Harley Benton DC-Junior FAT Benton Blue 4-stars Reviews

Very good guitar, light QC errors but very minor and trounced by how this thing sounds.

I bought this guitar for a first proper guitar, I've had guitars before but they were kinda rubbish, better suited as projects than instruments. I settled on this instrument because it was reasonably priced and looked like the one in Bocchi the Rock.

When it arrived I was pleasantly surprised, I had heard tales of doom from other friends who said to not buy cheap guitars, but after getting this one I might not listen to them. This thing is excellent and in the few hours I've owned it I love it.

Sure there were some issues out of the box, the black pick guard is not exactly the right fit with a small seam near the neck, the laser cutting might have been a bit too aggressive leaving some burn marks on the truss rod cover and the intonation was a bit wack out of the box, but after some dialling in this thing sound amazing and everything else just becomes a non issue.

You definitely don't get what you paid for, you get more. Love this thing

Good for the money

A lot of the reviews on the internet make it sound like this guitar is an absolute steal. I agree that its value for money but I was less enamoured, I think I paid the right money for it.

I bought it as a project guitar so none of the issues [below] are a problem for me and nothing I wouldn't expect to see on a budget guitar anyway, I just think that buying online its worth knowing what sort of thing you might find, that a picture online cant/wont show you. Also, I'm only going to point out the extremes, good or bad, if I don't highlight then it was ok/good.

The first thing that I noticed (probably the way I unboxed) were the tuning pegs. Very plasticky with obvious mould lines and dirty. On closer inspection the dirt was actually the plastic, like it had been tuned by someone with acetone on their fingers. I had so sand them to get rid of the dirty markings but that got rid of the mould lines too, and they look ok now. Otherwise the tuners are holding the strings in tune ok and are not particularly gritty or scratchy.

The frets were very scratchy and there was a small amount of fret sprout (but maybe I'm just sensitive to these things). The paint on the neck was visibly rippled. It was also super glossy, the kind your sweaty hand will stick to, so sanding sorted out both issues (although, even after sanding there are still low spots in the paint where its still glossy).

There were small blemishes in the paint on the neck and body (3-5mm black marks that are in the paint). As mentioned, I sanded the neck to remove the ripples so I know the marks were in the paint; not on top. Probably wouldn't be notable if the guitar wasn't bright blue, to be fair any blemish will be immediately obvious.

I wanted to use the black livery (gimmicky, perhaps, but I do really like the fact you get to choose, btw) but unfortunately the scratch plate doesn't quite fit properly, there' a couple of mm gap between the neck and the scratch plate at the top end and about 5mm at the bottom end. A gap is probably normal, but its the fact its on a slant. Barely noticeable, can be sanded even, I just point it out because there was no gap with the white scratch plate. Also one of the white knobs broke on removal, my fault I guess but I was using a knob puller that I've used on all my other guitars no issues. There was a bit of foam packing under the pick up that I initially thought was odd but that's apparently quite normal; in lieu of springs.

The tone knob does nothing until you get to about 2 and half, then it kicks in abruptly. There is no tone control, its on or off. The coil split didn't do anything either, but that may be a faulty pot since the tone does nothing either?

Overall I really like the guitar, I like the tone, I like the colour, I like the fact you can choose between black and white livery. I think its good value for money, I don't think its a steal, I think you get what you pay for. Its a solid guitar that you can play out of the box, at a low enough price you can bash it around a bit or modify without worrying about damaging; as you might a more expensive instrument.

Pleasantly Surprised

What a nice guitar.In all of my many years of playing I am totally impressed with the quality of this guitar for considering how little I paid for it. Sounds great, plays great and the finish is very impressive. A nice guitar to add to your tool box of sound !

Benton Blue for the win!

I bought this one based on my positive experience with the Faded Blue DC Junior, and I'm glad I did. It has a bit more of a substantial feel to it compared to the standard Junior while still being fairly light.

The neck has a satisfyingly full feel to it without being a baseball bat and the pickup is pretty good. I was surprised that there's a bit of a volume drop when switching to humbucking mode, but it's not drastic.

The pots on this one work great, just as they do on the Faded Blue, with the only real criticism I have of it being that the switching between the two modes would be easier to do with speed knobs rather than the current ones. They do look good and function fine otherwise, though.

Like its previously mentioned brother, this is a fun guitar to play and I'm glad I got it.

The spirit of the original Junior returns!!

Gibson originally created the Junior to be a "student guitar"...meaning a decent quality, affordable guitar. But since then Gibson cares more about milking people for their money than actually honoring why they made this instrument in the first place.

Harley Benton brings back the original spirit of the Junior guitar: meaning a decent quality, affordable instrument. Bravo Harley Benton, as this guitar is well built, plays so comfortably and has a great sound. The gorgeous colour scheme of sky blue and white trimmings give this guitar a unique appearance.

Not flawless, but very nice rockroll guitar

Hi,

This guitar punches above it's priceclass. The neck is smooth and fretwork more than capable.

You can't get the action down at shredders lever, but setting is at 1.8 mm (12th fret, thick E string) is easily doable , but can't see it getting lower... It did need a setup tho... As all bentons kinda do in my opinion... I needed to lower the bridge, but there was also to much relief in the neck.

pro's:

-Feels at least like a epiphone level quality guitar

-Sounds rocknroll.. Has very nice and usable clean sound... Has a lot of grit with gain. I even use it for metal stuff.

Cons:

-For mine , there were some paint flaws (Black dots in the back of the neck above the blue paint) .

-The tone pot is really "wobly" if you turn it. It's like there is something that needs no be tightened inside , but I can't find it (It's not the hex screw)

- The tone pot knob also gets off really easy by accident if i'm trying to coilsplit.

-For some reason, my "thicker" sound gives a little more hum, or noises, that the split sound... But still very usable and not that bad.

All in all, despite the "cons" list, I like it very much, it's got that "something special" guitar that sets it apart from a strat, Lp, Sg, Tele , ... Even for being a doublecut, it is original because it has some fenderish style colors, but plays more like a gibson... So it's something different :)