Harley Benton Fusion-III HSH Roasted FNT Reviews

Brilliant for the Money

Bought this guitar as a studio instrument expecting to have to swap out the pickups or mod the electronics at least. Pleased to find that the pickups sound amazing, especially clean tones. Genuinely can't think of any flaws with it, if I had to nitpick, I'd say the flame veneer on mine is much less prevalent than in the promo photos, however, this is solely cosmetic and dependent on the individual unit

Overall, a near-perfect instrument and absolutely worth its price and more

Quality and service

The quality is perfect. Sounds very concrete and recognizable in a group. Design is fantastic. One of the best price vs. quality.

Delivery service is on high level - good packages.

Many thanks for pre-sale check.

Have a good happy year coming and greetings from Russia.

Best regards,

Denis

good! very good!

My favorite guitar! very dear the feel of the fretboard! The guitar doesn't get upset and hits the notes perfectly! The only negative is the average pickups. They are lower class than the tool itself.

Very Good, Yet Slightly Disappointing

I think I've been spoiled by my Fusion-T. That was so good I bought another HB Pro-series guitar. This was is not so good.

It has several cosmetic issues - they don't bother me. It has a rough spot on the back of the neck - but not somewhere I touch when playing. It needed a setup on arrival - no problem, only intonation, most guitars need a setup. All these things I could have put up with and it would have got five stars.

But... the pickups had been screwed right down to the wood and, as a result, the springs/foam wouldn't push them up high enough, no matter how you loosened the screws (I eventually put rubber tubing over the screws - works fine and sounds great now). And... the nut is way too high. This means it is unplayable below the fifth fret (out-of-tune).

Given that the option of stainless frets and roasted maple would cost this much on other guitars dropping a star seems harsh. But if you're going to call it "Pro" it should be playable. When I've fixed the nut it will be great, I just wish it had been when it arrived.

After 6 months

Minor problems were fixed and it has turned out to be an excellent guitar. Still using the stock pickups but have rewired for more versatility. I want to give it 4.5 stars but I can't and I can't quite give it 5

Great Value

I've had it for 6 months. I originally bought it as an experiment - I wanted to dabble in the world of modern - fusion - legato-y - 24 fret - super strat guitars without breaking the bank.

I find everything positive you read in the other reviews to be true - it's great right out of the box. Mine was almost perfectly in tune too. Bravo!

I love the baked neck, it's very comfortable, the fret job is amazing. The stainless steel frets were a huge selling point for me - I love them! The tremolo stays in tune great. The neck joint is super tight. Intonation is dead on. Low action, no buzz. I did change the strings to NYXL and tightened the truss rod a tiny bit.

I like the taper on the volume and tone pots.

I have always been a single coil guy so I can't say anything about the humbuckers here, other than I think they're ok.

A few small things that I think need improvement:

The jack comes loose and is in general fitted poorly. That's the only craftsmanship issue I see with the guitar.

The tremolo plate and the electronics plate overlap - that's just poor design, even if there's nothing wrong with it functionally.

I raised the neck and bridge pickups and noticed the springs that push the pickups up on their screws are quite flimsy. Absolutely no big deal.

Since I really liked this guitar I recently bought a Harley Benton TE-30 BE which I love as well.

Super Strat for Blues?

Due to the current pandemic, I'm not playing out. I have yet to gig out with the guitar.

I've had the guitar for over a month. First what I liked about the guitar. I was always wondering what the big deal was with "roasted" necks. Well, if you haven't tried one, please do. This is the smoothest playing neck ever. I have over 20 guitars, Tele with maple, Les Paul with rosewood, Schecter with ebony. IMHO this is the best neck of all.

Next the pickups.

I wanted a guitar that could do it all, humbucker and single coil. First of all despite some of the You Tube reviews, I like the pickups and will not be changing them. The humbuckers would not be confused with the Seymour Duncan Custom 59's but they have a good tone, compare them to the Epiphone Probuckers. When split I'm able to get very close to the Fender Strat sound, playing clean, think of Jimmy Vaughan or Robert Cray. I have played this through my Fender Hotrod Deluxe to check out the tube sound with volume, and the Fender Champion 50 XL for around the house. I was able to get myriad tones with both amps.

Looking forward to gigging out with this.

The guitar was set up very well, I have a slew of luthier tools, but needed none. I adjusted the action and intonation. I had to go to You Tube for a video on how to adjust the Wilkinson bridge, which BTW is much better than the Fender vintage. Electronics all worked well. Cavity is shielded, no name large pots, smooth action on volume and tone, with no big drop offs. Locking tuners are a real plus on any guitar with a tremolo, BTW the arm is adjustable, no flapping around.

Cosmetics.

The guitar cosmetics were well done, no flaws found. The flamed finish looks great. I had to get use to a little different style of picking as there's less than 3/4" inch between pickups. I had ordered the "bundle" which is supposed to come with a HB gig bag, it came with a GEWA economy gig bag, which I actually consider an upgrade as I can compare this with my HB.

The only negative was the shipping of the guitar. I was aware that there would be delays due to the current situation, however there was a mix up in either their shipping or DHL. The order showed my address as correct, but somehow the mailing label hat was printed out had a zip code from an old address over 300 miles away. It was lost for a while until someone in the Postal Service here corrected the address by hand. The good news is that there was no damage despite a round about route to get to me.

Question, "Is this guitar suitable for the Blues?"

Answer, "All guitars are. It's the player that puts the Blues out there."

Yes, when I return to gigging I will be playing this guitar, but for the B.B. King songs it'll have to be my Gibson.

I'm happy to have this guitar in my arsenal.

Seriously plastic bridge block?

Pros

- It is a very light guitar.

- I didn't notice any manufacturing defects.

- Variety of sound of options with coil splitting.

- Locking tuners works well.

Cons

- Bridge spring cover stick out from the body.

- You have to invest in new pick ups.

- Plastic bridge block.

I just wanted to give it shot because of amazing reviews but I totally disagree there are far better guitars in this range.

Nice for the price

Waited until I had owned and played this guitar for over a month instead of the usual reviews straight out of the box before writing my review.Great guitar for the money and the roasted maple neck is beautiful and feels good in the hand and makes the guitar a real pleasure to play.The fit and finish was excellent and even after a month of examination I still cannot find any flaws.The tremolo stays in tune well and the coil split works if thats your thing.The only minus for me with this guitar is that the pickups it comes with are far to bright for my tastes,but a change somewhere in the future will solve this.Overall I think this guitar is worth the price asked and the stainless frets and roasted maple neck make this a no brainer.Thanks.

Great guitar, much better than its name or pricetag.

As said in the heading. This is an excellent instrument and one of my best purchases ever. Great finish (PRS charges 400 extra euros for this), excellent neck, feels very good, not the superfast Wizard type ones but still very much shreddable. The roasted maple is just briliant. Tuners are from another planet, much better than my Music Man Majesty's ones (a guitar worth 3800 euros). PUs are totally ok and very versatile, not the best for modern metal or prog so I upgraded them and also had the guitar set up (this will be needed).

Really good value, I recommend it 100%.

Everything was good

Except there's ringing near the headstock whenever I strum a bit hard. Metallic ringing sound as if some little bell is ringing inside the tuners. I tried to loosen and tighten the tuner locks but didn't help. There are some fret buzz. Other than that... it's superb. Nice guitar with roasted neck.

The changes on this newer Fusion-ll model make it a great deal.

HB has really stepped up their game and the recently released Harley Benton Fusion-II HSH Roasted FNT is just fantastic and came well packaged and pretty well setup. I absolutely LOVE this guitar! It has stainless frets which I chose to polish because there were a few that had some spots and now they are all nice and shiny. It also had a couple of tiny black specks under the top finish but am I going to whine about any of that? Hell no! When you consider what you're getting for the money this model is beyond an amazing value. It plays great, looks great and sounds great. There is nothing about it that I feel the need to change.

I recently purchased a Classic Vibe Squier and this guitar just blows it away and it even cost less! The satin finished flamed roasted maple neck is gorgeous and feels great and very smooth. It's a joy to play on and is a modern C shape and not real skinny or thin (talking depth wise) like some have said about the previous model. It is actually a tiny bit thicker than my Squier. You probably shouldn't ever have to worry about fret sprout or worn frets with that neck. No crackling noise from the controls like on the Squier. You should consider getting one if you haven't already. I mean c'mon...roasted maple neck, stainless steel frets, beautiful flamed maple top, Wilkinson trem, Graph Tech nut and STAGGERED LOCKING tuners for less than $400! Talk about bang for your buck! Great job on this model HB!

EDIT! - Well I still love this guitar and still think it is a great value - HOWEVER - I must say that I am very disappointed in the SS frets. They must be a low quality of stainless steel as I have only had this guitar for 4 months and already can see some fret wear! FYI - I only use regular nickel wound strings and although I do play a lot this is not a good sign. Had to lower the quality rating by a star.

Very good, but...

The guitar is excellent! The hype is real. I was worried about the build quality, but it is actually on par with WMI Korea. I've held the new Japan-made Ibanez RG550 Genesis and it had way worse and rougher frets. This means to me that Harley Benton quality control is on their game. Except...

The strings! Come on. Extremely corroded strings on a new guitar? The strings looked like they have already been played for year?!?!? I'm not talking about just being discolored. I'm saying the strings had thick corrosion on the nut area. All of them.

The pickups are just, meh! I already ordered Seymour Duncans for it.

I would have given it a perfect rating even with an average sounding set of pickups, but the strings really was a disappointment. Wish I could post the pictures here...

Very Nice guitar & Sound but with some flaws

overall impressed with the guitar, very beautiful and with great gadgets, locking tuner very good! pickups sound very god specially the bridge, the Neck pickup is very muddy and I going to ended replacing it. The best part of the guitar is the guitar neck amazing. how ever I have to do some adjustment.

Fret come unpolished, something that can be corrected with steal wool. fingerboard beautiful but a little dry, I add all in one oil it get perfect.

I have to lower the action, surprised how lower you can go is amazing.

overall for the price a super deal I love the guitar, I choose the combo where the bag is not bad either better that some that cost triple. the only things I regret is not buying a case this guitar deserve to be like my other guitar sleeping in a case.

Premium Top Notch Guitar! You will never regret!

Received the guitar within a week after order placed. Fast shipping. Thumbs up! Unboxing and it gave me a surprised as the guitar was exactly as described in the website. The looks of the natural finish is so stunning coupled with matching headstock. Plus point of this guitar is the roasted maple neck. With the offered price vs the specs that I gotten for this guitar I am truly honoured to be part of the Harley Benton family. Guitar plays great out of the box. The feel of the neck is fantastic and smooth as the neck finish is satin. The only setback of this guitar is the pickup which sound slightly muddy (does not have the clarity) which I can anytime swap out to a better pickup. Tremolo and the locking tuning machines caused the guitar to stay in tune always. Will definitely recommend to get this guitar If you wanted a super start. Overall, I am a happy owner of this guitar. Well done. Harley Benton! You have hit a home run!. Keep up the good work!

Not bad, but had flaws

Con:

-Some traces of glue on the frets, you can see and feel "drips" of glue beneath coating. (I sanded it down)

-Action was really high. A basic setup was hard needed... No problem for me, but a novice can be let down by this

-Sound is something very subjective, but this guitar is "attacky" as of something out of this world... I do not mean high output, but the pickups are very bity and treble-ish

-Neck is much less flamed as I expected

-For about 400€, you can get other guitars with much bigger brand names like fender, gibson, ... (but read the pro's)

Pro's:

-SS frets are the new standard!

-After setup, the action gets very low without any buzzing

-very versatile

-Does not feel like a budget guitar at all.

-I have compared it to a lot of other big brand guitars for this budget. This one still came as the best one, even if it has some flaws... But other brands had those also... I compared it to fenders, squiers, gretsch, ibanez, ... I was going to send it back because of some of the flaws that I said up here, but when I went to a store to compare, I was glad to take some of the flaws with it...

-All the hardware feels top notch!

Fantastic bang for your buck

Can't argue with the cost to features ratio on this thing. Stainless steel frets, locking tuners, HSH with coil split, spoke wheel truss access - all fantastic features. You'd have a hard time finding any sub-£1000 guitar with all of these features.

Sound quality leaves a little to be desired, but it's nothing that a pickup change couldn't fix. The neck and middle pickups sound absolutely fine, but the bridge pickup is where this guitar is let down. The shrill, ice-picky tone from the bridge pickup is hard to dial out at the best of times, but in high-gain metal it's virtually unavoidable.

Overall quality is fantastic. Pickups seem to be de-threading and unravelling bits of thread which isn't a fantastic look, but as I've mentioned, I'll be swapping them out as soon as I get a chance.

Overall, it's a fantastic amount of instrument for the money. Setup was pretty fantastic for a budget guitar - while the fret ends weren't dressed perfectly, they had no sharp edges, which at this price point is a win in my book.

Very Pleased I will be buying moe Harley Benton Products

Great guitar

This guitar is terrific and has a wide range of tones especially with the coil split pickups.

I love the roasted maple neck.

I was surprised with the quality and play-ability straight from the box.

My only issue with the guitar is fret buzz. The guitar needs to have the frets leveled and polished.

Super Strat?

I wanted something with roasted maple and I wanted a guitar with HSH pickup configuration. I chose this one. Pros (and there are many). The top on this model looks truly beautiful. The flamed Maple neck is beautiful, both in looks and in feel. It is fairly thin and the unfinished back of the neck is super slippery, no sticking there! The stainless steel frets are of medium thickness and fairly tall, perfectly finished, nothing sticking out or sharp. The locking tuners function perfectly both in string locking and tuning the instrument, smooth and accurate. The tremolo arm and bridge unit are classy, the pop in arm is a blessing. The trem action has no fault that I have found (more about that in the cons!). The guitar is very light.

Cons. There are only two. The misery of the horrible string retainer bar above the nut. With it fitted the tuning is lost every time the trem is used. This bar has been scrapped on newer models of this guitar, mine was in the first batch produced. I took it off within five minutes of playing and straight away the tuning was perfect. I used it in this way for a while with no problem of strings jumping out of the nut but I was not confident so I bought a pair of the Graphtec trees and fitted both (I think one for the B and E strings would be sufficient) and the problem was solved. I bought some short stainless screws and put them in the retainer bar holes to tidy the headstock as I did not want to use filler and make a mess. My second con may just be personal due to my playing style, but I find the five way selector switch a little too far forward and I regularly brush it and change pickup settings when I am strumming. If all the controls could be moved 20mm towards the back of the guitar I think that would be an advantage. I find the same problem on my Strat and my Stirling Silhouette as well so perhaps it is just me. Whether it is a con or not, I find the pickups very bright and I am considering replacing the neck pickup with a more rounded one although I have no idea which. Jonathan Koe of YouTube has put a Seymour Duncan set in his, see his revue, and they sound magical.

Overall, I am very happy with my purchase.

Great super-strat style guitar with a lovely neck

I bought this guitar as a Christmas gift for myself. It arrived in short time with good packaging. Looks are of course subjective but to me this is a great-looking guitar.

What is good:

- the most outstanding feature on this guitar is the gorgeous roasted maple neck, this not only looks really, really good, it is also a joy to play on. Because it is unfinished it feels really smooth and fast

- fretwork is excellent

- overall finish on the guitar is good with nothing to complain about

- retainer bar has been replaced by staggered tuners and a "rolling" string tree for the top two strings - with this configuration the guitar maintains tuning fairly well even with extensive use of the tremolo

- setup of the guitar was pretty good right out of the box, intonation close to perfect, strings a bit high but that was easily fixed

- the locking tuners feel really solid

- electronics and solder work on the inside of the guitar looks good

So-so:

- the pickups are better than I expected and the humbuckers sound pretty good even in the coil-split mode. I might still replace them since I think this guitar could deserve even better pickups. The pickups output is sort of medium but since play mostly blues and rock this fits well. Metal players might want hotter pickups.

- the veneer top is pretty but looks a bit flat and one-dimensional on closer inspection

Not so good:

- the nut is a bit roughly cut and I think I will replace it

- pickups are poorly mounted and not parallell to the strings, most notably the middle pickup tilts fairly heavily towards the neck. Havn't tried to correct this so I don't know if it is easily fixed

Overall and value for money

I've never owned a Harley-Benton before, but I must say this lives up to the positive reviews I read about it before buying. Take away the roasted maple neck and I would say this is a guitar on the same level as a top-of-the line Squier (like the Classic Vibes). Add back that great neck and you got yourself a good deal. Sure It's not a Charvel, Suhr or Ibanez AZ but I think you get an awful lot of guitar for your 400 euro with this one!

A Disappointment !

This guitar is really beautiful to look at.

The body was finished perfectly, but the neck has several "pinhole" flaws in the finish around the heel and on the headstock. The retainer bar is not only tacky looking - the low E string snags because the nut was slotted off center and too narrowly.

The main problem I have with this guitar is that the neck is just plain too skinny. It feels like one of those low end Yamaha PAC models - only it's even skinnier.

I tried to like it, but it's designed more for someone with small hands and that just doesn't cut it for me. My hands cramp up after playing it for a short while. I have over 50 guitars and this has the thinnest neck of any of them.

If you have small hands or just want a flashy guitar to look at, this will work. If you want a serious player's axe, I'd pass on this one.

I can't play it for more than 5-10 minutes without putting it down to grab something more comfortable feeling. Sad to say, but I have a few lowly Squier SEs that came in boxed sets with amps for next to nothing that have a more professional feel than this guitar.

This was a good idea that came very close to being something really great until they dropped the ball so badly on the neck size and profile.......