Harley Benton Fusion-T HH HT Roasted FNT

Great guitar, with a few issues

This is a amazing guitar for the price, no doubt, but I did recieve it with a couple of issues.

I ordered the guitar and a set of strings, and the guitar box was put in a bigger box with almost no protection inside, so it slid around quite easily. The first thing I noticed was some rubbing marks and a nick in the headstock, more than likely from shipping. Second thing I noticed was a pretty big gap in the neck pocket. Luckily I like to tinker with my guitars, so I fixed it. It had some sawdust in the neck pocket, and was screwed in loose. The last thing is that it had a grounding issue, but luckily I can fix that myself. I got a partial refund, and I bought it on sale, so I'm still happy with my purchase.

Near Perfect

I bought this as part of the 25th Anniversary deal - so the price was irresistible. This is my third Fusion-T, but the first with the roasted maple neck.

Everything about this guitar is how I would want it to be. Even the pickups are great, if you want an Alnico 5 PAF kind of sound. I have some great pickups spare (Oripure, Iron Gear) but I don't feel any need to change them, for my tastes. I love the figuring of the veneered top and the roasted neck. Some people might say there were imperfections but I like that - it's real wood. After a setup and new string s the intonation is spot-on and the tuning stable.

There Is one problem though: the frets are rough. Normally that would be expected and wouldn't be a problem. While the strings were off I gave them a good going over with a leather block and stropping compound. They are still rough. The problem is that they are stainless steel, so will require some serious work. My other two Fusion-Ts, and my two Fusions, also have stainless frets. They were fine after stropping. The ones on this guitar feel like they've been stored next to a welder. This roughness isn't going to disappear with a bit of playing. A few hours with fine Micromesh and more stropping and they will be smooth and shiny. It's worth investing the time - I just wish I didn't have to.

Other than that, this is magnificent. I love the Fusion-Ts for their huge control cavities, which make modding so easy. I just don't feel the need to mod this one. Impeccable!

Superb guitar,value for money

Well built and very playable out of the box, smooth fretwork and no flaws in the finish.

Pickups slightly harsh compared to more expensive ones but for the money no complaints.

Would recommend if on the fence.

WOW

I am 56 yrs old and literally learned to walk dragging a guitar behind me. I have owned some very high end guitars. I have 3 taylors and a vintage martin d18 right now. I can honestly say that I could not be happier with this guitar. Right out of the box i would (and will) gig with it. If I nitpick I am not sure I would call this a flamed maple neck however. It is very nice just not what i would consider flamed. This is my third HB guitar and zero complaints.

What to say...

Firstly the features are wicked, so big plus. Secondly there's ample scope to mod.

Cons - as stock it needs a few mods to make it a serious pro axe. Problems I found were 1 terrible pickups just did not sit well with any amp or pedal I don't know if my ones were a bit shoddy but I replaced them in 2 weeks.

2, mine needed a serious fret polish n wood oiling.

3 grain was dull on body veneer with little figuring but fretboard flame is nice shame about neck.

So what can be done to improve this? Well a few purchases from Fender will help. Namely a 500k tonesaver attached to volume a TBX in tone position (why do they not put tbx in every guitar is beyond me????) as the split coil on the Roswell was beyond a joke with insufficient tone.

I contemplated adding a kill switch (there's plenty of room in the control cavity) but not desired yet.

As for pick ups if you can afford Seymour Duncan the buy a perpetual Burn or 59/Custom with Alnico Pro II, if you can afford DiMarzio PAF pro and 36th Anniversary PAF if you can't afford those go to Tonerider and get Alnico 4 bridge and Alnico 2 neck. I've experienced all of these and experienced various pups in this guitar and others. The only combo that didn't work as well as I expected was dimarzio Air classics (sound great in my other guitars).

Currently running it with Irongear blues engine bridge and tonerider Birmingham in the neck.. sounds ok blues engine sounded the boss in my Kramer Baretta.

Over all get what you want make a few mods and turn this good axe into a great guitar that will see you from bedroom to stage

One of the best models out there

I'm a bass player first, but I enjoy playing guitar sometimes. This tele became my main, and remains for over two years now, even though I have much more expensive instruments. It just feels great in my hands, and when I want to play, I'm grabbing it 9 times out of 10. Total score - 5/5.

Features-wise it offers more then a regular tele or a two humbucker guitar, since it has coil-split. I wasn't expecting anything else out of it, so 5/5.

Sound is the weakest spot of the instrument. Stock Roswells are ok, but they sound worse than some other humbuckers I've tried. Swapping them is always an option, and something I'm planning to do eventually. However, they are usable, even in coil split modes. Overall it's 4/5

My particular model was from the first run, so it has issues that later models don't. First of all, the holes in the body are not properly aligned with the bridge. It's still usable, but annoying. Also the switch is horizontal, so when it's in the bridge position, it hits the volume knob. On later models they made it diagonal. I'd give it 5/5 for the new models, but mine is 4/5.

In my opinion this guitar is perfect for any newbie. It's very comfortable to play, the neck feels amazing, you have steel frets, locking tuners, stable hardtail bridge, decent humbuckers with a split mode. I honestly cannot think of a better guitar for these money.

Roasted maple

What a looker for the price. Always wanted a HH telecaster, this one might be the most bang for the buck. Great quality, you may wanna change the pickups for your taste, it is not an issue for mine tho so I will keep them. This would make a banger present for a beginner also.

Punches Way Above It's Weight

The headline says it all. It's simply hard to argue against the impressive value of stainless steel frets, a roasted maple neck, locking tuner, and excellent quality control. And the fit and finish is great, regardless of price point. Played excellent right out of the box, even though it travelled halfway across the world to get to me. I expected the pickups to be a weak point, but they are surprisingly versatile. I personally prefer AlNiCo over ceramic, but I would be lying if I said these ceramics were bad. The electronics could benefit from an upgrade, as the switch and pots feel a bit cheap, but they're certainly serviceable and on par for the price point.

Value

This guitar is unbelievably value packed. It's well crafted and has several premium features that make it attractive to both novice and experienced players. I had fairly high expectations based on what I'd seen on the web and I wasn't disappointed. It arrived surprisingly quickly in the U.S. and was beautiful, right out of the box and the setup was fine.

I only have 2 criticisms and they're pretty minor, in light of the value but It feels a tad heavy and I'm not in love with the pickups.

Pretty much unbeatable for the price

This is my main guitar for my cover band, we play mostly at weddings. For this purpose, I think there is no better guitar anywhere close to this price range. I've set it up with a set of 12-52 that works perfect for the DGCEAD tuning I play in (Viola Da Gamba tuning, look it up, it's great!) and I didn't need to touch the nut at all for this. The pickups are fairly low output and while they don't sound very special, I'm still very pleased with them since they sound well in any setting, from crystal clean (though the split settings are much, much better clean) to high gain, so I could play the entire set just on the bridge pickup if I wanted to.

I could write an entire review just about the neck on this thing because it is simply brilliant. It is not very thin, but just the right amount of girth for my hands and the roasted maple is so silky smooth (satin of course so it's never sticky). The hardtail bridge and locking tuners mean changing strings is a breeze.

As with all my Harley Benton guitars I've had so far, the frets are slightly rough but the fret edges are very well finished so your playing is not impeded. I'll probably buy a second one as a back-up at some point.