Hello again internet friends,
Today is a NGD for me!
Just got my hands on a Harley Benton XT-22 and I have been blown away by what you get at this price point.
It is very, very similar to the Epiphone I mentioned on my previous posts in terms of woods, construction and finish quality for half the price of the Epi.
And then I plugged it in. I have to tell you, I was not expecting that.
Those Roswell pickups exceeded my expectations by 1000%. Especially the neck pickup!
Quick quality comparison between the two:
Epiphone:
- Terrible MudBuckers of doom
- Very high quality hardware and plastics
- Very good fret job - almost perfect.
- Grover tuners
- 300 pc neck
- 479 retail
Benton:
- Very decent sounding pickups (not quite dmz/duncan, but way better than any squier/epiphone/fender mex).
- Decent quality hardware, not as high grade as the epi.
- Decent fret job, not as good as the epi.
- Grover tuners
- 300 pc neck
- 222 retail
At the moment, the epi just seems like a glorified Benton with better plastics and crap pickups, for more than double the price... Crazy.