient from dark at the top of the body towards the bottom. With roasted neck (which is too has a nice texture) It’s eye candy.

For my liking, I enjoy a sound. It’s full, reach and quite bassy, especially on neck pickup. Sounds excellent on clean and low overdrive. I’ve been surprised that the pickups hold well on high gain too.

Satin neck is both beautiful and comfortable to play. After I’d received it I spent the rest of the day playing and noodling, not wanting the guitar to leave my hands. It just feels nice to keep it in your hands

The guitar was set up well and playable from the box. Not a scratch on the finish after delivery.

I think Aeolus is a great alternative to run-of-the-mill budget Les Paul. It’s a way to go if you want something more classy looking and feel comfortable with this kind of neck.

Now to the negatives. You can say all of them are minor, but adding up they spoil the impression.
—From the box frets are very poorly polished (or probably not polished at all);
—The fretwork is not very accurate. You can see marks tool marks on the edges of neck and even on the fretboard;
—The «a» logo is not centered :-)
—Tuning keys. Yeah HB decreased the price by about 60 euros and switched for a noname HB keys (not locking). They are fine, but meh. I can’t say they cause any problems, but they just don’t feel nice. Even not brand HB locking tuners on my Fusion III feel much better. I personally would prefer to pay extra but receive Grover tuners from the box (I rumble so much only because they focused so much on these tuners in their promo videos);
—Final woodwork (sanding?) on F holes are sloppy;

In the end, I enjoy this guitar and would love to give it five stars. But with all these little issues adding up, It's a shame that I just can't :-(

Extra:
The neck is the chunckiest I’ve played on. I was expecting this and feel comfortable with it. Someone could find it as a cons. but I find it quite nice to play extended chords

Don’t use Elixir strings on this guitar. The coating on wounded strings causes ham because of grounding issues. It’s the first time I’ve faced this problem, but it’s 100% caused by stings. When I switched back to regular strings it went away

I bought this guitar as I wanted to try a semi hollow for some time, but didn't want to invest a lot. The guitar was fine, Tesla pickups provide good cleans, especially with coil split, good overdrive, ok distortion. Distortion is not terrible, but a bit dull, to my taste. It's more mid output pickups.
The body and the neck were fine, had to polish the frets, common issue with all HB I had.
In general very good quality instrument.