These days, the adventurous player looking for an extended-range instrument to take their riffs down into a lower register has no shortage of options, different models, different specs at a range of price points.
The extended-range guitar went mainstream long ago. Okay, it took a while to catch fire, for Korn to use Steve Vai’s Ibanez Universe seven-string guitars, for others to follow suit, then Meshuggah’s bruising low-end apocalyptic rhythm machine came along and took metal guitar rampaging into the bass guitar's frequencies with eight-string guitars. And it officially became thing.
And yet consider the southpaw player – the left-handed player is often ill-served when it comes to more the niche builds. Eight-string guitars? Good luck finding one of them at your local store. Well, enter, Harley Benton… The German budget gear brand has just expanded its 2026 lineup with a left-handed multi-scale 8-string – officially a rare bird – and furthermore it is as cheap as chips.
The R-458MN LH WH MS is priced just £209/$285 – via Thomann, the owner of Harley Benton – and that’s with a gig-bag included. For a few dollars more you can get it bundled with a hard-shell case. And it has everything that a player on a budget needs to get orientated with all that, y’know, extra guitar that comes with an eight-string.
In some ways it’s like a completely different instrument to your regular guitar. Tuned low-to-high in standard as F♯BEADGB but oftentimes with the low eight string tuned down a whole step to put the guitar in Dropped E, the eight-string can take some getting used to.
A guitar like this, allows you to test the waters for not too much outlay. It has a poplar body, a maple neck that joins the body with five bolts (there is a lot more neck here, with the width at the nut an epic 54 mm stretch), and you have a pair of Harley Benton’s Hi-Gain humbuckers. The neck profile is a Speed-D.
The maple fingerboard has a radius is 13.8”. There are volume and tone controls and a three-way pickup selector and all this is all very normal and familiar electric guitar stuff.
But this is a multi-scale design, arguably the preferred format for extended-range models with such designs on the low end.
On the eighth-string the scale length measures 27.2”, with a more regulation Fender-esque 25.5” on the high E. The eight-saddle bridge is easily adjustable, and ergo you have a platform for high-gain adventures that also has solid intonation.
The R-458MN LH WH MS is out now, in high-gloss white – and yes, Harley Benton makes a right-handed version too. Check it out at Harley Benton, or over at Thomann where you can actually buy it.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.