Don't buy it as this Thomann Affiliate Link: www.thomannmusic.com/harley_benton_victory_active_sbk.htm?offid=1&affid=200

I really admire that you talk about practicing and showing people that you can’t always play things perfect every time. Not very many people leave things like that in their videos.

I would’ve killed for a guitar like that in the early 80’s when I started. “Cheap guitars” have come a very long way.

As someone who loves cheap “rat rod” guitars, filing down fret ends is fairly easy and quick. A little practice and you could have minor fret issues fixed in an hour or so. Makes a lot of cheaper guitars extremely worth their money

I love the fact that Glenn has worked in a production line for so long and so his assessment of production flaws is actually based on knowledge about production process and QC. Too many people have this all over the place approach, sometimes letting slip mayor things and sometimes obsessing about small stuff.

Hey Glenn. Fellow Canadian here. Even though I am not a Metal guy I have more than enjoyed your content and appreciate all the time and effort you put into your vids. Very refreshing to hear the no BS approach that you have. I am now 71 and having grown up in the 60s I am what I call part of the "dinosaur rock club". As a long time, guitarist I often think of how great it would have been to have access to someone like you back when I was starting out. Cheers mate

Hey Glenn, It’s likely that the guitar pickups were not correctly grounded to the guitar. The ground wire is usually soldered to the bridge spring claw and it could have fallen off during transportation. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just loose in there waiting to be re-soldered.

Keep playing on camera GLEN! I love seeing people having fun on guitar that aren't professional prodigies. It's like you are saying, "Hey, you can have fun, too!"

That V is giving me HEAVY Epiphone/Gibson Goth V vibes. I'm not typically a V fan but seeing them on the show lately has really made me consider them. As if Explorers aren't strange enough to sit in a stand 😅

Thomann describes Roseacer as "thermally treated maple". Just FYI because I had no clue either. Also at the time of this video airing, it shows $169 US for me. Thanks for the video Glenn.

For the price it's good starting point for a PROJECT guitar! I like the 70's style neck joint on it. But yeah if they can't get the ground hooked up properly I'd have serious issues with it. I thought I heard the ground noise when Glen was using his amp sims.

Your price correction was a mistake. You had it right the first time. it's $169. It's important for you and your viewers to know when you go to Thomann "DE" (the german site) and you change currency to US dollars, the price shown is INCLUDING VAT. When you put it in the cart and put the address to US it automatically changes to Thomann "COM" (the same as the one in your "description" ) and takes away the VAT. Best way to avoid mistakes and know the true price for the US is to just always go to Thomann "COM" (the North American site). They separated it into two domains to make it easier for Americans to know the price, but since search results usually gives us a mix of the DE site AND the COM site, it just adds more to the confusion. Rock on Glenn, love the channel! (if you don't believe me just look at the address at 12:14 it thomannmusic "DE" and it's $229. The link in your description is thomannmusic "com" and it's $169)

That sounded way better than last time I heard you play it which was very recent. 👏 I start bangin my head every time I hear Painkiller and Lucretia

YES turn it into a project guitar. Let's see the frets, tuners and a graphite nut like you said. Would love to see how it goes.

really interesting demonstration at the end of what's a normal level of humming vs excessive noise. like many who upgraded to high output pickups I sometimes wonder what should be expected.

I bought a Harley Benton bass this year and had the same issue with the frets, but after playing it a bit I realized it's not actually the edge of the frets but either a thin layer of residual laquer from the neck or maybe glue from the fret work, I played it for a couple of weeks and it was smooth without any intervention, I took it to a luthier and checked the frets and found no issue, he just calibrated it to my taste and all is good, maybe the guitar has something similar going on, Im also very glad you made this video because I am thinking of buying this guitar as a secondary guitar, cheers and FUG

Nice tight pick pattern, Glenn. You are really improving on the rhythm side of things!

I saw the Jazzmaster version of this and immediately thought about swapping in EMG Retroactives and making it a budget Jim Root. Now that I know it doesn't completely suck, I might do it.

I bought a cheap HB telecaster with the exact same grounding issue. Turns out the grounding wire to the bridge wasn't even connected to the bridge and the bridge itself was painted so a connection wouldn't even have been possible. A little scratching and wire stripping later and it was perfect. Very impressed. A little elbow grease was more than worth the cheap price. I can see how somebody that has no experience with working on guitars would be losing their mind.

I really wanted this one to be a winner.... however, I am glad you are giving it your 'honest' review. I used to own a Harley Benton LP style gold top years ago and it was horrendous. Mind you, just a year later, Harley Benton decided to step up their game and actually make quality guitars. That's just my luck, I guess. Maybe one day I will give HB another shot . . . but maybe not.

Awesome review Glenn! Seems like they’re stepping up there game with those guitars.

Thank you so much for your honesty. I wish I could have seen this before I bought it. Mine physically came in good shape and no fret issues. That buzz though!!!!! I'm taking a page out of your book. I'm going to upgrade the pickups no doubt. I have a set of Duncan Blackouts that are still in the box new. Perhaps that will be the way to go for me! And yes tuner upgrade as well! Again, I thank you very much!

Damn, I was really hype for the first two thirds of this video 😅😬 hopefully they bring out a version with EMG’s like how there’s 2 versions of the EX 84

your playing's getting so much better lately!

Rather than paying, you can get a sponge sanding block and do those fret ends yourself. Just take out or cover pick ups before doing it.

Your playing has improved so much over the years. Keep it up!

Here is the thing: I fully expect little issues like spotty fret work and maybe electrical issues on a guitar this dirt cheap. I also have the skills and tools to fix just about everything on an electric guitar. As long as the structure and build of a guitar is fine, I don't mind to fix them up. Nowadays, with graphite rods in the neck and cnc-routers, the general structure of even the cheapest guitars is mostly pretty damn good. I just bought a used Jackson JS32 Dinky with terribly unlevel frets for a pretty great price. After I levelled, crowned and polished the frets, it is now one of my favourite guitars.

They beat the shit out of what we were stuck with in the 80's and 90's for that price. We were fortunate to get a Bullet Squire for that price that would stay in tune for longer than 2 seconds. I think that is just a dyed Maple fingerboard. I upgraded the tuners, pickup and replaced the frets in my HB, Gold frets are sweet!

I think it would be cool to do an upgrade video on that guitar with a cost analysis. - of course I said that before the noise issue. Would be interesting to see the wiring and pots.

This is some of the best guitar sounds I've heard from you, good job!

Yes! I'd like to see what some changes would do to the guitar. Maybe a different bridge, graphtech nut and locking tuners can make ths guitar great. Also changing the electronics might be a good idea. My guess is, that the soldering for the groundwire broke and now the cable is toushing a potentiometer. If that's the case, then the humming issue is fixable.

I've been looking at getting one of these to add to my Flying V collection. Thanks for the review.

Damn! Your playing has vastly improved. Great work, Glenn! Love your fearless gear reviews too. There is something about the truth, isn't there?

Hey Glenn, thanks for this honest review! Love the channel! Could you do some more Solar Guitars reviews? I read a lot about QC issues and this makes me think twice about getting one of them. Thanks in advance and keep the show going for years to come!

"Putting the pieces together" is actually a metaphor I use a lot for learning songs on bass. Usually I'll take any given measure (or set of bars), learn them individually, then see if I can connect them together. It's a ton of work, but it's so satisfying when it pays off. Build up your skill set one step at a time and take pride in every bit of progress you make, and you'll soon be having a blast on your chosen instrument! Keep on rocking \m/

Daaaaaaamn Glenn your lead playing and riffing was on point in this video! You have to tell us what things you have been focusing on while you practice because you are improving at a lightning fast rate!

Glenn, I was about to get this one, of all youtubers, great you did the review! I really hope a little maintenance gets it right!

I like putting blue painter’s tape on the fret ends and sides of the board and over the pickups) take a sanding block to the tape over the fret ends and sand, only the fret ends will come through the tape and you can sand them down a bit without special tools. Not perfect and won’t get you nice round fret ends but does help with sharp edges. Like with all fret work a little goes a long way so don’t sand too much or too hard.

At SkunkWerx USA, we do EXACTLY what you have suggested to every single Harley Benton we import and sell. We have "The Better Benton", pretty sure even they know it, as we have sold more HB guitars on Reverb than Thomann has. See our feedback on Reverb, tons of happy repeat clients, because we do EXACTLY what we say we will: Make a good guitar even BETTER. Each guitar gets a full checkup for the basic functions, we repair broken pots, switches, fix ground issues, etc., (common) then we apply our FretWerx process, which includes a truss rod adjustment, frets rockered and leveled where necessary, ends hand rounded, fretboard edges rounded over, fretboard sanded smooth, neck heel sanded smooth, frets polished to jewel-like shine, fretboard treated, nut slots checked and adjusted if needed, neck seated in pocket, all hardware tightened, new EB Slinky strings 9's or 10's, stretch, tune to 440, stretch, tune to client spec, intonate, tune again, adjust bridge and pickup height to factory specs or better, tune, then play test both clean and high gain. 2.5 to 3 hours per guitar on average, but the results are stunning. We don't really do outside work, but we could help you with the skills you need to get the job done yourself. Offered before, never heard back, but we know you're a busy dude. Take care. Spanky You can check us out here, extra 5% off to anyone who mentions Glen's channel. We will have the new JA Actives up tonight! : reverb.com/shop/skunkwerxguitars

To be frank, there's not a single guitar I ever owned that I haven't opened/modded the moment it got to my home... I don't mind doing maintainance or fixing factory flaws but this could just be me that got used to owning cheap instruments that inevitably come with issues so I guess I don't know any better. I don't consider cheap pickups or grounding issues a deal breaker anymore as it can be remedied fairly easily but there are people that are not used to or don't possess the know-how to do that kind of work on an instrument. I''ll probably order the Jazzmaster HB made alongside this V.

V-shape and X-shape guitars are very prone to get dents and scratches in the lower pointy bits so even if didn't come from factory with a few, they will definitely get some of them within a year of use. Those guitars and basses with the "stealth" black finish look great to use as a platform for upgrades, IMO.

I'm glad I stayed with this until the end. I was ready to place my order.

Excellent review Glenn! I will say.. because you asked...I've bought several HB guitars..most were incredible for the price..one had a ton of noise out of the box..turns out it was a very simple wiring issue..easy fix..if you don't mind having to do some adjusting and have the know how I think HB guitars are absolutely great..If you are a complete beginner it can be majorly hit or miss

Well I WOULD BUY IT either way!! The frets are not an issue for me. I will dress them myself, no biggie. I was already thinking on replacing the pickups with SD Blackouts anyways, which I have in several of my guitars. I DO find your review very helpful though. The rest of the guitar is just fine. For sure the price is for me the biggest selling point. Even after addressing the issue's it's still gonna be a good one. PS: Blackouts set comes complete with its own circuitry including the pots. SO gone will be the noise.

Do you think the sharp frets could have been from lack of humidity during shipping? It happens quite a bit

Thanks for the review. I have one of those in cart at Thomann but was waiting for someone to do the review. Now I know what to expect 👍

I figured out the hum issue. I have the Jazzmaster version of this guitar. The problem is the paint on the bridge (or most likely the tailpiece on the V) is not conductive, so it can't ground. When I took off the bridge and touched the bridge ground wire, the hum stopped. So I sanded the paint off the bottom of the bridge so the wire could make contact with the bridge, and the problem was solved.

To be fair, I've had a $2K guitar arrive with grounding issues because a solder joint came loose during shipping. I wonder if this could be a similar issue?

It sounds great. It looks great.. It makes me miss my Gibson Gothic V. I kinda would like this just to customize it they way i intended to with the Gibson. Edit: i still think with the possible wiring issue, I'd be down to fix it.

Your playing has come a long way! Love it when you play!

Love the content. In the future would you be able to do a schecter omen elite review i got a 7 string version and i love it.

Thanks for the review, I think I'll still get this guitar when it comes out in lefthand. I don't mind shipping it to a luthier, and even if I buy an EMG HET set and throw new tuners and maybe a Tusq bridge on it, I doubt I'll get a V with a non-floating bridge in LH that also doesn't look alike a damn ironing board (looking at you, Jackson JS32L RR) for the money I'll pour into it, at least in Poland where I live. We're talking like $600-$650 in total, including the cost of the guitar itself.

HBs are great project guitars. IMHO, if the frets get sorted, throw in some locking tuners - you'd be able to gig with it without much trouble.

Hey, if the frets are leveled and low action is possible, THAT is what counts. Side-word can be done easily at home, rough edges I mean. Love that thing, but the shape I would definetly go for sth ergonomic.

Glenn alarmed me when he said his subscribers are flatlining. I normally watch YT without logging in, but in order to help out I corrected that and subscribed. I hope I have made a difference in 500,000 people's lives.

That V looks like a cool guitar for a beginner. The noise issue is maybe a bad wiring in the guitar, should be easy to fix. Have you tried a Squier Contemporary Active Jazzmaster, really impressive guitars that sound and look very good! Maybe do a shootout against the Harley Benton JA, as both guitars seem to be very similar. The HB is half the price though.

Great review as usual. Could the noise be coming from the crappy battery? (not sure if you changed it or even used it) In some of my active pickup guitars, they start sounding poor when the battery is about to give up the ghost.

Hey glenn, love your channel and your honest gear reviews. I wanted to ask you if you have tried the Sub-Zero line of guitars? I own a tele baritone from them and i absolutley love it. It would be awesome to hear your thoughts if you have tried any from that brand? I believe they are based out of UK?

I’m learning zeppelin and I’m three days in and am on bar 5 about 40 seconds into the song ! Man this is a lot tougher than I thought to sit there and practice lol😂 That being said , I love how much quicker I am getting when playing and with some pickup upgrades my epiphone 50s standard is just a dream to play .

I think making it a project guitar would be pretty good for us to learn more about upgrades. Guitarists need to catch up to bassists after all.

Glen you're playing is getting so much better man, really starting to sound 100% proper!

I recently bought a Harley Benton TE-90FLT SB at pawn shop here in Cali. I was very surprised at the quality that Thomann put out. Didn't need are to do much set up on it to make it sound in tune. FYI, Harley Benton has a store on Reverb where you can buy a HB guitar in the USA in Maryland. At the same price. However, that V you can make it a project instrument even with that ground problem.

I have the strat model of this guitar st20 hh active sbk. I did need to bring it to a luthier to do some small fretwork i also changed the nut for one made of graphite, locking tuners, elecrics checked and a good jack plug. Now it really plays great and i am pretty happy about it

Keep on going Glen, you re getting better at guitar 🎸

More than likely the noise is caused by the bridge grounding wire not being connected properly, pretty easy fix though.

Definitely looking forward to this pickup video. I may end up shouting at the screen, we'll see? I have an idea for a pickup comparison, I could wind 2 identical yet wildly different pickups to see just how much EQ range pickups have.

This is definitely awesome to see! Totally make a project glen! That's an awesome guitar! As far as cheap guitars and what you said of the manufactures not making enough to care about the finish? Yea, I play esp e2 series for a reason. At least on my horizon 3, yea a bit pricey (gibson territory) the quality, craftsmanship and playability really does prove itself. Oh! Shield the wiring or swap out then ratty actives. Throw some knucks in it.

Anybody can file/sand down the ends of those frets. I was worried about doing mine but picked up a $20 file set and did it myself. On a $169 guitar, it’s a perfect price point to practice that kind of stuff on.

Tbh, i have a 1000 euro LTD EC-407 and they forgot to hook up a ground wire

Got mine today. The edges weren't sharp and were clean. Pretty rounded, too. MY issue was the nut. I'm definitely replacing that. It sounded and felt great, tho.

I love your dedication to playing Priest riffs on every video I've seen ! Cheers!

For me it says $169 and I live in the US. Price fluctuation maybe?

I was seriously considering buying this guitar. The price point was very attractive since I haven't been able to afford a new guitar in years. I don't really care about the paint job at a certain price point, neither do some people at insane price levels, I'm talking about those 'relic' guitars. In short, I decided not to buy the active v for one reason...the neck profile. I'll just stick with my 14 year old Schecter V, with passive EMG's, and the most comfortable neck ever. It's also never needed an adjustment. It came out of the box all those years ago infinitely playable. Edit: The grounding issues wasn't surprising, neither was the 💩fret work. Clearly, dodged a bullet with this one. To be honest, what I really want is a PRS Mark Holcomb SE. Sucks ass to be poor af.

Dude… You killed it on that guitar! Great playing!

I completely agree with your "out of the box experience" reviews. Really, it's not your job to take off covers and start messing with grounds and wiring issues, regardless if it is caused by human errors or bad design/engineering. I don't like to make the time fixing stuff that should have been done right in the first place. Having said that, if I knew how to do the repairs, I'd do it. With noise that bad, it's probably more than just bad pick-ups. I'd rather pay a bit more to get better, so thanks for steering in the proper direction. I still have some time before I may have to buy something, so I look forward to more reviews.

Other than the noise issue (which, admittedly, is hard to overlook) and the frets, i think that guitar is fantastic Heres to hoping the noise was just a one time issue! Also, another thing i noticed about that guitar which im suprised you didnt mention is the fact it has no fretboard dots. Sort of contradicts the whole "begginer market" thing

My name is Virgil, so by your title... shit. 🤣

On side note, the funny thing about Gibson is that, although they get bashed 24-7, they still never seem to have an overstock problem but rather a huge backlog. I know this, working in their shipping and receiving dept. 15 years now we can't get them out fast enough.

How much of the static humming type noise should there be, what is acceptable and what is not? It's always great to see you be honest about things like that. Also, can you review a Squier guitar?

Nice, my brother asked me what guitar to get my 16yo nephew, I had him get the Harley benton explorer. My son is only 5 so I got him the jackson rr minion. Can't wait to see him play it :edit after watching the rest of the video, honestly that doesn't surprise me for a guitar at that price point. I'd expect to have to take a guitar like that to a luthier on day 1 for a complete set up and fret job. (I do this anyway even for $1500 guitars.) I'd still get something like this for a beginner just starting out. 🤘

Hi Glenn, a few HB basses with major issues also ie tuning gears and distorting pickups. Any chance you could look into some budget 4-5 string basses? Thanks for the channel, I’m not a metal fan but I enjoy the production tips, science and testing videos.

Wrap some 320 grit sandpaper around one of those white bar erasers and run it up and down the fret edges at 45 degrees. It'll round off the fret ends and round over the fingerboard edges. It's a 10 minute job that nobody should ever pay to have done! The excessive buzzing is most likely a non existent earth ground and should be a relatively simple fix 👍

I have to wonder if you opened up the electronics cavity if it isn't lacking shielding paint or tape... you're right that it's not our job to fix their problems, but I wonder if it's easily curable because some people wouldn't mind tinkering with it anyway so it might not actually bother them that much...

You crack me the F--K up!!! .62 year ol rocker here still banging wires on all kinds of ol school, an new sleds, AKA guitars.But I love the Buy or Fry it straight vine.Keep em coming,as well as just Rocking ..Good Job;)

I absolutely see where you're coming from. Though most of us here are more experienced players who would be thrilled to use this as a "project" the average beginner would be compelled either a. return it, b. learn how to wire, c. spend on taking it to a luthier, or d. spend on new pickups. All of these could affect the desirability to even continue learning depending on the person. What if 229 was all you had? Or you didn't have access to a soldering iron or wire cutters. It's like getting a new toy then finding out there's no batteries included smh.

thanks for the review, was looking for another cheaper guitar, have a Kramer striker (just started and thought it was a good starter and lefty), love it but going from one tuning to the next takes a bit of time and fiddling so wanted a nice hard tail. Hope they fix the pickup and other issues, looked promising

Man that thing sounds better than expected. I just knew it would be a bit dark, but no. Love Harley Benton, but I’ve shyed away from the really inexpensive stuff. Not anymore. Thanks Glenn 🤘

I never, ever expect anything from Harley Benton to arrive sans issues, so it's always wise to budget for a setup to address fret ends/levelling or whatever else might need to be bought up to spec. Locking tuners, a good setup, perhaps a tonepros bridge...? Definitely worth pimping out as a project guitar!

Great review and great playing

Guitar player for 46 years! I have never purchased a guitar without actually seeing or playing it first…period! Shitty fretting, painting flaws, buzzy p/u’s etc, would be seen/heard in the store and an immediate decision can be made whether to buy or not. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that a guitar with those flaws would not be on display in a store. I get it that it’s an online world, but what you received is unacceptable, and in a normal situation you’d have to go through the hassle of returning it and waiting weeks to be made whole again. Awesome Christmas present, Mom & Dad! Perhaps there’s a reason I can’t find HB guitars in any of the half dozen music stores in my city. Encourage people to shop locally. If shops aren’t carrying these products, ask why and if they are available. Totally avoidable buying situation. Thanks for the heads up!

I’m pretty sure the noise issur is just the grounding! Had the same on my jackson, when I took out the tone pot and while doing so I broke off the ground wire solder! Soldered it back on and the issur was fixed! Would’ve been a big problem if I had no experience in soldering tho!

I was wondering where the "failure" was on this since other than the frets and ding I didn't think the guitar warranted a failure score...untill the sound issue was discovered. Maybe it is a grounding issue or bad solder job on the pots. I definitely want a follow up to see what the issue was and if it required expert fixing or if a DIYer can fix the problem. I was really looking into getting it because it does look cool but I don't do well with guitar electronics lol

Hi Glenn. I have heard about the noisey HBZs but mine (HB Extreme 84 Progrssive) is indeed dead silent. Guess you just got a monday model. Thomann's service is absolutely brilliant. Send it back and they make it work. At least here in Germany. A guitar shipped over then great pond should be double checked.

I have the ST-20HH Active with the same HBZ pickups, I don't have the noise so it's probably a wiring or cable issue not the pickups. I also have the Vintage series V, which is my main guitar now upgraded with Gotoh tuners and Fishman Modern pickups. I might get this one as an evil twin.

Nice. I've got my eye on the blacked out active jazzmaster. Nice review.

I built a guitar recently with the exact same noise issue. Double-checked my wiring and it turns out I had hooked up the output jack backwards--hot was going to ground and vice versa. Rewiring the jack was all it took to remedy the issue. Someone in the factory must have been asleep at the wheel.

Excited for that pickup video, Glen.

When u pay under $200 for a guitar it’s basically not usually finished. The fret thing, action, truss rod and intonation aren’t usually there. I have always taken them straight to a setup tech. For it to be setup so well, if you have to file the fret ends then you still got a killer deal.

I have a Harley Benton Custom Active-II with similar Roswell Active Pickups...Even though the pickups are nothing crazy (or even decent) they are something that can very easily change, and with these cheap instruments the most important thing is the quality of the instrument. Up to this day it is probably one of my best guitars. Great tuners (holds tuning REALLY well), super low action with only one setup like 2 years ago. The guitar costed I think 280 euros and its amazing. Every single guy that is looking for a cheap guitar I HIGHLY advice they get it. Glenn I think it would make for a great guitar to bring to the show. You won`t regret it

I owned a guitar shop for a few years and did the repairs myself. That feedback likely isn't the pickups. That is usually (but not always) a grounding issue or shielding. Check all the solder points, and check they didn't wire the jack backwards. If that's all good, find where the ground wire goes and check if it's actually grounded. I had a few guitars where they forgot to sand a small spot of the black paint from the bridge ground point. A painted bridge won't ground the guitar. All that failing, check shielding and add either shielding paint or tape. And yes I agree you shouldn't need to do any of this. The guitar should arrive properly. But if somebody missed something during assembly, it's a very different conclusion than "the pickups are bad". Maybe see if your luthier can track down your feedback issue.