Harley Benton DC-Junior TV Yellow Reviews

Great!

Great quality for the prize!

Magnificent P90 instrument!

I’ve been seeking a P90 guitar and as soon as I saw this one, it became my sixth Harley Benton purchase in 2024. Its looks and feel are extraordinary. A friend of mine has a Gibson version and he feels that this Harley Benton version has 90 percent of the functionality of his!

No Bull!

An excellent sounding no nonsense guitar! Set up was great straight out of the box!

1 tone, 1 volume - what else do you need?

Great guitar!

Similar to a SG! A++

Not TV yellow not even close.

I was expecting a yellow guitar but got a baby shit beige thing, it will not stay in tune no matter what set up I try so tuners have been ordered in fact all hardware will be replaced and guitar re sprayed tv yellow. Basically I bought a body which will make a good starting point, I couldn't be bothered returning it so I decided to build a good one. P90's ok maybe I got a bad one ? but pleased I was not and I have to give my honest opinion.

Simple Classic

This is a great guitar. It sits right up there with my Gibson les Paul in terms of build quality and playability. Might upgrade the pickup at some stage but for now I have it shimmed closer to the strings.

One of the BEST harley bentons I have ever purchased

no one flaw found. I was totally shocked. The Indonesia factory must be REALLY GOOD at what they do!

my gibson is embarrassed

outstanding guitar out of the box ...no I don't want to change the pickups ..no I don't need to change the nut or the tuners , they work great..the guitar looks fantastic and is lovely ...if this were a girl I'd have asked for her hand on the first date...well done HB

Great guitar

This guitar is a solid rock machine. I have many guitars and it never fails. Every time I plug this one in the guys in the band always start going on about how amazing it sounds. I highly recommend this guitar

Everything I expected and more.

I have way too many guitars, some very expensive. I fancied this as it was very simple.

It is well constructed, easy to play, and sounds good.

I have ordered a replacement bridge because of comments on eBay, but now I wonder if I should have.

I love the mustard finish. Much nicer than tv yellow.

Highly recommended.

Great Playing Guitar

Feels fun to play, sounds great too. Highly recommend!

This is an partial review…

But to simplify it, if you have been lucky enough to get your hands on a DCJr, hang on to it for dear life. For that kind of money, there are very few specialty axes that come within 200 miles of it in value, quality, playability and overall vibe. I was thinking of returning it because it doesn’t say Gibson, and it should! It’s that good.

Can't Believe it

So ... I like many others was like .. $250 for a double cutaway LP-Jr. like guitar .. OK I will try it. WOW Was I shocked! This thing plays AMAZING, has great sound and was setup great.

The only real "criticism" is that in the humid of the midwest, you have to stay on top of the tunning.

Besides that I couldn't be happier

Harley Benton DC-Junior TV Yellow

I read all the reviews before buying this and decided to buy one.

Firstly all the hardware is very good and the finish is excellent.

There are however some major issues to address if you need this to be a pro guitar tool.

I'm going to list the good points first.

Neck, nice dark fingerboard with expertly fitted frets with no sharp edges.

Neck shape, as other reviewers have said is not fat and not thin, just somewhere in between, I love it.

Pickup ok, seems to be noise cancelling and has a medium output.

Wrap around bridge is not bad and with the stud adjustment screws in the bridge I was able to fully intonate.

Machine heads are good, there's no slip and holds tuning very well.

The nut is white graphite and there's no friction to worry about here.

As I mentioned earlier, the finish on mine is as good as I've seen on any guitar, even the big names.

So far so good

Things in my opinion as a luthier, that will need to be addressed:

Pickup height straight out of the box is nowhere near close enough to the strings, so output is very low and uneven . The pickup will need raising at least 4.5mm to achieve a good balanced output. A dogear pickup shim or two will do this.

The machine heads on mine were all loose , some literally fell of when I removed the strings. The machine securing holes at the rear of the headstock will need plugging as these screws are too short to hold the machines in this mahogany neck, they should be longer.

The 500k tone control doesn't have a smooth taper even when the pickup is at correct height, it attenuates highs only on the last three digits of travel. This should be lower in value, I changed mine for a 250k log and this sorted the problem.

Finally to get max playability and low action from any guitar, fret dressing is usually required.

This guitar wasn't bad but like any guitar it did benefit from having one.

To conclude, I can honestly say this guitar punches well above it's weight and with some tlc will hold it's own with any name guitar out there.

I'm absolutely blown away with it.

Great buy

For the price you can't beat this guitar. The sound is very good and the quality is great!

Fantastic value

Outstanding finish, frets work, setup nice tuner and overall hardware. Wonderful colour and painting job.

Pickups could be a little better, tone wise (only upgrade I intend to proceed with).

Sure it looks and feel like a way more expensive instrument, I am very pleased.

Got a good one

This is possibly one of the nicer guitars I've ever owned, and I've had dozens.

But....I've had to do a but of work. Also, I've already ordered a couple of these and one was returned faulty and the other was sold on after giving up on it. I decided to get this one because I wanted a TV Yellow junior and took another chance...and it's paid off. Lower tier Harley Bentons can be a bit of a crap shoot but if you get a good one and know how to set up a guitar you're laughing.

This one came very well set up and it seems to be well constructed with good wood. Very resonant. The finish is great as well. But the bridge had issues with some of the saddles being rough and uneven. I had to replace 2 (I had some spares handy) and use a file to sort out the others. Most people would have had to return this because of it, even on a budget guitar this wasn't acceptable, but I have repair experience so I could fix it.

Now it's a great little guitar for the price. I've ordered a spacer for the P90 which is too low IMO (another thing Harley Benton should consider before selling these) but overall I'm happy with what I've got now.

Great little guitar!

A great little guitar that with some set-up and attention feels and plays absolutely amazing!

For the people looking for more info!

The guitar has a medium 12'' neck, slightly skinnier than a 60s les paul kind neck. The bridge has about a 12'' radius as well.

Comes with full sized pots and a .22 tone cap.

The P90 dog ear pick up isn't height adjustable, so you will need a shim or spring of some kind to get it to the right specs.

The only things I found needed some attention where the nut action and the rolling of the fretboard edge, which was a little harsh. Other than that, a solid 4,5/5!

I am impressed

I'd seen some very good reviews but truthfully I was skeptical. I no longer am. I've been playing guitar for 50++ years and have owned many classic Gibsons, Fenders, etc. One of the models I always loved was the LP Junior. I've played my share of these in the past. This Harley Benton definitely scratches that itch for me. What's remarkable is the price and the quality of this instrument! Not 3-4k for a reissues replica from the original manufacturer, not even the $400 or so of an Epiphone, but for less than $200(plus shipping) a guitar that in my opinion can hold it's own! Sure, it's not a big brand name. If that's your criteria then this will be a pass for you. But if your criteria is a high quality guitar that plays and feels like it cost a whole lot more, then pull the trigger on this and you will not be disappointed. In my opinion if more people realized there are guitars of this quality available the big name brands would be in deep trouble. Lastly the guitar arrived set up perfectly-intonation spot-on, very good action. Only thing I needed to do was polish the frets a bit to remove some slight grit. I'm still pinching myself that I was able to get a guitar like this for that kind of price! Maybe the gift of making it to my age is that I no longer care about the prestige of a "name"- to paraphrase Duke Ellington, "..if it plays good & sounds good, it IS good"

The Hartley Benton LP Junior is all that and then some.

Possible cult classic

Originally bought a stratalikey out of curiosity and a cheap way to get “That” sound..

Was stunned by the quality and even though I hate the expression “ for the money” I ended up doing some research into how they could be so cheap..once satisfied I wasn’t supporting child slave labour I hit the button on this..

Its a simple well made honest guitar..I alway change the strings and tweak the action and once done this becomes unputdownable…

Had a lot of players in my studio try it and everyone so far has loved it.

Just waiting for them to do a firebird now!

Forget headstock snobbery and do yourself a favour.