Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit DC Style Reviews

Bumps in the road for a kit newbie

I'd not built a kit guitar before, but always wanted to, and I'd always wanted a double-cut style guitar, so this seemed an inexpensive way in. Out of the box, all seemed fine at first, until I realised the instructions were subtly different from the collection of guitar parts in front of me. The instructions were for a similar model and one assumes the manufacturer had thought it 'near enough' so as not to go to the expense of authoring a separate document. However during assembly certain things became a matter of guesswork. Why was there a black unsoldered earth lead with nowhere for it to go? Why was the output jack routed through the front and not the bottom? There was scant information as to which pickup went in which position and the same for the wiring. Despite these challenges I was able (after painting) to put the guitar together in an afternoon, and the resulting instrument was easy to set up (no truss rod adjustment needed) and was a pleasure to play. I really think though, that the instructions were awful and a novice with perhaps less experience of working on guitars than I, could have been in real trouble.

Best SG kit out there

Opened the box and was very impressed, body route is incredibly close to gibson (if you have a gibson and epiphone side by side then you know the routing for the bevels isnt the same) seems to have a sanding slealer on the body, so be warned if you're using stains they wont take properly with this on, but i did have success after taking a sander to it, done it up in the classic cherry red, plugged the holes for the tailpiece and fitted a maestro vibrato to it, so with all the binding, colour and appointments it looks fresh out the 60's, I stuck in axes r us classic 50's in to this and it sounds like an old SG should, and put the pickups from this into an avon les paul and that thing is now the perfect heavy rock axe, im assuming alnico 5 or something as they dont sound and mid range-y and harsh as ceramics, even though i took the pickup covers off because brass covers kill high end, either way the pickups in this sound awesome, the frets and that are surpisingly well done out the box, nicely seated and polished, still find a high spot here or there, but i'll set it up properly when i have more time, but the point of the matter, is, if you have the cash then go for it, harley benton products do not skip on quality with their low price tag

Surprisingly good!

I bought this kit on a whim and was quite staggered how good the fit and finish was when it arrived, I had expected it to be a little more than firewood with some metal and plastic bits thrown in! How wrong I was!

Mine is the older style kit with the more trad SG shaped body and larger scratch plate which I prefer. The neck in particular is lovely, very smooth binding with no sharp edges on the frets.

Construction of the guitar is very quick and easy, probably less than an hour but getting a decent finish takes time. I finished mine using a water based walnut tinted varnish on the body and matt black paint on the front of the headstock (with a biGson anagrammed logo) with a clear polyurethane spray coat on top. I deliberately gave the body a few minor dents and left the clear coat a bit rough without polishing to give it an aged look which has been quite effective, I'm very pleased with it.

Once constructed I was surprised that very little set up was required, intonation was almost perfect and just a little raising of the bridge took care of a bit of string buzz around the 12th fret whilst retaining a good low action. So far I've only played the guitar through the software amps included in Garageband but have been thoroughly impressed by the overall sound, for such an inexpensive kit it's amazing! Very highly recommended.

Good kit and a lot of fun

The kit was a lot of fun to finish and put together. I was planning on sanding the entire guitar down to bare wood anyway, but when i saw the sanding sealer I knew it was a good choice to begin with. With that said, after the elbow grease of getting through the sealer, I was able to stain the basswood body with a deep cherry red (traditional color) and the body took the stain nicely. It was finished with a wipe on poly, and turned out quite well. The neck is a nice shape, scale is right on, and it feels good after going down to bare wood, and finishing with tru-oil. I sanded the neck pocket a few mm's too low when trying to straighten it out so it was necessary to put a shim in the neck pocket, which is not uncommon. The electronics are sub-par to the say the least, which was expected at this price point. Overall its a really accurate copy, short of the set neck. For a project guitar, and my first kit build/refinish, it turned out great and would love to do another one.

Not bad for what it costs

I bought this guitar a long while ago and finally got round to putting it together.I have made one kit before from a different manufacturer and I have to say in general the quality of this kit was far superior!

All parts were of decent quality and it was easily assembled in a little over 45mins.

As for problems I found one small blemish in the body of the guitar that seemed like it had been noticed in the factory and that someone had rubbed rough grade sandpaper over it to try and correct it but probably made it look worse. I had been planning on not painting the guitar but had to then to hide this blemish but this was nothing major. The only other issue I had was with lining up the scratch pate and the two bridge pins as they did not line up properly and I could not insert the bridge without a lot more sanding and grinding of the bridge holes than you would expect on this guitar as it looked more like an issue from manufacturing of the scratch plate.

Once I put the guitar together I have to sy it looked and played really really well. Sound quality was impressive and I would definitely consider buying another kit to expand my collection and my skills at building.

Great fun to paint and mount with quite a nice result

It was a very nice project to paint and build this guitar with quite a nice result. I've done it all with my son Gabriel. We created a blog named "Ma gratte maison" (in french) for the project with all the details. Blogging was part of the fun too.

The guitar actually looks and works quite well and when the guitar was finished Gabriel finally started playing guitar. Smoke on the water was the first thing he ever played.

Just a small problem with pots that work like "on-off". Had to be replaced.

On the whole I'm very happy

I bought 2 of these some time back as Christmas presents for my two boys. Then I found out the eldest doesn't like the LP style so had to get him an SG. This meant I had a spare so kept it for myself lol.

I've completed the first one and nearly finished the second. The whole thing could probably be put together in an hour including setup but I've spent a good deal of time on painting, using two different techniques for the finish.

Using water based dyes and Waterbourne clear gloss laquer, on one of the bodies I sanded off the sealer, applied several coats of blue stain direct to the wood and then added a very small amount of stain to the laquer of which I sprayed about six coats. Removing the sealer meant that the wood grain raised up and required flatting between applications. Whilst it is now very smooth to the touch the slightly raised grain is very pleasing, giving it that real wood effect and the darker colour of the grain is a lovely contrast. I finished the back with a black tinted clear gloss which built up to a nice dark contrast to the front but still shows off the wood grain to good effect.

On the second body I left the sealer intact and added more stain into the laquer coats, again in blue for the centre but with a dark red burst effect on the outer edge. The colour choices were my son's and I wasn't sure how it would look but it actually looks pretty cool. This method was much easier as the sealer keeps the grain from raising and gives a glassy smooth finish. This one was painted with the same red on the back as I used for the burst effect to which I added some black to darken it to match the front as the underlying blue made the red a lot darker. This finish completely covers the grain on the back.

The headstocks were finished in blue on mine and red on my son's and a few coats of clear satin laquer on the neck to seal the wood against dirty finger marks and general grime and to aid sliding your hand up and down the neck.

The necks supplied with these kits are a superb quality and have'nt needed any fretwork at all. I have, however, cut the nut string grooves slightly lower as the strings sat too high over the first fret making chords sound a little out of tune when played open.

Now for a few minor grumbles.

The beading on the body of both kits was very poorly finished around the neck pocket, mostly because the wood itself was poorly cut at this point and they required re-glueing onto the body at this point.

The wiring harness was already connected between the pickups and the selector switch and having pair marked them before detaching to feed into the body channels I found that when connected back in the original pairing that only one pickup worked. This meant removing everything to analyse and correct the error during which one of the pickup wires became detached and needed to be re-soldered and shrink sleeve sealed. I'm hoping for better fortune when I help my son with assembly on his tonight.

The majority of the pre-drilled screw holes were just slightly miss-aligned meaning that most of the screws went in on the slant. When fully screwed in this is hardly noticeable but annoying all the same.

On the plus side all the hardware worked perfectly, I may switch the volume pots from linear to audio taper as the sweep control all takes place in the first quarter turn of the knob and is difficult to set a balance when using both pickups together and for some strange reason both volume controls need to be turned up above zero together when soloing the neck or bridge pup. I was pleased with the smooth operating quality of the tuners and the overall tone is very nice all round. Needless to say, the stock strings supplied are not the best quality, I fitted a set of daddario XL's.

Discounting all the labour (which I really enjoy anyway) and material costs (approximately £40 for the pair) the finished guitar is excellent value for money and gives added pleasure when playing having put a piece of yourself into its soul.

Just realised that this review is on the wrong product. It was intended to be a review of the LP style SC kits that I purchased. If an admin proof reader can correct this I would be grateful. I have tried to cut and paste to the appropriate item but this option seems to be disabled in the text editing window. Sorry if I have misled or confused any readers.

For DIY guitarists

Nice stuff for such price but more intended to people used to DIY. Mounting the guitar is easy, however some adjustments are necessary principally regarding the neck and its set-up, and some fret work may also be necessary for setting strings as low as possible without buzz. In my case, the 21 fret had to be filed and re-crowned due to duplicate tons (same ton at the 20 and 21 frets for the lower 4 strings. I did all this job and really appreciated setting up my guitar myself, a very good leaning process.

I have also placed better strings on it, as well as a couple of EMG pickups, and the guitar sounds great. For the finish, just applied some beeswax on it.

Well worth the money, if you have the time.

Firstly, this is a great product for the money you pay out. Its a blank canvas to really express yourself and learn the intrinsic method behind guitar construction. If you've the time and patience, a great instrument can come from these kits.

I've been assembling guitars from unrelated, refurbished and hand-crafted parts for several years and these kits caught my eye as a quick and fun departure from the rugged learning curve of trying to make guitars from scratch. However, there is no quick and easy assembly. You need time, patience and certainly some common sense, not to mention some understanding of wood-working methods. Modification was necessary on both the kits i put together to achieve a good playable guitar at the end.

The parts are of good, basic quality. Though i removed the solderless wiring loom and hand wired a simpler circuit. The body and neck balance well, though i wouldn't use the strap pin hole provided, as this led the guitar to be neck heavy.

I wont go into the finishing etc, that's the self-indulgent part ;)

If you've even the slightest incline toward wanting to try one of these kits, just do it. Its a load of fun!

The good, the bad and the decent

Given that quality control is more or less non existent on many kits, cheap guitars and even surprisingly, some very expensive guitars, I wasn't expecting much.

Both the body and the neck had quite a few dings, the fretboard was damaged / repaired. Both volume pots are low quality and the pot knobs are of the incredibly cheap variety.

The neck pocket was overly large so the neck was loose, the bridge holes were too high in the body. The tuner holes were incorrectly positioned and the assortment of screws supplied was just an assortment and not pertaining to what was actually required.

You will be forgiven for thinking that I would recommend everyone stays clear, but I won't be doing that.

If you get a good kit you will be delighted.

If you get a bad kit but are interested more in learning how to build a guitar, have some basic tools and some knowledge of woodworking / principles of guitar building then you will enjoy it.

For all the faults that I have stated, after I was finished the guitar plays very well, has a nice low action, the neck is very fast, is well intonated and the pickups are very good, delivering both a nice crunch and being able to play warmly delivering very long sustains. It's no £500 plus guitar but it is now better than a lot of squiers / epiphones that I have played.

I didn't have enough time to sort it completely (bought for sons birthday) but I am very happy with the way it has turned out, I may just order one for myself.

A fun project!

My 15-year-old son bought this kit - he already owns three acoustics, a Dobro, two electrics and a bass - and finished and assembled it himself.

All the woodwork was neat and precise, with holes and routs in the right places and the neck apparently individually matched to the body before routing.

Painting and varnishing was the most time-consuming, including two weeks waiting for the clear coat to dry, but that's not really anything to do with the kit.

Assembly took an evening, and the only extra work required was sanding the sides of the neck pocket where the finish had made it too tight. The instructions were mostly clear and unambiguous, although the wiring harness took a bit of brain-work to install correctly.

We were concerned that the fingerboard inlays (a few of which were slightly raised) would impede playing, but it hasn't been a problem at all.

The nut slots were cut a bit high - we will get our local guitar shop to file them down.

Plugged in, the guitar produced the familiar humbucking "roar", with plenty of tonal variation and great sustain. However, my son decided he wanted a more aggressive, primal tone, so we bought him a pair of Seymour Duncan Phat Cat P-90s with which he replaced the stock humbuckers.

He now has a unique bright blue "SG" which he built himself!

Easy Build

Took only a few hours to build this guitar. Needs a little knowledge about setting up intonation and the neck tension to get the best out of it. I ditched the supplied pickups (quite acceptable quality) and fitted a couple real vintage CSM humbuckers I had spare. I also replaced the Nut with a quality graphite stepped one and filed it down to suit the string height I required. Bridge height and neck adjustment too a little longer to set up. Needed to enlarge the scratch plates bridge post holes to get the bridge posts to sit lower in the guitar.

Strap stud relocated to wing on body rather than back of neck area.

Now it plays well and stays in tune very well over long periods when hanging on the wall bracket in the living room. This the guitar I don't mind visitors having a shot of when partying and consuming alcohol. I keep my expensive quality guitars safely locked away in the case. Great for taking out to barbque's etc. Not worried if it gets abused.

I also replaced the supplied strings with known quality ones.

Great price. Easy build.

The: Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit DC-Style; is the next most complicated kit after the LP Style Kit, having to fit the pots, control knobs & selector switch, but the pickguard comes already loaded with the pickups. I made this kit with a guy who initially assembled it as it came out of the box & he was playing it within a few hours. The only problem there was a strap pin missing, but I had a spare one from another kit I'd fitted alternative ones on. He then striped it down so that we could customize & personalize it for him. I had a bell shaped truss rod cover made & engraved with his name Gibson style & a plate engraved with his name to go on the top of the headstock as maker. We swapped the control knobs for a set of silver speed knobs I made by silvering the base of a set of clear ones & we added a silver metal filigree toggle switch plate. All-in-all this is a great guitar project & I can't help rating it very Very Good. "Rock On" mddwoody.

Good for a project

This is good for a beginner who is looking to create a guitar. The holes were drilled in the wrong place which has rendered this guitar unplayable. Wont be getting anymore

SG Style Guitar kit

This is a good quality kit with high quality hardware. For this price it is difficult to go wrong. I had a spare set of humbuckers that I thought I may use to replace the ones provided but this was not necessary. I treated the body by rubbing in 3 or 4 coats of tru oil and have a very nice guitar for next to nothing. It was easy to assemble with minimum skill required but will give any guitarist an idea of how to wire and set up.

very nice guitar

this guitar is very good and sounds good as well and this time the neck fit in properly and easy to build as well, still haven't painted it and it look quite good with out the paint

SG delight....

Lovely kit this ... Received in 3 days as well !!!

Boxwood is not good for staining - so painting the body is more in order.

Assembles well ...though as stated previously, some holes incorrectly drilled.

All in all though, perfect intro to guitar building...and if your new to this, this is a great kit to start with.

Full pickguard version.

Some of the cheaper end SG's don't have the right looking pickguard but this one looks just right to me.

As far as kits go, the neck went on fine without any fuss. The rest of the guitar went on fine. There was a small issue with the pickguard and it lining up with one hole, but other than that, was fine. The project looked excellent when finished, very pleased.

Had to move the strap pin as it was neck heavy, but that's my worst complaint. Built up as a ncie guitar

HB SG Style Guitar

Hi, I bought this kit as my first. The first thing I noticed was it came really well packaged. On opening the kit contents were all as expected. Everything was nicely bagged, everything was easily recognizable. The body of the guitar was really well packages and finished with no dings or chip. The neck was boxed by itself. After I gave the body a sanding \I finished it in Black. Then it was on with the neck. Everything seemed to be fitting just as it should. Next was the electrics, Fitting these was helped by everything being pre wired. It was just a simple job of screwing the scratch plate in place and connecting a couple of connectors. After stringing the guitar I was really pleased with how well the guitar sounds. The Humbuckers picking up a nice tone from the basewood body and that's without any adjustment. The guitar holds its tune which is always a bonus. Im so pleased with the SG Ive also bought the LP style kit. My opinion, Try it, you will be surprised.

All This For Around £70!!!

This was a bit of fun as never built a kit before. But turned out to be a VERY playable solid guitar! Electronics very good for price except 500k volume and tone pots would have been better. I was very pleased with this and only a very slight sanding at neck joint to fit. (Was a bit worried after certain kt reviews needing machine work but not on this one. I you Fancy building your own guitar, This is definitely the kit to go for!! 5*