Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit DC Style 5-stars Reviews

Great guitar, assembly was easy, some pre drilled holes slightly off but all the main ones for bridge and saddle spot on, frets need a bit of polishing but great neck, feels nice and quality very good. When finished and assembled the guitar sounded great and pleased with result. Will use in my band for some live gigs.

Better than expected, fun to build, great value

I am a home player and enjoy learning and playing different styles. I've had a few electrics over the years, currently own a couple of decent mid-range guitars. I bought this kit as I wanted something different and to put my own mark on it - it was also a 'lockdown' project to keep me busy!

Arrived very well packaged. I immediately ignored all instructions and focussed on working on the body. My objective was a natural type finish, not too glossy, so I went with Tru-oil. Youtube vids were helpful, it took a lot of sanding over many days and I am really pleased with how it looks. The body is obviously constructed out of pieces, so it was never going to look totally amazing, but I am very happy with it and the graining does look nice. Tru-oil does not darken the wood a great deal, so with hindsight I might have lightly stained it too before Tru-oiling, maybe I'll do that on my next guitar.

The neck is really good straight out of the box. I was very impressed - unlike the body it is already nicely finished and silky smooth. I did paint the headstock black and lacquer it, which makes it look much nicer. I also gave the frets some attention, levelling and polishing. I always fret polish new guitars, makes them feel smoother for string bending. I also adjusted the truss rod, which was a little out. The nut looked like it might be an issue, the slots were wide and not cut very deep, but after assembly it doesn't seem to cause any problems.

It took me a couple of weeks to prep the body and neck. It was then that I picked up the manual...

Assembling the guitar took two or three hours. The neck fitted the body absolutely perfectly, no need to adjust. As others have noted, the instructions on fitting the pots are terrible, impossible to make out from the photo which way around they go, I was lucky to get it mostly right first time but the pickup selector switch I put in upside down but easy to correct. When I got to fitting the pickups it all became clearer which way the pots should go - maybe I should have read forward in the instructions first.

It was not clear which screws to use for which purpose - some were longer than others - although not a major problem I ended up with long screws for the truss rod cover and I actually think they were the wrong ones so I'm just going to find some spare small ones and use those.

Once stringed up it all looked really good. Everything lined up well, I adjusted the action and as soon as I played without going through an amp I was really impressed - it sounded really nice and resonant. It actually felt like a good guitar, which was a huge relief! I then plugged it in to my amp and again I was really impressed with how nice it sounded without much adjustment - I haven't yet fine tuned the setup such as intonation and pickup height and I'm not even sure I need to.

In summary, I really enjoyed this project and am delighted with the results. There were no significant issues at all with the kit I received, everything fitted well and worked. I definitely recommend these kits - for the money they really are excellent and overall exceeded my expectations. For that reason I have given it a 5 star review.

I did have an Epiphone SG a few years ago - to be honest I prefer the HB kit. I might even upgrade some of the components over time.

Pros:

Really fun and rewarding project

Great value

Everything fitted well and worked straight off

Cons:

Tuners do the job but some very stiff

Instructions for fitting potentiometers are vague

This might be a new addiction, I immediately want to buy more kits!!

Amazing kit for the price

This was used for a project with my daughter and the result was amazing (red, with a coat of sparkling glitter and with a couple of decorations). The quality of the body finish was better than expected and the other items were well above the quality I expected. Instructions could be better, especially identifying the screws and some pieces that were not mentioned anywhere. Overall extremely satisfied though, it made me want to buy more to explore more of my creativity!

Nice project, nice guitar

Shipping was fast for the fact it came from a quarter way round the world. The instructions were helpful but it's helps to have some knowlege of how to use tools. For the most part all the holes lined up well. The well beneath the neck pickup's height adjustment screws had to be made a little deeper (done with a drill bit), also the holes for strap knobs were not deep enough causing one screw to break. Other than those minor flaws the guitar went together well. What I was really impressed with is the action and sound quality. The set up was easy and the sound for the price and quality of hardware is exceptional. The sound is clean and clear, no humming or buzzing and the tone is nice. Other than my collectable guitars this a joy to play.

SG

Nice product and the pickup is good very easy to assemble, Highly recommended

Awesome kit

This is the 2nd kit. Every bit as good as the first. I would highly recommend this if you are looking for a kit to build. Top quality all around.

A lightweight guitar kit champion

An excellent guitar kit. It was easy to assemble, the instructions were very clear.

Finished the body in 7 layers of wood spray paint following youtube tutorials.

The pickups are quite good and there is no issues with the wiring.

I have to applaud the guitar for it's weight - when strapped it feels lighter than any other guitar that I own!

Perfect Project Guitar

I call this my "Ikea Guitar". It was a really satisfying project and despite it sounding like a toy guitar, it may be giggable after a professional set-up.

Great kit

I just sanded the body a bit with 220 and threw on a couple of coats of tung oil finish and it came out fine. The neck is ready to go if you like matte finish. I might change out is the pickups and pots - not bad but not great and as it turns out this guitar deserves great electronics. Yeah it's kinda rustic looking but it's light the action is dialed in pretty well. It's perfect for couch noodling.

Great but needs some work

I got quite a good guitar from this kit but I had to invest some time to get it that way. The nut was incorrectly cut & I had to replace it.Initially I was going to return it but the neck itself felt really nice.

The pickups are more than I expected.

So much value in this kit

This is my 2nd guitar kit with Harley Benton and I remain very impressed with the quality you get for the money (the other was a Tele).

The neck finish is beautiful and the instrument is very playable as a result.

The wood on the body is well carved, and there were essentially no flaws on any of the pieces, no residual traces of glue with maybe a couple of minor exceptions. I have not had the chance to spend a lot of time testing the pickups, but can tell the pickup change, tone and volume controls are doing what they should.

Overall, and while it's still early days, I am struggling to see how this could be less than five stars. This can be a great platform to make evolve (and tuners + pickups would likely be the first candidates for a switch) or just a nice affordable instrument by itself that has all the benefits of being made by you, and thus something special.

Nice kit with suprsingly good results

I purchased this kit for a bit of a project, with no real intent to keep it after I completed it. I have too many guitars already! So I chose an SG style kit as I'd never played an SG as I'm not keen on the looks of them. That may seem an odd reason to choose a kit, but again this was because I did not want to feel attached to the guitar and so feel no remorse when selling it after completion.

I've had a fair amount of experience with setting up, wiring and fret dressing. So my experience in the build maybe different from someone who has no previous guitar maintenance skills.

The kit went together fairly easily overall.

The electrics were a bit of a fiddle as the diagrams were not particularly clear as to which volume/tone pots were connected to which pickups. So a 50/50 chance to get it correct first guess. (yes, I got it wrong on first attempt, so had to take it apart and redo)

The neck fitted the body well and didn't require any shims to get the correct angle. There were two slightly high frets which I spot leveled and re crowned. The overall wasn't too bad so didn't require a complete fret leveling job. To be fair the two high frets were not terribly bad and the guitar would have probably have been adequately playable as it was, but as I have the tools and the skills for it I did them anyway. The overall fret finish wasn't very good though, they were scratched and rough in places. So they did all require a good fret polishing job. Also of note the light satin finish that the neck comes pre finished with make the neck very smooth and playable.

The body was made of three parts but not too badly matched so a tru oil finish was acceptable after some thorough sanding and finishing.

The tuners seem adequate, they hold their tune and function smoothly enough. I see no reason why they should need replacing.

The finished product.

I was very surprised with how playable the finished guitar was after a full set up. The neck is smooth and fast and I have managed to get a very low action at both the nut and 12th fret. The intonation is also acceptable after I finished setting it up.

Sound wise, I think considering the cheap pickups that you get in guitar kits they sound not too bad at all. I have no complaints about them. Obviously side by side with an expensive set of pickups you will notice a difference though.

Overall for the money with the correct tools and some guitar setup skills you can achieve a very playable instrument. I'm still going to sell the guitar on though as I have too many other guitars and only made this kit for the enjoyment of working on it.

EXCELLENT SG GUITAR KIT AAA++

EXCELLENT SG GUITAR KIT GREAT VALUE FOR MONEY AND VERY EASY TO ASSEMBLE.

Superb Quality

I was very surprised at the quality of the kit. Very easy to build, mainly due to the solderless connections. Sounds and looks great. Excellent as a base for a project/custom design.

Just waiting for the lip to come back into stock and I will be buying one of those too.

D i y Kit

Just arrived to day Only unboxed at the Moment But looking at the quality and finish of the Body & Neck Totally amazed

at how perfect Drilled & sanded ,neck is straight frets are all level so really looking forward to getting it made up and I think it should sound great when its done.

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.

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.

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!

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.