Harley Benton Fusion-III HH Roasted SSP

I've bought this guitar and it did not disappoint me.

Pros:
* Look & feel is awesome, the guitar looks much better than on the pictures. The neck feels like one of a custom shop guitar neck.
* The guitar came fully adjusted, notes are correct on all frets.
* It sounds acceptable, average. I gave it 4 stars because of the guitar's price range, overall it is 3 stars quality sound.
* No production flaws.

Cons:
* The tremolo is not stable, it is not that bad, but notes stays up or down up to 5 cents.
* Pickups split bad, I get much more hum, but no single-coil sound.
* The frets could be polished a little bit better.

Ordered this one a few days after Fusion III series was announced, so there were no reviews
TL;DR: it's a great guitar! Especially for its price

Now let's dig into details

PROS:
- Look. Visually it is amazing, WAY more beautiful in real life compared to photos. Sparks and shines like fireworks, so gorgeous
- Also, top finish does not collect fingerprints or dust
- Spec list. You get roasted maple neck, steel frets, coils split, two point trem, truss rod adjustment wheel at the last fret, locking tuners, nubone nut and that top finish - so many features - for only 400 eur. You heard me
- Roasted maple neck feels fantastic. Smooth, convenient, nice profile, satin feel. Also - do I need to say this - it's beautiful
- Frets aligned well, fret ends are nice, but they are not smooth out of the box. I've polished them and they are soooo good now
- Really like matte finish on trem, pickups and furniture. Feels nice too
- Pickups are great, coil split sounds great, maybe they have slightly low output, but I really love their tone, both clean and distorted
- Tuners are fine, no problems with them so far. Nice to have locking mechanism - works great, very convenient
- Trem is fine (except one problem - read the cons), works great, set it up in a floating position, holds tuning perfectly, no matter how wild your divebombs are


CONS:
- Trem was the main problem. When I initially set it up, it worked really weird. It got stuck in random positions when you use it. It absolutely didnt want to return in its balance point, it didnt flutter and I could not control it at all. It took me some time to figure out the problem. Basically, the size of the cavity for tremolo in guitar body did not match the size of tremolo (if it makes sense), so inner part of the tremolo rubbed the wall of this cavity. My guitar tech have slightly increased this cavity (tenths or hundredths of a millimeter) and problem disappeared. It was tricky to find out the problem, but now i have no questions to tremolo, it works as intended
- Pickup switch made some strange sounds while switching, but one spray of oil contact cleaner took that away
- If you want frets smooth out of the box - you need to polish them
- Have some question to retainers, not sure if they work well, hear weird noises while tuning


Neutral thoughts:
- Out of the box it needs tuning and adjustments (as every other new instrument) - action, truss rod, trem, frets etc. You should keep it in mind. Strongly recommend going to your guitar tech
- Change strings immediately - stock ones are not good (old and rusty)
- Took one trem spring away - think with 10/46 strings 3 springs are too much. With two trem works great, no problems
- Tone push/pull is too loose - common problem with push/pulls, but sometimes when you use coil split, your tone knob turns around, prefer more tight pots
- Volume pot is very close to the bridge, it is hard sometimes to change volume when you use whammy bar
- You should know that almost everything is inherited from Fusion II series, these two versions are basically the same guitar. Not sure if it bothers anyone (not me)

All being said, I absolutely LOVE this guitar. After fixing this annoying bridge problem guitar feels nice, plays nice, sounds nice, looks fantastic. Everything is just so good, when you pick it up you just want to play it and do not let go at all. Love this guitar

This is my first review of any product I've ever owned. I purchased a Fusion III SSP about 2 months ago. I was expecting to have a decent guitar that would probably need a setup (as most guitars do from the factory) and have an adjustment period before getting comfortable with it. How wrong I was!

I gave the guitar a few days to adjust to my climate. The guitar needed to be tuned, it came a few strings a half-step down. Once tuned I check the nut, intonation and string height. The nut was cut to perfection. There was no snagging or binding. The intonation was spot on. String height was a nice 4mm from the 12th fret. The neck didn't need a truss rod adjustment. Speaking of the neck, I've never played a smoother neck in all my years of playing. There were no fret ends poking out or sharp edges. The Flame on the back of the neck has nice variations of large and small flame patterns. The fret-board has a more nuanced flame that appears in certain lighting.

The Sparkle finish is quiet something to see in person. I've seen other sparkle finishes but they usually have small flakes and this Fusion has large flakes which for me is more pleasing. The finish reflects light in a similar way to disco balls or a fine Christmas tree topper. I like the wood binding as a transition from the sparkle to the natural transparent finish. I don't think a cream, white or pearloid binding would have looked appropriate.

The pickups are good if a bit dark for my taste. I adapt to this by adding some mids and top end. They are not muddy. They have good clarity and note definition, especially so when coil split. They do a good job at being able to get those strat like tones. They excel at being able to crank the gain to get a vintage rock/metal tone.

The Wilkinson bridge is rock solid with moderate trem use. As I don't "dive bomb" the guitar stays in tune and remains stable. This guitar is my first with locking tuners and I will never use standard tuners again. I did have to change the strings as I tried too hard to be Malmsteen and broke a high E. I've never had a easier time changing strings.

Honestly I'm probably forgetting to mention a few things, but overall I've been impressed with how good the Fusion is. Since getting it I've played more in roughly the last 2 months than I have in the previous 8 months. The Fusion has in a way inspired me and reminded me of why I love playing guitar. For me it's that good of an instrument.

Coming from only playing high end PRS, Suhr and Parkers Most my life I figured it was time to try something different that didn’t break the bank. Been watching this brand for a couple years and finally decided to pull the trigger on one after some research. Guitar showed up pretty much flawless minus some frets that were a bit rough. Nothing major.
Was set up decent and the intonation was bang on. Neck is unreal and the flame is as nice or nicer than some of the suhr and Ernie ball guitars I’ve had. No high frets, no fret sprout, no sharp edges and a Nicely rolled finger board.
The guitar is a pleasure to play. Stays in tune without perfectly.
I’m not saying this is on par with my $5k guitars. But for 1/10 the price I’d put it up there with some of the $1500-$2000 guitars I’ve had.
The pick ups are just ok but totally usable. A little darker and smooth sounding than I’d like but that’s what eq is for.
Hardware is as good as any American Strat and maybe better considering this has roller trees and locking tuners with good ratio at 18/1
Tusq nut and stainless frets on a flame roasted neck and board is unheard of at this price.
Anyways I like it so much I just ordered the tele version.