Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit JA

Fun Guitar Kit!
Ahh, these Thomann Guitar Kits are so much fun to build, either you just assemble it like it is or put you own touch to it!
I painted my kit surf blue, shaped the head stock like a Fender style Jazzmaster. The neck (with bindings) was very good from the start, just oiled it before assembly. The pups are OK, I kinda like P90's. It turned out pretty good and it was great fun to build.
I have built several kits before and recently I have also made guitars from spare parts inspired by Thomann kits.

Earlier I had the SC-kit which left much to desire when it came to precision of pre-drilled holes, horrible frets (level, seating, sprout), nut so low it was impossible to play etc., etc. Almost everything needed to be modified on that one. Since I really liked the top on that body I still kept it and did not return it. I assume that kits could vary quite a lot from kit to kit regarding quality, since other reviews really praised the neck in that kit.
Still I gave the JA-kit a try, figuring that in worst case I could at least use some parts from it. But this time I was more lucky.
As expected the body needed quite a bit of sanding prior to painting it (Volvo 416), but not as much as if I would have chosen to just oil it (oiling the SC-kit took around six hours of sanding in total to remove sealer..). I had the same issue with the body as mentioned in other review, the neck pocket did not fit the end of the neck. Instead of removing material from the body I added a 2 component wood filler in the gap between the neck and body. I did this because the neck was pre-drilled and I did not want to fill those holes and make new ones if moving neck closer to bridge. Routing inside the body was quite rough at places, but thankfully in areas where it did not matter much. Bottom of the neck pocket was nicer than my 200 Euro Harley Benton where someone at the factory used a chisel to “fine tune” the neck angle with a questionably result.
Since the neck was a real disappointment on the SC-kit I have, I feared this the most with the JA-kit. I was wrong. The neck on the JA-kit was absolutely beautiful regarding wood, fret leveling, no fret sprout, inlays and a fully useful nut. Frets needed only polishing. A couple of days after the delivery the neck developed a very minor fret sprout that was easy to correct and to be considered as normal due to weather.
Assembly and setup was not a problem, but the tuners.. They felt like they would slip and cog during tuning. Worse I have ever felt and not on par with the ones in my SC-kit, which I am OK with. At this price point I do not expect top quality but the guitar does not stay in tune despite tightening the tuners as much as I dare to without breaking anything. Every time I pick up the guitar it is out of tune. I will have to replace the tuners.
All in all I am quite happy with this one and the fact that the delivered pick guard was more of a standard tortoise shell looking type than the one displayed in the pictures was a pleasant surprise. Pickups sound a little more tame compared with Roswell P90 but perfectly fine for me. Hum level is compatible between the two, but I did shield all cavities in the body and also the pick guard on the JA-kit.

Assembling the guitar was both easy and fun.
The woodwork and especially the neck are 5 stars. I gave the body a little wood oil and it turned out perfect with just that. The fretboard is also of great quality and with very good aesthetics. Love the sound of those P90 pickups...perfect for blues, and extremely easy to adjust. I have an expensive Gretsch and this Harley Benton is as easy to play - for a tenth of the money. The machine heads are my only concern because they lose tone quickly - but I will change them for 40-50 Euros. And with that I will have another great instrument to enjoy. Congratulations Harley Benton and Thomann on a very good product.