Harley Benton Fusion-III HSH EB FBB

Gorgeous and impressive

I let my student choose this guitar, and I bought it for the class. This is the exact model and finish he chose out of all the HBs available and I firmly agree that he made the right choice.

This thing is amazing. I cannot state how good this guitar is. I'd easily expect to pay 4x the price for it. It comes with a very dynamic layout--from the quality trem, to the HSH with coil split, and staggered, branded tuners that alone should cost 20-25% of the entire price of the guitar.

The finish looks excellent, up close and from afar. The neck and fretboard feel good. The matching headstock is perfect. The guitar plays beautifully and the pickups sound just right. The setup is spot on, right out of the box, even after traveling thousands of miles in the winter. 3 strings were perfectly in tune, and 2 were close.

I'm ordering at least another guitar from the Fusion line and I want more.

Very good, but needs a bit of improvement!

I will start with the negatives that are bugging me.

First of all, the Wilkinson trem. Don't get me wrong, its a very good trem, although a bit tricky to adjust, and its second in my heart, after the best tremolo of all floating bridges, the PRS and PRS SE tremolo ( its the king by far, with all the pros of a Floyd AND a Fender trem, without their cons!). The problem of the Wilkinson trem of this guitar is not the tremolo itself but the cavity of the guitar that sits. Its small and not beveled enough, which means that when you try to dive bomb, the part of the trem that sits inside the guitar cavity, hits the back of the cavity and stops! In reality, you have only a small margin of diving movement, that translates in around 5 semitones in the low E and only 1 semitone !! in the high E, and of course much less movement bending up. Compered to the fantastic use of PRS's trems, its really annoying and a pity, cause otherwise is a good trem. Of course, I tried to adjust the bridge, but to no avail, cause the action was changing dramatically. I hope Harley Benton fixes that small cavity in their Fusion IV.

The second thing that is annoying, especially to me that I have ocd with equality and symmetry, is about the aesthetics. My guitar for starts ain't "Ultra" flame. Ain't AAA. Ain't even AA. Half right is flamed, left half is not (faintly and barely seen some). This lack of symmetry hits my ocd with a hammer! But even the right flamed one can't compare not only with my AAA Epiphone 1959 LP, but not even with the similarly priced 2007 Epiphone standard with the gorgeous Amber AA veneer. According the guitars color, my guitar is browner than the ones not only from the site's fotos, but from some youtube reviews also, that appeared ultra flamed indeed and with a bit of an orange hue.

Still, its a very beautiful guitar, and the matching headstock makes a huge difference. It really is a big plus, that only premium guitars have.

For me personally, the most important thing in a guitar is always the neck and its playability. It makes the biggest difference! And this guitar has one of the best necks I ever played, independently of price range! Fantastic neck! I really can't explain with words the feel of it!

Also, I put locking tuners in all the guitars I use often and take to the rehearsals and live sets, and in this one I didn't have to, it came fully equipped. I bought a Dimarzio pickup for the bridge, but still haven't replace the stock one, cause in fact sounds quite nice and in ballance with the other two, wich are great! Still, I will sooner or later replace it, but not the middle or the neck. The diversity of the sounds with the 3 pickups, the 5 way blade and the split coiling is amazing!

All and all, its a fantastic guitar, hindered by some inadequacies that although annoying, don't change the fact that its going to be used and enjoyed a lot!

Gorgeous Guitar!

I was honestly amazed by the quality of this guitar. It's easily comparable with guitars twice or three times the price. The fit and finish is flawless. Tusq XL nut, stainless steel frets, 5 way with push-pull, Wilkinson trem and locking tuners.

You couldn't buy all these items individually for that price! It's not just a great guitar for the money, it's simply a great guitar. The weakest point on the guitar is the pickups, but they're easily upgradable and don't sound bad at all. You won't get a modern metal djent sound, but leads & classic rock riffs shine.

No issues with the neck, high/low frets or sharp fret ends. The pots are full size, responsive and smooth to turn. Soldering was very neat when I opened the cavity.

Wilkinson vintage tremolo works great, but don't expect a 'Floyd Rose' type range of motion or tuning stability. It will stay in tune with 'normal' use, but not if you repeatedly dive bomb or hang off it 'Kerry King' style.

I made some minor adjustments to action height, pick-up height, spring tension and intonation, but these are all personal preference.

I really can't fault this guitar! 10/10 would buy again.

Both Value and Quality

The Value is absolutely here in spades as the Quality is obviously on the high side with confirmed Name Brand Blacksmith Stainless Steel fretting to boot (unlike "Eart" guitars generic listing of "stainless" frets which do not mention this). Pickups sound very nicely well rounded too (as some YT reviewers also report) without being overly "Stratty" or trebly, but, some people (like pro performers) with hearing damage will prefer a higher frequency response and may consider these "dull", but I, for one, do not. So, I'm very glad I still have most of my hearing intact.

Sharp fret ends

Fret ends were sharp, also small chip in body by neck pickup, to be fare probably from ups. Box was destroyed and taped. big holes in outer box,

Excellent Guitar for the Money

I was very satisfied with my purchase of this guitar to the USA. arrived safe and in Excellent condition.

Outstanding guitar for that price, that is insane

Writing this review after 3 month of using it and I absolutely can say that this is great sounding and high quality instrument. Hardware is fine, tremolo working good and tuners are functioning very well. I wish I could buy different version of that guitar with roasted neck but I only could afford this version but it is also great and since the difference is only in fretboard playability of those two versions almost the same I guess.

I recommend this guitar for players who want to buy their 2nd guitar or some professional players who want to use at as daily instrument (maybe not for recording and stage performance). But anyway this is a great guitar for that price as I sad before.

Awesome super Strat

Top notch build. My new favorite guitar. 0 problems, 0 complaints. Arrived to the US in 4 days!

Fusion-Fat strat

This is my third Harley-Benton guitar and I'm really impressed. This guitar excells in quality and feel in comparision to several other well known American brands that I have played over the years.Considering the hard ware and materials, used plus the price, I think anyone thinking of buying a Fusion III pro model will not be disappointed. This is for me the kind of guitar that I enjoy picking up and playing more often.Very happy with my purchase.

Stunning and well built superstrat!

The Fireburst color looks amazing on the body and the matching headstock. The guitar is well built, feels sturdy. She's lightweighted, the body with its contours sits just fine in my lap and the "C" shape neck felt familiar right away, smooth satin finish in the back, excellent fretjob, no neck-dive. Hardware is ok, considering the price.

Unplugged she's resonant with long sustain. I've tested the pickups through my practise amp and they sound quite nice, the 5-way switch and the coil split offer a good variety of tones. I'm looking forward to hear them through my tube-amp!!

Complains: Just a couple minor imperfections in the finish, noticeable in a carefull up-close inspection and that the string action could get low enough for my taste only if the bridge was set in touch with the body, so no floating tremolo. Also I would love the guitar even more if the back of the body didn't have a solid black finish, but a matching transparent.

Overall I got a beautiful guitar I enjoy playing at an unbeatable price!!!!