Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit Single Cut

Kíváncsiságból vásároltam meg a szettet. Szerettem volna egy olyan gitárt ami éjszakai gyakorlásnál nem zavarja a körülöttem lévőket, a fő hangszerem egy archtop, ami még akusztikusan is hangos ilyen szituációkban. Az összeszerelés még tapasztalatlanul is könnyű volt, a csiszolást és a felületkezelést leszámítva a gitár összeszerelése pár órát vett igénybe, és a legnagyobb meglepetésemre elsőre megszólalt az elektronika. A test több részből van összeragasztva, nem a legszebb kivitelezés, de ennyi pénzért nem is várhatunk el bookmatch kivitelezést. A testet tung olajjal kezeltem, ami igaz, hogy tapasztalatlanságomból kifolyólag nem lett valami szép, de nagyon jól illik a fa színéhez és ha egyszer időm engedi, újra lecsiszolom és kezelem, ez igazán jó szórakozás, ha van ilyen irányú érdeklődésünk. A nyak C típusú, ami nekem túl vastag, de egy hangszerész ezen könnyedén tud segíteni egy kis csiszolással. A felhúrozás után egy pár hétig nem használtam a hangszert és a nyak elgörbült, de a nyakpálca merevítővel könnyedén újra beállíthattam a nyakat. Az érintők kidolgozása nem a legszebb, és a szintezésükkel is volt némi gond, de a játék részét képezi nálam ezek becsiszolása, szintezése. A hangolókulcsok a lehető legolcsóbb kategóriából vannak, viszont nagyon könnyen járnak és tartják a hangolást. Az elektronika szintén a legalsó kategóriát képezi, így megbocsájtható, hogy kicsit zajosabb. Mindent összevetve jó vásár, és jó szórakozás komolyabb tét nélkül kísérletezgetni a hangszerek karbantartása és javítása terén.

I purchased this kit, as I wanted an LP style guitar for the tone produced for recording some backing tracks, but had a limited budget. The result really surprised me. The veneer on the body is thin, so use minimum pressure when sanding. The finish is amazing. I am into natural finishes and so after a light sanding, just used thin clear varnish applied with a cloth. The result is quite stunning. A natural butterscotch with a light catching grain. It literally reflects light on stage in places.

The electrics are wrong. If left unchanged, the tone pots do not work. Five minutes with a soldering iron chnging one wire on each tone pot to the correct lug cured the problem. The cure is detailed on several reviews, so I won't bore you with repeating it hear. Once done, the volume and tone controls work very well indeed.

The back of the neck, I left as it came. The fine smooth varnish finish is perfect to play.

The only other problem was the nut. It came with the high E slot cut too near the edge. A replacement for under 2 euros cured the problem and allowed me to file it to the ideal depth.

The Frets were surpisingly good. After fitting the new nut, I set the neck to Gibson Les Paul specs and it plays perfectly. No buzz, surpringly low action. Can't ask for more.

The pickups are very acceptable, producing the rich creamy sound I was specifically after on the neck pickup, with the tone pot turned fairly down and very capable of the typical LP scream on teh bridge pick up if required. Sustain is amazing. In my opinion, a far superior performer to the Vintage/Revelation LP copies that cost 3 times the price.

The bridge is an obvious copy. Typical of a Chinese ebay replacement. I was lucky with mine, it works and I have left it on.

If I add the price of the nut and a set of D'addario 10's strings to replace the ones that came with it. I got the bargain of the century for under 100 Euros. I have played live, recorded 7 songs with this guitar and a professional performer (an ex-guitarist from Mott The Hoople) asked me if it was for sale. It isn't!

The wiring, bridge and the nut brought the quality rating down to Okay for the price. The rest is good.

So in short, if you want a good LP copy and are willing to spend 5 minutes resoldering, maybe a new nut and reasonable time setting up the neck carefully. go for it, you will not be disappointed. I reckon I would have to pay at least £500 to buy a ready made of equal playability. In fact, it has turned out to be a far superior performer to the Gibson Studio.

I have been as honest and detailed as I can. I hope this helps you.

i bought this kit several years ago, and intended to delay the review as i wanted to see if this guitar can stand the test of time, and frequent use. so i indeed bought one, and then assembled it, and kept it in its default configuration, including the finish, since after assembly. played the guitar for years on a daily basis for hours.

okay, fast forward three years, and here's what's happened to it.

1. the frets wore out. i had to refret it using harder frets.
2. the neck bowed a bit. i was rather baffled by this because i was only using standard 10-46's. it was made more evident when i used 10-52's. so i adjusted the truss rod while there was tension on the strings, and that fixed it, but then it had a bit of back bow with the strings removed. i just surmised that probably the neck was too soft.
3. the pickups sounded muddier. this was, more or less, a perception issue, and only got resolved when i replaced them with stock epiphone pickups that i had on hand. not to say that the stock pickups were bad, but for me, i felt that they weren't good either.
4. bridge saddles wore out fairly quick. this must've been caused by my hands as they keep rubbing with the saddles as i do my palm muting. i swapped the entire bridge with an aftermarket roller bridge, and bought a harley benton tailpiece to complement it.
5. pots started becoming scratchy after a few months. since they became so, i chose to buy log pots and replaced the linear ones installed in the kit. i recycled the stock capacitor, but i also intend to replace that down the line.
6. stock tuners went all over the place. you can't make the guitar stay in tune for too long with the stock tuners. there were also dead spots when turning the pegs, and that greatly affected the tuning. i replaced them with an old set of taylor tuners that i had on hand, and that worked wonders on the tuning.

three years on, the guitar is still working, and is still in its default unfinished state. i've never laid any paint or refreshed the sealer on the wood, as i liked how it looked as a barely finished guitar. my hope is to see it work for more years to come, hopefully outliving me too.

to sum it up, it's a very good starter kit for those who want to learn how to build, play and maintain guitars. for those seeking something more robust or something that requires less maintenance, then this might not be for you.