This is the Harley Benton MR-Classic MBL in Metallic Blue Gloss!

Clearly based on the iconic cult Mosrite guitar brand, the MR-Classic is a quirky offset axe with twin P90s that promises to be loads of fun – and, for the €249 price, it boasts some pretty decent specs too.

Get the MR-Classic MBL here: https://thmn.to/thoprod/513250?offid=...

The MR-Classic has a basswood body and a maple neck with a roasted jatoba fingerboard. The neck feels lovely – it’s a comfy, slim-to-medium C-shape profile and has a smooth, satin finish. The scale length is 25.5”, and the fingerboard radius is 12”. The P90 pickups are by Artec, and the rest of the hardware is generic, no-name stuff – apart from the Wilkinson tuners. Then there’s that sparkly blue finish which also extends to the headstock, and is just lovely!

Now, most people will look at the MR-Classic and assume that this is a guitar you’ll be playing surf or punk rock with. And in a way, they’re right: most famous Mosrite players were indeed confined to those genres. You had the Ventures playing surf rock on them back in the day, and Johnny Ramone – of punk legends Ramones – was the other archetypal Mosrite player. Other guitarists, like Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, have also used them.

What I wanted to do with this video is see if the MR-Classic can do more than that! So I put it through its paces in as many different genres and styles as I can here. There is surf, yes, and some punk too, but I also try the MR-Classic at pop, funk, country, indie, rock, and even some down-tuned metal. Watch on to see how it copes!

Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:

00:00 Hello!
00:13 Introduction to the MR-Classic
01:41 Specs and info
03:15 Today’s rig and plan

Clean Sounds
04:08 Clean tone reference chords on all pickups
04:23 Poppy barre chords
04:38 Ringing open indie pop chords
04:52 Blues progression
05:04 Country ballad arpeggios
05:16 Country lead sound
05:24 Funky rhythm chords
05:37 Tone control test
06:41 Surfy pop sound
07:00 Indie pop picked arpeggios
07:20 60s soul riff on all three pickups
08:02 Bluesey lick w/boost

Crunch Sounds
08:14 Classic rock riff
08:30 Hendrix inspired classic rock riff
08:47 Airbourne inspired classic rock riff
08:57 AC/DC inspired classic rock riff
09:16 Groovy classic rock riff on all three pickups
09:41 Fat indie rhythm chords
09:58 Garage rock riff
10:14 Indie rock octave chords
10:39 Indie rock barre chords on all three pickups
11:03 Volume control roll-off test
11:59 Edgy indie rock chords
12:13 Indie octave chords riff

Higher gain overdrive sounds
12:41 Classic hard rock riff
12:59 Glam rock riff
13:14 Alt rock riff
13:28 Ramones inspired punk rock sounds
13:53 Pop punk riff
14:06 Pop punk melodic lead riff
14:22 Green Day inspired punk rock riff
14:36 Punk rock power chords
14:50 Nirvana inspired punky grunge riff
15:03 Progressive rock riff (Drop D tuning)
15:19 Modern rock palm-muted power chords (Drop D)
15:43 Rage Against The Machine inspired groovy riff (Drop D)

Clean Channel w/Revv G3 Distortion Pedal (all in Drop D)
16:00 Metal chugging riff
16:16 Mastodon inspired metal riff with country twang
16:28 Hardcore punk riff
16:43 Classic heavy metal/sludge riff

17:17 My thoughts – this guitar is pure fun!
17:49 First impressions out of the box
18:10 Weight
18:55 Build quality and hardware
19:53 I’d like to try the MR-Modern too!
20:26 Playability and neck
21:10 Sounds
21:42 Pickup height/volume differences
22:42 Clean, drive and heavy sounds analysis
25:04 What other similar guitars are out there?
26:56 My conclusions on the MR-Classic
28:41 Thanks and goodbye


My setup was as follows: I ran the MR-Classic into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, also using my Greer Lightspeed for the overdrive and my Revv G3 for the heavy distortion sounds. The amp 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: https://bit.ly/HKBS200rwm
Greer Lightspeed: https://bit.ly/GreerLightspeedRWM
Revv G3: https://bit.ly/RevvG3RWM
Focusrite 4i4 (this is the newer equivalent of my 2i4, which they don’t make any more!): https://bit.ly/Scarlett414RWM
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Enjoy!


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

#HarleyBenton #HarleyBentonGuitar #HarleyBentonOfficial #Mosrite #MosriteGuitars


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@HarleyBentonOfficial