Having spent a lifetime of playing various good, bad and indifferent S style guitars i always wanted a genuine Fender Custom Shop, so i saved up and ordered one, nearly 18 months later i received the infamous phone call to confirm the spec, and another 6 months later i collected it. Yes it looked superb and once i have lowered the action it played very well, but i never bonded with it. To this day it spends 99% of the time in it's case, yet i play my Harley Benton Fusion most days. Lesson learned the expensive way, it you are not a decal snob, buy a harley Benton and save a lot of hard earned cash.
Thank you for telling that story. I love the story and videos about Reverend guitars. After three years I traveled to a different city to play some. I tried five or six of them. A couple of them were models I wanted. None of them gave me a good vibe. They were perfectly made, but no outstanding tones or feel. It was really disappointing. I bought a $199 Grote hollow body guitar and loved it despite its few cosmetic flaws. I even bought a hard shell case for it because I liked it so much. I'm against HB because Thomann screwed me by not honoring a warranty for a faulty guitar and left me with a $250 paperweight. Luckily it was sold to somebody who believed he could fix it. I lost $75 on the deal. I'll never buy another HB product. The two other guitars I've bought from them were acoustic electrics. Both had bad intonation and finish flaws. One was sold quickly and the other is for sale.
@@MrMoneyHelper Sorry to hear that you had a run of bad samples with HB guitars. I find it alraming that they always have plenty of B grade returns for sale on every model. Thomann are just box shifters with scant regard to customer service or quality. I had to reject 3 samples of their CST24T, they refused to send anymore. My Fusion was bought used, and thankfully was free of the gremlins that they are reknown for.
My first electric guitar was a Les Paul Copy that was challenging to keep in tune. I’m sure part of that was me not knowing anything about guitar setup.But I remember how amazing it felt to buy a guitar in 1979-80 for $80. It took a long time to find and acquire a real LP. But am still amazed at the feel build quality and tone of my Harley Benton CST 24 some 45+ years later. I understand your nostalgia, but what amazing choices we have today.
Like you have said countless time’s before . . . *WHERE WERE THESE GUITARS WHEN WE WERE YOUNGER!?* . . . . Youth is wasted on the young, now it seems to be the guitar also😮
Hi John, I agree with you, I've got a HB Les Paul type guitar, it looks great, plays well and I think sounds really good but I still want one with the badge on the headstock. It's a bit daft really. I don't play any gigs these days and just record a track or two a week that I post on YT and not too many click on.. I'll have the finance for it in the autumn when some pension money comes in. After 50 years of working (at least half that time was in a proper job) everybody deserves a treat.
I have a lemon burst HB SC-450. I upgraded the tuners and the pickups and it plays great. I really like the scooped neck profile on the back that lets you get to the upper frets.
Like i have said before, Harley Bentons would cost way more if Thomann distribted them to dealers. I've had good ones out of the box and guitars that had to be 'made good'.......mostly what is lacking is the human touch. I have spent countless hours turning cheap guitars into 'custom shop level feel' instruments and i love playing every one i've transformed. Selling all the 'expensive' guitars which i just don't bond with, even though they are well made and good products!🎸🤘🏼🎸
Great stuff John! 😎👌 At the end there... You briefly compared the Sattelite to the HB... Is that a vid that's in the works? With the right title and thumbnail, I reckon that would do VERY well! 😀 Super handy you've always got the real deal Gibbo there to compare both against too 😁👍
The Gibson brand aren’t worried about HB (and other such budget guitar providers), I don’t see anyone who is in the market for a real Gibson considering a HB as a viable alternative for all the reasons around prestige etc you’ve mentioned. I think the Gibson company are worried about the impact on Epiphone sales which is why they are now moving the Epiphone prices higher and into a different bracket. Just my opinion of course!
Hi John - i had one of these when your SC 550 arrived here. And i tested both against each other and yours was a little bit better (and of course it was yours ans so would no stay here because i amn so proud of it) But the SC Series from Harley Benton is a big deal anyway! Greetings from Germany Thomas
A mate of mine had a Columbus Les Paul copy in the late 70s, and I had a Zenta Strat copy. We swapped for a week, and neither of use wanted to give the other guitar back at the end of the week. 😄
I have a reasonably large collection of guitars. Some cheap, some not cheap at all. I recently bought 2 HB's, including a single cutaway double humbucker. This guitar isn't a great guitar for the price. No, it's a great guitar, period! The fact that I can buy 10 of these for the price I paid for my Les Paul is mind blowing. My 2 favorite guitars cost me 650€ combined!
I doubt Gibson is worried or even cares. Gibson globally sells some 170,000 high end guitars per year. Their resale value usually maintains itself or increases with age. On the other hand, Harley Benton brand generally targets the budget market & the lower mid-price range. Their resale value is at least cut in half if or less. These two companies don't market to the same guitar buyers and players. For ex: If I'm a working musician, then I'll likely invest in a new or used instrument that's recognizable, that I can evaluate in-store, that's reliable, and high end. If I just want a guitar to play for fun, then that could be anything
I've only got one very expensive guitar, a PRS Santana and yes it's a great guitar. I also have an early Indie version of a PRS. The Indie was 10 times cheaper than the PRS but in feel playability or tone there would surprisingly little be chose between them. Certainly no punter at a gig or listening to one of my half arsed recordings would be able to tell. I can't think of any other item you could buy that ofter has so little functional difference than a similar item costing ove 10 times more. Are we all caught up in Emperors New Clothes thing?
Customize an HB to your liking and the most significant difference from that and a Gibson is resale value. It's wood, wire, and some metal parts. Not rocket science. As good as the most expensive custom shop guitars? Doubtful. But perfectly functional in sound, appearance, and playability.
Another great video John. Thanks! I find interesting how you have a hotter neck pickup than the bridge in your LP Tribute ... is that on purpose? Thank you and keep up the good work!
Yes, of course the Satellite Les Paul (I was also a teenager in the 80s). Not great, but not awful; I scraped together £140 and bought a battered but very playable Ibanez Studio. The quality of cheap guitars is so much better these days. I do have a Columbus Jazz Bass copy which is surprisingly decent. Pretty sure the body's solid wood.
Awesome harmony guitar leads! Yah Gibson price increases are sending players away I expect. Dropping the Tribute line was a mistake I think. The Harley Benton sounds perfectly fine, and would be very much appreciated by my younger self. Recently though I've avoided ordering a Harley Benton because living in Canada I've had poor experiences with returns out of country. Instead I've picked up a few used bargain priced Gibsons locally (try before buy). The current price of the SC Custom is $550CAD and I paid twice that for each Gibson. Better resale on the Gibson and I love the Gibson woods and pickup tones. Also owned budget PRS and Fender so, not strictly a Gibson snob.
I suspect as you mentioned there may well be a bit brand snobery involved. Both guitars sounded good. They might sound great, but at the end of the day does your heart sing when you pick up your guitar and see H B on the headstock as opposed to Gibson. Maybe it's more how you feel about a guitar rather than the sound.
Im not a fan of gibson/epi to begin with, but harley benton will never be the alternate of choice for me. To each his own, but there are just others ill play before any of these. I do agree that some of the budget guitars coming out of the asian factories are pretty phenomenal today.
I would play the HB live no problem.I have two Gibsons and they dont cut it.The badge on the headstock doesnt make you a better player or mean a better guitar but it will make you think youve been had.
I was told that in old days (?) a cheap guitar sounded terrible in a recording studio. So rule of thumb was: going pro = buy pro = going into studio. not going pro = buy cheap = don't bother taking it to recording studio
RR are a tiny sub company that are owed by BMW & make niche products for footballers & oil sheiks, which in a way is what Gibson kind of do as they sell to dentists & lawyers
Kinda sorta a tough one. Basically no, but I can imagine that anyone that has to travel for their music lessons would feel safer with HBs than real Fs and Gs.
With all respect, absolutely not. There is no way that Gibson is worried about the Harley Benton. The fact is that we could do this comparison in any other product. If one is to go and buy a Hyundai Santa Fe or Land Rover, which one will do 55 miles an hour in a 55 mile an hour zone and get you from Point A to Point B? Both of them, of course. The less expensive one will cost less upfront, the maintenance cost are lower, and it probably gets better gas mileage. But is anybody going to bed at night and dreaming of buying a Hyundai Santa Fe? The answer is obviously no. No one is dreaming of getting a Timex over a Rolex. Both will tell time and one of them is a whole lot cheaper. The fact is that Gibson is a luxury brand and people need to stop acting like there is an apples to apples relationship between the two because there is not. No amount of side-by-side comparisons is going to make a Harley Benton as much of a dream to purchase as a Gibson Les Paul.
If you'd watched the video to the end, you would have seen me come to the same conclusion you arrived at. I bought my Gibson because I wanted a "trophy." That is the reason why people buy boutique lifestyle brands. The point you appear to have missed was that, in terms of functionality, there are options which cost a fraction of the price of a Gibson Les Paul. Gibson has built it's marketing on slogans such as "play authentic" and "only a Gibson is good enough." If we take that last claim and test the veracity of it - is a Gibson the only way to get a superbly playable guitar, which delivers the requisite tone, or are there less expensive options which do the same? The answer is that "ONLY a Gibson is good enough" isn't exactly the case. But, people still buy a Gibson (as I did) because they want the trophy. I was taking Gibson at their word & demonstrating it to be a claim built on shaky foundations. I just wish they'd be a little more open about their lifestyle brand outlook. How about ... "Buy a Gibson, you deserve it" or "Only a Gibson can scratch the itch" rather than making spurious, easily falsifiable, claims about them owning the magic formula for the tone & playability you want. Buy a Gibson if you want one (I did), but don't imagine you NEED one (as they claim you do) if your goal is to simply have a classic single cut, set neck, humbucker tone from your guitar. If that is all you need, then buy any one of the cheaper alternatives which deliver the same kind of playable instrument & classic guitar tone.
Gibson will probably never have even heard of Harley Benton let alone be worried by them. This isn't a criticism of Harley Benton who I'm sure make superb guitars but who ever bought a Gibson because they wanted a superbly built guitar (only dissapointed ones I imagine)? The fact is though that there are still enough customers in the world who have to have the 'correct' name on the headstock. I've owned a Chinese Epiphone Les Paul for years and love it but for my sixtieth a few years back I wanted the real thing (much like yourself) and picked up a Les Paul 50s Standard. I still reach for the Epiphone more often because I prefer the slimmer neck and if I could go back in time i'd probably buy an Eastman now instead but I think you can only really come to that conclusion once you have scratched the Gibson itch. And let's face it, people checking their options on a 12k Murphy Lab are hardly going to pause to consider a Harley Benton as an alternative. I started typing this half way through your video and now realise you've ended with the same conclusion as myself but I've typed this now so I'm posting it. Great minds and all that....possibly.
Gibson are owed by investors, it isn't the same company that were making guitars in the 1950's & in a way that isa good thing because those guitars were all over the place with regard to QC but that is also why guitars from them are revered by certain ppl as good (they are practically not as they are still only solid body electrics). So all you are buying when you get a Gibson is the name, they are made by a CNC machine which of course makes them better as the QC is tighter. No solid body electric guitar should be anywhere close to £1k or $1k, they are low tech products tha tare machined by CNC on assembly lines (yes whether PRS, Gibson, Fender or Harley Benton).
@@triax7006 I don't have a problem with the price of new standard Gibsons and Fenders. I paid £2100 for my 2021 Les Paul Standard and even though we have to accept their QC isn't brilliant (mine by the way is flawless), I still think a lot of work goes into those guitars and that's not outrageous. Again with Fender if you shop around you can get an American strat for about £1400 and I think that's OK. Try speccing a partscaster with quality components and you won't save much money on that price. Where it gets ridiculous is when the price of the £2.5k Les Paul Standard has its price hiked to 10k because its gone through the Murphy Lab and had some paint chipped off. But did you know Fender now think their 'working man' instruments (which are far cheaper to produce than Les Pauls) deserve to command far higher prices when they go through their Paint Chipping department? Have a look at Peach Guitars. I'm sure they will still have a few Masterbuilt strats on their Website for £12k because no-one is stupid enough to buy one. Now THAT really is outrageous
TBH, the HB looks way better, and seems to perform just as well. Problem with almost all Gibsons (and many Fenders too) is they are too expensive for what you get.
Nevermind allowing for 40 years of inflation I think you can get a better instrument for the ticket price of the objects we learnt on in the 80s today.
I dont these narratives of Gibson being threatened by budget brands are really true. Gibson (and epi it seems, now) aim for a different economic demographic. A gigging musician would probably leave the Gibson at home and bring a hb or similar. Gibson's are a luxury buy for most of us
In my unhumble opinion, the HB wipes out the Gibson, in sound and especially in visual appeal. Except for the zebra stripe pups. I know, it's a matter of taste, but I don't like the look of open coil pups.
Gibson will have to be worried because their % of buyers is dropping year on year & once ppl of a certain "vintage" are no longer able to buy (due to obvious reasons) or gone well past the need to buy (they already have their Gibson) then it's pretty much game over. This happens with many products & the Gibson of today isn't even the same company as it was when it was making the guitars of the 1950's (which is basically what Gibson has in their marketing). So Gibson will be left to manufacture guitars for dentists & lawyers which will end up on the wall in a office. Gibson is owned by investment groups & it ill be sold on yet again, it is only the name that get's sold though because the skill in making a guitar is all down to CNC machining & QC control - the latter is something Gibson has until recently struggled to compete with. Fender of course have the advantage that their guitars are seen as more practical & "budget" & of course are more easily manufactured, they can always sell at lower price & still have the lawyer & dentist market.
The artists endorsing Gibson are becoming less and less relevant, like Slash and JoBo. If the younger generation have no one to look up to that are playing Gibson, then they should be worried. Not that Harley Benton will be stepping into that place...
In marketing budget, yes. In brand history, yes. In residuals (a result of the above), yes. In build quality, both pretty variable. In sound, barely any difference. In playability, arguably hb comfort carves edge it. In price, not at all.
@@PaulCooksStuffEpiphone won’t be worried about Harley Benton. I love Thomann, Benton’s are beginner instruments, good as well. I have epi inspired by Gibson and Gibson. Epis I have are not far away from Gibson. Harley Benton’s are what they are,cheap, but good beginner instruments.
Having spent a lifetime of playing various good, bad and indifferent S style guitars i always wanted
a genuine Fender Custom Shop, so i saved up and ordered one, nearly 18 months later i received the
infamous phone call to confirm the spec, and another 6 months later i collected it.
Yes it looked superb and once i have lowered the action it played very well, but i never bonded with it.
To this day it spends 99% of the time in it's case, yet i play my Harley Benton Fusion most days.
Lesson learned the expensive way, it you are not a decal snob, buy a harley Benton and save a lot of
hard earned cash.
Thank you for telling that story.
I love the story and videos about Reverend guitars. After three years I traveled to a different city to play some. I tried five or six of them. A couple of them were models I wanted. None of them gave me a good vibe. They were perfectly made, but no outstanding tones or feel. It was really disappointing.
I bought a $199 Grote hollow body guitar and loved it despite its few cosmetic flaws. I even bought a hard shell case for it because I liked it so much.
I'm against HB because Thomann screwed me by not honoring a warranty for a faulty guitar and left me with a $250 paperweight. Luckily it was sold to somebody who believed he could fix it. I lost $75 on the deal. I'll never buy another HB product. The two other guitars I've bought from them were acoustic electrics. Both had bad intonation and finish flaws. One was sold quickly and the other is for sale.
@@MrMoneyHelper Sorry to hear that you had a run of bad samples with HB guitars.
I find it alraming that they always have plenty of B grade returns for sale on every model.
Thomann are just box shifters with scant regard to customer service or quality.
I had to reject 3 samples of their CST24T, they refused to send anymore.
My Fusion was bought used, and thankfully was free of the gremlins that they are reknown for.
My first electric guitar was a Les Paul Copy that was challenging to keep in tune. I’m sure part of that was me not knowing anything about guitar setup.But I remember how amazing it felt to buy a guitar in 1979-80 for $80. It took a long time to find and acquire a real LP. But am still amazed at the feel build quality and tone of my Harley Benton CST 24 some 45+ years later. I understand your nostalgia, but what amazing choices we have today.
Like you have said countless time’s before . . . *WHERE WERE THESE GUITARS WHEN WE WERE YOUNGER!?* . . . . Youth is wasted on the young, now it seems to be the guitar also😮
Gibson will only start worrying when there are no other guitar makers left to sue.
Yeah, you’re right, they should just allow everyone to steal their intellectual property….smh.
Hi John, I agree with you, I've got a HB Les Paul type guitar, it looks great, plays well and I think sounds really good but I still want one with the badge on the headstock. It's a bit daft really. I don't play any gigs these days and just record a track or two a week that I post on YT and not too many click on.. I'll have the finance for it in the autumn when some pension money comes in. After 50 years of working (at least half that time was in a proper job) everybody deserves a treat.
I have a lemon burst HB SC-450. I upgraded the tuners and the pickups and it plays great. I really like the scooped neck profile on the back that lets you get to the upper frets.
A delightful introduction of Wishbone Ash style harmonies towards the end of the piece - both guitars sound great.
Oh yes Andy and Ted🎸🎸
Gibson should worry that nearly all new bands at festivals are playing Fenders.
Which Gibsons appeal to young people?
Not even the Steinbergers?
Like i have said before, Harley Bentons would cost way more if Thomann distribted them to dealers. I've had good ones out of the box and guitars that had to be 'made good'.......mostly what is lacking is the human touch. I have spent countless hours turning cheap guitars into 'custom shop level feel' instruments and i love playing every one i've transformed. Selling all the 'expensive' guitars which i just don't bond with, even though they are well made and good products!🎸🤘🏼🎸
Great stuff John! 😎👌
At the end there... You briefly compared the Sattelite to the HB...
Is that a vid that's in the works? With the right title and thumbnail, I reckon that would do VERY well! 😀
Super handy you've always got the real deal Gibbo there to compare both against too 😁👍
The Gibson brand aren’t worried about HB (and other such budget guitar providers), I don’t see anyone who is in the market for a real Gibson considering a HB as a viable alternative for all the reasons around prestige etc you’ve mentioned. I think the Gibson company are worried about the impact on Epiphone sales which is why they are now moving the Epiphone prices higher and into a different bracket. Just my opinion of course!
And pretty spot on I’d have to say.
Some are more expensive, you still have a large selection in the 200-600 dollar range to choose from though
My Harley Benton SC-550II weighs 3.7 kg. It's a 2021 model with mahogany body. Maybe that's why it's heavier than newer models with meranti body.
Hi John - i had one of these when your SC 550 arrived here. And i tested both against each other and yours was a little bit better (and of course it was yours ans so would no stay here because i amn so proud of it) But the SC Series from Harley Benton is a big deal anyway! Greetings from Germany Thomas
A mate of mine had a Columbus Les Paul copy in the late 70s, and I had a Zenta Strat copy. We swapped for a week, and neither of use wanted to give the other guitar back at the end of the week. 😄
Harley benton are fantastic
..
I feel like getting another 🙈
Do it.
I have a reasonably large collection of guitars. Some cheap, some not cheap at all. I recently bought 2 HB's, including a single cutaway double humbucker. This guitar isn't a great guitar for the price. No, it's a great guitar, period! The fact that I can buy 10 of these for the price I paid for my Les Paul is mind blowing.
My 2 favorite guitars cost me 650€ combined!
I doubt Gibson is worried or even cares. Gibson globally sells some 170,000 high end guitars per year. Their resale value usually maintains itself or increases with age. On the other hand, Harley Benton brand generally targets the budget market & the lower mid-price range. Their resale value is at least cut in half if or less. These two companies don't market to the same guitar buyers and players. For ex: If I'm a working musician, then I'll likely invest in a new or used instrument that's recognizable, that I can evaluate in-store, that's reliable, and high end. If I just want a guitar to play for fun, then that could be anything
I've only got one very expensive guitar, a PRS Santana and yes it's a great guitar. I also have an early Indie version of a PRS. The Indie was 10 times cheaper than the PRS but in feel playability or tone there would surprisingly little be chose between them. Certainly no punter at a gig or listening to one of my half arsed recordings would be able to tell. I can't think of any other item you could buy that ofter has so little functional difference than a similar item costing ove 10 times more. Are we all caught up in Emperors New Clothes thing?
Customize an HB to your liking and the most significant difference from that and a Gibson is resale value. It's wood, wire, and some metal parts. Not rocket science. As good as the most expensive custom shop guitars? Doubtful. But perfectly functional in sound, appearance, and playability.
As you love your Gibson LP John, and you love stainless steel frets, are you considering a re-fret on the LP?
Another great video John. Thanks! I find interesting how you have a hotter neck pickup than the bridge in your LP Tribute ... is that on purpose? Thank you and keep up the good work!
my 550, with tesla p/ups, sounds fab on the neck (esp that jazz tone) but less good on the bridge - but for £180 S/H, it's an astonishing bargain
Yes, of course the Satellite Les Paul (I was also a teenager in the 80s). Not great, but not awful; I scraped together £140 and bought a battered but very playable Ibanez Studio. The quality of cheap guitars is so much better these days.
I do have a Columbus Jazz Bass copy which is surprisingly decent. Pretty sure the body's solid wood.
Awesome harmony guitar leads! Yah Gibson price increases are sending players away I expect. Dropping the Tribute line was a mistake I think. The Harley Benton sounds perfectly fine, and would be very much appreciated by my younger self. Recently though I've avoided ordering a Harley Benton because living in Canada I've had poor experiences with returns out of country. Instead I've picked up a few used bargain priced Gibsons locally (try before buy). The current price of the SC Custom is $550CAD and I paid twice that for each Gibson. Better resale on the Gibson and I love the Gibson woods and pickup tones. Also owned budget PRS and Fender so, not strictly a Gibson snob.
I suspect as you mentioned there may well be a bit brand snobery involved. Both guitars sounded good. They might sound great, but at the end of the day does your heart sing when you pick up your guitar and see H B on the headstock as opposed to Gibson. Maybe it's more how you feel about a guitar rather than the sound.
Im not a fan of gibson/epi to begin with, but harley benton will never be the alternate of choice for me. To each his own, but there are just others ill play before any of these. I do agree that some of the budget guitars coming out of the asian factories are pretty phenomenal today.
I would play the HB live no problem.I have two Gibsons and they dont cut it.The badge on the headstock doesnt make you a better player or mean a better guitar but it will make you think youve been had.
I was told that in old days (?) a cheap guitar sounded terrible in a recording studio.
So rule of thumb was: going pro = buy pro = going into studio. not going pro = buy cheap = don't bother taking it to recording studio
That would be down to the pickups tho, pickups are a low tech products & swapping them out is ultra cheap.
You should do a Video comparison of Harley Benton vs Satellite
They sound REALLY similar to be fair. I prefer the look of the Gibson but I'd probably still go for the HB due to the fantastic price 😀
G. worried? No more than Rolls Royce worries about Hyundai....
RR are a tiny sub company that are owed by BMW & make niche products for footballers & oil sheiks, which in a way is what Gibson kind of do as they sell to dentists & lawyers
As a bedroom player, I'm happy with my LP copy. If I could afford at the real thing, I would probably buy one.
Kinda sorta a tough one. Basically no, but I can imagine that anyone that has to travel for their music lessons would feel safer with HBs than real Fs and Gs.
The HB sounds great, but the Gibbo sounds like a Les Paul.
Does the Harley stay in tune ?
Solid as a rock
With all respect, absolutely not. There is no way that Gibson is worried about the Harley Benton. The fact is that we could do this comparison in any other product. If one is to go and buy a Hyundai Santa Fe or Land Rover, which one will do 55 miles an hour in a 55 mile an hour zone and get you from Point A to Point B? Both of them, of course. The less expensive one will cost less upfront, the maintenance cost are lower, and it probably gets better gas mileage. But is anybody going to bed at night and dreaming of buying a Hyundai Santa Fe? The answer is obviously no. No one is dreaming of getting a Timex over a Rolex. Both will tell time and one of them is a whole lot cheaper.
The fact is that Gibson is a luxury brand and people need to stop acting like there is an apples to apples relationship between the two because there is not. No amount of side-by-side comparisons is going to make a Harley Benton as much of a dream to purchase as a Gibson Les Paul.
If you'd watched the video to the end, you would have seen me come to the same conclusion you arrived at. I bought my Gibson because I wanted a "trophy." That is the reason why people buy boutique lifestyle brands. The point you appear to have missed was that, in terms of functionality, there are options which cost a fraction of the price of a Gibson Les Paul. Gibson has built it's marketing on slogans such as "play authentic" and "only a Gibson is good enough." If we take that last claim and test the veracity of it - is a Gibson the only way to get a superbly playable guitar, which delivers the requisite tone, or are there less expensive options which do the same? The answer is that "ONLY a Gibson is good enough" isn't exactly the case. But, people still buy a Gibson (as I did) because they want the trophy. I was taking Gibson at their word & demonstrating it to be a claim built on shaky foundations. I just wish they'd be a little more open about their lifestyle brand outlook. How about ... "Buy a Gibson, you deserve it" or "Only a Gibson can scratch the itch" rather than making spurious, easily falsifiable, claims about them owning the magic formula for the tone & playability you want. Buy a Gibson if you want one (I did), but don't imagine you NEED one (as they claim you do) if your goal is to simply have a classic single cut, set neck, humbucker tone from your guitar. If that is all you need, then buy any one of the cheaper alternatives which deliver the same kind of playable instrument & classic guitar tone.
Gibson will probably never have even heard of Harley Benton let alone be worried by them. This isn't a criticism of Harley Benton who I'm sure make superb guitars but who ever bought a Gibson because they wanted a superbly built guitar (only dissapointed ones I imagine)? The fact is though that there are still enough customers in the world who have to have the 'correct' name on the headstock. I've owned a Chinese Epiphone Les Paul for years and love it but for my sixtieth a few years back I wanted the real thing (much like yourself) and picked up a Les Paul 50s Standard. I still reach for the Epiphone more often because I prefer the slimmer neck and if I could go back in time i'd probably buy an Eastman now instead but I think you can only really come to that conclusion once you have scratched the Gibson itch. And let's face it, people checking their options on a 12k Murphy Lab are hardly going to pause to consider a Harley Benton as an alternative. I started typing this half way through your video and now realise you've ended with the same conclusion as myself but I've typed this now so I'm posting it. Great minds and all that....possibly.
Gibson are owed by investors, it isn't the same company that were making guitars in the 1950's & in a way that isa good thing because those guitars were all over the place with regard to QC but that is also why guitars from them are revered by certain ppl as good (they are practically not as they are still only solid body electrics). So all you are buying when you get a Gibson is the name, they are made by a CNC machine which of course makes them better as the QC is tighter. No solid body electric guitar should be anywhere close to £1k or $1k, they are low tech products tha tare machined by CNC on assembly lines (yes whether PRS, Gibson, Fender or Harley Benton).
@@triax7006 I don't have a problem with the price of new standard Gibsons and Fenders. I paid £2100 for my 2021 Les Paul Standard and even though we have to accept their QC isn't brilliant (mine by the way is flawless), I still think a lot of work goes into those guitars and that's not outrageous. Again with Fender if you shop around you can get an American strat for about £1400 and I think that's OK. Try speccing a partscaster with quality components and you won't save much money on that price. Where it gets ridiculous is when the price of the £2.5k Les Paul Standard has its price hiked to 10k because its gone through the Murphy Lab and had some paint chipped off. But did you know Fender now think their 'working man' instruments (which are far cheaper to produce than Les Pauls) deserve to command far higher prices when they go through their Paint Chipping department? Have a look at Peach Guitars. I'm sure they will still have a few Masterbuilt strats on their Website for £12k because no-one is stupid enough to buy one. Now THAT really is outrageous
TBH, the HB looks way better, and seems to perform just as well. Problem with almost all Gibsons (and many Fenders too) is they are too expensive for what you get.
Nevermind allowing for 40 years of inflation I think you can get a better instrument for the ticket price of the objects we learnt on in the 80s today.
I dont these narratives of Gibson being threatened by budget brands are really true. Gibson (and epi it seems, now) aim for a different economic demographic. A gigging musician would probably leave the Gibson at home and bring a hb or similar. Gibson's are a luxury buy for most of us
The Gibson has a sweeter personality. I do not know how else to describe what I'm hearing.
Long live electric guitars.
No. lol 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 now that’s funny.
Ooh they sound very different from each other
That HB looks so much better than that Tribute.
In my unhumble opinion, the HB wipes out the Gibson, in sound and especially in visual appeal. Except for the zebra stripe pups. I know, it's a matter of taste, but I don't like the look of open coil pups.
Gibson will have to be worried because their % of buyers is dropping year on year & once ppl of a certain "vintage" are no longer able to buy (due to obvious reasons) or gone well past the need to buy (they already have their Gibson) then it's pretty much game over. This happens with many products & the Gibson of today isn't even the same company as it was when it was making the guitars of the 1950's (which is basically what Gibson has in their marketing). So Gibson will be left to manufacture guitars for dentists & lawyers which will end up on the wall in a office. Gibson is owned by investment groups & it ill be sold on yet again, it is only the name that get's sold though because the skill in making a guitar is all down to CNC machining & QC control - the latter is something Gibson has until recently struggled to compete with. Fender of course have the advantage that their guitars are seen as more practical & "budget" & of course are more easily manufactured, they can always sell at lower price & still have the lawyer & dentist market.
The artists endorsing Gibson are becoming less and less relevant, like Slash and JoBo. If the younger generation have no one to look up to that are playing Gibson, then they should be worried. Not that Harley Benton will be stepping into that place...
Gibson roasts HB.
In marketing budget, yes.
In brand history, yes.
In residuals (a result of the above), yes.
In build quality, both pretty variable.
In sound, barely any difference.
In playability, arguably hb comfort carves edge it.
In price, not at all.
@@PaulCooksStuffEpiphone won’t be worried about Harley Benton.
I love Thomann, Benton’s are beginner instruments, good as well. I have epi inspired by Gibson and Gibson. Epis I have are not far away from Gibson.
Harley Benton’s are what they are,cheap, but good beginner instruments.
@@aliengrey6052 lol, HB are made in the same factories as well regarded established brands. It's all marketing and markup.
@@PaulCooksStuff totally wrong.
@@PaulCooksStuff epiphones are made in the Epiphone factory closely monitored by Gibson.