The Harley Benton SC-Custom III was introduced in July 2024 alongside the brand's other SC-Custom IIIs. This variation is inspired by the famous 1954 Gibson Black Beauty equipped with P90 pickups. Let's see if this Les Paul-style guitar measures up to its big sister, the SC-Custom III.
Inspired by the 1954 Gibson Black Beauty
Harley Benton updated its SC-Custom line to version III in July 2024. Many variations in pickup configurations are now available, including traditional passive humbuckers, active humbuckers optimized for saturated sounds, and P90 pickups. Whatever the style, there’s sure to be an SC-Custom III to match.
The SC-Custom III P90 thus takes on the features of the famous 1954 Les Paul Custom Black Beauty by Gibson, while maintaining an infinitely lower price point. The guitar features a Meranti body without a maple top. The body format is comparable to that of the EC from the Japanese brand LTD. The body shape is Les-Paul-like, but with more modern contours. The handle is glued to the body and is also made of Meranti. The neck is sculpted to the brand’s comfortable “Modern C” profile.
The fingerboard is made of rosewood and has a 13.77-inch radius, a little flatter than the Gibson fingerboard. It features Pearloid “crown” markers and 22 stainless-steel Jumbo BlackSmith midrange frets over which the 24.72-inch scale length is extended (very slightly shorter than the Gibson’s 24.75-inch scale length). The graphite nut measures 42mm wide.
The gold-plated hardware is also Gibson-like. It includes a WSC Tune-o-Matic bridge with a matching tailpiece and Harley Benton tuners. These are copies of Grover Rotomatic tuners, which have proven to be very effective. The table is surrounded by seven-ply purfling and the neck by single-ply purfling. Finally, the SC-Custom III P90 is equipped, as its name suggests, with two P90 pickups. These are Tesla TM P90B and TM P90N models equipped with AlNiCo 5 magnets and controlled here by an overall tone knob, a volume knob per pickup and a three-position selector switch. The gold-plated potentiometer knobs are reminiscent of those found on LTD’s ECs.
The entire instrument is covered in high-gloss black varnish. The varnish is well applied, and there are no flaws in the finish. The guitar arrived in a cardboard box, protected by a polystyrene veil and a plastic envelope. It comes with handy Strap Locks. Only the graphite saddle needs to be reworked, as the string grooves are not inclined enough for the strings to rest completely on it. It will need to be reworked with the correct-sized files or brought to a luthier or guitar repair person.
A hybrid guitar that blends modern design and vintage sounds
With the SC-Custom III P90, Harley Benton has created a hybrid guitar with both vintage and modern attributes. Its electronic configuration tips it towards the vintage side of the force, while its overall design is quite modern. The guitar features various comfort chamfers (beveled edges) including a stomach chamfer on the back and chamfer behind the cutaway. The neck has a modern profile, as the name suggests. The result is a vintage sound with modern guitar-playing comfort. The radius of the fingerboard, slightly flatter than on a Gibson, is also fits the hybrid scheme. Having completed the inspection of the SC-Custom III P90, I began the test.
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P-90 tones and SC-Custom III playing comfort
As usual, I first played the guitar unplugged. The sound volume was correct and the guitar resonated a lot. I could feel the vibrations propagating through the body and neck, which is the sign of good lutherie. The quality of the fretwork is excellent. While the neck edges aren’t particularly rounded (the “Modern C” profile is reminiscent of that used by LTD), the fret edges are carefully filed down and no protruding edges disturb the playing.
For clean sounds, the Tesla P90s are excellent. They generate a very balanced, musical tone with enough bass and treble, but not too much. The neck pickup, measured at 7.3 kOhms during the test, delivers a smooth, warm and accurate tone. Every note can be heard at equal volume, even when playing complex chords. The middle position is equally excellent and precise.
The character of each pickup is clearly heard, and the resulting sound is delicate, always musical. Whether strumming or flat-picking, the result is beautiful attack and pleasant sustain. The bridge pickup alone is equally effective on clean sound. It’s more aggressive, but always well-balanced, with bass that’s present but not overpowering and treble that’s crystalline without being aggressive. I measured it at 9.2 kOhms.
I activated my Analog Man King of Tone overdrive pedal to help create a vintage crunch sound. In this register, the neck pickup excelled once again, delivering a very mellow yet frighteningly detailed tone. The dynamic range of this pickup is impressive: you can go from a very clear sound when you attack gently to a big crunch sound when you apply more pressure with your right hand (or left, for our left-handed friends). The guitar responds as you’d expect to the slightest touch.
The crunchiness also sounded great in the middle pickup position. It’s got that lilting quality with a vintage grain. I’ll pass over the bridge pickup, which still delivers a hyper-balanced timbre. Playing a few Oasis riffs, I understood why Noel Gallagher chose to equip his latest signature model with P90 pickups: they totally match the Brit-Pop spirit and sound.
I ended the test by activating my MXR 5150 Overdrive to enter the territory of big, saturated sounds. I set the pedal with the saturation level quite low at first, so as to find sounds close to those of Green Day guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong. In this register, Tesla’s P90s held their own. They handled heavy saturation well and perfectly transcribed the notes played. Their sound is more precise and balanced than humbuckers.
The intermediate position is not uninteresting with a big sound, and can be used to double or triple a part in the studio, bringing a different sonic texture. The neck pickup behaves well and still generates that very attractive fullness in the bass. I increased the saturation level to achieve a metal sound. This is obviously not the favorite playground of the P90s, which become a little less precise.
- Crunch All Pickups03:04
- Crunch PopPunk01:57
- Lead All Pickups03:28
Throughout the test, I was struck by the excellent playing comfort of this SC-Custom III P90. The guitar isn’t too heavy (4kg, 8.8 lbs.) and the neck profile is accommodating, whatever the size of your hands. The various chamfers are well designed and offer more comfort than on a traditional Les Paul.
