Harley Benton Fusion-III HH Roasted SSP

Looks can be decieving

Had this set up. Neck needs a shim. Watch out for reviews on YouTube saying how great these are. They're not as good as the reviews say. I guess that most reviews are sponsored. Can't get a low action, frets rough. What's the use of a guitar that doesn't play nicely? Will need a lot of pro setting up and tinkering for a beginner to get their head around.

Probably the best HB guitar so far

This guitar blew me away. Unreal for the money.

Dreamer

Just A Smooth Runnimg Instrument.

Beautiful and sounds great

Well, first of all - this guitar looks just amazing. Much better than in photos. Really photos don't give everything.

But not only that.The guitar also sounds amazing. Some people wrote that the sound is a bit too much in the middle. But guitar has a pull function that makes humbucker a single. And single doesnt have so much middle tones. So it can be managed that way. However the pickups have a very nice, mellow sound.

Also i would like to mention the quality of wood and overall assembly. When you play it - you can feel the resonance in the instrument.

Would be great regardless, but price makes it an absolute must buy.

The guitar arrived very well packaged, and in perfect condition. No dents, nicks or scratches. Good start.

The feature set on this guitar is top shelf. Roasted maple neck, stainless steel frets, locking tuners, Wilkinson trem, nu-bone nut and roller style string trees. The only other instruments I could find with that same list of features cost over £1,000 each, and let’s not forget that until 2 or 3 years ago roasted maple was something reserved for custom shop or limited edition runs from the big brands.

The guitar plays really well. Very comfortable neck with a fretboard radius that is perfect for my preference - I don’t like anything too flat and thin. The satin finish makes the neck very smooth, no sticky hand issues which are common with high gloss necks. The fretboard edges are nicely rounded - no sharp edges or rough fret ends that I have found. There are some minor tooling marks on the fretboard edge, but they absolutely do not detract from the look or feel - you have to put your nose on the thing to see them.

The sound of the guitar is straight up 80’s hot rodded strat territory. The bolt on maple neck and fretboard makes for some very satisfying snap to the high end with plenty of midrange warmth. Bass response is a little light, so I wouldn’t recommend using this guitar for modern metal - but look at it, that’s clearly not what this guitar was made to do.

The pickups are the only area of the guitar where I have any complaint and it is a minor (ish) gripe which is that they are very inconsistent across the range of the volume pot. Rolling off the volume even a little completely loses the punch of the pickup, along with a lot of the high end and while using the coil split mode it makes the pickups almost inaudible by comparison to the full humbucker mode. Leave the volume and tone at 10 and shred away, but I will almost certainly replace these pickups down the road. They look nice in brushed metal though.

In terms of setup, the guitar comes in a very ‘raw’ out of box state. There is dust left over from manufacturing visible around the frets, neck joint and around the trem cavity and the guitar required some adjustment before performing to it’s potential. For me this meant putting 1 1/2 turns on the truss rod, lowering the bridge by a turn on both sides, tightening the locking tuners and adjusting the bridge saddles for the D,G and B strings to nail the intonation. If you have any experience maintaining or setting up guitars this is easy to do and took me about 10 minutes, plus another 10 minutes for a clean and polish. I don’t count any of this against the instrument BUT beginners may not be able to get the best out of this guitar without a trip to their local guitar shop to get it setup properly.

Finally then, there is the price and I guess that this is where the story comes together. For £349 (and free shipping!!) I got a great looking instrument which plays just as well as my Epiphone and PRS SE instruments both of which cost twice as much and has a list of features that neither of those guitars come close to. This guitar sounds awesome (bearing in mind shortcomings of the Roswell pickups) but this is easily solved with some light soldering and a set of Seymour Duncans one day in the future.

All in all, this would be a good guitar for £800. A great guitar for £500. For £349 it raises the bar for every other manufacturer still selling ‘Professional’ instruments with plastic nuts and generic trem systems (*cough* Fender and Gibson *cough*).

Buy one. With experience and a little TLC this thing is an incomparable value.

A Steal

As one who has owned many fender strats - including custom shop models- this guitar will put a smile on your face right out of the box. Really low action, easy to play, intonation perfect, trem perfect, stays in tune. The split coil sounds like a great start - the humbucker sound like a great les paul. Neck is fast & comfortable to play. It’s a more inspiring guitar than my last custom shop fender. Price makes it a no guilt purchase. Highest possible recommendation.

Pleasantly Surpised

This is my first review of any product I've ever owned. I purchased a Fusion III SSP about 2 months ago. I was expecting to have a decent guitar that would probably need a setup (as most guitars do from the factory) and have an adjustment period before getting comfortable with it. How wrong I was!

I gave the guitar a few days to adjust to my climate. The guitar needed to be tuned, it came a few strings a half-step down. Once tuned I check the nut, intonation and string height. The nut was cut to perfection. There was no snagging or binding. The intonation was spot on. String height was a nice 4mm from the 12th fret. The neck didn't need a truss rod adjustment. Speaking of the neck, I've never played a smoother neck in all my years of playing. There were no fret ends poking out or sharp edges. The Flame on the back of the neck has nice variations of large and small flame patterns. The fret-board has a more nuanced flame that appears in certain lighting.

The Sparkle finish is quiet something to see in person. I've seen other sparkle finishes but they usually have small flakes and this Fusion has large flakes which for me is more pleasing. The finish reflects light in a similar way to disco balls or a fine Christmas tree topper. I like the wood binding as a transition from the sparkle to the natural transparent finish. I don't think a cream, white or pearloid binding would have looked appropriate.

The pickups are good if a bit dark for my taste. I adapt to this by adding some mids and top end. They are not muddy. They have good clarity and note definition, especially so when coil split. They do a good job at being able to get those strat like tones. They excel at being able to crank the gain to get a vintage rock/metal tone.

The Wilkinson bridge is rock solid with moderate trem use. As I don't "dive bomb" the guitar stays in tune and remains stable. This guitar is my first with locking tuners and I will never use standard tuners again. I did have to change the strings as I tried too hard to be Malmsteen and broke a high E. I've never had a easier time changing strings.

Honestly I'm probably forgetting to mention a few things, but overall I've been impressed with how good the Fusion is. Since getting it I've played more in roughly the last 2 months than I have in the previous 8 months. The Fusion has in a way inspired me and reminded me of why I love playing guitar. For me it's that good of an instrument.

Played two shows and more to come - Harley Benton Fusion III

When the guitar came, I played it for about 2.5 hours having a lot of fun. The tone is great and the guitar has great response to the touch. I was scheduled to play two shows this month September 2022, back to back. I'd been playing another favorite guitar, but decided to take the HB Fusion III with me. Guitar sounded great and the tone cut through. My buddy wanted to play my HB Fusion III and broke the first string, and that's where the convince of the locking tuners came in, I replaced the stock strings with a new set DAddario 10's in about 15 min including stretching. The HB Fusion held it's tuning great through both performances. My HB Fusion III is a very solid guitar and I will be taking it with me for many more performances. I highly recommend using this guitar for more than a backup guitar. It did very well. The styles played during the shows are rock and funk, the Harley Benton Fusion III handled clean funk and rock perfectly for my style of playing .

Thank You and God Bless

Best Wishes

Awesome guitar

A dream to play....I've been after this model for a while, kept putting it off.

Its better than my USA Performer Strat. Gonna buy the t- version silver sparkle next. If youre thinking about this model - just buy it. I wish I had bought it sooner now. Cant put it down.

Edit - I have just noticed in bright sunlight - this guitar is very badly scratched all over the body. Only noticeable close up - in very bright conditions.

AWESOME GUITAR FOR THE MONEY!

The Harley Benton Fusion-III HH Roasted SSP, is an awesome guitar for the money. In my 45 yrs playing guitars , I have played many different guitars. Charvels and Gibson LPs are my favorite. This guitar ranks right up there with my charvels, without the higher price tag so much that I have 3 HB fusions now. Great fret work, paint jobs, the roasted neck, wow! just wow! and sound is right on spot. Even the floyd Rose stays in tune with a minor set up.

GREAT JOB Harley B ! You won't be dissapointed at this price point. Shipping is fast and customer service is great!