Harley Benton DC-Junior Pelham Blue 5-stars Reviews

Cracking Guitar

If you are looking for your first or tenth guitar just buy one of these, the simple approach is usually the best.

Best Budget Junior

Good guitar for the price. Definitely worth trying and being my First Harley Benton guitar, I have a great experience. The Frets are flawless and the action is pretty low and it's playable out of the box. Would definitely recommend.

Amazing quality, reasonable price

Purchased this to replace my main guitar and the setup was top-notch for the price. I would absolutely recommend buying this, however, the P90 is rather low from the strings and I had to purchase a shim to get it to a reasonable output level. Other than that one issue, it plays and sounds great!

Unreal for the price

I expected a lot less for the price point and I've kept it stock but 1 or 2 upgrades and you have a giggle guitar under £200

Great design and sound

It appeared with my favorite anime equipment, and I definitely wanted it. Thank you, Mr. Toman! And I look forward to working with you in the future.

Awesome bang for buck

This guitar just rocks. Overall the quality was fantastic. There weren't any finish flaws at all. The hardware is just OK, but fully functional and no real issues. The pickup sounded good, but I personally prefer something more raunchy and loud. The electronics were very clean and the pots felt nice when turning (had some nice feel in terms of resistance when turning). The bridge has a small lean forward on the posts, due to a loose tolerance of fit, but it didn't affect tuning or intonation. As is, this guitar is great. I'm a maniac, so I'm likely going to change everything out for hardware and electronics that I love, but that's just me. ROCK ON!

very light and easy to handle

very light and easy to handle

Amazing quality at this price

Above all, this color is now popular in Japan.

Great value for money

I watched many reviews of this guitar on YouTube before buying. Most gave glowing reviews but I was still a little skeptical. Once I got it I was really surprised at the quality, Paint is perfect, no flaws in appearance or mechanically. The nut was cut a little high, so I ordered a cheap set (~$10) and cut them to proper height and it plays really good with much lower action than when I got it.

I didn't deduct any points on quality because of the nut because that was such an easy fix. To expect perfection from a guitar in this price range is not a realistic or reasonable expectation imo. I was surprised that was the only thing that needed adjusting.

The pickup sounds good, with the nut cut correctly it plays great with comfortable action, it's super light & it looks good. I am very pleased with this guitar and will be ordering the TV yellow version in the future for a backup.

If you are handy with making basic adjustments to a guitar, I can not recommend this guitar enough whether you are on a budget or not.

Pelham Blue

Beautiful guitar and limited 1of 250

You can't go wrong with this one!

What a guitar. Very good fretwork. Nice sounding pickup. Light and resonant body which is perfectly balanced. Tidy wiring that works flawlessly. Decent hardware that works well (tuners and bridge). The nut may need some tweaking for tuning stability, but is pretty good. All in all it's just what a Jr should be.

Mine played incredibly well out of the box - the action's right where I like it (moderately low, only buzzes when you dig in too hard). Perfect neck relief even after trips across multiple ponds from Indonesia to Germany to the USA. Pickups are full and sweet souding. Other P90's might be better, but these play the part extremely well. The frets are extremely well done - no high or low frets, and have nicely softened fret ends. The Pelham Blue finish is beautiful. It's darker, more vibrant, and more metallic than I expected, but I've very happy with it.

But... the big but.... the intonation was WAY off... as in only the high E was correct. The entire bridge needed to be adjusted away from the nut substantially, and all saddles including the high E moved to correct. Ten or 15 minutes with a screwdriver solved that, but really a bad setup.

It's a really good guitar. I'm not going to say 'at this price', it's just good. The price is just a bonus.

Imitation Game…on!

They say imitation is the best form of flattery. HB’s version of Gibson’s classic DC junior clearly testifies to the afore mentioned.

This guitar is both a great first axe and also the right side of affordability to mod with unbridle enthusiasm.

winner winner chicken dinner

Don't hesitate to get your hands on one of these excellent instruments.

Great guitar in this price range

Great guitar and ready to play out of the box. No set up is necessary. The guitar is light weight and can be carried around easily. The quality of the frets is very good. The only thing that I found strange is that the overall length of the guitar is smaller that usual electric guitars - it could be that the body is smaller. Would be an excellent choice for a beginner.

This is one great guitar for the price!

This guitar looks, sounds and feels great to play!

I play a lot of punk/pop type music and some rock/blues and after playing on this guitar for about a week now, I can honestly say that it is one of my favourites. The colour is just beautiful, have a really nice sparkly glitter to it that just catches the eye. I did a very close look to see if there was any scratches or blurs in the finish and I couldn't spot any. The build quality and set up of of the box was very good and all I had to do was put on a new set of strings since the ones that it came with had that oxidized feel to them. The pick up sounds great, and playing with the volume and tone knobs give this beast a ton of different voicings, from snarly broken up crunch to warm clean tones. The neck starts out rather slim and narrow at the nut, but does thicken up nicely as you get towards the bridge, which felt strange at first, but now just feels natural even when switching through guitars.

Pleasantly surprised.

I wasn't expecting much but this thing is a pleasure to play and is sounds great. I always had reservations about getting a single pickup guitar but I am happy with my purchase. It will hold its own against any other brand.

Amazing guitar for the money

I was hesitant to go in on a HB, so I grabbed this on a whim and am shocked at how nice it is. The Pelham Blue is great, sparkly and not a scratch on it. The neck is smaller and than a normal LP neck but I like that and I've been using this as a practice guitar. The pickup is fine for my purposes as I never play live (Update: I replaced the stock pickup with a Lollar overwound P90 and some shims to raise it up and this thing sounds amazing). I'm very happy so far and have already bought another HB.

Best Harley Benton I've bought

I'm very critical about guitars. I often find guitar setups to be less than average, out of the box. The first thing I normally do, when getting a new guitar, is get it over to the local guitar tech and get a professional setup - nut cutting and fretwork, if needed. This happens for about 90% of guitars, even high end ones.

I'm genuinely gob smacked how well this guitar has been built for the money.

- The fretwork is very good. Shiny frets, almost perfectly level. There is one high fret, but I'll take it to the tech to sort that out.

- The bridge doesn't have to be decked to the wood to get a low action, which can be common on this style of guitar.

- Amazingly clean fretboard (none of that usual black stuff that comes on on your fingers when playing)

- The nut is cut perfectly, no binding and cut properly to not give you out of tune cowboy chords, and even the dreaded F bar chord.

- Pickup is usable. Very much like a mellow tele pickup. I won't be swapping it

- The machine heads are very good quality, for the price

- A lovely, sparkly finish.

- Very smooth volume and tone controls

- Solid jack socket.

The only real con is that there is a slight ding on the top side of the neck, just near the fretboard, in the clear coat. You don't feel this, when playing, so I'm not too fussed about it.

On arrival, the neck had a bit of a forward bow, but the truss rod is good and it straightened up perfectly. I imagine this may be due to temperature fluctuations, or maybe the QC set it up this way as forward bow is better than back bow.

It may be that because this guitar was on pre-order, it hasn't been sat in a warehouse for ages and hasn't had time to develop any major faults. Either than, or Harley Benton have really up'ed their game on these newer models.

If this guitar was your first purchase, you would be very happy with the setup. I can't recommend this guitar enough. This is by far the best Harley Benton I've had my hands on. This guitar is the best is the best value for money guitar that I've ever purchased.

Very happy.

This guitar is killer!

really great guitar! quality is more like a expensive instrument ! very lite and resonant! The pelham blue colour is awesome looking! I only change the nut to bone and the pickup to lollar p90 dogear and it SREAMS! The stock pickup is great too just a little different from p90! Great work Harley Benton !

Amazing guitar for the money.

I purchased this guitar during it's first run as my first brand new guitar in almost 20 years. I chose it because the DC junior style has always been a favorite of mine and I couldn't really pass up the price.

When I got the guitar I was genuinely stunned by the quality, especially for the price. The finish was flawless, the set up was perfect, and the color was even more attractive than the pictures made it look.

I've now had it for a few months and I am still as happy as I was when I first got it. It sounds great, it plays great, it's significantly lighter than my Flying V, which also makes me look forward to playing it. My only complaint is the use of a neck pickup cover instead of a bridge pickup cover, meaning the pickup is a little farther away from the strings than it could be, but that's a minor issue that can be fixed.

I cannot recommend this guitar enough and I have a feeling HB is going to be my go-to for any more guitars I may get in the future. Especially if they make a two-pickup DC Special ;)

Absolutely wonderful and light weight

My second DC-Junior and on the first one I decided to change the pick up to a Seymour Duncan SH4-JB as that is my favourite pick up. Pick ups can be a very personal thing.

The guitar is very light weight and still well balanced. The P-90 stays on this guitar as I found it give a good sound where you can hear the tones even if you play distorted as I do most of the time. You still can get it to scream so there is power in the pick up.

Neck feels really good, better than on the first one. The quality have improved but the other one I use 11-54 and on this I decided to stay with 10-52. Great rhythm guitar sound and easy to play.

Tuners look good and it stays in tune as long as you remember to stretch the strings after you change them and do it more than ones. Another beautiful guitar for under 200€ and it looks just gorgeous!