Harley Benton Amarok-6 BKRD Quilted Burst 3-stars Reviews

Quality Check?

Just got mine today. Not a fan of the quality or sound. In all the demo's I see the guitar comes almost perfectly in tune and ready to play. Mine was far from it and needed a setup. Also they sound good in the demo's but mine sounds like a cheap guitar with too much output.

Quality 5/10

- Mine has a lot of overspray on the paint job

- The quilt looks like it was painted on(really flat)

- Nut is separated from the neck

- Fretboard chipped near truss rod adjustment

- Not all pores from the wood not filled so they look like small holes/dents on the body and side of fretboard

- Pots touch the wood, you have to lift them a bit to not constantly scratch the wood underneath

- Super high action: 6 mm above 15th fret. Bridge saddle were at max

- Was probably never tuned. Tuning was no were near any sane note

- Totally not intonated

- Neck was perfectly straight though

Sound 5/10

- Clean with treble rolled off sounds good. Ambient/post-rock cleans are pretty nice

- Anything with gain sounds harsh, like using a cheap distortion pedal on an amp with an 8" speaker

- Used a Line6 Helix Floor, Orange Dark Terror and H&K tubemeister for sound tests

- The amount of output drives the tube amps a lot so need to back down the gain

- Cannot use same amp settings between this guitar and an passive high output guitar

- Especially the helix, most presets are unusable if you do not turn down the gain

- Taking the battery out seems like only the output level drops and little less treble

- Might even prefer to run it passive

Pro's:

- Neck is small which is great for chords or hendrix style playing

- Guitar design is awesome

- Good access to upperfretboard, could have reached a 28th fret if present

- Fretwork nice and no single note buzz. Could not get the neck super low though but pretty low

Con's:

- Quality

- Sound

- Neck is thick, more vintage C profile then modern. Makes it less fast