Harley Benton P90 guitar shootout 2! SC-450 P90 Gold Top vs SC Junior | Who needs a neck pickup?!

Подробнее о видео

It’s guitar shootout time again: today, the Harley Benton SC-450 P90 Classic Series gold top (with a few mods) versus my stock SC Junior in black!

Both of these are singlecut guitars with P90s, with the main obvious differences being a few of the build specs and the fact that the SC Junior only has a bridge pickup. So the key question is: will I miss the neck pickup? Let’s find out!

In this video, I play the two guitars in a variety of styles to compare how they sound, feel and perform. I play each riff on both guitars, and sometimes I’ll play the riff on the SC-450 using the neck or ‘middle’ pickup, and then replicate it on the SC Junior. Which do you prefer?

This is the Harley Benton SC-450 gold top:

And this is the Harley Benton SC Junior:


Here are the links to the different playing samples and talking parts:

00:00 Hello!
00:35 Intro and prices
01:15 Main differences between the guitars
01:50 Specs and features
02:37 The mods on the SC-450
03:02 Today’s rig

Clean Channel
03:31 Clean chord reference tones
04:00 Atmospheric pop chords
04:58 Singer songwriter cowboy chords (all pickup selections and SC Junior tone pot test)
06:23 Indie pop barre chords
07:12 Strummed droning indie chords
07:54 Indie pop chords
08:35 Lead chords/melody with extra reverb
09:02 Bluesey southern rock ballad riff

Clean Channel with Greer Lightspeed Overdrive
09:52 Indie picked arpeggios
10:29 Southern rock picked arpeggios
11:03 Hendrix-inspired classic rock riff

Crunch Channel
11:54 AC/DC inspired classic rock riff
12:25 Airbourne inspired classic rock riff
12:51 Another Airbourne inspired classic rock riff
13:14 Indie rock rhythm riff
13:47 Indie barre chords rhythm riff

Lead Channel
14:39 Hard rock riff (middle pickup test on SC-450)
15:30 Glam rock riff
15:59 Alt-rock riff
16:52 Foo Fighters inspired rock riff
17:24 Pop punk riff
17:50 Punk rock riff
18:19 Green Day inspired pop punk riff
18:46 Pop punk melodic droning lead
19:17 Progressive rock riff (Drop D tuning)
19:46 Hard rock chugging power chords (Drop D tuning)

Clean Channel with Revv G3 distortion pedal (Drop D tuning)
20:33 Chugging hardcore punk riff
21:06 Metalcore riff
21:27 Mastodon inspired modern metal riff
21:47 Hardcore punk riff
22:17 Hardcore rhythm chugging riff
22:37 Ascending lead riff

23:03 My thoughts – and your opinions wanted!
23:57 Value, prices and a setup
24:49 Build quality and that SC Junior QC issue
25:51 Playability and sounds
29:52 Which guitar do I prefer, and why?
30:44 Thanks and goodbye


Here’s my full review and demo of the Harley Benton SC-450 gold top:

And my full review and demo of the Harley Benton SC Junior:



I ran the guitars through a Greer Lightspeed overdrive pedal, a Revv G3 distortion pedal and my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head. That went from the Red Box DI straight into my Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, which went into Logic Pro X. That's it. No post-processing on the sounds was done.

Here’s some links to those bits of gear:

-----
H&K Black Spirit 200 head:
Greer Lightspeed:
Revv G3:
Focusrite 4i4 (this is the newer equivalent of my 2i4, which they don’t make any more!):
-----

Enjoy!


-----
Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.

#HarleyBenton #SC450 #SCJunior #HarleyBentonSC450 #LesPaulJunior #RichWordsMusic


*Note: certain links in the description are affiliate links. If you click said links and purchase anything as a result, I will receive a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it does help to support the channel. So, if you do that, thank you very much!*