Harley Benton SC Junior | The best budget Les Paul Junior money can buy in 2021? | Review & Demo

This is the Harley Benton SC Junior! I got this guitar because I’ve recently fallen for P90 pickups in a big way (my 2020 Epiphone SG Worn and my Harley Benton DC Junior FAT both have them) and it seems like the Les Paul Junior style is the ultimate single P90 axe.

This particular guitar comes in a rather beautiful black finish with tortoiseshell pickguard… very reminiscent of the Gibson Les Paul Junior signature model Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong had a few years ago, in fact! Beyond the looks, though, you’ve got the single Roswell P90 pickup and not much else – it’s a pure rock and roll guitar. But… would I miss having a neck pickup? Can a P90 do metal? And would the Harley Benton’s super cheap price mean it would suffer in the quality and playability stakes? Watch on to find out!

Get the Harley Benton SC Junior here: https://bit.ly/HBSCJuniorRWM


Here’s the timestamps for the different parts of the video:

00:00 Hello!
00:39 Harley Benton SC Junior specs and features
02:54 Today’s rig

Clean Channel on the amp
03:16 Poppy barre chords
03:31 Classic pop rock chords and tone control test
04:19 Droning indie pop chords
04:37 Southern rock rhythm arpeggios
04:55 Country ballad picking
05:09 Country picked riff
05:17 Soul pop riff with extra reverb
05:38 Bluesey southern rock progression

With the Greer Lightspeed Overdrive
06:03 Indie chord arpeggios
06:23 Southern rock rhythm arpeggios
06:35 Southern rock lead melody
06:51 Classic rock sounds in the style of AC/DC
08:24 Hendrix inspired classic rock
08:39 Strokes inspired indie rock riff
09:19 Indie pop progression
09:52 Indie rock chordal riff
10:23 Indie picked arpeggios
10:54 Indie alt rock octaves riff
11:17 Indie rock chunky rhythm riff
11:40 Indie barre chord rhythm progression
12:06 Volume control test
12:32 Upbeat pop punk riff
12:46 Punk rock riff
13:00 Green Day inspired pop punk riffs
13:39 Alt rock riff
14:06 Hard rock sounds
14:39 Glam rock riff
14:54 Foo Fighters inspired rock riff
15:19 Progressive rock riff (Drop D tuning)

With the Revv G3 distortion pedal and Drop D Tuning
15:36 Metal chugging riff
15:55 Hardcore punk rhythm sounds
16:05 Mastodon inspired metal riff
16:16 Progressive rock power chords
16:39 Ascending lead riff
16:52 Hardcore punk riff

17:06 My thoughts on the Harley Benton SC Junior – just one pickup?
18:03 Build quality
18:32 The Roswell P90 pickup
19:00 One weird quality control issue
20:08 Final conclusion and what do you think?


My setup was as follows: I ran the SC Junior through a Greer Lightspeed overdrive pedal and a Revv G3 distortion pedal into 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:

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H&K Black Spirit 200 head: http://bit.ly/rwmBS200
Greer Lightspeed: http://bit.ly/rwmLightspeed
Revv G3: https://bit.ly/rwmRevvG3
Focusrite 4i4 (this is the newer equivalent of my 2i4, which they don’t make any more!): http://bit.ly/rwmFR4i4
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Enjoy!


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Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Get Tough - TrackTribe.

#HarleyBenton #LesPaulJunior #SCJunior #BudgetGuitar #RichWordsMusic