I Bought The CHEAPEST Guitar I Could Find...
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- Опубликовано: 15 фев 2022
- In this video (the first in a mini series), I buy a used Harley Benton Strat style electric guitar for £30 (around $40). I want to prove that to make music, you don't need expensive equipment. So I'm going to push this Harley Benton to it's limits, I'm going to take it to a pro recording session and take it on tour, gigging it in front of thousands of people.
I'm also going to take it to my favourite guitar repairman Phill Orme and get him to show you how to set up your guitar and why you should prioritise that as a cost.
At the end of the video series, I'm going to GIVE THIS GUITAR AWAY!!
To Win This Guitar
- Like This Video & Leave A Comment
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- Follow Me On Instagram @scottpoleymusic
△ Website:
www.scottpoley.com/
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Disclosures: All opinions are my own. All sponsorships are acknowledged.
#scottpoley #harleybenton #cheapguitars 
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Nice video and series. It’s crazy how good even fairly cheap guitars can be these days. We’ve come a long way!
Indeed we have Ed 👍
if you think about it it's just wood with nickel strings and basic electronics.
It is indeed Orvin 👍
What a great video! I subbed in the first 3mins keep it up!
I appreciate that, thank you so much. Just editing the follow up videos.
Great demo of your starting point, can't wait to see the next few vids on this guitar, sounds like a great experiment 👍🏻, fantastic playing as always brother 🤘🏻🔥
Thanks Chris, you should come and play it before I go on tour 👍
@@ScottPoleyMusic sounds like a very good idea 😎👌🏻
Great series! I recently bought a budget guitar, and I’m planning to use this series to guide me through a setup. Thanks for all the great info! Also, shout out to Phill! Nice work, and great advice.
Thanks James 🙏
Got my guitar Friday (Donner DST-400 which I paid $160 U.S. Normally retails for $250-$260), and went through the setup this weekend. It went so smoothly thanks to you guys. I Luckily only had one fret slightly high. Everything else was in good shape just needed adjusting. Really impressed with this guitar. I would say this model is on par with HB. I can’t speak to their other models. Again, thank you both! 🙏
Really am enjoying this series. Thank you so much!
I appreciate that Steve! 3 more episodes to come.
I've been setting up and modding my own guitars for a few years now. So, naturally I've had my eye on Harley Benton. If a guitar has good bones, you can do alot with them. Nice video man
Thanks so much Randy. This is a really sweet strat, can't wait to use it more 👍
@@ScottPoleyMusic that's awesome. I've heard good things. I'm thinking about getting a couple, and one of their kits to put together. I'm glad to know they're worth the money. Thanks
I went to a relative's house a few years ago, pre pandemic, his kid got a squier. When I played it, it immediately felt better than my pride and joy ibanez that I bought many years ago. With a little mod, I could play that guitar all day.
Man, Squier produce excellent instruments, such good value for money.
Hi Scott, I am new to your channel and absolutely love these posts about cheap guitar. Given the amount of home player for outweigh the pro, I am sure most of them cannot afford the cost of high-end equipment to get a decent tone. Unfortunately, HB do not come easy here in Australia. But we do have Artist, which to me is the equivalent of HB here in Oz. Recently purchased their LPG6 Cimmerian just because it looked badass and was cheap (approx. 185 Euros delivered). The guitar finish is unbelievable in every aspect. Ater a pro set up it sounds and feel amazing. I would defy anyone to pick it on a blindfold test. Anyway, just wanted to share my experience with cheap gear!
Keep up the great work and greetings from down under 🎸👍🤘
That’s really cool, so glad you have found a great guitar. Thanks so much 👍
Fun experiment! Cant wait to see the results!
Thanks Erlend, I'm excited too. 👍
I've bought a t-style as well as a couple other guitars from Harley Benton/ThomasNet, and other than a tiny bit of fret Woolrich oh one, theft all been wonderful. Don't usage a strat style yet, but your video is motivation to get one!
Thanks Diego 🤘
My first guitar was a HB HSS Strat in candy apple red. Cost me $80. Changed only the strings and tuners and it is still a beautiful guitar and while I don’t play it often enough, I still keep it safe in a hard case and I’ll never sell it.
That’s amazing Scott. I love it when you find a keeper guitar!
Nice playing Scott (as always!). These guitars do seem to be getting rave reviews all over the place. I just wish they'd been around when I was a kid, in the days when me and my mates were drooling over Woolworths Audition brand guitars. Maybe I'll get one and have a mess around setting it up and upgrading components, that is if they really need it! 🤔👊🎸
Thanks Ian. What I'm hoping to prove is that just out of the box, budget guitars are great.
I agree with you, modifying guitars with better parts / electronics / pickups will definitely improve the tone of an instrument. However, replacement parts aren't cheap and before you know it, you've spent more on a few parts than the original cost of the guitar.
I plan to take this guitar to be set up, but keep everything else stock for this experiment 🤘😎 let's see how it goes.
@@ScottPoleyMusic I managed to get a hold of a Semi-Acoustic 335-type Harley Benton yesterday off ebay for £150. I'll see what it's like when it arrives, but from what some of the reviews say, it won't need a great deal of work other than a fret polish/dressing... It already has upgraded machine heads, scratch plate and knobs. I happen to have a pair of Seymour Duncan Seth Lover Humbuckers that I bought some years back and briefly used on a Telecaster. I may put them in and get some CTS pots too, it all depends on how it sounds as it is though, as they do appear to be great straight out of the box as you say!
You'll have some fun with that 😎👍
Great, actually EXCELLENT point Ian. My first guitar was he beat up electric that I spent more money repairing than the guitar was even worth. I could have bought a Harley Benton for the same or similar price and really had a guitar I could play.
I bought exactly this guitar new just a few weeks ago and had a guitar player comment negatively on my purchase because of the low price.... just the usual kind of biased people having to offer a never asked opinion because i just posted in a forum i frequent what i had bought me without asking for any kind of knowledge share. Nice series, thank you! Something i can slap around his head now. 😊
🤣 I’m just about to edit the video where I take it on a theatre tour and use it for 60 shows, that’ll be extra ammo for your argument 👍🤘
@@ScottPoleyMusic Alright! Hardcore testing, i like it! Hope it won't let you down and you have a lot of fun playing! 😃🤘
@@ScottPoleyMusic Alright! Hardcore testing, i like it! Hope it didn't let you down and you had a lot of fun playing! 😃🤘
Thanks so much.
I have two Harley benton guitars, both are not higher than 399 euro, onley the pick-ups
Are changed! They feel and sounds like 2k guitars now! Thanx for the test! 🎯
Very cool!
I bought a cheap HB T20 Tele (89,- Euro) and i love it...
Great neck, great look , great playability... and great tele sound
Amazing Sven! Hope you have loads of fun making music with it.
I have a lot of HB ... they are great instruents !!!
At the end of the day a guitar is just wood and metal.... there is no fancy technology to go wrong. Any competent factory should be able to build a guitar to the tolerances needed to make a playable instrument. The thing that makes the difference is the final setup. I will happily buy a lower cost instrument and spend some money on a pro setup and play it live and on recordings.
Very good point Chris 👍
new set of strings + (even more important) right pair of hands = very likely to produce good music. ;)
Absolutely 🤘
Someone is going to be super happy with that guitar
I hope so ❤️
i like the idea to buy cheap and spend high proportion on setup PLUS would love a strat to go with my Epi Les Paul
It's a good option Paul. Loads of videos to come with this brilliant guitar 👍
Dig those funky chords.
Thanks 🙏
Clearly there is little substitute for skill and experience.
I have been saying this for over 40 years: It does not matter what you paid for the guitar - if it works and plays well. It's all in your hands, your imagination, and your energy. I have $120 guitars that I have only slightly modified and have played at hundreds of gigs. Cheers!
Absolutely PipeCat. It’s what works for the player at the end of the day isn’t it?!
@@ScottPoleyMusic Roger that!
Great video! I'm in for a Harley Benton.
Thanks 👍
I’m a fan of Harley Benton guitars. I have 3. They require set up and fret work but if are able to do it yourself, then these guitars a great bargain. They sound and play great.
Absolutely Hawley
Yeah... it's a shame some of the guitar snobs **cough casinoguitars cough** want to shit on these guitars. A bit of work and a pretty minimum investment and you have a great gigging guitar as good as anything coming out of any American factory.
I’m taking mine on a UK theatre tour, first show today 👍
@Scott
Have you already uploaded the HB video to show how it changed after the setup?
They’re coming really soon Michael 👍
I would luv to inherit your copy strat when you are done..I'm in to begin playing guitar if I win..
👍
Thank you!
You're welcome!
I have a HB Fusion 2. And it´s a great guitar.
They're cool guitars!! Nice one 👍
Will be intersting to see how you will do with this budget guitar.
Absolutely, I’m currently using it on a 60+ date UK tour, more videos coming soon.
@@ScottPoleyMusic Good enough for a tour is better than anticipated
I have a custom made electric guitar and the Fender 70th anniversary Esquire.
I also have a £50 Squier Strat, made in China from around 2007. Thing is fricken amazing and I prefer playing it to my other guitars.
I'd say I wasted a few grand on the other two but it'd hurt too much admitting it! 😂
I do love the other two though!
Oh man, welcome to the crazy world of guitars 🤪🤣
A great buy for £30, it will be interesting to see how much better it is with a full setup.
Entry level Harley Bentons are hit and miss. i have three, and out of the box they were
not great.
They all needed the frets leveled and polished, upgraded tuners and nut, better
sounding Alnico pickups and a full setup.
For a beginner that has to employ a guitar tech, this can be expensive.
My advice to any beginner is to try and find a good used guitar that has been setup.
Buying entry level ones new is only going to cost more to make it playable.
I will be watching this series to see how the guitar is after a setup.🙂
I completely agree Alan, I'd also recommend a slightly more expensive used instrument. The frets on mine came sharp as a razor, horrible to play.
@@ScottPoleyMusic The best advice i ever heard that for your first guitar, buy the best
you can afford.
Trying to learn on a badly setup guitar with a high action and sharp uneven frets is no fun.
Very true, but if £30 - $50 is all you can afford...
@@ScottPoleyMusic Any guitar is better than nothing, but a guitar that is unpleasnt to play won't ecourage a new player to practice.
Couldn't agree more!!!
Managing the fretboard, that's the key
Agreed Alfredo!!
Maybe you couldnt achieve something extra that you had in your mind with this guitar but you can make 100% out of it as it is , thats called art and creativity, thats what guitars are for. Sound wise, if its tehnicaly good then its good. Every guitar needs a little service out of the box.
Will try my best Ivan 👍😎
@@ScottPoleyMusic PS. you did very good playing here.
What does something like that retail for brand new?
I think Harley Bentons tend to be around the 100-300 USD price range, depending on the model. Maybe this one was a more low-end model.
This ST-20 model retails for £75 new, plus shipping / import duty. So around the $100 mark 👍
Absolutely right, this is just a stock low end ST-20 model.
Its not a 30£ guitar but a 88€ guitar ! And sure it sounds great
I bought it used for £30 👍 it's a sweet guitar!! It plays and sounds great.
"There's a myth that more expensive guitars will make you play better."
Is there? I've repaired guitars for 20 years and have never heard that assertion. I've heard that higher end guitars themselves play better, and that's true to a degree, but I'm not sure if anyone thinks it'll make them a better player.
Interesting comment, thanks so much Tim!! I have met a number of people (students, audience members after gigs etc) who have said something along the lines of "I'm sure I'd sound better / play better on your --- insert guitar manufacturer here ---".
I think people who can't / don't know how to repair their own guitars, think that expensive guitars will automatically play better, when in fact a well set up cheap guitar can play just as well as an expensive one.
I want people to enjoy making music on whatever instrument they can afford, so I'm going to push this Harley Benton as far as it will go 🤘👍
@@ScottPoleyMusic👍 I get overly pedantic, it's what I do. I do want to see the rest of the videos, I haven't actually come across any Harley Bentons yet. I'm curious what your luthier has to say.
So do I pal 😎👍 guilty as charged 🤣 first luthier video out next week. Nice one Tim.
From my point of view, having a good guitar is an incentive to try and play better i.e. If I have a decent guitar but I sound crap it's because of me and not the guitar, whereas if my guitar is crap I could probably hide behind that and use it as an excuse (a bit at least) for me being crap... My first guitar was awful, you could drive a bus under the strings and bloody hurt to play it. Once I got a decent geet I was more inclined to pick it up. Now I have a couple of good guitars and have learnt how to set them up etc. I actually want to play more often and so I think having a good guitar can make you play better - I'm still nowhere near Scott's standard mind, so maybe I need to buy even more good guitars to help me improve still further! 🙄😉😂🎸
@@ScottPoleyMusic as for more expensive guitars; there certainly is a difference between Squire Affinity and a Suhr. Ive been playing an EJ Strat for years and it certainly feels different than the MIM Classic 50s. In my experience, energetic electric guitar have a dramatic "law of diminishing returns" factor, ESPECIALLY with Strats. Teles. The difference between a $500 guitar and a $2000 guitar is pretty significant (if you've played a while and have played different guitars), but the difference between a $2000 and 5000 is minimal.
When you get down to it, the difference between a lot of high end boutique guitars, and higher quality midrange and flagship production models is just the prestige name, and better setup. That's why a $3500 Suhr feels like it plays itself compared to a $600 well made import guitar: the setup. It comes down to the Suhr being able to actually "take" a full setup. Having everything dead straight and lined up perfectly, frets being leveled, crowned and dressed and having as close to perfect intonation as you can get on a traditional guitar (vs fan fret or using compensated nuts) is why they play so much now easily. With time and care, you can have get a inexpensive guitar to play just as well. Whenever Im taking to someone who plays a really nice high end guitar but is going to buy something less expensive as a backup, or for fly dates and things like that, I always suggest biting the bullet and spending the extra $150-200 to get it Plek'd (no I don't have one, I have to pay too). It's an easy way to get a mid-level guitar to play and feel like a high end.
Rambling comment over, at least you get a subscriber out of it. I look forward to updates on this
There are many cheaper guitars available.
Agreed, there’s loads of great budget friendly guitars available these days.