Harley Benton is now officially making relic’d guitars for under 250 bucks, unveiling its much anticipated Aged Series of electric guitars – and basses – with five models, finish options aplenty, and vintage mojo the beginner player can afford.
This is in many ways a historic moment for guitar. The Fender Custom Shop, then Gibson and a host of boutique manufacturers, have pioneered relic’d guitars with perfectly distressed finishes but only for high-end electric guitars. If we wanted a battered and bruised cheap electric guitar, we had to do it ourselves, playing them hard, or getting creative.
The launch of Harley Benton’s Aged Series, with a list price from Thomann of €249, reminds us of halcyon days, a misspent youth performing ill-advisable modifications to the beginner guitars in our life (we can’t be the only ones who remember putting a no-brand S-style into the oven, no?).
The Aged Series saves us from such madness, offering Light Aged and Heavy Aged finishes across five different models, with 20 finish options in total. That’s right, Light Aged and Heavy Aged finishes... These Harley Benton guitars offer Murphy Lab-style options without the price tag.
These models have been in the works for a few years now. Back in 2024, Harley Benton had something special to show us at Guitar Summit. The budget gear brand had been putting together some prototype electric guitars that were brand new but looked like they had decades of touring behind them.
“We cannot say too much about them,” said Harley Benton’s Bene Schlereth, holding a TE T-style guitar with what looked like a distressed Lake Placid Blue finish. “They are finished in nitro… It just feels very organic and I really, really like it.” There was a JB Bass, too, with a similar finish.
Here we have them, and unsurprisingly they were not easy to make.
“The worn finishes, the aged hardware, the instant vintage cool… this might just be our most ambitious series yet!” says Harley Benton
There’s the T-style TE-62, the S-style ST-62, and the JA-60, an offset guitar that looks incredible in Shell Pink but even more gnarly in Heavy Aged Candy Apple over 3-Tone Sunburst – it’s like it really was a ‘60s instrument that someone had refinished before trashing on the road.
Interesting, back at the prototype stage, Harley Benton said these were nitro finishes, but they are applying these ageing techniques to the harder-wearing poly finishes. Even the hardware is aged.
Elsewhere, you get the typically high-end for the price point specs – e.g. the caramelised maple necks, US alder bodies– and Harley Benton’s vintage-voiced ISOLA alnico V pickups as standard.
You get a choice of caramelised maple fingerboards or laurel. All for £214/$238 (approx)/€249. Note: deliveries to the US might be subject to import duties.
Other finish options include Olympic White, Olympic Black, Lake Placid Blue over 3-Tone Sunburst, 3-Tone Sunburst, and Seafoam Green – and they look great.
Check them out at Harley Benton. Buy one via Thomann And don’t do anything too drastic to your first guitar. It has sentimental value.
