Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit DC Style

Excellent value for what you get, and a great way to start a new guitar project!

This kit is just awesome, the body was greatly finished, the neck is flawless and the nut also has quality, the frets and the finish in the neck are just simply lovely! The body is very easy to work with and it's ready for paint! The hardware all works as it should, the electronics are also adequate, but for the price of the whole kit you couldn't ask for more! So it is a great build platform, and perfect for other pickup and electronic configurations, and if you are picky about the tuners just get a good set of locking ones!

I really like it

I ordered this as I wanted to assemble the instrument I'm playing on as well as to try some mods. It is easy to assemble and plays decently out of the box. Wood (body)- very light and some how "acoustic" if it makes sense. Neck - I like the width but the shape is a bit odd (for me at least) as I have short flingers. I'm planning to reshape it and this will be fun as this instrument just asks you to try some modifications. Electronics - I replaced it but the original was working Hardware - not bad. I replaced the tuners, and the tun-o-matic bridge but the originals were doing the job just fine. I decided not to paint it as the wood grains feel very nice. Maybe will paint it in the future. Overall I'm very pleased. Yes, you may find assembled instruments for a 100 euro but where is the fun in that.

Surprisingly great...

Thought this kit was going to be feel cheap but turned out to be surprisingly great. Neck well finished and body good, pick ups good, volume and tone controls ok. Instructions ok (plenty of online guides as well). finished body with a green burst, all fit together well and is very playable.

My neck arrived broken at the scarf joint. my return is being processed now.

It seems very glossy out of the box. you could leave it unfinished if you wanted. apart from the broken headstock, the neck is amazing. I'm not even going to touch it with any clear coat. i will paint the headstock though.

nice looking kit..some holes were not in line..it is little unstable even after changing machine heads..dont know why.maybe wood is not dryed enough.i changed pickup for warman invader and made a bone nut..levelled frets ..frets are a cheap material and they show wear very quickly..but actually this is one of the best kits ive done and guitar looks fine.even without those changes..neck is nice and it is balanced ok

Great kit, if you’re willing to put some work into it

I love doing mods on guitars, and decided to try out one of these kits to build from the ground up. After a bit of work, I love the results.

No complaints about manufacturing or machining. All predrilled holes lined up as they should, and the neck fit snugly into its pocket. Even with shipping/taxes/fees, still less expensive than most kits. I would say that if you’re planning on tuner or electronics upgrades, you will probably be best served by installing them to begin with. That said, I wanted to see what the initial quality level and sound were like out of the box. Most hardware was good, though I had issues with the smallest screws in the tuners - but they were the only hardware I had a complaint about. And I found that I was happier with tuning stability after installing locking tuners - that’s where the hardware issue bit me, but I resolved it with a little work. The prewired plug-in electronics harness was well put together, but the bridge pickup was wildly microphonic. I’d planned on upgrading that anyway, so no big loss. The neck pickup was fine, so I decided to save myself some upgrade funds and kept it. Switching was solid, and pots were relatively noise-free. The wood finish needed relatively little prep for painting, and I found only a couple of smaller rough spots inside the cutaways. Binding on the fretboard was clean and very smooth, and frets were smooth and even. A little work on the slots in the nut was necessary, as I found the cuts a bit shallow. No big thing. After a few minor tweaks and upgrades to the bridge pickup and tuners (which, as I said, I’d planned on anyway), I’m very happy with the way it plays, feels and sounds. I’ve spent more “fixing” guitars at 2-3x the price, and I even got the opportunity to put my own artistic stamp on the finish. As with other HB offerings, you really can’t go wrong for the money - I’m just trying to decide on which kit I want to build next!

Super

My son wanted to create his own guitar. So lovely idea to allow people do so. Love it

This kit was much higher quality than other companies.

I have put 14 guitar kits together over the last two years and this is one of my favorites.

Great guitar if you get all the parts.

This is a very fun project guitar if you wants something that plays and sounds great without too much work. The biggest reason I got this over the others is because I didn't have to shape the headstock myself. It was a little difficult trying to figure out which pots go where and how to orient the pickup switch. As a result, they are backwards, which isn't a big deal for me. What is a big deal is that it didn't come with the correct amount or types of screws, and as a result I can't properly screw my backplate or pickguard on. I basically have my pickguard wedged in place between the pickup mounts and the backplate is held in place by the 1 screw left that did fit. You'll need to take some time to get your bridge action and saddle intonation correct, which takes a bit of learning, but that's what a guitar like this is for. If I were to replace any of the hardware on this guitar I would replace the tuning machine. They're okay but could be better, but it's not too big of an issue.

But other that those issues, the guitar looks and plays great. I was originally going to sand and stain it purple, but I actually ended up really liking the look of the natural wood, so I left it as is. This is the only guitar I have tuned to E and it's perfect with the 24.75" scale. The stock pickups sound pretty good, no complaints. The tailpiece and bridge are pretty good quality, not made of cheap metal like on some other cheaper guitars. Fretwork was perfectly smooth and even and the neck was straight.

Overall, I would easily get another DiY kit from Harley Benton and I would recommend them to anyone. Just make sure they send you all the screws you need...

Fun kit for experimentation

I bought this to experiment with. This is dirt cheep and you want something like this to practice your painting and finishing on.

I did not even bother to try the electronics, they felt very cheep, and I had an Epiphone harness and pickups I used instead. The tuners also felt very cheap so I thrashed them along with the strings and the plastic jack cable.

I used the knobs. I like those!

Anyway: the neck fit the body perfectly and was better than I expected, a pleasant surprise. The was well cut and fine for my purpose.

BUT the neck dive on this guitar is tremendous. Even when sitting down it is too much. SG's are notorious neck divers, but this is far worse. This may be vary across individual kits, I don't know, but I fear the is not a significant difference.