The Harley Benton R-458FFB Roasted MultiScale guitar is my first foray into extended range guitars.
It’s been an interesting few months with the instrument and these are my thoughts on it which will hopefully help you with your purchasing decision.
Bach on 8 String Guitar
My primary reason for buying an 8 string guitar was that I was playing Bach chorales on a 6 string guitar but sometimes moving the bass up an octave due to impossible distances between soprano and bass.
Being a lefty (yes, I own the Harley Benton R-458 FFB LH model) I was actually searching for a cheap 7 string electric guitar but I could only find more expensive models (even second-hand, the joys of being a southpaw!).
The cheapest 8 string on Thomann was the Harley Benton R-458 MN but I decided not to go the cheapest option and got the R-458 FFB 8 string guitar instead. Total cost including vat and shipping was around €259.
This was the first production run of the model (as far as I know) and the instrument was set to be in stock in 12 weeks time. After 3 weeks, with 9 weeks left until the guitar was in stock, there must have been a delay in the manufacturing process as the waiting time was pushed back to 12 weeks again. Lucky I’m a patient man!
Since I primarily play Bach chorales on the 8 string guitar I have tuned the 7th string to C and the 8th string to G.
In Chorale #1, in G major, the first chord in the top three voices is a D shape G chord at the 7th fret. By tuning the 7th string to C I can simply barre the 7th fret in order to fret to low G note in the bass at the 7th fret on the 7th string.
Also by tuning the 7th string to C the first string becomes the major third (C-E) which makes playing much easier. Similarly by tuning the 8th string to G the first string becomes the 6th (G-E) while the 2nd string becomes the 3rd (G-B). This is very handy for baroque music as you often find parallel 3rds and 6ths or alternating 3rds and 6ths. Fun stuff to dabble with.
I’m not sure if it makes sense to tune the lower strings up a semitone on a multiscale guitar but it seems to work fine.
Of course I also wanted to play jazz standards and write my own compositions on the 8 string guitar.
Shipping from Thomann
Shipping from Thomann was good as always despite the lengthy wait as described above.
The guitar was packed inside a box which was packed inside a larger box. Crumbled up brown paper was inserted to cushion against impact.
Shipping from Thomann is not infallible as when I received Trippy – The Guitar there was a ding on the back of the body (probably put there before packaging).
Harley Benton R-458FFB Roasted MultiScale Specifications
The Nut
Foremost, the Harley Benton R-458FFB Roasted MultiScale guitar is a metal guitar which means that it’s a machine build for speed. Specifically this means that the Nubone nut is 54mm wide which is slightly wider than the nut of a classical guitar (my Hanika PF54’s nut is 52mm wide).
Being 6’3 with big hands this makes the R-458 FFB a little difficult guitar to play for me especially when fingering 4 note chords as found in the Bach chorales or jazz standards.
The Strings
Being a solo guitar player/performer I typically use heavier strings such as a set of .11’s.
The R-458FFB comes with set of 0.9mm – .65mm strings which feel very thin in my hands and probably also makes playing the guitar a little awkward. I did buy a set of .10’s and will change them when the .09’s wear out.
The Body
The body is poplar which is a great alternative for alder with many of the same characteristics. It’s a cheaper wood as one would expect but doesn’t affect the tone of the guitar negatively.
The colour according to Thomann is flip flop high gloss chameleon blue but it looks more aqua green to me with the nice subtle purple tinge when the light shines just so on the body. It’s an attractive looking guitar in my opinion and the first thing that my wife and some of her friends commented on was that they liked the colour. Maybe this guitar is a chick-magnet?
The Pickups, Switch, Knobs and Bridge
The pickups are 2 Hi-Gain pickups which, if you are used to playing more expensive pickups, don’t sound great. However if you bear in mind that this is an entry level guitar then the pickups make total sense and they don’t sound so bad that they are not playable. For the price, like most items under the Harley Benton label, they are pretty good.
At this price range it is not worth putting in better pickups you would be better off buying a more expensive guitar.
The 3 way switch is pretty standard. Neck pickup is warmer, bridge pickup is brighter and you can select both pickups as well.
There is one volume knob and one tone knob with smooth sound rotation all the way.
The jack plate and socket are nice and sturdy and should not come loose like the telecaster sockets often do.
The bridge is of sturdy construction with a hard plastic body with metal saddle pieces. Strings are inserted from the back of the body.
The Neck
As one would expect on a metal guitar, the roasted maple bolt-on neck is sleek and fast. Because I have big hands and am used to playing a classical guitar the extra neck width did not bother me as much as it does other people (from reading online).
The fingerboard is also roasted maple with offset fret markers and looks very nice.
There are 24 fanned medium jumbo frets which were perfect upon receiving the guitar. No fret wire was sticking out anywhere. The 8th fret is the parallel fret and I have found no dead spots anywhere on the neck.
I really like the fact that the neck isn’t coated in heavy poly that usually gives a plasticy finish a la Fender. However the downside is that the neck will mark after playing it for a while. Call it natural relicing!
The multiscale neck has a scale of 692 – 650mm and a fingerboard radius of 350mm.
The neck can be adjusted with the dual action truss rod and the machine heads are Deluxe die-cast heads which stay in tune pretty good.
Everything Else
With the extra tonal range you might run into light EQ problems where the bass booms or the treble is too bright. Given that there is only one tone knob it would be good to use this guitar with an amp that features a range of EQ settings or perhaps even use it with an EQ pedal (I did not try this). This guitar sounds good through my Vox AC15C1 tube amp without needing heavy EQ (for the sound that I like).
Also, upon receiving the guitar the set up was near perfect. This doesn’t happen often especially from Thomann but my guitar was instantly playable straight out of the box.
My Thoughts on the Harley Benton R-458FFB Roasted MultiScale Guitar
It’s amazing how much of a difference the extra two strings make. At first I was totally lost on the guitar as the extra 2 strings really mess up your string perception at the start. You do get used to it after a while though.
Actually, it’s funny. I often start my practise session with playing Bach chorales for 5-10 minutes on the 8 string after which I pick up the 6 string guitar. The 6 string seems so much easier to play after playing the 8 string and it always amazes me.
Would I Buy the Harley Benton R-458 FFB Guitar Again?
Buying the Harley Benton R-458 FFB fanned fret guitar has been an educational experience as you can read so much online but you really have to experience things by just jumping in the deep end and trying them out.
For my style of playing, Bach chorales, jazz standards and such, the HB R-458 FFB is not the ideal guitar. The key thing going forward or me is nut width. I may try the HB R-457 FFB (same guitar but the 7 string model) after correspondence with Thomann.
I recently came across someone on Facebook that was playing great fingerstyle jazz on an 8 string guitar. He claims that his nut was 64mm which would suit me a lot better.
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