Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit JA Reviews

wonderful budget P90 guitar

My first kit. Pleasantly surprised by the body wood. Very well-matched three pieces. There were a few slight scuff marks around the cut outs so I decided that meant it was reliced. I bought a 9 euro, 125 ml bottle of clear matte, water-based varnish (through Amazon.fr. made by le Mauler. Le Suprême). 3 coats (without sanding off their sealer) . Looks exactly like it did before varnishing. Not plasticky like polyurethane can look. Easy to sand off if I want to do something else later. Being a fundamentally lazy bastard I secretly dreaded cutting out the headstock, but I got inspired by patterns in the wood grain and cut two 'horn' shapes out of the top and also profiled the side with a coping saw. After the fact it now looks like a gaping fish mouth. Maybe needs lipstick, you think. No. It's fine, really. It's got personality. Pros: - super light. 2,9 kgs /6,4 pds. in comparison my TE-20: 3,7 kgs; HB 35+: 4,1 kgs - natural wood look and feel - pick ups warm yet bright (effectively somewhere between my TE-20 and the HB 35+ -straightforward assembly. - neck and frets are impeccable. Also I didn't touch the satin finish they have on the neck. It's super smooth. - body really well contoured (appreciated when playing in sofa position). - High up the neck easily accessible - no neck dive - warm resonant sound unplugged (Being a geezer I'm up before dawn and like to play then -No tuning issues - intonation good out of the box. Cons: - B and E string slightly sitaring. (Hear mostly unplugged). Great for playing Norwegian Wood. Looks like I'll have to use my budget fret files for the first time. Or maybe it's the bridge? Same budget TOM as on my HB 35+ -the tuners feel like they got arthritis and it's a cold morning. They work but you have to apply yourself. I'll put in the same vintage style Klusons that I put on the TE-20. Future mods: -Put in a parellel/series /out of -phase switch (liked it on my TE-20) -swap different kinds of alnico magnets for the original ceramics . They cost less than 8 euros a set -move the pick up switch to the top left. It's really in the middle of the landing strip now.

great kit

fun to build and fun to play.

Very well made kit

I've been building guitars for over 20 years. This excellent quality of this kit really surprised me. Would be perfect for a first new guitar for new players, as it teaches the basics of how guitars are made. It would give a better understanding of the instrument and a good idea of how to improve or change the quality of your sound as your playing improves. For the budding luthiers, it's a great cost effective test bed for new techniques. Fantastic

Nice complect

Sadly cant put a photos, but only issue i’ve got that pickguard holes wasn’t drilled in right place

Great kit

Well built easy to construct. Requires some skill to shape the headstock and laquer with nitro but fantastic result. Looks and sounds better than my more expensive guitars.

Love it

Turned out better than expected. Delighted, action good, even close to intonated. Sounds great too.

Great kit for the price,over my expectations

This kit is great for the price,happy with the sound,look,parts...

If you have guitar repair skills,or if you are luthier or guitar repairman like myself you can make a great instrument out of this.

I made myself relic version in metallic blue,looks stunning.

All the holes lined up, frets are great from the factory,well leveled and crowned.No sharp or sticking out fret ends.

Only thing that I did was fine sanding and polishing them to the mirror finish.

PAINTING!-Body is not ready for basecoat and clearcoat.You will need 2-3 rounds of primer/filler and sanding before basecoat(paint) and clearcoat if you want a factory finish.I was going for grain texture so i just applied one coat of primer and sanded it lightly to seal the wood a little bit,and for better relic look wher primer would show along with that blue color...

After assembling I did a good setup and it is a really great guitar,no fret buzzing, no humming...Sound is great for the price,feels like at least 1000€ guitar...

My string height is 1.7 mm for low E string and 1.4 mm for high E string measured on 12th fret when 1st fret is pressed.

Pickup height and pole pieces height is also important. I was aiming for around 2.6mm on low E and 2.2 mm on high E when string pressed on last fret.Measured from top of pole piece to the bottom of the string.

Saddles were on the right place from the box,guitar is intonating perfectly from the factory.Truss rod was also needing jus a little bit of adjustment.Was almost perfect out of the box.

I used 9-42 Strings.

Overall if you have some skill I would highly recommend this kit.Im gonna order some more kits from harley benton for shure.

Good introduction to building your own guitar

Bought as a birthday present for my son who works in a music shop and is in to guitars. Quality for the most part very good for the price. A couple of tweaks with a little help from friends needed in order to complete the build as he wanted. He initially put the guitar together while we were on holiday. A successful present.

Beautiful Jazzmster kit

The building kit arrived with all the components, hardware and screws you need to complete the guitar. The body is smaller than the F jazzmaster so replacement parts, like pickguard do not fit without modifications. Rengas wood is rather soft, easy to work with, but it dents easily. The pre-drilled holes have been done in the right positions.

The neck is stellar in every way! It would justify the 95 euros for itself.

The hardware is ok, but I chose to do some extra routing to install a tremolo bridge. Finally the electronics are basic eg. small - dime size pots, but they work fine.

Overall, it is a well-made guitar kit to enjoy building.

Fantastic

You won't get better for the price

Far Exceeded My Expectations

I thought this would be a fun project and reviews of the Harley Benton kits were pretty good. However, I didn't expect this to become one of my favourite guitars.

Pros:

- The neck is phenomenal for the price.

- No fret burrs

- The truss rod did not need adjusting after installation and stringing

- Very comfortable, fat profile

- The binding, fret markers and amaranth fretboard look great

- The body is well made.

- Screw holes and neck pocket lined up perfectly

- Neck fit snugly into pocket

- The pickups sound great.

Cons:

- Hardware is cheap, as expected.

- Tuners are a bit rough when fine-tuning but it stays in tune very well.

- Nut is plastic.

- The neck has a loud, scratchy sound when bending the strings. It could be the frets resonating through the amaranth fretboard but is not audible through an amp input. Not a big problem at all.

I could complain that the pots are minis but they actually sound great with the pickups. I've never used P90s before. They sound better and seem to be more versatile than all of my other electric guitars. It produces a beautiful twang for country, surf or goth. Lush, thick sounds for more jazzy tones and sounds fantastic for metal, including low-tuned, doom stuff.

In my build of this kit, I dug out the grain of the body with a wire brush, covered it with metallic leaf and sealed it with a gloss varnish. The grain gave the foil leaf a nice texture that dispersed its reflective properties. I spray-painted the pickguard black, sealed with a matt varnish and changed the volume and tone knobs. This guitar looks stunning.

I'll change out the tuners, nut & bridge and will probably change to pots to 280k. Will probably also add a Goldo or Duesenberg tremolo. The new hardware will probably cost twice as much as the kit but this guitar will be a keeper and pride-of-place in my collection.

Fun project

I had a bass kit before, so i assembled this one without a manual. It was really fun. Assembled, guitar is really good. I managed to get fairly low action, although for lower it would need a shim. No sharp frets, the neck is actually wonderful. Soundwise it is not that bright as it should be (i have seen videos of changing pots fixing this "issue"). I absolutely love this guitar. It's not perfect, but it's very playable and it feels great.

Great sounding, fun project guitar

Purchased because I've always wanted an offset body guitar with P-90's. The overall quality is what I expected, but I knew that this was going to be a modding platform. I immediately shielded and rewired the pickguard in 50's style with 500K CTS pots, gavitt braided wire, orange drop cap and a switchcraft jack and toggle. I even added a mini toggle actuated "bright circuit". The body was well cut and easy to sand. The quality of the neck and fretwork was impressive and worth more than the cost of the entire kit. The only disappointment was the tuners which had a lot of slop in them. I expected that and had also ordered a set of Harley Benton vintage Kluson style split shaft tuners and conversion bushings. In the end, I wound up with a beautiful and unique sounding instrument. This will definitely not be my last HB kit guitar.

Facile à monter

Tout est bien détaillé et prêt pour le novice .....

Very Nice and fun kit

I should start this review saying that this was my first pre-assembled guitar, and the first time I use P90s. Overall, I had lots of fun building it, the neck is nice, and the setup was easy.

After few days I had a nice sounding guitar - of a decent quality! and I learnt a lot. The P90 sound is warm and very nice when clean. Can be also punchy when distorted.

I am having a little issue with grounding noise, but I suppose that is due to my building skills. I will soon unbuild the bridge to fix that.

I found the instruction manual very vague and pretty useless. Would be very useful to have a proper manual.

I replaced the plastic nut with a bone nut, and finished with mahogany stain and danish oil! the color is super cool :) ! Suggested to whom wants an entry level guitar and have fun learning how to setup and how the components work. The price is very accessible and is worth every penny for whoever loves guitars as objects beyond playing them.

My second attempt on a kit was excellent

This was quite the opposite experience from my last try at a kit.

The neck was a good fit with the body, but it needed quite some fret work.

Because of the big cavity under the pickguard you get a cheap plastic sound from operating knobs, switches or just hitting the pickguard. I fixed this by stiffening the pickguard with extra material.

Now I have a cool looking green Ja guitar, with very low action and that is fun to play.

Super Value! Be prepared to upgrade…

I was able to assemble and setup this guitar in less than 2 hours. It plays better than my Fender strat, but it doesn’t sound as good though (yet).

I have ordered new Pots, Tuning heads, and Nut, with a total cost about the same as this kit. The next place I will spend money on is the pickups, but I want to see how the above changes affect the tone first.

I bought this kit looking for an inexpensive platform to learn how to adjust and modify an electric guitar, something I can screw up so I don’t damage my nice guitars while learning. I have been very pleasantly surprised with the quality of this instrument, it’s got great “bones”. But, it does need some quality components to really shine.

If you are hesitant to dig into the electrics, definitely change the tuners. The ones provided are the weakest link and easiest thing to change. Remember, every time you pick up the guitar you’re going to check if it’s in tune.

Happy building, happy playing.

Cheers!

Amazing quality and perfect mod platform.

100% recommend for a beginner build. Everything fit perfectly and was simplified extremely well. Bought as a test to see everything come together and will definitely recommend to anyone who wants to build a custom.

Très bien pour le prix …

J’ai pu me fabriquer une guitare style Fender Maverick avec ce kit et j’en suis super content . Le manche est super agréable . Et les micros sont vraiment pas mal .

J’ai eu droit à une mention honorable dans le #diykitchallenge22 avec cette guitare .

Vous pouvez retrouver mon test sur YouTube en tapant Harley Benton Maverick style .

Le seul point faible pour moi sont les mécaniques d’accordage qu’il vaut mieux remplacer . Mais elles sont tout à fait utilisables.

Manual error

In the manual they forgot to mention how to connect the pickups to the switch. It's easy, but if you don't connect tham you will have no sound! :)