I've wanted a 24.75" 24-fret guitar for a long time, so I decided to try out the newest SC-Custom III Active. I'm not really a fan of single-cut guitars, but that was one of the only options with these specs out there (at least in this price range), so I thought I'd give it a try. After about 4 months of owning it, I must say it was a great purchase, but the instrument had some minor issues.
The guitar looks absolutely gorgeous, at least if you like that kind of aesthetics. The finish is perfect, no bleeding, no minute flaws, the binding looks great, fretwork is spot-on, so there's that. It was set up pretty well right out of the box, but I've had to do some fine tuning.
That's where I encountered a problem, which may or may not be a big deal for you. The specs say that the nut is made of graphite, and that might be true, however in my guitar the slots in the nut were cut extremely poorly, which resulted in all the violin strings (G, B, E) locking at the nut during bends. You could also hear that "ping" sound while tuning. Also, the nut had pencil marks on it, which shows that someone actually put some time and effort to try and lubricate the nut, however it didn't help much.
The solution is obviously quite simple - get some nut files, 600 grit sandpaper and there you go. You can also replace the nut with a Graph Tech TUSQ if you want to. HOWEVER, a beginner might not have the skills to correct these flaws, or he might be afraid to break something and so on. So, if you don't know what you're doing, you'll probably need to get this thing to a luthier. Or return the guitar and ask for another one, but it wasn't something I wanted to do. After I spent something like 1-1,5 hours polishing the nut slots, now it stays in tune perfectly.
This thing plays like a charm, the neck is super comfortable, the upper fret access is pretty good (considering it's a single-cut guitar), the pickups are nothing special perhaps, but you can always swap them for something different, like EMG's or Duncans. I'm thinking about getting a set of passive humbuckers anyway and replacing the internals entirely, but that's just a matter of personal preference.
Overall, I consider this purchase to be money well spent, but the guitar is not perfect by any means and could be improved further. My suggestions to Harley Benton would be the following:
1. Instead of using in-house nuts you could just get some pre-cut nuts from Graph Tech. An increase in price of something like 12-15 Euro wouldn't be that big of a deal, and it eliminates potential issues with tuning stability (like in the guitar I bought).
2. Get some graphite rods to reinforce the neck. During the heating season, I had to do a truss rod setup twice already. I am of course fully aware, that this is just due to the fact this guitar has a thin, fast-playing neck, but graphite rods could improve neck stability and probably remove the need to meddle with the truss rod entirely (for instance, my Jacksons, even the cheap ones, never needed any adjustments after the initial setup, unless I changed string gauge). It's a very convenient feature, please keep that in mind.
3. Some locking tuners would be nice, although as with the comment above - it's just a matter of convenience.
4. Some different pickup options perhaps? How about a "SC-Custom III Plus" with Blackouts? Or a 24-fret single cut with passives? Just some food for thought.
Overall, right out of the box this thing is pretty impressive, despite some problems. It's also a fantastic platform for any upgrades and I'm pretty sure that after investing like 150-200 EUR, you'll get a road- and studio-ready guitar which besides that plays like a dream.
BUT, considering the price, it's still probably one of the best guitars in the world you can get.
