Harley Benton JA-60CC Lake Placid Blue

Giudizio estetico: bellissima, il lake placid blue è meraviglioso. Anche il manico tostato con il binding fa la sua bella figura, anche se c'è qualche piccolissima sbavatura in corrispondenza dei tasti, volendo essere pignoli.

Suonabilità e funzionalità:
il manico è comodissimo e parecchio scorrevole. Qualche tasto forse da smussare leggermente, ma non mi dà fastidio. È arrivata già settata per quello che è il mio setting, quindi action non bassissima (del resto si rifà a una jazzmaster non a una Ibanez da corsa). Volendo però abbassare l'action subentra un problema: le corde si avvicinano troppo ai pick-up che purtroppo non è possibile abbassare se non di pochi mm.
I potenziometri sono buoni, scorrimento fluido e aspetto solido. Il selettore è orizzontale ma leggermente inclinato. Meccaniche durette ma dopo una bella suonata l'accordatura ha retto benissimo.

Suono: trovo i Roswell molto bilanciati, con buone medio-basse che ben si adattano alle distorsioni. I puliti non sono brillantissimi, il suono rimane comunque intellegibile e chiaro senza esagerazioni su talune frequenze.

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Edit/aggiornamento.
Ho risolto il problemino del selettore pickup che era leggermente inclinato: il dado sotto la mascherina era un po' svitato.
Inoltre per abbassare i pickup, a mio avviso troppo vicini alle corde, ho rimosso gli spessori di gommapiuma posti sotto di essi. Ho sostituito le viti dei pickup con delle viti migliori perché quelle originali erano troppo lunghe e hanno reso difficile anche smontare l'intero battipenna perché fuoriuscivano di 1 mm su di esso.
Però, avendola provata bene in sala prove, confermo che la chitarra nel complesso è favolosa!

I am truly shocked by the quality of this guitar. No joke.

I've owned lots of Harley Bentons, many of them came with oddball QC problems but I'm not exaggerating when I say there is none of that here and the model I received was flawless. Aesthetically the neck is GORGEOUS, feels so smooth, the finish is amazing, and the blue colour is a looker!

No sharp fret ends, nut seems to be cut decently, was setup really good for E standard right out of the box. I played it for hours and had no complaint with the setup. The tuning stability was rock solid. I genuinely cannot come up with a single complaint. Even the pickups aren't microphonic like I was expecting, I've been playing mostly the bridge pickup on my Boss Katana MK2 head and 4x12 cab with the presets I use for Thrash and Doom and while there is "hum" like all single coils, they're not reacting horribly and even sound exceptionally competent and usable to someone who's normally and EMG 81 guy!! This is a personal bias comment but even that the guitar has only 21 frets has actually made me more inspired to create music as I have "less to distract me" and let's face it, I'm usually playing in E minor or A Major and generally never go higher than fret 20 when soloing.

I've fallen in love, and I can see myself getting this exact guitar again in other colours for different tunings. To anyone on the fence, if you're looking for a guitar with rock solid tuning stability, the most versatile set of stock pickups I've ever tried, 25.5" scale with a tuneomatic bridge (which is unique in my opinion for JM style guitars) and no nonsense features in between to distract you from making music, then I strongly wholly recommend this guitar!

@Thomann, I really hope you keep this model in stock and production for a really long time, and that the QC stays this good because this is genuinely one of the best guitars I have ever played and probably for the best price I have ever payed for an instrument. Well done!

A few months ago, I purchased the Seafoam Green model and I was blown away by the quality. Playability and sound quality was amazing.

So, I decided to try another one. This time the Lake Placid Blue model. I am delighted to say, it has the same great build quality. I have never seen such attention to detail on the Neck, the neck pocket is so precise, the carmalized finish is smooth as silk. Perfect profile. I am also amazed at the fretwork. Beveled and rounded edges and polished (not gritty). The fretboard is very nice and the fake pearl block inlays are done well.

The Nut is cut great. Just the right depth and nice fit and finish.

The vintage style tuners look great on this guitar and they are smooth and accurate. They are not locking tuners, but they work great and they fit the vibe of this guitar.

The neck binding is a nice touch with dot markers.

The body being Basswood is light, but still has decent sustain. The paint job on both the seafoam green and the Lake Placid Blue is very good. I like the sparkles in the blue.

The pickups are SUPER. They are alnico V P90 style by Roswell. They sound fantastic to me. I find the true Jazzmaster pickups to be a bit too thin and bright for my taste. These pups have a smoother top end and a nice full bottom end. Not dark. More balanced.

Setup from the factory was very good. All I did right out of the box was tune it up, then play for a while. Then I lowered the action about a half turn on both bridge adjusters. Re-tune, make a slight intonation adjustment, re-tune and play.

Shipping was amazingly fast from Germany. I ordered it over the New Years weekend and got it today (Tuesday 3 Jan 2023) in Colorado USA. Double boxed and wall packed. Now, shipping is not cheap in this day and age, but that was amazing.