Harley Benton DC-Custom II White

Very impressed with this beautiful guitar. Very impressed with build and set-up. Was in tune out of the box, action/intonation was perfect, all hardware solid, & fit/finish solid. I couldn’t find anything that (previous to ordering) I expected would reflect its price or country of manufacture. I’ve owned a few SG’s over the years (‘65 & mid-70’s Gibson, currently an old Epiphone) & this holds its own against any of them. Definitely as good, if not better, than the Epi at half the price. I’d grade the p’ups on a curve, obvsly can spend a lot more money for whichever brand affords the sound you prefer, but I’m happy with these & see no reason to change them. While neck dive varies slightly in the SG’s I’ve owned, it’s inherent in the model & this is well within expected parameters of any SG I’ve ever played. I was afraid the weight may be an issue & almost pulled trigger on basswood model, but happy that fear was unfounded. It doesn’t impact my compromised shoulder & is well within comfort range. Highly impressed with Thomann’s customer service, set-up, & how quickly I received it. The only downside is being hit w unexpectedly high tariff charges, but that reflects my country’s current fascist & inept regime not Thomann.

Bought this for my kid who is in London at Uni, we are from USA. She wanted a SG, but, since she will be moving around, didn't wanna spend a ton of cash. Our first HB guitar...it is really friggin nice, I own some high end guitars and own some Chibsons (mostly they are poor QC and crap) this HB is proper nice. It needed a bit of a setup and its dialed not-straight neck and frets. I only played through fender micro mini headphone amp and a small practice amp-so hard to really test sound, but it does play well. Overall, would I keep it for myself? no, its just lacking something, a feel, character? dunno, but its a beauty of a guitar, plays good and would be unreal for a beginner or someone who doesn't wanna worry about a nice instrument getting used and abused.