Harley Benton Dullahan-AT 24 TBK

Dies ist meine erste HB Headless, spiele aber bereits seit vielen Jahren unterschiedliche Modelle anderer Hersteller. Nun habe ich noch nicht viel Zeit mit dieser Gitarre verbracht, aber soviel kann man sagen: sie ist sauber verarbeitet und lässt sich sehr gut spielen. Die Tonansprache ist auch überdurchschnittlich und insgesamt ausgewogen. Sie lässt sich für unterschiedliche Stilrichtungen professionell einsetzen.

La verdad que en cuanto a estética se refiere entra mucho por los ojos, pero si profundizas un poco se nota que realmente no han hecho magia, y me explico.

Primero que todo decir que el potenciómetro de tono mete bastante ruido al moverlo, no es que sea algo sutil, se nota bastante, así que en mi caso la revisión antes de enviarla no fue muy precisa, porque lo básico es mirar si los potenciómetros meten ruido.

El cuerpo está hecho de 4 piezas (en mi caso al menos es así), puesto que parece ser que utilizan tablones de caoba y con una fresadora los cortan sin saber que parte cartan o no, es según la fresadora corte. El cuerpo es cómodo, pero realmente se agradecería que la parte frontal tuviese un rebaje también, puesto que la esquina se encaja en el brazo derecho.

El mástil es muy cómodo y los trastes me vinieron bien, siendo la altura de las cuerdas bastante baja, unos 2 mm en el traste 12, eso sí, tuve que ajustar el puente para que quede bien.

El diapason de ébano es bonito, pero no es un ébano totalmente negro, en este caso si tienes suerte la beta del diapason puede ser bonita, en mi caso la verdad no veo diferencia en con respecto a un diapason palo rosa. Eso sí, los trastes de acero inoxidable están muy bien, eso sí que me ha gustado mucho.

El puente y el sistema para sujetar las cuerdas no están mal, la verdad que aguanta mucho la afinación. El problema es para afinarlo, tienes que tener fuerza en los dedos, sobretodo en las cuerdas del medio, si tuviese líneas rectas en los cilindros, se tendría mejor agarre.

Las pastillas suenan bien, son bastante brillantes, pero si ajustas el tono, obtienes un sonido cálido, yo la uso para tocar estilos más limpios, como blues, música instrumental, jazz, y la verdad que no me disgusta. Lo único que echo de menos es algo más de ganancia o volumen en las pastillas. Eso sí, la calidad del cableado interior no es que sea una maravilla, aunque al menos no mete ruidos.

En general está bien, pero realmente con las nuevas tecnologías en cuanto a procesos de producción no es de extrañar que logren estos resultado.

Pros:
- The balance and feel of the guitar is great, has zero neck dive when standing up. Feels light but sturdy.
- Stays in tune.
- Electronics are fine as far as I can tell.
- Hardware is pretty easy to get used to when setting up and making adjustments. Just make sure you don't overtighten the string locks - I accidentally snapped one high E string like this.

Cons:
- Nut came in with multiple problems. Some slots were cut way too deep, which resulted in open string buzz. Some slots were cut way off to the right/left - e.g. the high E string would sometimes get pinched to the side of the fretboard.
- The lowest the action can go is just under 2mm (still over 1.75). This is fine for me but apparently can be an issue if you're used to having it lower.

I already have 3 headless guitars including one Strandberg and i really love all of them. Nice playability, perfect balance and very light weight.
So i have been looking at this one for some time now. After being disappointed with the Epiphone LP Koa twice and the HB Fusion T a few days ago i finally decided to get this one
As usual it came to my door in a few days and the look of the guitar is very nice. This one is absolutely flawless - everything is made right. On previous batches there were complaints about the tuners on the bridge touching each other but this one has a common base for the tuners and is ok. Still - even though the tuners dont touch the D string tuners is really heavy to turn indicating a small incorrectnes in the production. There is no easy fix so i guess that i have to live with that - which is only a minor flaw but still takes away 1 star on construction.
The guitar needed a basic setup to my liking as all guitars do and it is very easy to set up the string height and intonation as soon as you figure out the logic of the bridge. Truss rod needed a minor twist and the result was very low string without any buzz in less than 5 minutes. Great !
The reason i took away one star from the features is the lack of split coil option. With two humbuckers which are prepared for spiltting it would be an obvious choice and easy way to enhance the performance possibilities on the guitar.
The initial sound test was a surprise. I suddenly knew why its called a Dull(ahan). Very dark tone dominated by lower midrange and completely different from my other guitars with the HAF Alnico 5 Roswell pickups. The spund itself screams for the coil splitting option.
But i left it for a day to think about which pickups from my collection would be perfect for the guitars own contribution to the sound.
Next day the guitar had changed it tonal character ( or i had changed my psykoacoustical mood). Anyway now it was much more alive, still with a great deal of lower midrange but i actually like it. As the days went by i adjusted my presets on my Helix and now i am absolutely happy about the sound. Alnico 5 is known to be a little more receptive to incoming noise than ceramic types and it goes for these too. I daily use you will never notice as it s only with extreme amounts of distortion at high levels it audible. Fluorescent lighting in the room can make it worse though.

Conclusion is that i am very happy about this 2,7 kg guitar. It is comfortable to sit and stand with, it sound very good now and the rest of the amazing features like fretboard, stainless steel frets, TUSQ nut and a pretty good physical sustain along with a solid build makes it a great tool for the working musician as well as the homeplaying guitarist.
Recommended.