Harley Benton JA-20HH Active SBK

Better than other cheap options

This guitar is not perfect but for the price you shouldn't expect it. Not the smoothest frets, a few aesthetic issues, a small buzzing issue. I would say this guitar is on par with my $500 squier guitar which is great considering the price of this guitar! Definitely needs a good setup after you get it. I play this guitar almost daily and I still love it and plus it looks super super cool!

Large manufacturers beware

I have been looking at a Harley Benton for a few years. I pulled the trigger on this one not really knowing what to expect. To say I was pleasantly surprised is a massive understatement. The finish of the guitar is flawless from the tip of the headstock to the bottom of the body. The frets are very well dressed both on the ends as well as the crown. The tuners are holding tune perfectly and are very smooth to turn with just the right amount of tension. The active pickups are extremely good. The bridge is bright on the cleans and gets very crunchy when driven. The neck is pure fat vintage sounding cream. And the middle position is the best of both. The setup of the guitar feels like someone cared about the playability of this guitar and took the time to make it rad. The action may be a bit low for some but it is perfect for my style. Very low to the frets and ZERO buzz. The metals used don’t look nor feel cheap and there is a bit of a premium feel to them. The only downside I have found is one that has been mentioned here before. You will need to remove the bridge and sand the paint where the ground wire touches it. There is a bit of noise when you push gain or distortion. It’s a simple fix and I don’t feel it warrants a drop in the rating. I will purchase another HB, and it will be soon! Oh and shipping was fast, 3 days from Germany to the US.

Amazing

I've seen reviews and videos online and really liked the looks, shape and sound of the guitar, I was cautious because of the price but when it arrived all doubts where gone. Gorgeous guitar, with amazing sound I absolutely love it.

Incredible Guitar!

The feel, the sound, the quality - i could'nt believe it when i was holding it as when i thought of the price!

It's okay.

If ever a guitar needed a tone knob, it would be this one. Unfortunately, once the volume on the guitar is pushed past 5, it becomes very muddy. If you plan to actually use this guitar, I'm going to recommend getting yourself a proper EQ pedal first in your chain. It helps it a little bit, but not enough for my taste.

Other than that, the infamous grounding issue has been resolved if you've seen all of the videos around from a year ago and were worried that it might still be a QC issue.

The neck is sensitive, and takes a bit to get used to. Fretting your notes too hard pulls this out of tune every time. Be gentle with this one.

It looks nice, but I'm not sure it's going to get played much. I got what I paid for.

The Beast

Checked for straightness, checked for damaged, checked for finishing. Only issue I’ve found would be the fret ends needed a little TLC, but nothing a super fine sandpaper couldn’t sort out in no time. Tuned to D standard, and went after it. This guitar is a metal beast!! Love it!

Great Guitar

Great guitar for a great price. Heavy sound and looks

Ground buzz

great guitar, cant wait to mod it, but ground buzz and hbz electronics need to get out. very pretty and good to play. i use 12-62

$ vs quality=🎸👍😁🇺🇸⚔️🍕🍺🤙

I was interested in a guitar with active pickups.

This one has what I was looking for as well as a simple control setup! The neck is very good, tuners are good, I play it through a Boss Katana 2x12 and it sounds great!

Killer looks - Good bones...but needs some work

Let me say right off the bat, this guitar gives you a lot of bang for your buck and a lot of the minor issues with this guitar are things that are completely understandable for a guitar at this price point, but it did have a grounding issue (well documented with this model) that I don't think is ok at any price point).

Pros - Killer looks, lightweight, and feels amazing once it's set up.

Cons - Cheap hardware...the tuners/nut/string trees aren't the greatest quality, but at this price point, its something I would expect. The fret ends were also a little rough and I needed to do some filing/sanding to smooth them out. Again...something I fully expect at this price point.

The big issue I was not OK with was the grounding issue with the bridge that caused a lot of noise when playing through high gain settings. I'm comfortable working on guitars, so this wasn't a huge issue for me to fix, but not everyone is in the same boat. Seeing multiple reviews of this guitar online shows that this was a well documented issue and a customer should not have to fix a brand new guitar out of the box.

All that said, if you ARE comfortable doing maintenance on your own guitars, this thing definitely punches well above its weight class and can be a beast once you've given it some love.