Harley Benton Guitars….

guitarjack66 · October 2023

I do like the look of their 335 style models. I am happy with my Jet Tele as it's not too heavy at all.

GoFish · October 2023

I've been informed that the 335 a-likes are havily based on the Washburns from a few years back. fwiw.

ToneControl · October 2023

some of them are very good
The SC550 I bought is USA quality I think, I suspect the Fusion ones too
The Amarok is very cheap, but there are a few QC niggles: the pots are the wrong values, which they did resolve for me

I think all the ones in the current special offer are pretty good

guitarjack66 · October 2023

GoFish said:

I've been informed that the 335 a-likes are havily based on the Washburns from a few years back. fwiw.

Is that a positive or a negative? I'm not too familiar with Washburn and have never owned one.

GoFish · October 2023

Pretty good, I think. I'd see it as a plus that they've taken a template from a design known to work.

mikeyrob73 · October 2023

mikeyrob73 said:

I have one of these arriving tomorrow

shall report back

https://i.imgur.com/YGJPWyg.jpeg

Right update time

it’s heavy , like almost 9lb heavy
plugged in tonight and it’s very nice , loads of bite in the p90 . smashed in a few green day tracks this evening and it’s sounds great

for £110 I’m not sure you could get much better if I’m honest

BigPaulie · October 2023

mikeyrob73 said:

mikeyrob73 said:

I have one of these arriving tomorrow

shall report back

https://i.imgur.com/YGJPWyg.jpeg

Right update time

it’s heavy , like almost 9lb heavy
plugged in tonight and it’s very nice , loads of bite in the p90 . smashed in a few green day tracks this evening and it’s sounds great

for £110 I’m not sure you could get much better if I’m honest

A 9lb SG Jr?

Holy feck!

That would be a deal breaker for me.

Dave_Mc · October 2023

ToneControl said:

I've bought quite a few
The QC is not like PRS SE, but not far off Fender
The higher priced ones are way better

Meant to reply to this yesterday- I would suspect you're right, but the only problem is that quite a lot of the time the model you want is only available at one price point!

(Also admittedly sometimes the cheaper ones are so cheap that they're hard to resist whereas the dearer ones are dear enough that you have to really want/need one!)

Dave_Mc · October 2023

ToneControl said:
I think all the ones in the current special offer are pretty good

Yeah I'm struggling to remember exactly what was available last time but I seem to remember there not being all that much that I was interested in (apart from the Filtertron Tele in a different colour which I eventually caved and ordered this time)- whereas this time there are several "interesting" options.

mikeyrob73 said:
Right update time

it’s heavy , like almost 9lb heavy
plugged in tonight and it’s very nice , loads of bite in the p90 . smashed in a few green day tracks this evening and it’s sounds great

for £110 I’m not sure you could get much better if I’m honest

Thanks for the update

Wow, that's pretty heavy for a Jr- I thought Meranti was supposed to be lightish? Maybe I'm wrong there.

But you're quite right- for the price, it's hard to complain. I just wonder if the fat neck Jr is a bit lighter, it's specced as mahogany I think (though what wood that actually will be is another thing!).

How does it play? Glad it sounds great (kind of suspected it would, I get the feeling those Roswell pickups are decent at least, and the Tesla ones pretty darn good, based on videos).

guitargeek62 · October 2023

Weird, my DC Jr was practically a featherweight!

Dave_Mc · October 2023

guitargeek62 said:

Weird, my DC Jr was practically a featherweight!

Weight does seem to be pretty variable with HBs- was yours the fat neck version? EDIT: actually I'm not sure that matters- both versions of the DC Jr (plus the SC Jr) are specced as "mahogany", it's just the SG Jr which is specced as meranti.

skunkwerx · October 2023

I've not weighed the V I have but it's extremely light, feels like there is nothing of it.. though it is a smaller overall body I guess.

skullfunkerry · October 2023

skunkwerx said:

I've not weighed the V I have but it's extremely light, feels like there is nothing of it.. though it is a smaller overall body I guess.

My Fusion is my lightest guitar, too.

BigPaulie · October 2023

BigPaulie said:

The only HB that currently tickles my fancy is the Aeolus.

I did have a hankering for a Fusion for a while as I was looking for a trem equipped super-strat/tele, but that itch has been well and truly scratched by my 1996 Yamaha Pacifica 604W.

The thing with HB guitars that puts me off is Thomann's excellent quality hi-res imagery. When I zoom in to areas of detail such as binding or scraped edges, soundholes/f-holes, inlays, purfling etc they always look really sloppy. You may say "what do you expect for a guitar that cost £X?" But when people say "Harley Benton instruments aren't just good for the money, they're just good full-stop" that statement doesn't add up alongside some of the horrific build quality that can be clearly seen in those photos.

Seems I may have spoken out of turn.

I've had some time on my hands with covid so have had a look at some of the Thomann pictures and can no longer find many examples of the horrors described above (though the Aeolus f-holes still look messy). They've either improved the quality of the instruments or are getting better at choosing good examples to photograph.

I really want the former to be the case. As well as the Aeolus I like the look of the TE62DB and would like to put a P90 in the neck. The SC Special is also attractive as I could do with a P90 equipped guitar. They would have to be light though (under 3.4kg for T types and under 3.2kg for LP Special/Jr types).

chor808 · October 2023

Dave_Mc said:

My Filtertron Tele's on the way. Not sure how long it'll be... maybe end of the week if I'm lucky, but more probably early next week I would guess.

Interested to hear what that one's like, @mikeyrob73 ;

Ditto @chor808 ;

Still waiting DHL don't seem to know where it is :-(

darthed1981 · October 2023

chor808 said:

Dave_Mc said:

My Filtertron Tele's on the way. Not sure how long it'll be... maybe end of the week if I'm lucky, but more probably early next week I would guess.

Interested to hear what that one's like, @mikeyrob73 ;

Ditto @chor808 ;

Still waiting DHL don't seem to know where it is :-(

Probably means its not in the country yet - last time I ordered from Thomann that was the reason DHL tracking hadn't started.

mikeyrob73 · October 2023

Aye mine didn’t show on dhl till it hit the country and then was here next day

chor808 · October 2023

Cleared customs a couple of days ago. Now saying package delayed. Will chase in the morning..... Maybe Gibson have abducted it?

Dave_Mc · October 2023

BigPaulie said:
Seems I may have spoken out of turn.

I've had some time on my hands with covid so have had a look at some of the Thomann pictures and can no longer find many examples of the horrors described above (though the Aeolus f-holes still look messy). They've either improved the quality of the instruments or are getting better at choosing good examples to photograph.

I really want the former to be the case. As well as the Aeolus I like the look of the TE62DB and would like to put a P90 in the neck. The SC Special is also attractive as I could do with a P90 equipped guitar. They would have to be light though (under 3.4kg for T types and under 3.2kg for LP Special/Jr types).

I have seen a few close-ups which didn't look too great- but I've also seen plenty which looked pretty good, at least to my uneducated eye. Definitely agree with you, I hope they're getting better and not just picking better ones to photograph!

chor808 said:

Dave_Mc said:

My Filtertron Tele's on the way. Not sure how long it'll be... maybe end of the week if I'm lucky, but more probably early next week I would guess.

Interested to hear what that one's like, @mikeyrob73 ;;;

Ditto @chor808 ;;;

Still waiting DHL don't seem to know where it is :-(

Ah that sucks

I hope it turns up sooner rather than later

Mine's still saying it's "on the way to the border" (it doesn't specify what border that is

), and I don't even seem to have a tracking number! EDIT: No, I'm wrong, I do have a tracking number- it was only in my shipping confirmation email and not in my Thomann account when I log in. No word yet when I tracked it, I guess that means it hasn't got through UK customs yet.

Not too worried yet, it was only sent on Monday evening so it's still well within the normal delivery timeframe for them I think.

Fortheloveofguitar · October 2023

Mine have taken 5 working days to arrive each time. No movement at all on Saturday and Sundays.

chor808 · October 2023

Managed at speak to a human at DHL, it's on the van apparently...

steve91 · October 2023

chor808 said:

Managed at speak to a human at DHL, it's on the van apparently...

Having previously worked for DHL, I can safely say that is an educated guess by them at best. Fingers crossed you get it today though!

chor808 · October 2023

And nothing has arrived :-(. It's been in and out of a van about ten times, it's going to be road worn when it arrives...DHL relic

BigPaulie · October 2023

Chill. It'll get there when it gets there. Be cool

Dave_Mc · October 2023

Fortheloveofguitar said:

Mine have taken 5 working days to arrive each time. No movement at all on Saturday and Sundays.

Looks like that's what's happening with mine- the tracking updated today (and I got an email with my tracking number etc. so I was worrying about nothing) and it's got through customs today but isn't going to be delivered to me in Northern Ireland until Tuesday. I guess (assuming it does arrive on Tuesday) that'll be 6 working days since it was sent last Monday. Bit worse than pre-Brexit (it usually used to arrive on a Thursday if you ordered on a Sunday IIRC), but not too bad.

Sorry to hear yours hasn't turned up yet @chor808

stufisher · October 2023

Mine is now with my guitar tech being fettled and modded. He said that out of the box it was utterly shit ... one of the buckers was dead and the action was very high.

I'm not worrying at all because the Alegreen P90s arrived too and my first experience will be with a new, pro set-up, three P90, SG in about 10 days.

Getting excited now

Dave_Mc · October 2023

stufisher said:

Mine is now with my guitar tech being fettled and modded. He said that out of the box it was utterly shit ... one of the buckers was dead and the action was very high.

I'm not worrying at all because the Alegreen P90s arrived too and my first experience will be with a new, pro set-up, three P90, SG in about 10 days.

Getting excited now

Wow- did you get a B-stock one or a full-price (well, full sale price, you know what I mean!) one?

BillDL · October 2023

@stufisher;; Email them and tell them that the pickup didn't work, and that you have had to pay a technician to swap it. I had one with a dodgy tuner (bent button shaft on vintage Kluson type) and, even though I had a set I was planning on transplanting anyway, I emailed them and said I had fixed it using my own set of tuners. I was offered something like a £15 voucher or my choice of something to that value for free. I asked for two sets of acoustic strings and received them with an apology.

chor808 · October 2023

Still no where to be seen. DHL doing a sweep of the warehouse this morning to find it else it's lost. Will contact Thomman this morning again..:-(

chor808 · October 2023

chor808 said:

Still no where to be seen. DHL doing a sweep of the warehouse this morning to find it else it's lost. Will contact Thomman this morning again..:-(

Lost! Anyway will await a refund :-(

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