Harley Benton Fusion-T HH HT Roasted SSP 4-stars Reviews

Hot-rodded Hardtail

Let me start with the buying experience – very straight forward, no issues and for us English residents, the pricing includes tax/shipping. Shipping was moderately quick; took about a week for the guitar to turn up. Upon arrival, the guitar was very well packaged (although the outer box was very big and was a waste of material perhaps). The guitar itself arrived in brilliant condition. A quick inspection showed a small dent in the back of the body (did not break the lacquer) and the action was a little high. Neck needed no adjustment at all. Okay, so after watching so many reviews of these guitars, I expected the neck on my guitar to be super flamed, but this was not the case. However, it is still a lovely bit of maple.

The bridge looks and feels solid; no sharp edges and easy to adjust. The nut is well cut and shows no glue or anything like that. Double, roller string trees of which one is ever so slightly at an angle – nothing a screwdriver cant fix and even that is being picky! The neck look, feels and smells beautiful! Clay-esque dot markers are very classy and go very well with the chocolate fretboard – which does have some wild flame on it. Fit and finish are almost perfect. I own another instrument with stainless steel frets and they don’t have that traditional feel. The frets on this instrument, however, feel surprisingly natural. And fretwork is perfect, no issues.

Electronics: Volume pot is lovely and smooth; Tone pot is too but turns faster. Nice tactile push-pull action. The 3-way selector switch is very nice! Seems very sturdy. Pickups are visually classy and sound… well, in humbucker mode, they are thick, articulate and round. Medium-low output, but that’s not a criticism! For a relatively unknown brand, these pickups are pretty damn good! What really impressed me (for the first time in my life) is the split coil sounds. Genuinely impressed with how great they sound with light gain; in the neck position especially.

Verdict: before I received the guitar I had decided I would scrub off the HB logo and text on the headstock, but hell no. Harley Benton have produced an extremely worthy instrument for the price and the deserve to have their name on the headstock. These are not “beginner” guitars. Many people think cheap guitars are “beginner” but this isn’t the case. The HB business model allows us lucky people to have such instruments at way more competitive prices, but that doesn’t diminish their value. There will still be people who decide they want to change the pickups or change the bridge or whatever. The truth is, there is no need. Work on your playing! And with an instrument like this, you can just concentrate on that 😊