Harley Benton JA-Baritone BK 5-stars Reviews

Honestly VERY surprised!

I thought this would be fun to pick up for the price, and I expected the usual with a new guitar: setup is funky, nut was cut too high to leave you room to lower, fret sprout, some uneven frets or notes to get choked out when you bend high...Pretty much the how my 2021 Epiphone Les Paul Prophecy came.

This guitar blew my expectations away! No fret sprout, no uneven frets that I can tell after a few hours on it, action is actually really good, and virtually NO cosmetic defects (one small ding about 2mm wide and 1mm tall, you really have to look for it). The neck is smooth, the frets don't stick out of the finger board at all, the pickups actually sound really good. I was anticipating replacing the pickups...but I might just leave them for now. I DO want to replace the plastic tuners with some locking metal ones that will feel better and be easier to work with, but this thing holds tune very well actually. Electronics are good and not scratchy and don't pop. The frets do need a once over with some steel wool, but that's perfectly okay.

You want this? Just get it! If there's a lead time that just means you'll get a nice surprise from yourself in the future. So glad I ordered this when I did and didn't let a lead time scare me away. Great job!

Amazingly Versatile Baritone

After waiting a few months for this to arrive and frantically watching videos about it online, it finally arrived today!

I was worried about possible QC issues and/or electronic issues since rumors about HB guitars have been coming forward a bit more the last year or so (my personal experience with HB products has been only positive), however I am extremely excited to say that the neck and frets feel as smooth as my most expensive guitar, the stock pickups being house-brand sound surprisingly good.

Only minor points, if you can even call them that, are the plastic tuners (which personally do not really bother me for the price and feel sturdy enough), the glossy neck (this is personal preference and I had no issue running up and down the neck) and the fact that the fretboard does not seem to be oiled (which is a 5 minute job).

Overall, I cannot recommend this guitar enough to the baritone lover. I actually wanted it for low-tuned metal which it can absolutely do (with some extra gain and stuff) but nevertheless have caught myself being sunk into its expressive cleans, so I do think this guitar has a lot of possibilities and its p90 pickups have an interesting character. For 199 euros and these features I didn't even care to examine it for dings and scratches and so far I have seen none, plus I have not checked the intonation but this can also be easily remedied. Absolutely great instrument!