It was night and day between the two pickups. The stock ones sounded like fizzy wet cardboard. The Guitarmory sounded great. I appreciate what HB is doing in the world of affordable guitars, but I think people need to see these demos to know what they are getting into when buying one.
tbf it's usually what separates these guitars from higher priced models. It's usually the electronics and the QC or setups. Imo it's a good project guitar, to change pickups, knobs, tuners, nut etc and then you get a beast. I did something similar to a Jackson PS-1 I own. It was horrible sound wise, so I just changed almost everything, just didn't change the frets or the bridge and the guitar is amazing
I think that's harsh. I barely heard a difference, and even if there was one, the price difference is so large that it doesn't make any sense to upgrade.
@@MegaDeox typically I agree, stock pickups tend to be fine. And granted, I am listening on studio monitors. My personal experience with HB pickups has been bad. I think the Roswell and Tesla brands they use are good. HBZ and HB passive have all been trash. HBZ I have used have had bad preamps. In the isolated clips here, the pick attack and gain roll off on the HBs are noticeably bad to me. They sound spongy. In a mix you won’t really tell, only the player will know based on the response and that could affect the performance overall. The noise issue is another thing and I have found that a high noise floor in the signal can kill sustain and definition. I will typically try and demonstrate clean tones to illustrate issues with output and definition since gain can mask some of those problems.
I bought this same guitar. Put a Black Winter Duncan in the bridge, a HipShot bridge, HIpshot locking tuners, and a Graph Tech nut on the thing and It's just amazing. Plays and sounds like a $1500 guitar. Did the same thing with a Jackson JS22-7 with the same results. And that HB neck is just spot on.
Sounds like you upgraded your pretty awesome. I may do the bridge too, but honestly the bridge it comes with just fine. My goal was to take a guitar under $200, spend a few hundred and get it sounding and playing like a higher end guitar, and I think I've done that.
@@MetalZoned The 7 string is a Jackson (JS22-7 DKA HD) and yes, it does sound a bit better. But I did the same mod work to it as the HB (Hipshot bridge/tuners and Graphtec Tusq nut). So, yes, I might go with the Jackson if I had to do it again. Though I'm very satisfied with the HB.
Just ordered a 7 version, and I couldnt find anybody who actually goes point by point over the issues. So, thank you! I ordered some new fret crowning and polishing stuff, new stings, brass neck pocket shims, and some locking tuners. Maybe drop in some fishman, if the guitar's bones are good enough, even though it will more than double the cost. 😆😆 Cheers bud!
It's got good bones and I think you'll be happy with it once you polish it up a bit. Hopefully the 7 string pickups are better than the 8's or I got some duds or something.
I can't believe how cheap this thing is. The improvements really made it shine. Very impressed with those pickups and would definitely like to hear more of them on channel for sure.
That sounded great. So... I joined you in this adventure and purchased a black one. Tosin Abasi I am not, but my move to 7 string changed my guitar playing forever and I want to see where it goes on 8 strings. A good way to get out of the pedal of the day mindframe for a while. Thank you for the inspiration.
@@MetalHeadProductions Waiting on strings and locking tuners. Dealing with the stock pickups for now. A Timmy to boost it and a BE OD pedal into Cab M+ Metal Zone preset very much helps the goofy pickups on it.
I don't mean to be a jerk, but I really can't tell the difference between the stock pickups and the Guitarmory pickups. I just purchased this guitar for review. My 18 year old son is into metal. My brother Dan is the resident guitarist on the channel. He is a more traditional guitar player. They are both going to have a go with it. Thanks for the video 😉👍!
@@MetalHeadProductions In all honesty, I am completely deaf in my left ear, but I am listening through a Bluetooth earpiece. It generally gives good service. Thanks for asking 🙂.
@@leodanryan966 I have to agree. Nobody can tell the difference in an actual song. Even listening to it out of the mix was hard to tell. I am pretty sure I could tell the difference if I was actually playing it though.
I just got a 7 string from them. Oddly, the pickups and fretwork were great. I got a Sterling Jason Richardson 7 sting the week before, those and the JP pickups are the worst I’ve owned.
Hey man well done video ! I got one too (and an R-457 FF). I swapped pickups on the R-457 trying to get rid of that nasty boxy pick attack on 6th string (7th string on R-458). I hear you got that same characteristic attack, with stock and new pickup (new one sounds a lot more balanced though). I've spent months trying to understand where it comes from, I'm blaming the instrument itself at this point. Would you have any clue on what causes it ? I'd say saddles or nut but I don't know... No other 8 string guitars on YT videos got that sound, there inevitably is a culprit I need to figure out
I love working on stuff and building I am fairly broke would it be worth buying this? I want to buy a 8 string and work on it but I also don’t want to waist any money.
I've got the 7 string version of that guitar. Everything but the pickups were great! I put in a pair of Bareknuckle War Pigs at 2x the price of the guitar lol, but it was 100% worth it! I play tuned essentially to drop F and it sounds like an absolute BEAST with proper pickups!
I love the Warpigs, those are in my top for pickups for sure. Idk what is wrong with the pickups that come stock in this but it seems like something is wrong with how it's wired because it's listed as high output, but they're actually super weak and on top of that, crazy noisy like they weren't ground properly or something.
@@MetalHeadProductions Well, looking at the price of wood, and the price of the guitars, they had to cheap out SOMEWHERE, so I think that the pickups are some $10 AliExpress pickups.. The one I got was also SUPER noisy, extremely low output, and felt like there was a lowpass filter on it even if I had the tone all the way up.. sounded muddy and muffled.. Warpigs cleared it all up! It's a great guitar to use as an upgrade platform!
how do the pickups fit in the guitar, and how many strings are the pickups for? im tryna find pickups that would fit in the 7 string fanfret but from what ive seen they are the size of 8 string soapbars
@@MetalHeadProductionsI’m getting this guitar tomorrow and need to know if i could take EMG 808’s out of a Non Multiscale guitar and put them into the Harley B. Would that work or do I have to get pickups that are specifically designed for a multiscale guitar?
It still holds a near and dear place in my heart as the absolute worst guitar I’ve ever played, like genuinely it feels like a waste to even have built it. Tuning stability, tuners, pickups, playability and feel were all worse than a bc rich I got for 20$ that was 15 years old
So, to make the 150ish dollar guitar playable, you need to invest into pickups that cost double what the guitar does? :D But it's kinda true haha, i have one of those "affordable" ones, the Jazzmaster baritone from Squier. It's a great skeleton as you put it, but the pickups in there are so bad it's hilarious how bad they are. I've never heard that kind of noise before, and i can hear it while playing, noise gates don't do anything! I already swapped the electronics in it, and will definitely swap the pickups. They sound great clean, but as soon as you put any kind of dirt on them they go crazy. Kinda like this HB of yours. Those guitars like Squier and Harley benton are great project guitars. Get the shape and "thing" you want, from build perspective (with any luck, good build quality), and go to town upgrading it. :) Like, for mine, i want all gold hardware. Maybe tacky, but i like it. :D
Haha, yeah, the main thing was new pickups and cleaning up those frets. Still, though, this and some decent pickups are around $300-400, not bad for what you get, but wow Harley Benton need to do something about these pickups.
@@MetalHeadProductions Oh the fretwork you did also definitely contributes a lot to the sound and feel. And yeah, around 400 bucks upgrade is not that big, i mean, the pickups you put in cost about the same as i paid for Fishman Abasi set so, not that super expensive. And there's also more affordable options like Warman pickups and Iron gear. It's just funny to me how an entire guitar can cost less than just a set of pickups. :D Funny times we live in, but i like it. Buying an instrument - a good one - has never been easier. I remember my starting guitar, a squier that i had to tune mid playing (yes, that bad), frets all over the place and held together with magic, idk how that guitar didn't fall apart. And it cost more than this Harley Benton. Thank god for Thomann right? :D You mentioned their 2x12 cabs with Celestions. I have it. It's insane value! And they sound great, especially for the price! My cats scratched the hell out of the case though. :P
Well stuff has to perform. If my guitar isn't staying in tune, is hard to play and the pickups are borderline microphonic, it's going to get in the way of the playing part.
This seems to happen a lot. I own a few Harley Bentons, Multiscale 7 TPD, 458FFB, being the most recent, and they work fine. I bought the two that I specifically mentioned to try out multiscale inexpensively, and to have them in my studio for other people to use as well. Most people that play them are impressed with them, for good reason. Yes, there are those people too, that are only impressed by the name on the head stock, pickup brands, etc..... Are there differences in sound? Yes, there are differences clean, just like you will get with any 2 guitars, even if they are the same model with different strings. Those differences are basically non existence once gain or an EQ is involved. And those differences are basically gone if run thru any modeler... I play and track strings thru a modeler to give the person playing the sound they want, but I also record the DI for changes afterwards. Piezo, active passive, doesn't matter with a decent modeler if you recorded the DI at the proper levels.... You can buy a decent modeler for less than most supposedly magic pickups... Buying modelers is a better idea, versus the number of pickups one would need to make them all sort of sound similar... Not everyone wants what you want either.... Not really a hard choice when you look at it that way... Buy a modeler first, and record the DI at the same time so you can make it sound like (insert whatever) afterwards.... If the modeler you choose doesn't have DI options, and there are some, buy a DI box as well.... I am surprised the tone wood debate didn't come up, right after the pickups.... Then one could have just bought a neck, and been done with it.... Food for thought.....
Eh, the parts aren't all that bad, especially if you find some used pickups, it's more that it takes some work to get it playing nice, like touching up the frets.
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It was night and day between the two pickups. The stock ones sounded like fizzy wet cardboard. The Guitarmory sounded great. I appreciate what HB is doing in the world of affordable guitars, but I think people need to see these demos to know what they are getting into when buying one.
Yeah those pickups were some how thin, weak and super noisy. Tells me something went wrong making them.
tbf it's usually what separates these guitars from higher priced models. It's usually the electronics and the QC or setups. Imo it's a good project guitar, to change pickups, knobs, tuners, nut etc and then you get a beast. I did something similar to a Jackson PS-1 I own. It was horrible sound wise, so I just changed almost everything, just didn't change the frets or the bridge and the guitar is amazing
I think that's harsh. I barely heard a difference, and even if there was one, the price difference is so large that it doesn't make any sense to upgrade.
@@MegaDeox typically I agree, stock pickups tend to be fine. And granted, I am listening on studio monitors. My personal experience with HB pickups has been bad. I think the Roswell and Tesla brands they use are good. HBZ and HB passive have all been trash. HBZ I have used have had bad preamps.
In the isolated clips here, the pick attack and gain roll off on the HBs are noticeably bad to me. They sound spongy. In a mix you won’t really tell, only the player will know based on the response and that could affect the performance overall. The noise issue is another thing and I have found that a high noise floor in the signal can kill sustain and definition. I will typically try and demonstrate clean tones to illustrate issues with output and definition since gain can mask some of those problems.
I bought this same guitar. Put a Black Winter Duncan in the bridge, a HipShot bridge, HIpshot locking tuners, and a Graph Tech nut on the thing and It's just amazing. Plays and sounds like a $1500 guitar. Did the same thing with a Jackson JS22-7 with the same results. And that HB neck is just spot on.
Sounds like you upgraded your pretty awesome. I may do the bridge too, but honestly the bridge it comes with just fine. My goal was to take a guitar under $200, spend a few hundred and get it sounding and playing like a higher end guitar, and I think I've done that.
How do you like the 8 string black winters?
@@MetalZoned They're fantastic. Same with the 7 string version.
@@jeffhirshberg5171 if you were to do it over would you get the Harley Benton or the Jackson
@@MetalZoned The 7 string is a Jackson (JS22-7 DKA HD) and yes, it does sound a bit better. But I did the same mod work to it as the HB (Hipshot bridge/tuners and Graphtec Tusq nut). So, yes, I might go with the Jackson if I had to do it again. Though I'm very satisfied with the HB.
Thanks for a review that sets realistic expectations when buying something like this.
Just ordered a 7 version, and I couldnt find anybody who actually goes point by point over the issues. So, thank you! I ordered some new fret crowning and polishing stuff, new stings, brass neck pocket shims, and some locking tuners.
Maybe drop in some fishman, if the guitar's bones are good enough, even though it will more than double the cost. 😆😆
Cheers bud!
It's got good bones and I think you'll be happy with it once you polish it up a bit. Hopefully the 7 string pickups are better than the 8's or I got some duds or something.
I can't believe how cheap this thing is. The improvements really made it shine. Very impressed with those pickups and would definitely like to hear more of them on channel for sure.
I have a demo of the pickups coming up soon. Really interesting and unique with the bridge having both ceramic and alnico magnets.
What a perfect review, thank you!
Great upgrades! Pro review!
That sounded great. So... I joined you in this adventure and purchased a black one. Tosin Abasi I am not, but my move to 7 string changed my guitar playing forever and I want to see where it goes on 8 strings. A good way to get out of the pedal of the day mindframe for a while.
Thank you for the inspiration.
That's awesome, glad to help inspire some ideas!
@@MetalHeadProductions Waiting on strings and locking tuners. Dealing with the stock pickups for now.
A Timmy to boost it and a BE OD pedal into Cab M+ Metal Zone preset very much helps the goofy pickups on it.
I don't mean to be a jerk, but I really can't tell the difference between the stock pickups and the Guitarmory pickups. I just purchased this guitar for review. My 18 year old son is into metal. My brother Dan is the resident guitarist on the channel. He is a more traditional guitar player. They are both going to have a go with it. Thanks for the video 😉👍!
No worries, I would ask if you can hear the differences what you're listening through?
Hope they enjoy the guitar!
@@MetalHeadProductions In all honesty, I am completely deaf in my left ear, but I am listening through a Bluetooth earpiece. It generally gives good service. Thanks for asking 🙂.
@@leodanryan966 I have to agree. Nobody can tell the difference in an actual song. Even listening to it out of the mix was hard to tell. I am pretty sure I could tell the difference if I was actually playing it though.
@@PegeCovers Well welll, look who else is looking at 8 strings guitars! :D
@@DrMobiusOfficial Oh noes 😳😏Yea at some point I want an 8 string. I collect different guitar types to cover a lot of ground 😩
Glad you’re back!
Back? Where'd I go?
Very cool. Definitely built a solid 8
the bones are good, but there are some issue they need to sort out. I hear this pickup thing is a problem in other guitars right now with them.
great video, thanks!
what string gauge do u use for the thicest string?
Just fyi your link for the guitarmory pickups in the description is broken now
Ah thanks I'll have to update that!
I just got a 7 string from them. Oddly, the pickups and fretwork were great. I got a Sterling Jason Richardson 7 sting the week before, those and the JP pickups are the worst I’ve owned.
Huh, could be luck of the draw or they could have upped the QC on these, either way, glad to hear it worked out better for you.
Hey man well done video ! I got one too (and an R-457 FF). I swapped pickups on the R-457 trying to get rid of that nasty boxy pick attack on 6th string (7th string on R-458). I hear you got that same characteristic attack, with stock and new pickup (new one sounds a lot more balanced though). I've spent months trying to understand where it comes from, I'm blaming the instrument itself at this point. Would you have any clue on what causes it ? I'd say saddles or nut but I don't know... No other 8 string guitars on YT videos got that sound, there inevitably is a culprit I need to figure out
Idk, could be the saddle or even the nut possibly. Pickup swap did the trick for me, thankfully.
I love working on stuff and building I am fairly broke would it be worth buying this? I want to buy a 8 string and work on it but I also don’t want to waist any money.
Yeah it's got good bones. Tickets strings, a good setup and some better pickups will go a long way with this.
I've got the 7 string version of that guitar. Everything but the pickups were great! I put in a pair of Bareknuckle War Pigs at 2x the price of the guitar lol, but it was 100% worth it! I play tuned essentially to drop F and it sounds like an absolute BEAST with proper pickups!
I love the Warpigs, those are in my top for pickups for sure. Idk what is wrong with the pickups that come stock in this but it seems like something is wrong with how it's wired because it's listed as high output, but they're actually super weak and on top of that, crazy noisy like they weren't ground properly or something.
@@MetalHeadProductions Well, looking at the price of wood, and the price of the guitars, they had to cheap out SOMEWHERE, so I think that the pickups are some $10 AliExpress pickups.. The one I got was also SUPER noisy, extremely low output, and felt like there was a lowpass filter on it even if I had the tone all the way up.. sounded muddy and muffled.. Warpigs cleared it all up!
It's a great guitar to use as an upgrade platform!
@@Screwhead funny mine were all thin and top end, haha
how do the pickups fit in the guitar, and how many strings are the pickups for? im tryna find pickups that would fit in the 7 string fanfret but from what ive seen they are the size of 8 string soapbars
@@sirbonple these fit perfectly. Guitarmory will work with you and the size of the pickups in the guitar already to make sure they fit correctly.
Great video, I have a Q, do you used a set of 8 string soapbar like EMG 808 (4 inches L) or a longer soapbar like 909's due is a multiscale guitar
Standard 808 soapbar size.
@@MetalHeadProductionsI’m getting this guitar tomorrow and need to know if i could take EMG 808’s out of a Non Multiscale guitar and put them into the Harley B. Would that work or do I have to get pickups that are specifically designed for a multiscale guitar?
@@bultronlagore4932 I believe the pickup routes are a standard soapbar size so yes you can.
I just picked one of these guys up...I can't wait to throw some Fishman's in it
It still holds a near and dear place in my heart as the absolute worst guitar I’ve ever played, like genuinely it feels like a waste to even have built it. Tuning stability, tuners, pickups, playability and feel were all worse than a bc rich I got for 20$ that was 15 years old
Lol yeah once I upgraded everything it was fine, but as is this is not great.
So, to make the 150ish dollar guitar playable, you need to invest into pickups that cost double what the guitar does? :D
But it's kinda true haha, i have one of those "affordable" ones, the Jazzmaster baritone from Squier. It's a great skeleton as you put it, but the pickups in there are so bad it's hilarious how bad they are. I've never heard that kind of noise before, and i can hear it while playing, noise gates don't do anything! I already swapped the electronics in it, and will definitely swap the pickups. They sound great clean, but as soon as you put any kind of dirt on them they go crazy. Kinda like this HB of yours.
Those guitars like Squier and Harley benton are great project guitars. Get the shape and "thing" you want, from build perspective (with any luck, good build quality), and go to town upgrading it. :)
Like, for mine, i want all gold hardware. Maybe tacky, but i like it. :D
Haha, yeah, the main thing was new pickups and cleaning up those frets. Still, though, this and some decent pickups are around $300-400, not bad for what you get, but wow Harley Benton need to do something about these pickups.
@@MetalHeadProductions Oh the fretwork you did also definitely contributes a lot to the sound and feel. And yeah, around 400 bucks upgrade is not that big, i mean, the pickups you put in cost about the same as i paid for Fishman Abasi set so, not that super expensive. And there's also more affordable options like Warman pickups and Iron gear.
It's just funny to me how an entire guitar can cost less than just a set of pickups. :D Funny times we live in, but i like it. Buying an instrument - a good one - has never been easier.
I remember my starting guitar, a squier that i had to tune mid playing (yes, that bad), frets all over the place and held together with magic, idk how that guitar didn't fall apart.
And it cost more than this Harley Benton. Thank god for Thomann right? :D
You mentioned their 2x12 cabs with Celestions. I have it. It's insane value! And they sound great, especially for the price!
My cats scratched the hell out of the case though. :P
Anyone who owns this guitar, are the stock pickups that bad?
Musicians are far too concerned about the gear and not enough about the music.
Well stuff has to perform. If my guitar isn't staying in tune, is hard to play and the pickups are borderline microphonic, it's going to get in the way of the playing part.
This seems to happen a lot. I own a few Harley Bentons, Multiscale 7 TPD, 458FFB, being the most recent, and they work fine. I bought the two that I specifically mentioned to try out multiscale inexpensively, and to have them in my studio for other people to use as well. Most people that play them are impressed with them, for good reason. Yes, there are those people too, that are only impressed by the name on the head stock, pickup brands, etc.....
Are there differences in sound? Yes, there are differences clean, just like you will get with any 2 guitars, even if they are the same model with different strings. Those differences are basically non existence once gain or an EQ is involved. And those differences are basically gone if run thru any modeler... I play and track strings thru a modeler to give the person playing the sound they want, but I also record the DI for changes afterwards. Piezo, active passive, doesn't matter with a decent modeler if you recorded the DI at the proper levels....
You can buy a decent modeler for less than most supposedly magic pickups... Buying modelers is a better idea, versus the number of pickups one would need to make them all sort of sound similar... Not everyone wants what you want either.... Not really a hard choice when you look at it that way...
Buy a modeler first, and record the DI at the same time so you can make it sound like (insert whatever) afterwards.... If the modeler you choose doesn't have DI options, and there are some, buy a DI box as well....
I am surprised the tone wood debate didn't come up, right after the pickups.... Then one could have just bought a neck, and been done with it.... Food for thought.....
I wouldn’t call that “In mix”, I’d call that “in snare”.
Lol, cool, man
Awesome awesome!!!!! S u b e d
summary: It's a cheap guitar with the only disadvantage that you will have to build it into a expensive guitar.
Eh, the parts aren't all that bad, especially if you find some used pickups, it's more that it takes some work to get it playing nice, like touching up the frets.