Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit DC Style 4-stars Reviews

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.

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.

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!

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...

Good kit build

Fun kit and my first relic build. I painted it sky blue but may do a psychedelic paint job on it.

Great learning experience, surprisingly OK guitar, wood should be improved

(edited after upgrading the guitar after some months' use)

This was my first guitar building kit. It was a fairly easy assembly. Holes were pre-drilled accurately, and electronics were pre-wired and could be hooked up without having to solder. So perfect as a first project.

The result was a fully playable guitar, though with some issues:

- didn't hold tuning particularly well

- very sharp fret ends that even caused finger bruises

- quite dull sound, little dynamics

- body too light, so it nosedives a bit when wearing a strap. The wood is also quite soft and easy to scratch

After building another guitar kit from another vendor a bit later, I had a bit more confidence to revisit the DC, and basically stripped it down to the woodwork and redid mostly everything:

- new tuners (Grover)

- new nut (Tusq)

- Golden Age pickups from StewMac

- levelled, recrowned and filed frets

After this upgrade, the tuning problem is fixed, the neck plays easy and fast, and the sound is much improved, though still a bit dull compared to my other guitars. I've analysed this sound problem with audio software, and it's measurable that high frequencies roll off faster than my other guitars. After reading some articles, I suspect the latter problem has to do with the very light woodwork and resulting lack of resonance, but I'm not an expert.

To summarise:

Pros:

- Perfect learning kit, little equipment required

- Very decent guitar for the price

Cons:

- Wood not so good: too light, easy to scratch, impacts sound. Much sanding required to get rid of pre-sealer before painting

- Included pickups quite dull

- neck is a bit on the wide side

- Instruction manual doesn't mention important setup steps that would greatly improve the guitar (eg frets)

Overall:

- Good starter kit that can be upgraded to a very decent instrument. Cheap wood limits how good it can become.

good guitar for little money

High quality materials, but for some reason the holes were drilled crookedly and the tomann did not put a lining under the heel of the neck, picks were stolen on the way. But overall I am very happy with the guitar.

Great kit for people looking to start building guitars

The kit arrived in a box containing three more boxes. The outer box had some dents in it, but because of the inner boxes, all the parts arrived safely and intact.

The wood of the body was already pre-sealed so it only required some light sanding in order to start painting. This was a breeze, I decided to do a satin white paint job on the body and front of the headstock.

The neck was a tab thick for my liking, therefore I took it to the belt sander to take approximately 2 mm of the back. This allowed me to make into more of a flat-backed neck in resemblance of an Ibanez neck.

The frets required a small amount of filing to get the sharpness off. This was not that difficult and to be expected on a kit under 100.

The end result is a well-playing guitar that definitely doesn't sound the best (again expected for under 100), but plays pretty good.

For me, this was more of an entry into building guitars in general and it therefore didn't matter what the sound was like. I heavily recommend it for this purpose, but not as a great guitar as is. Changing the pickups and electronics might make it a long way to a half-decent guitar though.

Worth it

Few spots here and there that can be easily fixed other than these small things its perfect.

Great Kit

I have built several kits from others and this kit ranks up there in quality. The neck is straight and frets only need polished. They all are level and no sharp end frets. This would be great guitar build with kids just getting started, as painting will only require slight sanding to be ready for paint.

Great value for money but worth replacing the electronics

This is not the first kit I have made, but it is the first from Harley Benton.

First Impressions:

The instructions are better than others I have seen. I admit I didn't follow them, just read them when the guitar arrived and then filed them somewhere so safe they will never be seen again...

Construction:

The wood is nicely cut and sanded with a snug fit for the neck joint. I assembled the guitar straight out the box to test the components, played it for a bit (more on that below) and then took apart again to paint and correct any faults I had located. I would put this as ideal for someone looking to learn more about how guitars are put together and a great launch pad into the world of setting up.

Hardware:

The metal components are reasonable. I chose not to replace them as the guitar can hold it's tuning with no issues.

Playability:

The neck is massive! Maybe it is because I am used to shred machines but this thing took some getting used to! None of the frets buzz - a first for any kit I've made! Really good job.

Sound:

Oh dear... This is where the change was required. I binned all the electronics; it sounded weaker than the weakest cup of English tea in a swimming pool of water... Definitely worth buying new pickups if you want a good tone

Conclusion:

I really enjoyed this kit and I hope to buy another HB one soon. Best value kit I have made requiring the least overall work and clearly eye catching as my band mate instantly offered to buy it from me!

Shockingly solid and VERY easy to put together!

Granted - I have some experience with wiring and components, but this was so incredibly easy to assemble. It took maybe 2 hours to put together and have it sounding great. The pickups aren't as hot/high-output as I'm used to, but other that that it sounds great.

My only real complaint is that the neck is thicker than I generally like, but otherwise it plays great and sounds solid.

For the price... this is a no brainer.

Good fun to bild

Good initiation kit. You can bild a playable instrument thought fret work is a little bit rough and pickup are underpowered.

Un bon petit kit pour s'initier au montage et au réglage d'une guitare

Il s'agit d'une guitare en kit, à assembler soi-même donc :-) Tous les trous sont préforés et le pack contient tout pour obtenir un instrument complet et jouable. Il vous faudra quand-même quelques outils : pince, clef, tourne-vis... et des bombes de peinture/laque/vernis... en fonction de l'aspect que vous désirez lui donner. L'ensemble est relativement simple à monter mais il vous faudra vous renseigner sur les réglages (intonation, hauteur des cordes, courbure du manche) et vous armer d'un peu de patience pour obtenir un résultat satisfaisant si c'est votre première fois. Une fois terminé, on se retrouve avec une guitare qui sonne étonnamment bien pour le prix (je pensais changer les micros mais finalement j'aime beaucoup le grave et vais seulement changer le micro chevalet) et avec le plaisir de l'avoir montée soi-même et la possibilité de la customiser en restant dans des prix raisonnables (j'ai changé les potards et vais changer les mécaniques qui ne tiennent pas super l'accord). Enfin, n'hésitez pas à acheter un autre jeu de cordes. Celui fourni fait l'affaire pour tester l'instrument mais je n'en suis pas fan.

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.

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.