Harley Benton RB-600BK Classic Series

FYI, the guitar cost me US $360 total, delivered to Arizona, w/gig bag. About the same as a high end Fender Squier from Guitar Center - so inexpensive, but not cheap.

For starters, the guitar arrived essentially unplayable. All of the frets had needle sharp sprouts, and the neck was significantly up-bowed. The strings were D'Addarios, but they felt sticky and grimy, and the action was set very high. The fretboard was also dirty. The tuners were very cheaply made. Nowhere close to the quality on most Squiers. Finally, one corner of the pickguard was popping up.

So why 5 stars? First off, because I know how to fix these things myself. I sanded down the fret sprouts, cleaned and oiled the fretboard, adjusted the truss rod, mounted a set of Wilkinson/Jin-Ho locking tuners, screwed down the pickguard and put on fresh D'Addario strings.

I now have a rather amazing and unique guitar. The fit, finish and overall look is great. The short scale neck is slim and fast. The bridge is a little tricky to adjust, but it works well enough, and I actually like the little cover over it. I suspected the neck would be unstable, but I was wrong. After the major adjustment the truss rod has only required minor tweaks.

I've saved the best for last . . . this freakin' thing sounds amazing! No, no, no it does not sound like a Ric, but it sounds like nothing else I've ever played, and I definitely will NOT need to swap out the pickups. Oh, and the controls also perform well, giving me access to a range of tones that I really like, and that I wasn't expecting. Fantastic fun!

In conclusion, an excellent purchase if you understand what you're getting. I expect you would pay at least US $100 for the set up work if you don't do it yourself. Add another $50 or so for the tuners and strings. Beginners with no experience of these things will likely be disappointed. Oh, and this will be my last Harley Benton unless and until Thomann sets up distribution and return facilities here in the US. I hope some of you find this helpful!

Visually it has a great vibe, with it's beautifully designed retro body, vintage style binding and a head stock shape that doesn't resemble a boat paddle, I can say honestly I prefer the look of the RB600 over the brand that influenced it's conception.

I like the plain basic dot inlays, the unvarnished finger board and the traditional sound hole shape... mine does have a touch of black overspray inside but so what, hardly noticeable!

My RB600 was mostly in tune and playable straight out the box, all I did was lower the strings a little bit to get my preferred low action, tune it up and once plugged in, I raised the pickups a bit on the high strings to get my preferred balance. The intonation itself was perfect, the tuners work just fine and it holds it's tune well. The frets were all level with no sharp edges, all playable. I'm happy with the shorter scale length, the neck is quite narrow and I find it really comfortable to play. The paint finish was also fab, no faults at all and I've got to say, it just looks so good!
I'm not a fan of pretzel tail pieces but this one is totally fine, far more pleasing than ones that try to imitate that famous trademarked "R", after all I think this guitar stands on it's own merit and the proud Harley Benton logo asserts that is exactly what you're buying, not a cheap copy of something more expensive, but a guitar with a distinctive vibe.

Unplugged it sounds good acoustically, great for late night noodling without waking people up, it's not as loud as a full hollow body Casino.

Using a Harley Benton Tube15 Amp and an ACtone pedal (identical to the Harley Benton version), it's easy to dial in vintage tones. The pickups are Artec mini humbuckers. They have a vintage Filter’Tron look and the flat chromed metal mounting rings sets them off. I'd say they sound somewhere between P90s on an Epi Casino, and a bit dark like on a Telecaster. It definitely has it's own voice and a good range of sounds, and yes one can get sounds like the brand that inspired it.

After all that praise for what is a modestly priced instrument, let's get a gripe out the way... What were people thinking when they put the "ce" compliant label resplendent with a crossed out wheelie-bin logo to go on the back of the headstock printed directly on the paintwork and UNDER the varnish instead just using a removable sticker??? This guitar doesn't deserve that, so I took a black sharpie and that "wheelie bin" symbol is now gone for good! It's great value, and I'm a very happy customer!

It’s perfect fun guitar for all levels of ability. Beginners will like it, as played acoustic it’s loud enough to play in front of the television while watching video guitar lessons. Quiet enough so you don’t annoy or wake others at night. It has medium jumbo frets so it’s easier to form chords than guitars with the standard frets. It’s light weight and small.

Some problems that I had to fix:
I think quality control were asleep when they made my bridge, hopefully this was a one off and yours will be better.
All six saddle bolt holes through the bridge body were drilled out too large on both sides, so the saddle bolts and saddles were all over the place. That problem was sorted by buying a new Guyker bridge, and just like the bridge that came with the guitar, the saddles were fitted the wrong way around. The string slots were facing inward, making the string spacing a narrow 48mm. Spin those saddles around, and the string slots will be 50mm to match the bridge pickup. Easily sorted.

The other annoyance is some scratchy frets, but run a fret rubber over the frets and all’s good.

I did take a chance on buying this as it’s advertised as having a 42mm neck width at the nut.
But a nice surprise to find it’s 42.8mm wide, so not bad if like me you have sausage fingers.
But for sausage fingers my Fender Telecaster American performer with it’s 43mm nut width and jumbo frets wins hands down, no contest.

The action at the first fret is good, and was playable straight out of the box.
I haven’t looked but no doubt the frets are not level, and when I have time I’ll set it up properly. Don’t expect any guitar you buy to be properly set up either new or second hand no matter what the price or make.

Two wire pickups: Bridge 8.57k - Neck 8.94k

I have fitted new locking tuners, and I’m going to mod the tone controls with series - parallel & out of phase.

Take a look on Youtube for this guitar, it seems to have a large following.
Three years in and this guys playing like a diva.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcVswTD8m8w

We All Know that Pickups, Strings Machine Heads Knobs ETC. Can be improved so Go And Spend 3 Grand Then. and there will be something you don't like on that one either. Trust me I know , That's the way Guitars are we are all different people with different Tastes in things. some people like low action others High, some people like a chunky neck, others don't, All im saying is for the money guys you cant beat it. If you have a few skills in setting a guitar up then theres no problem ive been playing guitar for 40 years I Bought this for Home use Only In My Studio and was very impressed. Straight out of the box the Action was very good, But I did tweak it a little as I like really Low Action. Id like to see a Smaller Neck some Day on these Guitars about a 40mm Nut with a Softer C Shape profile ( That's just my preference ) The Quality of the build of the guitar was Insanely Fantastic Overall for me Just Fantastic for the money

..Not better, but it is quite easily on par with it. Mine arrived from Germany to California within a week shipped UPS. No major issues with transport: though the RickOmatic was slightly askew, so a little adjustment there was required: There was some buzzing going on with the 6th string, and that cured the issue straightaway. No intonation issues at all to speak of. The neck is perfectly straight without any need of trussed adjustment. The frets are buttery smooth--unlike the sprout issues found in some other reviews. No major visual spots to be seen inside the f hole...it looks like there is some extra lacquer in there, though. Tuners are WAY better than I imagined!! Day one: I beat the crap out of it with a few early Beatles, and it stayed in tune 100% perfectly! The only thing that bugged me was some shrink-wrap under the filtertrons that I can't remove cleanly due to it being under the pickups support plate. That's just a minor visual issue anyway.

Straightaway, This guitar is a stunning value for the money...
For about 14% the cost of a 4K Ripoff-enbacker the Harley Benton RB 600BK is a major score. It looks stunning, The Lennon vibe is there. BTW: this guitar has no issues going through customs because it is not pretending to be an illegal. junky pirated copy.

I had watched a few review videos on YouTube and was expecting a few things: 1) paint in the f-hole, 2) finish imperfections and 3) general quality control issues. I opened the box and found absolutely none of these. It was playable out of the box: frets were great, action good, just a beautiful guitar.

I can't put it down. I've been playing early beatles songs for 3 hours now. I think I played Please Please Me about ten times.

The guitar sounds great and is easily playable. The only con I could think of is due to the nature of the guitar - it's a small scale and for a big guy like me it takes a bit of getting used to. I'm past that point and really digging this thing!

I ordered this guitar with minimal expectations. Usually, when you order something this inexpensive, you plan to do a little work to get it up to your own playing standards. In this case, however, I was pleasantly surprised. I read the other reviews and took note of some of the complaints early on, and it appears they’ve been address quite well. The neck is like a thin C-shape, the frets are dressed and rolled superbly, and the action is nice and low without any fret buzz. And the sound…these pickups are really nice!

All-in-all, a great little guitar for the price. If this is how they always come, I’ll be ordering more very soon!

I ordered this guitar for myself during the 2020 holiday season. After playing it every day since it arrived, I thought now would be a good time to give my comments. First of all, the quality of the finish was flawless. No random spray painting into the f-hole, no poorly glued bindings, the neck is straight, the frets feel good. I play a lot of blues, so bending is important and it feels great. String height was, and is, just the way I like it. The tuners are basic but they work well. the guitar stays in tune while playing and then the next day when I retune, it is practically spot on perfect. The guitar has a very nice tone and I like the performance of the Artec Filtertrons. It is a beautiful guitar, it is very playable. I hear some people say that it feels small, but I don't think so. I am 183cm and 100 kilos and it doesn't feel too small. Sure, is it smaller than my Wildcat? Yes. Is it smaller than my Les Paul? A little. But the pluses for me are amazing. The weight is good, not too heavy. All in all, I think that anyone who wants a Ricky inspired guitar should go for it and buy this guitar.