PS
Don`t read the headline only!
I`ll keep it simple and clear
Neck:
- Out of the box straight neck, nice action, pretty decent intonation, no sharp fret ends
- Rough frets, polished them with fret rubber and now they are smooth and shiny
- Thick neck, like really fat. Not complaining tho
- The finish on the back of the neck restricted hand movement a bit, so I sanded it down to matt with 240 sandpaper - much much better to play.
- Weird sound on D and G string from 12th fret and higher. Sounds like the notes are out of tune with itself and they die out quickly.
Hardware:
- Tuners seemed to be tight and fine, but changed them out to locking ones anyway
- Neck plate had this plastic base thing, got rid of that cuz it kills sustain (atleast so they say)
- The bridge is firmly against the body
Pickups:
- Middle pup is RWRP. So in theory the pickups are hum-canceling on postition 2 and 4.
- Sound is good, twangy and dynamic. Can`t compare with real strats, because I simply don`t know.
Electronics:
- The pots/knobs turn quite densely
- Needs to be shielded with copper tape, buzzes pretty loudly when not touching metal parts (I play with rather high gain)
- CHECK THE GROUND WIRE ON SPRING CLAW. Mine got detached because the claw is aluminium and solder won`t stick to it well. I put the wire between the coils of a bridge spring.
- Checked everything with multimeter. Everything is grounded and work as they should.
Other things:
- neck fits tight into its pocket which is nice
- the sustain is okay
- not plugged in the guitar sounds woody, and somewhat closed.
- the finish is great, pickguard edge has some uneven spots, and the finish on the edges of fretboard has been sanded off, probably in the progress of working with fret ends.
And that`s about it.
Neck:
- Out of the box straight neck, nice action, pretty decent intonation, no sharp fret ends
- Rough frets, polished them with fret rubber and now they are smooth and shiny
- Thick neck, like really fat. Not complaining tho
- The finish on the back of the neck restricted hand movement a bit, so I sanded it down to matt with 240 sandpaper - much much better to play.
- Weird sound on D and G string from 12th fret and higher. Sounds like the notes are out of tune with itself and they die out quickly.
Hardware:
- Tuners seemed to be tight and fine, but changed them out to locking ones anyway
- Neck plate had this plastic base thing, got rid of that cuz it kills sustain (atleast so they say)
- The bridge is firmly against the body
Pickups:
- Middle pup is RWRP. So in theory the pickups are hum-canceling on postition 2 and 4.
- Sound is good, twangy and dynamic. Can`t compare with real strats, because I simply don`t know.
Electronics:
- The pots/knobs turn quite densely
- Needs to be shielded with copper tape, buzzes pretty loudly when not touching metal parts (I play with rather high gain)
- CHECK THE GROUND WIRE ON SPRING CLAW. Mine got detached because the claw is aluminium and solder won`t stick to it well. I put the wire between the coils of a bridge spring.
- Checked everything with multimeter. Everything is grounded and work as they should.
Other things:
- neck fits tight into its pocket which is nice
- the sustain is okay
- not plugged in the guitar sounds woody, and somewhat closed.
- the finish is great, pickguard edge has some uneven spots, and the finish on the edges of fretboard has been sanded off, probably in the progress of working with fret ends.
And that`s about it.
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T
Great value, poor QC
This guitar is great value for the money, with a real 'Fender' twang. Holds tuning really well too.
Needed a little setting up; truss rod adjustment and string saddle height to cure some buzzing frets'. Inonation was good.
Frets do need dressing and the edges smoothing.
The sticky lacquer on the back of the neck needs rubbing down to a matt finish. Improves playability massively.
BUT the quality control is NOT GOOD.
The string saddles on mine do not align well with the strings, meaning some strings are hard against the saddle height adjustment screws.
On the high E string, for example, this completely kills the sustain resulting in a 'dead' sounding string.
I changed the string, cleaned and graphited (pencil-lead) the nut slot.
Still no joy, the string saddles seem just too wide.
There is NO adjustment possible for this.
Reported it to Thomann, with photos. They said the bridge was within manufacturer's tolerances and the best they could do was offer me 15 Euro off an aftermarket bridge.
I suppose this is to be expected at this price point.
I am going to try fitting some roller saddles and a Graftek nut.
If the string runs across the bridge are still not straight, then the bridge mounting screw holes are off and I will have to fill and re-drill, in which case I will put a much better quality roller bridge on and a Humbucker in the bridge pos'n coz the standard single coil is really thin and tinny sounding.
My advice; when you buy one spend some time checking for strings ringing clearly at all fret positions. If not, set the neck relief and string height to cure any buzzing. If you still have problems send it back. You may get a great one, you may get a not so good one. Chinese QC.
Do not pay too much attention to YouTube reviewers; do you not think the guitars they receive for review have been carefully selected/sorted?
STILL, a great guitar for the money, 5 stars for value, and the folks at Thomann are great and will help you as much as they can.
Needed a little setting up; truss rod adjustment and string saddle height to cure some buzzing frets'. Inonation was good.
Frets do need dressing and the edges smoothing.
The sticky lacquer on the back of the neck needs rubbing down to a matt finish. Improves playability massively.
BUT the quality control is NOT GOOD.
The string saddles on mine do not align well with the strings, meaning some strings are hard against the saddle height adjustment screws.
On the high E string, for example, this completely kills the sustain resulting in a 'dead' sounding string.
I changed the string, cleaned and graphited (pencil-lead) the nut slot.
Still no joy, the string saddles seem just too wide.
There is NO adjustment possible for this.
Reported it to Thomann, with photos. They said the bridge was within manufacturer's tolerances and the best they could do was offer me 15 Euro off an aftermarket bridge.
I suppose this is to be expected at this price point.
I am going to try fitting some roller saddles and a Graftek nut.
If the string runs across the bridge are still not straight, then the bridge mounting screw holes are off and I will have to fill and re-drill, in which case I will put a much better quality roller bridge on and a Humbucker in the bridge pos'n coz the standard single coil is really thin and tinny sounding.
My advice; when you buy one spend some time checking for strings ringing clearly at all fret positions. If not, set the neck relief and string height to cure any buzzing. If you still have problems send it back. You may get a great one, you may get a not so good one. Chinese QC.
Do not pay too much attention to YouTube reviewers; do you not think the guitars they receive for review have been carefully selected/sorted?
STILL, a great guitar for the money, 5 stars for value, and the folks at Thomann are great and will help you as much as they can.
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G
Good for the price
I use this guitar for practice mostly. Never tried a Harley Benton guitar before and heard it was affordable for it's value. The guitar looks beautifull and sounds good. The only con i see is the fret buzz on the 7th fret. I had to put the strings a little to far from the neck to correct it. That impacts a little in playbility, but overall its a good sounding guitar, totally worth the money.
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s
BEGINER'S CHOICE
It sounds really nice!Maybe needs a setting and a set of new strings,but it is perfect for beginers!Nice prise!
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d
Nice S type guitar
Second one of these I've owned, the other was the rosewood fretboard version.
Good: generally good finish, good fretwork, nice sounding pickups in all positions. D'addario strings. My previous version had the Wilkinson pickups, this one has roswell alnico which to my ears sound nicer.
Minor niggles: came with a small ding near the bottom strap button, second time this has happened to me with a HB guitar recently.
Also comes with a whammy bar, basic lead and adjustment allen key
Plastic, plastic, plastic, two layers on the pickguard and another on the pickups, it's very difficult to remove entirely and a real pain, tone this down please Thomann.
I returned this in the end as the pickups were way noisier than the previous HB ST models i'd owned.
Good: generally good finish, good fretwork, nice sounding pickups in all positions. D'addario strings. My previous version had the Wilkinson pickups, this one has roswell alnico which to my ears sound nicer.
Minor niggles: came with a small ding near the bottom strap button, second time this has happened to me with a HB guitar recently.
Also comes with a whammy bar, basic lead and adjustment allen key
Plastic, plastic, plastic, two layers on the pickguard and another on the pickups, it's very difficult to remove entirely and a real pain, tone this down please Thomann.
I returned this in the end as the pickups were way noisier than the previous HB ST models i'd owned.
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A
You get what you pay for
This guitar does what it says. The frets are rough and i would not trust the whammy. The components are cheap but what are you expecting at this price, But damn the guitar looks good. Great first guitar!
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AV
Sounds Great but not good with interface
So this guitar sounds wonderful almost like my fender strats, but it doesn't work with my Focusrite Interface it keeps buzzing no matter what, I had people check the Focusrite with other guitars - no problem - and then with Harley and still buzzing. Maybe there was something just wrong with the wiring of my guitar but the store people couldn't figure it out. Otherwise, I would easily take it on stage or practice!
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