To be clear this review is specifically about my own experience regarding the purchase of two Harley Benton Guitars from Thomann. First Purchase. I purchased a ‘B’ stock SC 450 after seeing it highly praised on several platforms. (B stock advertised as ‘may show some light signs of use’. No mention of defects. I received the guitar (poorly packaged) in about 7/8 days. On first inspection it looked ok (particularly at the price point (£115 incl. Postage) Closer inspection revealed badly finished fret ends and a glaring major problem with the controls – some didn’t work at all and others worked only partially or incorrectly. (I sent them video of the problems) I contacted Thomann who declined to refund me the £70 a guitar tech suggested it might cost to put right, so I returned the guitar – 4 weeks later and I am still awaiting refund. My Conclusions: Neither Harley Benton nor Thomann pay any attention to quality control at this price range. Thomann like to keep your money for as long as possible. Second Purchase. Harley Benton CST-24T. (New £238) Arrived in about 7/8 days. Well packaged. Initial inspection - generally good. Closer inspection – Bridge/Vibrato piece not mounted in correct line. Truss rod not centrally positioned in neck. Fault with binding on one side of nut. Bridge saddles did not allow sufficient lowering of action. Once again I contacted Thomann (with photo’s of problems) they replied saying they would contact their Tech dept. A couple of days later they replied saying that the guitar will still work OK with these defects (???) and offered me a £40 refund. I accepted this as I didn’t want to wait ages for the full refund on this (also still hadn’t received 1st guitar refund at this time) and some of the work I could do myself (re aligning bridge/new saddles) Materials used seemed overall decent quality and sound was good. The finish –except for binding issue - was excellent. My Conclusions. Neither Harley Benton nor Thomann pay much attention to quality control at this price range. Generally. I have played guitars for over 50 years. I have owned (or tried) most makes (I have heard many ‘cheap’ guitars sound/play great and some expensive ones sound/play ‘awful’). I was rather intrigued by the hype around these Harley Bentons and decided to try them ‘First Hand’ My personal experience of this leads me to advise everyone to be very careful when you choose to purchase Harley Benton and to have your purchase checked by a competent person before keeping it. (a job which really should be undertaken before despatch), Taking into account the many good reviews about them, and my experience, it appears to me that HB guitar quality is a ‘hit or miss’ experience. As a footnote I must add that all people I communicated with at Thomann were curteous and apologetic. At time of writing I am still awaiting any refunds.