Harley Benton DC-LTD Gotoh Daphne Blue

fantastic instrument

playable right after a string change. we need light guage if we're going to thrash. only adjustments that i see are to trim some excess off the nut. happy with the pickups and the sound. not sure theres anything else i could ask for when spending this amount on a guitar. far exceeded any expectations i had.

Incredible guitar

This ones a beauty. Perfect. Amazing value for the money, I am one happy chappy.....

Be mindful this "LTD" model does "NOT" have the stainless steel frets.

If I had noticed that, at the time of purchase, I would have paid a little extra for the stainless steel fret version.

If lost or stolen - I would buy again in a heartbeat.

Unbeatable value for the price

A beautiful instrument and I just can't believe the cost vs value ratio on this. I am quite curious if the colour is going to fade, as someone else highlighted, as I am not keeping it in a bag but on the wall. I don't mind a faded blue though.

It's set up surprisingly well action and truss rod wise, the E is about 2mm from the 12th fret and while I like a much lower action, I still found the neck extremely comfortable. I planned to lower the action as I always do with everything, but I might just leave it as is. Intonation is not perfect but good enough, will adjust that. No buzz but with a 2mm height, I don't expect any.

The negatives:

There were a few minor scratches on and around the truss rod cover, like if someone went at it with a screwdriver when drunk and tried to be gentle, but could not manage. The fretboard does not look particularly nice, it's like the dark brown is painted on, and it's even dirty at some frets, but again, for this price... WHO CARES! I'll just clean it up. There is also a 2cm long black-ish mark at the bottom, and a few "grains" of paint where the surface is not completely smooth.

But honestly, I feel the overall build quality on this one is actually superior to my Sterling short scale (also made in Indonesia), and that goes for like £700 now. No sharp fret edges, no bent tuners and knobs...

Extremely satisfied.

Bang for your buck!

Beautiful color and finish, sounds amazing and looks amazing. Harley benton really knocked it out of the park with this one.

Faded paint within a month!

This guitar sounds and plays really well. The pickups sound great as humbuckers and the coil split is fine. The neck is fast and comfortable and overall this is a nice guitar for the price.

However....

At the time of writing, I've had this guitar for a month and the paint has faded significantly. It started out a rich robin's egg blue color and has bleached out several shades to a kind of grayish-greenish-blue. This is strikingly evident when I take off the pickguard and see the original blue that hasn't faded.

If I'd known I had to keep this guitar away from all sunlight, I'd have chosen a model that didn't have the matte paint and did have some kind of clear coat. Still, it's a strikingly nice instrument for the cost, just be warned that the color will not stay static.