Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit JA 5-stars Reviews

Great value guitar

The kit goes together easy everything fitted well. The neck was excellent for the money with no sharp edges or high frets and the action went down pretty low without too much rattle. I own a few fender tele’s and strats and the neck was far better than the fender ja90 I recently bought. Sound wise the pickups are good at mid low volume but thin out at full volume. Given the small price of the kit I am more than happy with them for blues rock. Set to a Mid volume into an overdrive pedal then Marshall gave a nice lead tone.

This is my first kit build the only adjustment I made was to the truss rod to flatten the neck and then set the intonation.

I haven’t commented on the finish as I’m not going to paint it just sand and seal.

I love these.

I've done 5 of these, but the P90 versions are my dream come true. The P90's sound so nice when phased, there is nothing sounds so sweet. So add a push/pull to hear that angelic phased P90 sound.

Great diy kit!

What I like is that it was fun to put together. I used varnish and laquer. It came out really nice. The sanding took some* time because I did it by hand. The tuners were a pain to install, because the screwholes weren't deep enough, so one of the screws broke. You have to make the holes deeper! Use a thin nail or whatever you can find. The hardware isn't anything special, but you can upgrade it later. I see the guitar as a blank canvas, do what you will with it. When all was together, it did play nice. I really like the feel. The look is superb. Like that you can make a custom headstock. Love it.

beware of peg screws... they are 11x2mm

they can make mess of you're neck...

snapped two of them using mini screwdriver for eye glasses.

had to "dig" in two places...

now i have painted back of headstock.

try to locate some made of metal as we know it, any metal for screws will do.

provided ones are like chemically impregnated foam with acrylic glitter

(i think that other screws from kit are same material but they didn't snap)

So...

Great value

A little out of the body shape is significantly smaller than a jazz master but it’s still a good kid with great sound and build quality for the price

Great value

It is impossible to get the same quality at that price anywhere else

KIT BUILD MASTERSTROKE

I have put together many parts casters and this kit regardless of the money is superb, I gave the frets a light fret dress shaped the headstock and sprayed it matt black and fitted mini humbuckers, the Pickups that came with the kit after a wax dip sound great and i recommend fitting foam under the routes.

Its a keeper and i own and play guitars 10X the price.

Highly recommended if you want a good modding platform.

Incredible

I already own a HB 335 model that blew me away with its quality, so when I was next ordering a guitar, I figured I'd try one of these kits for a fun project. I do not regret it one bit, and the result is a very serious guitar.

The body was good and even, with holes all more-or-less aligning. The neck was impressive - neat binding, no rough fret ends, and a comfortable and smooth C profile. The frets just needed a little polish. I set this up with a low action and there is no hint of fret buzz anywhere.

Cutting the headstock to shape is a simple enough job with a coping saw and file, and represents the only real "craftsmanship" required in putting the kit together. I applied a two-tone burst with nitrocellulose lacquer, but this is very much an optional extra. The rengas wood comes filled and sealed and the grain looks nice enough that you could just spray it with a clear topcoat lacquer for a shiny and more durable finish. The electronics bar the pickups all come attached to the pickguard; you just plug the pickups in and there is no soldering to do. The soapbar pickups rather strangely have no brackets to attach them; instead there are holes right through the pickups to screw them down into the wood of the cavity. This isn't a problem, just an unusual design choice.

We all of course know which guitar this is emulating. Aside from the pickup design, the key difference from that guitar is the tune-o-matic bridge here and no trem, but I see that as a strength for its simplicity and tuning stability. The pickups are a little muddy but can be cleaned up with the right amp settings to give very nice clean and blues tones. A clear, singing sustain is evident before even plugging in. I have a couple of Fenders and a Gibson LP and this feels and sounds more like the Gibson. The greatest weakness in the hardware is found in the tuning pegs, which was also true of my other HB guitar - worth the £20 upgrade to some Vansons. The great thing about a kit is of course that you can mod and upgrade it to your heart's desire, so long as the body and neck are good, and they really are in this case.

Overall, I'm impressed and very chuffed. An enjoyable project and a credible, beautiful guitar at the end of it that I would happily gig with. Well done Harley Benton.

Wow! What a kit!

This kit went together like a glove that fits! Right out of the box I could tell they put time in making the parts to this instrument.

The neck was comfortable with beautiful binding and frets were perfect. The body was drilled perfectly and was a A1 fit the whole way.

If you are looking for a kit to get started building your first guitar then look no further!

Great Kit

Brilliant neck and body, excellent fit.

Had to do all the usual fret levelling and polishing etc.

Didn't use any of the hardware, so I can't comment.

Cheap DIY kit for designers and other creative people

pros: affordable, good looking and has a really nice pickups for its price.

cons: poor quality of wood and strings, but it`s doesn`t seems as a big problem

hi from russia 0_*

Great project material

I was really surprised by the quality of this guitar set. There's a lot of work that has to be put in to it to make it top notch, but it's worth the time and it's a great practice starter kit.

Excellent D.I.Y kit

Bought this as a project to do with my dad as i get more into modding, painting an building guitars.

It is an easy to assemble kit although i will say a bit of knowledge on guitar setup and generally being good with your hands will get you a long way!

This is without a doubt worth the money! Gives you a good idea of the parts and pieces used in building electric guitars, you can have a bit of fun choosing the paints etc that you want for your colour and at the end you have a great guitar ( for the price ) that you put together and painted yourself ( one of a kind )

Well worth the money especially for beginners!

Very nice and inexpensive

Good way too start in DIY

Really good value

I wanted a guitar with p90 pickups to add to my collection and after looking at various reviews thought I'd have a go at my first build. Very well packaged, good instructions and very happy with the final result. There is a great satisfaction in building your own guitar the way you want it. You cannot fault it as a budget guitar and although I was thinking about upgrading some components after playing it I don't think I really need to. The neck especially is superb.

Alot of patience and attention to detail pays off in the end. Minimal tools required too.

Fun project, surprisingly good guitar

I bought this kit last year as a lockdown project and I'm really happy with the results. The assembly was easy and instructions were clear (except that the bridge and neck pickups were not marked as such and there was no way to tell them apart -- not sure it mattered ;-O). The neck is great, worth the price of the guitar imho. I polished the frets. The fret ends could probably use a file but I don't have one so I'm living with them. The guitar worked well with included parts but was greatly improved with new Kluson MK6LN Tuners and a new Graph Tech TUSQ XL F-Style Slotted Nut, both of which fit easily. So far I'm keeping the pickups as they actually sound ok. I actually love the finished product and play it all the time. Thinking about getting another one!

Great Kit at an unbelievable low price

Have just finished build and I'm really pleased with final result, My friend works in a car body repair shop so I got him to spray body - Mazda Metallic Black - looks awesome. Have had to do very little adjustments to make this a really playable and great sounding guitar