Got a new cheap guitar!

GazLion · October 2014

So I heard that the Harley Benton stuff can be great value for money, and I've been thinking about a semi-hollow bodied electric for a while now so I took a stab at one of these -

Flash -

No flash -

Sorry my camera phone ain't the best.

So straight onto the not so good bits!

- There are a couple of very small marks on the fretboard, only 2mm long. One looks like glue (which I think I'll be able to get off), the other is a weird difference in colour, looks like filler to me.

- The fretboard was as dry as a camels arse.

- The fret work is a little rough. Could do with a proper polish I think.

- The pickup selector feels a bit crap, and I suspect the whole wiring will need to be changed at some point.

- The tone control does precisely nowt for the neck pickup

- The scratch plate looks a bit crap. Not been cut very well.

And the good bits!

- The neck feels really nice! Reminds me of an old Epi LP Custom I used to have.

- The colour is a nice deep red. Can't see any obvious flaws in the finish. All tidy around the F holes and 'binding'

- The nut seems pretty good! I think this surprised me the most. I'll probably have this setup by the luthier eventually so I'll see what he says, but first impressions are that it is cut well.

- I'm finding the pickups fine at the moment. I was fully expecting that I would need to change these, but not so sure now.

- Price! This thing is unbelievable for just over 100 notes.

I would love to see how this stacks up against an Epi Dot, just purely out of interest due to the difference in cost. I've only ever play a Dot once and it was many moons ago.

Oh and the reason for this impulse purchase...I was looking for a cheap cab for home practice on Thomann, and couldn't resist looking at the semi's whilst I was there! The cab looks great as well, matches the head nicely -

Happy days!

Lev · October 2014

Looks really nice with the fretboard binding - you don't get that on the Epi. For the price of a decent overdrive pedal it looks like a pretty great deal. Congrats.