Show me your Harley Bentons - I'm thinking of investing....

xGizmo

Myself and my dad have had a few come and go over the past few years,we both had one each of there les paul's in honeyburst/lemon burst

as i recall these were about £110 at the time,both solid guitars well made without any playablitiy issues,just a few small cosmetic things around the bindings, we both sold these on as nither of us can really get on with TOM bridges......

There are x3 HB's in the house atm x2 of there P*S copies and one of the Honner/prince tele things (that tele weigh's a fuck ton btw)

His is the blue/aqua bridge is decked and he added blue dot stickers and i satin modded both necks and swapped out the knobs

i'll get around to darkening the FB on mine one day (once i can get the dye from my workshop at my bros house)

Neck/FB is a flat thin wide D,pups are wilkisons nice clean only 3 way (no push/pull slipt on this one) might get around to adding some mini switches

Again a few small errors around the binding and a few bits of dust trapped in the finish nothing i have'nt seem on guitars 4-5 times the price tbh,frets needed a bit of cleaning and there was some white polish/dust in a few area's of the fb's on both of them but on sharp edges or unlevel'ed frets

I have been thinking of buying one of the Fusion II Floyds in red or purple,but part of me says you dont need anymore guitars and i also think anything i buy in lock down now will only help add to future orders from china once this is all over and im fucked if they should beifit from this.so i might go for one 2nd hand if anyone has a fusion I/II for sale

carlos

Gizmo said:

I have been thinking of buying one of the Fusion II Floyds in red or purple,but part of me says you dont need anymore guitars and i also think anything i buy in lock down now will only help add to future orders from china once this is all over and im fucked if they should beifit from this.

jfc

carlos

minefields said:

Mine, I know it looks like another more expensive brand but I didn't want to spend £3k plus on that.

Stainless Steel frets, Ebony fretboard, Wilkinson 50iik trem, locking tuners, Nu-Bone nut, and a really nice satin finish on the neck. I replaced the pickups with Iron Gears and it sounds great.

The setup on the guitar was as good as I have seen on a new guitar, no sharp frets, 1.5mm action on low E at 12th fret and no fret buzz at all, relief was dead on and trem was floating a perfect too. Pickups were fine, nothing special but everything else was excellent.

Really happy for £250.

Just got a sh one from eBay. I can't imagine it not being worth what I paid for it.

xGizmo

carlos said:

Gizmo said:

I have been thinking of buying one of the Fusion II Floyds in red or purple,but part of me says you dont need anymore guitars and i also think anything i buy in lock down now will only help add to future orders from china once this is all over and im fucked if they should beifit from this.

jfc

Humm so i take it that you do not think that millions of people on lockdown ordering millions more un-need items that are mostly manufactured in China will not benefit China in anyway when retailers seek to replace stock.....interesting but

monquixote

This video is really interesting. 

I thought both guitars sounded good, but in the blind test I liked the Harley Benton better than the US Fender.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wbnSQQQvvk

Jota

Gizmo said:

carlos said:

Gizmo said:

I have been thinking of buying one of the Fusion II Floyds in red or purple,but part of me says you dont need anymore guitars and i also think anything i buy in lock down now will only help add to future orders from china once this is all over and im fucked if they should beifit from this.

jfc

Humm so i take it that you do not think that millions of people on lockdown ordering millions more un-need items that are mostly manufactured in China will not benefit China in anyway when retailers seek to replace stock.....interesting but

https://images.app.goo.gl/jFYtD1D9cBj5gEP48

Bridgehouse

@Gizmo - can you not see how your comment might be interpreted as just a teensy bit racist?

carlos

This guy can play a bit. I don't think I'll change the pickups on it to start with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtqX6g6gd8M

xGizmo

Bridgehouse said:

@Gizmo - can you not see how your comment might be interpreted as just a teensy bit racist?

 No simple fact is this virus originated in China and it is due to there lack of action and lies that have let us to this point,id be taking the same stand if it had originated in the USA or Russia or any were else for that matter.

Let me ask you this,if you next door neighbour burnt down your house due to thier carlessness and they sold the bricks and timber for a living to help you rebuild it would you buy from them ???

But this thread is about HB guitars so if you want to open this up though feel free to make a thread in OT or CV.

Bridgehouse

Gizmo said:

Bridgehouse said:

@Gizmo - can you not see how your comment might be interpreted as just a teensy bit racist?

 No simple fact is this virus originated in China and it is due to there lack of action and lies that have let us to this point,id be taking the same stand if it had originated in the USA or Russia or any were else for that matter.

Let me ask you this,if you next door neighbour burnt down your house due to thier carlessness and they sold the bricks and timber for a living to help you rebuild it would you buy from them ???

But this thread is about HB guitars so if you want to open this up though feel free to make a thread in OT or CV.

Actually my comment was related to the volume of flags your comment received - suggesting the membership felt it was a bit racist as well. 

Still, I asked the question given the flag count and you have responded. 

I’m a modmin. It’s my job to ask these sorts of questions when flags occur. I don’t want to “make a thread in OT or CV” - I’m acting on flags as is my job.

YellowLedBetterMan

Bridgehouse said:

@Gizmo - can you not see how your comment might be interpreted as just a teensy bit racist?

It's not racist to seek to financially undermine a regime which has underreported a global pandemic which originated within its territory.

In fact, I'd be surprised if the powers that be didn't also look to sanction China for its mismanagement of the situation.

But that's Chinese foreign policy and not cheap thomann house brand guitars. If you want a political row, dive into the cesspit that is the politics/economics section.

Bridgehouse

YellowLedBetterMan said:

Bridgehouse said:

@Gizmo - can you not see how your comment might be interpreted as just a teensy bit racist?

It's not racist to seek to financially undermine a regime which has underreported a global pandemic which originated within its territory.

In fact, I'd be surprised if the powers that be didn't also look to sanction China for its mismanagement of the situation.

But that's Chinese foreign policy and not cheap thomann house brand guitars. If you want a political row, dive into the cesspit that is the politics/economics section.

Sigh.

Again, once more with feeling...

As a modmin, when there are flags... (which there are, believe me) - I have to ask the question.

My own opinion on this matter is irrelevant. 

Oh, and I’m well acquainted with P&E thankyouverymuch - it seems to take up a disproportionate amount of my time on here.

themeinside

(Also they're almost exclusively Indonesian these days...)

munckee

munckee said:

As mentioned on the previous thread I have a HB 335 which is tremendous.  I spent more than its original price making it tremendous but I seriously doubt you could buy a used guitar as good for the money.

I'm debating getting a squier jazzmaster or ordering the harley benton one and putting a les trem on it.

This is the E35CH the older 335 copy they make.  I have put gibson tuners on it, changed the pickups to seymour duncan vintage blues, changed the pickguard, knobs and switch tip, clumsily sanded and polished the paintwork to deshine it, (which has made a huge improvement from the orignially plasticky looking finish.) clumsily reliced the chrom so its less shiny -  I tried to make it into a homage to a 63 335 dot so I cut the headstock (badly) and sprayed the headstock black.

https://i.imgur.com/mgwhkoa.jpg

lysander

minefields said:

Mine, I know it looks like another more expensive brand but I didn't want to spend £3k plus on that.



Stainless Steel frets, Ebony fretboard, Wilkinson 50iik trem, locking tuners, Nu-Bone nut, and a really nice satin finish on the neck. I replaced the pickups with Iron Gears and it sounds great.

The setup on the guitar was as good as I have seen on a new guitar, no sharp frets, 1.5mm action on low E at 12th fret and no fret buzz at all, relief was dead on and trem was floating a perfect too. Pickups were fine, nothing special but everything else was excellent.

Really happy for £250.

What’s the neck like on that?
I had a one of their Wilkinson trem HSH roasted maple fusion previously and while it was overall very good, the profile was pretty chunky and not really to my liking.

YellowLedBetterMan

Bridgehouse said:

YellowLedBetterMan said:

Bridgehouse said:

@Gizmo - can you not see how your comment might be interpreted as just a teensy bit racist?

It's not racist to seek to financially undermine a regime which has underreported a global pandemic which originated within its territory.

In fact, I'd be surprised if the powers that be didn't also look to sanction China for its mismanagement of the situation.

But that's Chinese foreign policy and not cheap thomann house brand guitars. If you want a political row, dive into the cesspit that is the politics/economics section.

Sigh.

Again, once more with feeling...

As a modmin, when there are flags... (which there are, believe me) - I have to ask the question.

My own opinion on this matter is irrelevant. 

Oh, and I’m well acquainted with P&E thankyouverymuch - it seems to take up a disproportionate amount of my time on here.

Cool. Can we get back to talking cheap guitars that "are as good as an R8 if you change the pickups"?

johnhe

Gizmo said:

carlos said:

Gizmo said:

I have been thinking of buying one of the Fusion II Floyds in red or purple,but part of me says you dont need anymore guitars and i also think anything i buy in lock down now will only help add to future orders from china once this is all over and im fucked if they should beifit from this.

jfc

Humm so i take it that you do not think that millions of people on lockdown ordering millions more un-need items that are mostly manufactured in China will not benefit China in anyway when retailers seek to replace stock.....interesting but

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I don’t want to get banned, or incur a warning by telling you how I really feel about your post. But to be polite, I find it ill informed, short sighted, uneducated, xenophobic and just daft. I have plenty of Chinese friends, and have visited China many times. I’ve always found Chinese people to be exactly like European people (and all other people) - they just live in a different country and speak different languages. But they work hard, try to do right, try to get ahead, provide for their families etc. 

Yes, the virus seems to have started there. But we are a long way from knowing for certain that it was deliberate. But don’t let that stop your own preconceptions stop you from jumping to conclusions.

TTony

Back ON TOPIC

(if you want to talk about Coronavirus / Covid19, please do it on one of the - many - threads that do just that)

There was a challenge in the M&M section a few years ago titled "Mod an Harley Benton" in which a number of people bought a stock HB guitar and then tweaked it in many different ways.

Reading through those threads will also give an indication of some of the problems experienced with various of their models as well as an idea of what they can be modded into.

vivalacoulter

I have a Harley Benton 335 knockoff, actually isn't that bad! Haven't played it in a few years though.

TTony

HB Challenge threads (some of - there are more if you search)

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/31887/a-2015-mod-a-harley-benton-guitar-challenge/p1

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/36513/harley-benton-jazz-bass-un-boxing-and-modification#latest
https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/33483/hb-modding-challenge-te-30-tele/p1
https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/35507/hb-ex-76-explorer#latest
https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/43396/harley-benton-te-20#latest
https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/35814/harley-benton-sunburst-tele-challenge-cheesey-spanglecaster#latest