Harley Benton Fusion-T HH HT EB OCT

Nulla da dire sulla chitarra, anzi tutto da dire, la chitarra si presenta benissimo nelle rifiniture, NESSUN difetto, manico regolato gia' bene, comodissimo e veloce, action perfetta, corde nuove, ottave quasi perfette, SUONO DA PURA TELECASTER, era questo che volevo, percio' ho scelto la versione senza tremolo, per mantenere il suono di una Telecaster. Ottimi armonici, bel suono, aggressiva all'occorenza grazie agli Humbuker; la chitarra nonostante ha gli humbuker è molto versatine e ci si pio' suonare di tutto. Consigliatissima.
Invece molto da ridire sullo STAFF ITALIANOI che considero mediocre. La chitarra era in DISPONIBITA' IMMEDIATA e l'ho ricevuta dopo Circa 20 giorni, penso che fosse ferma per il controllo Qualità che ultimamente stanno adottando., senza dare spiegazione alcuna per il ritardo della spedizione. La chitarra arriva non incelofanata, ma solo con 2 plastichine a protezione dei Pick-up, controllo la chitarra e mi accorgo che il pomello del Tono era solo appoggiato, quindi non era possibile usarlo neanche per lo split del pick up, quindi chi ha controllato la chitarra o non si è accorto del problema o se n'è infischiato e l'ha spedita lo stesso. Con la penultima chitarra acquistata mesi fa, chitarra con difetti visibili, vernice saltata sulla paletta e graffio VISTOSO procurato da chi l'ha testata sul battipenna; spedita ugualmente, nonostante fosse stata visionata per il controllo della qualità. Quindi mi spiace ribadire, che lo STAFF ITALIANO ULTIMAMENTE si STA dimostrando pressochè MEDIOCRE. Il problema, sono riuscito a risolverlo grazie AL PREZIOSO AIUTO DI CLAUDIO P. CHE GESTISCE 3 GRUPPI DEDICATI ALLA HARLEY BENTON, CHE CON PAZIENZA CAPILLARE , CON FOTO E MINI VIDEO MI HA SPIEGATO COME INTERVENIRE SUL POMELLO, 5 MINUTI ED HO RISOLTO, GRAZIE A CLAUDIO LA CHITARRA NON è RIENTRATA, ALTTRIMENTI SAREBBE STATA L'UNICA SOLUZIONE.
I 3 GRUPPI GESTITI DA CLAUDIO P, IN QUESTI GRUPPI USA IL NICK CLAUDIO PIERO PELUCHE PAGANI SONO I SEGUENTI
HARLEY BENTON CONSIGLI E PARERI
BENTON ITALIA
PERSONAL SHOPPER
I GIORNI CON PASSIONE E DEDIZIONE DISTRIBUISCE CONSIGLI UTILI SU TUTTE LE CHITARRE HARLEY BENTON E COME INTERVENIRE IN CASO DI PROBLEMI.
PENSO CHE GRAZIE A LUI MOLTE CHITARRE NON TORNANO PIU' INDIETRO, E MOLTE CHITARRE HARLEY BENTON HANNO AUMENTATO IL LORO VOLUME DI VENDITA, VEDI LA HARLEY BENTON TE 52 CHE NON MOLTO TEMPO FA, MOLTI DI NOI NON LA CONSIDERAVAMO, ED INVECE ADESSO QUASI TUTTI CE L'ABBIAMO. Passo e chiudo

The guitar looks and feels great. I stumbled upon this guitar on youtube and immediately fell in love. It's what I was looking for: tele shaped guitar with alternative design decisions (mahogany body, simple 6 saddle fixed bridge, and the last but not the least - humbuckers). Gotta love stailess steel frets, Graptech TUSQ XL nut, ebony fingerboard and locking tuners.
I love the Tele I have but I wanted something more versatile and lighter (the ash body on my tele is as heavy as cast iron). I initially wanted a black one but they quickly went of stock and I ordered a sparkled green one while they lasted.
The quality of manufacturing is excellent, I haven't found any flaws or imperfections, so no complains whatsoever on that side. The color in reality is very eye pleasing and not too "poppy", which I was kind of apprehensive of. Wood "binding" looks neat too.
The neck with natural satin finish is very pleasant to touch and move hand around, the grip is very comfortable.
The hardware looks and feels solid. The volume knob makes some sound when turning like it's rubbing something but I can live with that.
I slightly more prefer regular size frets on my Tele to jumbo frets here but it's a matter of getting used to the instrument.
The guitar came well intonated with action a bit higher than I am used to but the adjustment took just a few minutes.
Speaking about tone, I'd say that I expected slightly thicker and darker tone from the Rosewell humbuckers after all youtube reviews I saw but not a big issue, it can be compensated later in the sound chain for the most part.
I didn't closely inspected the electronics, they work fine, no humming, buzzing or knobs screeching, so why bother.
All in all, it's my daily "go to" instrument now (I've got 4 guitars including this one).
The only cons I noticed by now is that it has a tendency to a very slight neck dive. The other minor nuisance is the positioning of the 3 way pickup selector. It's too close to the strings and I often bump into it with my hand. But these I can live with easily given all the joy it is to play. Anyways, I do it mostly at home now.
So, it's my first Harley Benton and most likely not the last one :).
BTW, the delivery was quite fast (I was afraid that there would be issues given the situation with the pandemic now). The only thing that I was looking for in the box but it was missing was the sticker "Rescue my guitars first". No big deal.
Keep good work up Thomann!
Thanks!

I was lucky enough to grab one of these before they sold out but mine is going back to Thomann. I just couldn't live with it.

Firstly, the construction and components on this guitar are really very good. It's easily the best HB guitar I've played or seen. It is one of the few HBs that have cavities painted with shielding paint and the effect is very, very good on reducing hum and buzz. The guitar was dead quiet. The pickups were a bit muddy and warm but I could have fixed that a bit in the mix.

The finishing on the guitar was also excellent and I couldn't complain about it - even the frets were done to a very high standard. A few slightly high frets but hardly anything to get excited about. The nut wasn't cut properly but that's easy to fix. The shaping of the body was great with body contouring and carve-outs on the back of the horn to allow easy hand access to the upper frets.

The big problem for me (and why I returned it) was the weight imbalance. The guitar is light overall but this thing is the worst neck diving guitar I've ever had. I couldn't play it sitting down without having the horn sit on my thigh and the guitar refused to stay put as it started sliding around. Standing up with the guitar was a disaster - it was like there was an anchor attached to the end.

I assume that the neck, truss-rod and locking tuners were just too heavy for the light body of the guitar. That is made worse by the weight reduction in the body for the contouring. Some suggested adding lead weights inside the control cavity but that sounds ridiculous to me.

I was really disappointed because I wanted to love and keep this guitar. Thomann clearly put a lot of effort into building and designing this guitar but it all came undone with this one major flaw that made it tiring and frustrating to use.