Harley Benton SC-550 ii vs Vintage V100?

[JamesC01]

I'm going to buy a les paul style guitar soon, and have heard good things about the HB sc-550 ii and the Vintage V100. The V100 costs about £100 more, but I've seen people saying that the HB is comparable to it. I've seen more positive reviews about the HB, but that might just be due to popularity. The HB has stainless steel frets, and the one I'm getting has gotoh (non-locking) tuners. The V100 doesn't have stainless steel frets, the hardware seems about comparable. The bridge costs about the same as the harley benton one, but it has grover tuners vs gotoh on the HB. I'm leaning towards the HB, since I've just seen more positivity around it, and it's cheaper than the Vintage. Apparently HB has the luxury of being a bit cheaper since they only sell from thomann, so don't have as many extra costs as a company that sells from many different shops. They both seem like solid guitars, though.

[ezbass]

I haven't had any experience of the HB one, but their guitars are pretty decent (I own one of their basses), especially those with the upgraded hardware. I was in a band with a guy who used a Vintage V100 and it was very decent and the brand gets a fair bit of love on GuitarChat. All that being said, it seems that you've actually made your mind up already and saving £100 isn't to be sniffed at, as you could use this to upgrade the pickups and electronics, if needed. Just remember, when it arrives, we all want to see it!

[randythoades]

Whilst I have no direct experience with HB, I have had several of the Vintage brand guitars and currently have 3. I have owned two of the V100 and they are great guitars, not just for the money, and at the time was actually better than my band mates genuine Gibson. Too heavy for me though so I moved them on. They already have good quality hardware and I didn't feel the need to upgrade anything.

Edited December 11, 2023 by randythoades

[JamesC01]

7 hours ago, randythoades said:

Whilst I have no direct experience with HB, I have had several of the Vintage brand guitars and currently have 3. I have owned two of the V100 and they are great guitars, not just for the money, and at the time was actually better than my band mates genuine Gibson. Too heavy for me though so I moved them on. They already have good quality hardware and I didn't feel the need to upgrade anything.

I believe the vintage v100's are solid body's, whereas the HB ones are weight-relieved. I've gone with the HB, but the vintage ones do look very nice! 

[EdwardMarlowe]

Stainless steel frets aside, I suspect the most obvious difference in the end will be which version of the LP shape you prefer, given that (for legal reasons) both vary the outline somewhat. The SC series is one of the HBs I've not handled in person, but online it does look like the body doesn't nip in *just* so much as the original in the middle, and the upper bought comes out further and then back in, rather than round - think a Les Paul trying to be a Telecaster in that specific area of the body shape. The Vintage to my eye is somewhat closer to the shape of the LP, with the only really obvious difference being the sharper horn. Of course, if being as close as possible to the Gibson is what you wanted, you'd probably be looking elsewhere. That said, I really like that the HB does vary that little bit more - it gives it a feel of being it's own take on the LP style, much like the LTD LP style guitar. YMMV. 

Quality wise, without having played both back to back, there's room for the HB to be a little better imo. Bear in mind they're basically offering you wholesale prices at retail: I suspect this would be a more expensive guitar than the Vintage were it retailed under the traditional model. 

The TL/DR version is that if I were looking for a new LP style guitar without spending crazy money, I'd be looking seriously at the HB. If you[re going to be pulling the trigger in the next week or so, do look at the 25th Anniversary model - the spec on that range is impressive (I have the JA25th and it is a lovely, lovely thing indeed), and it's only available until end 2023. 

[JamesC01]

3 hours ago, EdwardMarlowe said:

Stainless steel frets aside, I suspect the most obvious difference in the end will be which version of the LP shape you prefer, given that (for legal reasons) both vary the outline somewhat. The SC series is one of the HBs I've not handled in person, but online it does look like the body doesn't nip in *just* so much as the original in the middle, and the upper bought comes out further and then back in, rather than round - think a Les Paul trying to be a Telecaster in that specific area of the body shape. The Vintage to my eye is somewhat closer to the shape of the LP, with the only really obvious difference being the sharper horn. Of course, if being as close as possible to the Gibson is what you wanted, you'd probably be looking elsewhere. That said, I really like that the HB does vary that little bit more - it gives it a feel of being it's own take on the LP style, much like the LTD LP style guitar. YMMV. 

Quality wise, without having played both back to back, there's room for the HB to be a little better imo. Bear in mind they're basically offering you wholesale prices at retail: I suspect this would be a more expensive guitar than the Vintage were it retailed under the traditional model. 

The TL/DR version is that if I were looking for a new LP style guitar without spending crazy money, I'd be looking seriously at the HB. If you[re going to be pulling the trigger in the next week or so, do look at the 25th Anniversary model - the spec on that range is impressive (I have the JA25th and it is a lovely, lovely thing indeed), and it's only available until end 2023. 

I pulled the trigger on the harley benton yesterday. I prefer the body shape of the HB. The sharp horn on the vintage doesn't look as good to me. HB's horn is a little more rounded, like a real les paul. And the HB has the easier access to the higher frets, which is a bonus. The SC25th looks nice, but I was more interested in the flamed maple finish ones. I went with the SC-550 ii gotoh in PAF. What areas do you think it could be improved in?

Edited December 12, 2023 by JamesC01

[EdwardMarlowe]

6 hours ago, JamesC01 said:

I pulled the trigger on the harley benton yesterday. I prefer the body shape of the HB. The sharp horn on the vintage doesn't look as good to me. HB's horn is a little more rounded, like a real les paul. And the HB has the easier access to the higher frets, which is a bonus. The SC25th looks nice, but I was more interested in the flamed maple finish ones. I went with the SC-550 ii gotoh in PAF. What areas do you think it could be improved in?

They've rolled out the SS frets across a few of the SCs, I see; nice stuff. I hope they do that with some of the other, bolt-neck styles, STs, TEs, JAs especially! 

TBh, I wouldn't think about any upgrades for a while - just live with it for a bit and see what you think. If you find you want some specific other pickups then I might throw in a new wiring loom at the same time, but in truth I'd just live with it for a bit and see i you feel it needs any actual changes - a lot of folks who have them don't seem to want to switch anything out. 

[JamesC01]

On 12/12/2023 at 21:45, EdwardMarlowe said:

They've rolled out the SS frets across a few of the SCs, I see; nice stuff. I hope they do that with some of the other, bolt-neck styles, STs, TEs, JAs especially! 

TBh, I wouldn't think about any upgrades for a while - just live with it for a bit and see what you think. If you find you want some specific other pickups then I might throw in a new wiring loom at the same time, but in truth I'd just live with it for a bit and see i you feel it needs any actual changes - a lot of folks who have them don't seem to want to switch anything out. 

It's strange they don't put those little upgrades in their cheaper guitars. A graphtek nut only costs about £13, and they could put their own harley benton brand locking tuners (that are only £30). I'm sure loads of people would be willing to spend an extra £45 to get some upgrades on some of the cheaper guitars (TE62 for example). If they made a version the TE-62, TE-62 plus, say, with some upgrades, I'm sure loads of people would be willing to pay £200 for it. They could stick a load of good upgrades in it for the extra £70, and I'd imagine it would sell very well considering it would be miles ahead of competition in that price range, like squier affinity.

 

You're right about not needing to upgrade it. I probably won't (at least for quite a while). I've been content with my yamaha pacfica so far, so I'll probably be fine with the stock stuff on the HB. I suppose it would be nice to put a graphtek nut on it. I'm not a big pickup person, so I'll probably be fine with them unless I AB tested it with some other pickups.

[randythoades]

On 12/12/2023 at 21:45, EdwardMarlowe said:

They've rolled out the SS frets across a few of the SCs, I see; nice stuff. I hope they do that with some of the other, bolt-neck styles, STs, TEs, JAs especially! 

TBh, I wouldn't think about any upgrades for a while - just live with it for a bit and see what you think. If you find you want some specific other pickups then I might throw in a new wiring loom at the same time, but in truth I'd just live with it for a bit and see i you feel it needs any actual changes - a lot of folks who have them don't seem to want to switch anything out. 

I think this applies to a lot of the 'cheaper' brands. Competition is fierce so the aim is to sell more instruments, albeit at a lower margin, by including half decent hardware and electrics that there isn't any immediate need to uprgrade. Probably costs them 10% more to build. Such a difference compared to the 80s and 90s when a beginner guitar was almost unplayable at times.

 

But interesting also to note that now Vintage have been doing this for a number of years and have a reputation for good quality guitars, that they are no longer actually very cheap just good value and another raft of brands are now the cheaper end. Vintage even have their own cheaper alternative (Coaster series), I wonder if HB will end up gaining market ground and pushing up prices of regular models, just to bring in a more pocket friendly range?

[EdwardMarlowe]

14 hours ago, randythoades said:

I think this applies to a lot of the 'cheaper' brands. Competition is fierce so the aim is to sell more instruments, albeit at a lower margin, by including half decent hardware and electrics that there isn't any immediate need to uprgrade. Probably costs them 10% more to build. Such a difference compared to the 80s and 90s when a beginner guitar was almost unplayable at times.

 

But interesting also to note that now Vintage have been doing this for a number of years and have a reputation for good quality guitars, that they are no longer actually very cheap just good value and another raft of brands are now the cheaper end. Vintage even have their own cheaper alternative (Coaster series), I wonder if HB will end up gaining market ground and pushing up prices of regular models, just to bring in a more pocket friendly range?

It'll be interesting to see where it goes. Vintage feel like a clear direct competitor for the higher end HBS, at least, bearing in mind that's probably what they'd retail at if being sold via the normal wholesale / retail distribution model. I'd be very happy to see more HBs of a type I fancy in and around the £250 mark (in the real world, that would be £400-450ish in the usual retail chain) if it meant just enough of an upgrade spec. I'm hoping they eventually do more of the Grestch-style Big Tone in CC colours, and left handed... 

I remember when I was first learning, guys who'd been playing since the seventies waxing lyrical about the quality of 'beginner; instruments. Squier especially - and that was the early nineties, when pretty much all Squiers were plywood bodied, not something I could see them being able to sell now... The really interesting thing is how many more affordable brands that would once have been "or beginners" are now repositioning themselves as "serious" instruments. Vintage are a little more expensive than once they were, yes - though still cheaper than the top end Squiers and middle-range Epiphones as appropriate. Notably, thought, their marketing has them as "guitars for the working musician". It feels to me like the days when guys in bands felt they had to have a Fender or a Gibson to be seen as serious are behind us, and the more expensive, US-built stuff especially is increasingly viewed as luxury rather than 'professional musician's necessity'. Part of it of course is how manufacturing has come on  - with advances in CNC, and designs like the Tele having been around so long, the actual cost of putting together a good working tele type now, for example, isn't what it was. 

Certainly be interesting to see what happens with HB like this. Given how much cheaper their business model lets them be, can you imagine what HB could do with, say, an ST type they could sell for £400? I just hope if they go that way they do their higher end versions of the same wide range, and don't make it all about SCs, or Fusions, or any one type. 

[EdwardMarlowe]

On 14/12/2023 at 19:40, JamesC01 said:

It's strange they don't put those little upgrades in their cheaper guitars. A graphtek nut only costs about £13, and they could put their own harley benton brand locking tuners (that are only £30). I'm sure loads of people would be willing to spend an extra £45 to get some upgrades on some of the cheaper guitars (TE62 for example). If they made a version the TE-62, TE-62 plus, say, with some upgrades, I'm sure loads of people would be willing to pay £200 for it. They could stick a load of good upgrades in it for the extra £70, and I'd imagine it would sell very well considering it would be miles ahead of competition in that price range, like squier affinity.

 

You're right about not needing to upgrade it. I probably won't (at least for quite a while). I've been content with my yamaha pacfica so far, so I'll probably be fine with the stock stuff on the HB. I suppose it would be nice to put a graphtek nut on it. I'm not a big pickup person, so I'll probably be fine with them unless I AB tested it with some other pickups.

I expect initially it was down to building down to a price point. With the growing reputation of the brand and the buzz around the spec of the 25th range, though, they'd surely be mad not to at least consider a 'plus' version.