Are Harley Benton pointing the way to the real future of the guitar industry?

Three-ColourSunburst

crunchman said:

A 335 sounds good, but it doesn't sound the same as a Les Paul - even though it has the same scale length, and same pickups. 

If there is a difference, let's say it is subtle, much less than one might think given the body of a LP is solid mahogany and Maple, whilst a 335 is made from pretty thin plywood and a lot of fresh air.

crunchman

Have you played both, or are you just relying on Youtube clips?  There is a noticeable difference between a semi-hollow and a Les Paul.

ICBM

Three-ColourSunburst

crunchman said:

There is a noticeable difference between a semi-hollow and a Les Paul.

Maybe one can notice a difference. How big a difference is another question. Then again get an amp cooking a bit... Can you tell which guitar is which here?

Fretwired

NelsonP said:

This is also pretty interesting

Danish Pete barely disguises his feelings that there is no way that the Gibson justifies a price point 10 times that of the Epi...

I have a Dot I bought new for £230 from a local dealer. I was impressed with the build, but not the pickups. I got a pair of Gibson '57's for £50 from eBay, a TonePros bridge and Shugz (was pre-Fretboard) of this forum made me a wiring loom with top notch components. Got a local luthier to do the work and for under £500 I had a killer guitar. Still play it regularly - great for jazz. I have a friend (who posts on here sometime) who keeps offering me cash for thing .. Epi's are well made and good for upgrading.

darthed1981

NelsonP said:

This is also pretty interesting


Danish Pete barely disguises his feelings that there is no way that the Gibson justifies a price point 10 times that of the Epi...

Yeah I think that video sums up the eternal dilemma well.

The Gibson looks gorgeous, clearly sounds better than the Epi, and costs £3200.

The epi looks decent, sounds good, and costs £299.

As others have pointed out, if the sound is the issue, then you'd swap the pickups, if you want stage reliability you may want to change the electrics (the pickup selectors on Epis always seem to be bluddy awful).

But the Epi Dot is a giggable, lovely, playable guitar for £299.  So for me, buying one of every kind of guitar to learn what I like, rude to say no (I have a Dot).

But if I decide 335s are "Me" and I want one to be my number one, I'd probably save up for that Gibbon.

Even though my playing sucks and it is in no way shape of form 10 times the guitar as the Dot.

Three-ColourSunburst

Going back to the construction of a typical Harley Benton 'Les Paul style' guitar, this is 'interesting'. OK, so the guy is obviously a Gibson brand-whore and a does a good impression of someone who is a complete nutcase, but when he saws his guitar in half ("Absolutely the best thing to do with a Harley Benton") it is clear that it takes some cutting up, so it can hardly be made of balsa or smarties, and when he holds it up at 3:54 the solid body and thick maple cap are clearly visible.

Fretwired

Three-ColourSunburst said:

Going back to the construction of a typical Harley Benton 'Les Paul style' guitar, this is 'interesting'. OK, so the guy is obviously a Gibson brand-whore and a does a good impression of someone who is a complete nutcase, but when he saws his guitar in half ("Absolutely the best thing to do with a Harley Benton") it is clear that it takes some cutting up, so it can hardly be made of balsa or smarties, and when he holds it up at 3:54 the solid body and thick maple cap are clearly visible.

The guy's a twat ..

mikeyrob73

Three-ColourSunburst said:

Going back to the construction of a typical Harley Benton 'Les Paul style' guitar, this is 'interesting'. OK, so the guy is obviously a Gibson brand-whore and a does a good impression of someone who is a complete nutcase, but when he saws his guitar in half ("Absolutely the best thing to do with a Harley Benton") it is clear that it takes some cutting up, so it can hardly be made of balsa or smarties, and when he holds it up at 3:54 the solid body and thick maple cap are clearly visible.

Has anyone else watching this wishing and hoping that a part of the scratch plate would crack off and hit this total fuck pig in the jugular? 

What a tool 

rossi

Fretwired said:

NelsonP said:

This is also pretty interesting

Danish Pete barely disguises his feelings that there is no way that the Gibson justifies a price point 10 times that of the Epi...

I have a Dot I bought new for £230 from a local dealer. I was impressed with the build, but not the pickups. I got a pair of Gibson '57's for £50 from eBay, a TonePros bridge and Shugz (was pre-Fretboard) of this forum made me a wiring loom with top notch components. Got a local luthier to do the work and for under £500 I had a killer guitar. Still play it regularly - great for jazz. I have a friend (who posts on here sometime) who keeps offering me cash for thing .. Epi's are well made and good for upgrading.

I did this to a Dot too .I replaced all metal on the guitar with Grover ,Gotoh ,CTS .Tone rider.It all made a huge difference as did the fret level.i tried to make it play ,feel and sound like the 335 I played at the same time i bought the dot .I think I succeeded .A fret level was probably the clincher for feel and playabilty .The replaced bridge ,tailstop  ,tuners gave it depth of tone,The pickups a vast improvement .I did most of it  a part at a time keeping the same strings on too so no new string boost .

BigBearKris

That was eerie... 

Dare I check his yt channel?

Edit: I did and almost fell asleep halfway through his LP Jimmy Page v Epiphone review...

NelsonP

I'd like to see a shootout of a regular casino vs say a Gary clark jr or IBJL one, vs a Japanese elitist vs an es330.

Actually, thinking about it Gibson have a good strategy here. All price points and grades well covered!

mar10

Good for them
 not sure how they’re still getting away with the H that looks like the fender F

i can’t see the 7 & 8 string custom metal heads crew being too impressed by them, it’s not got enough hipshot & exotic woods splashed all over them...  

I’m still thinking there will be a stigma with the hb name, they’ll always be associated in my mind with budget guitars 
 professionals/anyone in a big band are surely going to stay loyal to the “big” brands!?

when rhese hit stores I’m going to have to try one to see if they’re anything other than a pimped up learner guitar

Sporky

mikeyrob73 said:

Has anyone else watching this wishing and hoping that a part of the scratch plate would crack off and hit this total fuck pig in the jugular? 

What a tool 

I was surprised and disappointed that when he pulled the saw towards him - still running and in the timber - he didn't get any kickback. Lucky he didn't lose a wrist.

Having tried to watch a couple of his before I had to have the sound off; he is an insufferable knobber.

darthed1981

Was looking on Thomann's website last night, my heavens these HBs are cheap...

Totally random example... https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hb_ja_60sb_vintage_series.htm

I mean I know it's probably rubbish, but it's £113 and just look at it!

darthed1981

Crikey look at THIS - https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_rb_612cs_classic_series.htm

A Rickenbacker 12-string copy for under £200

Edit: Please someone tell me this one is terrible, please

Plectrum

darthed1981 said:

Crikey look at THIS - https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_rb_612cs_classic_series.htm

A Rickenbacker 12-string copy for under £200

Edit: Please someone tell me this one is terrible, please

I've got 2 Harley Bentons: a CST24HB (PRS semi-hollow style) and a Strat-style one. The S-type was only £58 and needed quite s bit of fettling to turn it into a good little player but the CST24HB (cost £160ish) was good straight out of the box and I'd say rivals Epiphone in quality.

munckee

darthed1981 said:

Crikey look at THIS - https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_rb_612cs_classic_series.htm

A Rickenbacker 12-string copy for under £200

Edit: Please someone tell me this one is terrible, please

I was looking at that, looks great.

Just don't know if I can be bothered changing 12 strings though!

carlos

darthed1981 said:

Crikey look at THIS - https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_rb_612cs_classic_series.htm

A Rickenbacker 12-string copy for under £200

Edit: Please someone tell me this one is terrible, please

I'm not a Thomann sales rep but the ones that are terrible are clearly marked as being for decoration only. Often they'll mark down guitars in price as b-stock, but the descriptions will explain why they are b-stock. Often it's just cosmetic damage, which in a cheap as chips guitar is probably not a big deal anyway. In short, if it's for sale without warnings, then it's playable. At that price point, expect to have to do a setup when it comes out of the box, though.

underdog

darthed1981 said:

Was looking on Thomann's website last night, my heavens these HBs are cheap...

Totally random example... https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hb_ja_60sb_vintage_series.htm

I mean I know it's probably rubbish, but it's £113 and just look at it!

I bought a HB explorer new for £80, it's bloody fantastic, all I spent on it was £7 for a new but as I chipped the one that came with it.