Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit T-Style 3-stars Reviews

Experiment

I bought this guitar kit, because I always wanted to build my own guitar. The set is made for begginers and I was quite surprised how easy it was to assemble. I can say the frets are clean and somewhat polished, but need extra work before setting up the action. Pickups are not so great, but you can expect that for the price. I left natural look of the guitar, onlz protected it for wether conditions. overall, I+m satisfied with my purchase, knowing what to expect and giving myself a but of a challange.

Fun project, but not much more

This was fun to build, but the cutouts in the body were so bad that I had to use woodglue and filler to make it workable in places. Regardless, I think it was worth the price just for the experience and the activity. Might get one for my neice or nephew.

Out of the HB guitar kits I've tried this was the roughest.

The woodwork on my T-style kit was very rough, and there was a tear where the jack plate connects.

As with all the kits, the pre-drilled holes are out of alignment.

The neck pickup sounds okay, but the bridge pickup sounds terrible it's so muddled that you can't really use it for anything, even with effects it's very difficult to get a decent sound out of it.

These kits are really meant for people who like the idea of building a guitar, they are VERY rough out-of-the-box.

I love building these kits, but I would warn anyone who doesn't like or isn't good at sanding and painting.

With work, has made a nice guitar

Cons. None of the pre drilled holes for the pick guard, bridge and control unit lined up very accurately. more importantly, the cut out for the neck, when fitted, made the strings run of the side of the neck as the neck angle was cut wrong.However, with some gentle work with a wood chisel I was able to correct this.

Pros. The neck is very good, smooth and very playable, and okay, as others have pointed out, the pick ups and machine heads could be improved, but for the price they are okay and could very easily be improved.

I have quite a few guitars, including several Harley Bentons, which are all excellent. However, I find myself picking up and playing this kit guitar more than the others ever since I finished it.

Good for diy starters

Easy to assemble, the body is ok, but the neck is not the best, it may take some time do polish all the frets. The parts aren't all that good but everything is easy to connect. For someone trying some diy is a solid enough project to get started.

great guitar kit but neck heavy

Had great fun assembling this after spending some time applying nitro and lacquer. My only gripe is the the balance of the guitar is very neck heavy (possibly because of the very chunky neck or a lightweight body wood?) the neck is very nicely finished with no rough fret ends but the chunky profile bight be better suited to players used to vintage Gibson type neck profiles. the electrics all work ok and do what they're supposed to. Over all very good as long as you don't mind the balance issue caused by the neck. I weighted the body to compensate but even with that its still a neck diver!

Telecaster guitar kit.

The truth is, that you cannot expect much, when you buy a guitar kit, that is unbelievably cheap. This review will be based on that fact.

First of all, the body was okay, but the neck pocket and cavities were poorly routed, and i had a hard time trying to fit the neck to the body tightly. There were small dent in the back of the body, but it´s easily fixed.

Usually these kits come with quality necks, though sometimes the fret job is mediocre. The neck with this kit was a disappointment. Fret job was a utter disaster, all frets were clearly uneven and different sized, some were medium,and some narrow. The action was ridiculously high, because of the nut slots. The neck was not straight, it was a bit warped.

The hardware was okay. The tuners are terrible, and i replaced them immediately. The pickups sounded okay, a bit feedback here and there, but they´re good for their price. The pick guard was rounded with router, apparently, but whoever routed it, made a sloppy job, because the pick guards corners are full of shreds of plastic.

Everything else was okay.

I had high expectations for this kit, due to the fact it was praised to no end.

Despite of all these flaws,

it´s good for it´s price, and is a perfect present for someone who want´s to build his/her own guitar. But yeah, these guitar kits will need a high amount of work, mostly set-up.

Not bad, but Kit S-style was better

I built before one Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit-S, which was super quality. Now with a minor disappointment considering the slightly twisted neck. Otherwise the wooden parts were ok and the pickups were only slightly worse than before. The sound volume is uneven: e1 doesn't play loud enough. This can be compensated with EQ in amp.

I made another body from pine: it gives a special warm tone to the instrument. Anyway this kit was far less expensive than a separate neck plus pickups plus extras.

Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit T-Style

Since I've always wanted to have a Telecaster and had interest in DIY, I bought this gutar kit. All required items were included. No soldering was needed. Even a set of strings was included. The guitar neck was delivered with a top plate in the raw state. The final shape had to be designed by myself. All parts fit very well together. The body was already so far treated, that it just needed to be sanded and painted. The fully assembled guitar sounds very similar to the original. The very simple mechanics and the very slightly warped neck are still tolerable for the purchase price.

Ok but some poor workmanship.

My second Harley Benton kit. Similar issues with screw-holes not quite lining up. Had to have a very poorly made main body replaced but, credit where it's due, it was quickly replaced. Still, it's a cheap and enjoyable way to make a custom guitar.