Harley Benton R-446: Metallic finishes with modern styling at €149!
New range of hard-tail modern guitars from Harley Benton
4,5 / 5,0 | 
The new Harley Benton R-446 electric guitars are aimed at musicians that need a hard-hitting, modern-style instrument without breaking the bank. Available in 5 metallic colours and with a left-handed model available as well, this looks like a great value guitar.
Harley Benton R-446
The Harley Benton R-446 has a poplar body paired with a bolt-on 25.5″ scale length Canadian maple neck. The guitar features a nice bound and fairly flat 15.75′′ radius amaranth fretboard that is factory fitted with 24 jumbo frets and a set of white dot markers. The ABS nut is 43 mm wide and you get a set of closed black chrome tuners.
Bold metallic colours
Metallic
I really like the metallic colour options which include Blue Metallic, Blood Metallic, Plum Metallic, Green Metallic, and Graphite Metallic. They suit the styling of these models and remind me a little of some of the Ernie Ball Music Man colour options for the Luke. It really is nice to see some decent colour choices at such a low price point.
They also have a matching headstock, and this makes them look pretty swish. Currently, at launch, the left-handed version is only available in the Graphite Metallic finish. Knowing Harley Benton, chances are we could see more colours at a later date though, as they tend to expand finish options over time.
Passive Humbuckers and a hard-tail bridge
Ceramic
The two Artec Ceramic cartridges are actually passive, although they look very similar to active pickups with the plain black covers. The two humbuckers are switched with a 5-way selector switch, which also activates a coil tap depending on the chosen position, plus a single volume and tone control.
Switch Position Settings
- Neck humbucker
- Neck Single Coil
- Both humbuckers
- Both humbuckers as single coil
- Bridge Humbucker
Hard-Tail
These are all hard-tail guitars and therefore will suit heavier playing styles and thicker string gauges. Essentially, aiming them at higher gain modern metal tones, etc I’m hoping we might see a version with a trem system in the future. Perhaps a Wilkinson 2-point trem or maybe even a Floyd Rose locking system? For the money, there is a lot of value here and as mentioned earlier, I am impressed by the bold colour options.
There is a very slight upcharge for the left-handed model, but it is very minimal. Overall, I’m very impressed at how affordable these new models are, as they look pretty sweet and have some very good specifications.
More Information
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- Bold metallic colours : Harley Benton
- Passive Humbuckers and a hard-tail bridge: Harley Benton
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