I had a 'well known brand' 7-string for over 4 times the price of this. For a decade I played it. It was robust as a tree trunk, beautiful, but it didn't play or sound particularly amazing. Now I buy this: no exaggeration, it plays better (and sounds WAY better). It's light as a Diet Coke, it's easy on the touch and round on the edges, and lower the action as you like it still won't buzz and riff away like a mad lad. You can push the guitar with death metal tremolos, black metal strumming or thrashy down strokes, picking hard as hell, and the guitar loves it and it SOUNDS great on recordings with a nice hi-gain amp sim - I just simply don't know how they got it sounding so good for the price. I bought pickups for easily over the price of this whole guitar. So playing wise it's flexible like that around the fretboard and it begs you to assault it without remorse. The attack sounds good on it, and the leads with a bit of delay sound surprisingly adequate. Just the bends don't 'feel' smooth; it's like the neck lacks that velvety action from high end guitars; but they still sound good.
It's very pretty: Harley Benton got the symmetry and proportions right, and the mat finish makes it a pleasure to eye up and down like a sexy but elegant lady every now and then. The knobs are fine.
There's no other reason not to buy this than if it breaks too soon if you're looking for a 7-string (that's active !) for metal. And it does well with cleans too which is, again, surprising.
