Harley Benton R-457BK MultiScale

This is a great option for those who want to venture into the territory of extended range: 7 multiscale strings are not easy and not cheap to come by, so this price point is simply killer, and gives everyone the opportunity to try something special for less than a fortune.

That being said, you also get what you pay for, more so than on most other Harley Bentons I've bought over the years.

Out of the box, the setup was alright given the guitar's stock features, but there was a lot of room for improvement:

- The nubone nut was a bit loosely set and fell off, so I had to reattach it with superglue;

- The nut's slots deserved to be filed down a full millimeter on every string, its top trimmed down by 2-3mm, its corners rounded and sanded (otherwise they protruded too much and got in the way of playing on the first fret);

- about a third of the frets were high, so I gave them a complete levelling, dressing and polishing:

- the stock humbuckers were okay but very dark and muddy, so I replaced them with Fishman Fluence pickups and electronics (that kit alone cost almost twice as much as the guitar, but Fishman pickups sound amazing, so totally worth every penny);

- The stock tuners were decent but 1:19 ratio locking tuners (also from Harley Benton) are much better for stability for these heavy strings;

- The string ferrules on the back of the body all fell out when I destrung the guitar: their holes are a tiny bit too big in diameter, but a blob of Loctite on the side of each ferrule solved that issue;

- When properly intonated, the springs of three out of seven bridge saddles got so loose that they rattled. You either need to put longer springs in there, or add pads of some sort to compress the springs and cut out the parasite noises (I used small strips cut out of a leather strap);

- Finally the blackwood fretboard is acceptable, but be careful with lemon oil: it soaks it up quickly and spits it back for days. My biggest grievance though is this: why on earth is there no second marker at the 12th fret? Especially as there are three of them at the 24th!

Note also that the stock pickups were base-mounted and their routs are too narrow for any top-mounted alternative, including my Fishman humbuckers. So I had to get the Dremel out, rout the cavities wider (thank God it's a basswood body!), drill deeper into the body to get enough clearance for the top-mounting screws, and craft and attach home made pickup rings for top-mounting, as the guitar has no pickguard.

A nice touch is that the back control cavity was covered in shielding paint ex factory. Another positive is that the maple neck is really sturdy, stable, well shaped and smooth (I nevertheless wet sanded the back of it with some 600 grit paper for even better feel). And the overall guitar remains relatively light for something this big, and exactly balanced. No neck dive whatsoever.

Once all of the above was done (roughly 3 days of work), I could do a proper setup, adjust the trussrod, lower the action, perfect the intonation, and... ENJOY WHAT IS NOW A REAL HEAVY METAL MONSTER \m/ THAT'S ALSO VERY EASY TO PLAY, EXTREMELY VERSATILE SOUNDING, AND DEAD ACCURATE FROM FRET 1 TO 24. The last bit of buzz that remains is just because I missed a high spot on fret 13. It will soon be fixed.

Agreed, if you add the extra parts I used and the manhours I spent, this project is in the end not any less expensive than some of the entry level and even mid range alternatives from Ibanez, Jackson or Schecter, but I still love it, and have greatly enjoyed the upgrade process. Plus now my guitar is truly unique.

I was hesitant to order a Harley Benton since I was busy researching and playing different extended-range instruments over the last couple of months.

I was initially looking at the CST24T but they were out of stock and only due to return in a few months until I saw a B-Stock. I decided to bite the bullet and just pick up one of these with the CST24T considering the cost and this also gives me a good overview by comparing two guitars from Harley Benton.

Delivery took 4 days and the packaging was really good.

After unboxing there was a big difference in setup and first impression quality between the CST and this The CST felt amazing and was essentially perfectly setup unlike this (no problemo I like getting my hands dirty). The frets were very sharp as well as the nut nearly to the point where it might cut my hand/finger. The wood was really dry indicating that it might have been sitting somewhere for a while.
Something to take into account when buying this is that you will need to do some basic TLC. At first, the tuners felt like it was cheap, however, I would advise playing around with them a bit by turning them around a few times. They are pretty decent now. I have also replaced the strings which help with tuning stability on drop G.
Pickups are really hot, maybe a tad muddy, however nowadays it's easy to get around this with a nice setup EQ/Compression and playing with the volume knob.

Positives - After spending, let's say few hours on TLC and setup this thing is a BEAST. I am planning on upgrading the pickups and tuners in the future, however, I am really happy and struggling to put this down. The guitar is also REALLY light which I enjoy the balance is on point and the neck feels really fast.

TLDR
If you are on a budget and don't plan on spending 700 euro + on a guitar you might as well just get this.

Out of the box, minimal setup was required. A little fret buzz on string 7, but shipping from Germany to the US with assumedly very little climate control I am not prepared to blame that on the set up (if any) from Harley Benton or Thomann. Truss adjustment and raising the action a tad and we were cruising.
So build quality was ok, but given the price, pretty impressive. I did have some minimal cosmetic damage to the back of the body, but once again, a risk you run when shipping. The guitar is surprisingly light, but not sacrificing sustain with the cheaper wood options. The fretboard was dry and the fret wire could use a polish, but the ends of the fret wire are adequately finished as to not snag on the strings or dig in to your fingers.

Feature wise, this is about what you would expect from an entry level anything in guitar land. Volume and tone pots have a surprising amount of resistance but I accidently pulled of my tone nob when giving the guitar once over. Simple press fit, so jam it back on there. 3 way blade switch does what its supposed to do.
Finally, the tone. Maybe there were recent changes to the pickups used, but I can't say I agree with the common complaint that the guitar sounds muddy. Out of my Boss Katana MkII with no EQ or patch changes from my normal, I found it the guitar to produce adequate tones, with solid dynamics and sustain. Felt very in expressive in the mids and highs, which is right in the pocket I like to be for my metal playing.

Overall, for the price, I can't say I have played anything better. Even with shipping half way around the world, I still was under $250 USD, placing this guitar as the only option I would recommend (so far) for players wanting to give extended range and/or multiscale without obscene financial commitment.