eddie
Harley Benton Club Member
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Post by eddie on Feb 9, 2019 15:35:24 GMT
tonymckenzie.com/harley-benton-guitar-review-and-upgrade.htmWhat do you think? I had my fear when purchasing my first HB. I've read a few reviews where the guitar obviously shouldn't have passed QC. It's definitely a gamble with these things. With return shipping from the USA nearly impossible, it's a toss of the dice ... to an extent. I think the majority of these guitars are good instruments. The probability is that we're going to get a good guitar. But the probability of getting a junker increases as we purchase more.
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eddie
Harley Benton Club Member
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Post by eddie on Feb 9, 2019 15:57:31 GMT
I just read through Tony McKenzie's review in full. I can understand his points ... but he forgets that his guitar cost $180 shipped. His write-up almost sounds like he's looking for a $3000 Gibson. I wouldn't be surprised that if he dug deep into a $600 Epi LPC or PRS-SE, he'd find similar issues. We all know that a $151 guitar isn't going to come with top notched electronics, tuners, bridge, etc. But it seems like his expectations are that the guitar SHOULD have come with CTS pots, custom wiring, a Gibson bridge, and Gotoh tuners. It was actually getting lame reading him complain about the parts. It's something we know and expect. I don't expect top tier electronics in my Squier either ... but I don't go on to flame it as if it were an MIA Stratocaster. He ranted badly about how he would have returned his guitar and never purchased another one from Thomann again had it not been his intention of upgrading the body. Me thinks he was expecting too much for his $151. What I received from my $161 PRS clone is a guitar that sounds, feels, and plays "almost" as good as my $600 Epiphone ... at a third of the price. I'm thinking this guy would find problems with a $5000 Custom Shop Les Paul. Just my two cents.
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3,457 posts
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Post by LeoThunder on Feb 9, 2019 16:22:49 GMT
I have had several and while some were imperfect, none of them were bad. Some will report serious issues, though.
My SC-450 Plus required some fret levelling to achieve an action below 1.26 mm at the 12th fret. I had to replace a tone pot which happened to be linear instead of logarithmic (as the other) and add washers underneath three of the four potentiometers to achieve a consistent height of knobs on the front. These were all fairly simple and cheap improvements.
My SC-Custom had pick-ups I disliked and maybe they were some of those fake Wilkinson which led to the change to Roswell. Or maybe I just don't like a high-starved sound as much as others. I still like all my other humbuckers better.
I had to file one 6th of a fret on an ST-62 and another 3rd of one on a R-458. That R-458 has humbuckers wired in parallel, which is unusual and probably a cheap fix to something that would prove too muddy in series. As a consequence, the volume and tone controls work funny but the guitar sounds nice and plays well enough to my taste. It still leaves the bad taste of a botched electronic design. At 150€, it displays the realities of cheap products.
An old fretless B-400 FL bass had a high nut which might have been cut at the height of the fretted version and a completely nonsensical tone control wiring. I re-wired the nonsense and filed the nut down to something more practical. I could get the action down to 1.5-2.3 mm from G to E.
I had two other ST-62 without particular flaws. Tuners are just a little stiff on older models. The newer ones with split shafts are nicer to use.
The last one is a BZ bass with a minor flaw in the finish. The action is a little high on the B string (2.55 mm) with the saddles down but the rest goes from 1.5 to 2.2 mm. I suppose bass players are laughing at my expectations in this regard. Everything else is fine, apart from the truss rod cover screw I had to replace because some brute had stripped it (meaning its hole was funny).
I guess the real risk on Harley Benton is in set necks, since they cannot be shimmed. If the angle is bad, you're in trouble.
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3,457 posts
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Post by LeoThunder on Feb 9, 2019 16:37:19 GMT
I just read through Tony McKenzie's review in full. I can understand his points ... but he forgets that his guitar cost $180 shipped. Yes. Much of the complaints are about a cheap product not being up to the level of an expensive one. Many others are simple prejudice. the sort saying "these are small crappy cheap Chinese pots. I can't hear a difference but I'm sure this is just cheap crappy stuff. Bigger is better and I love my Gibsons etc…" What remains are the occasional reports of a bridge that will not allow proper set-up. Someone here was mentioning a bridge much higher than mine on the same model (SC-450 Plus) some time ago and someone else returned a TE-7 for not being able to adjust the action as he wished. Monorail bridges appear to be something of a risk in this regard and new models often come immature (see the retainer bar issue on the recent Fusion).
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Post by cakeface on Feb 10, 2019 20:57:36 GMT
Besides from fret buzzing due to changing climates, nothing really wrong with my black paisely TE-70 and pretty much plays onpar with MIM Telecasters. Pickups could use an upgrade but that's really about it. They're not $2500 guitars but he must have gotten a dud.
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eddie
Harley Benton Club Member
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Post by eddie on Feb 10, 2019 22:50:17 GMT
Besides from fret buzzing due to changing climates, nothing really wrong with my black paisely TE-70 and pretty much plays onpar with MIM Telecasters. Pickups could use an upgrade but that's really about it. They're not $2500 guitars but he must have gotten a dud. I think he's just trying to be a d*ck and show how much he knows. I bet he'd pull the same sh*t with a Squier ... and basically saying that it's crap because it doesn't have the same wood and components as an MIA Fender.
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Post by cakeface on Feb 11, 2019 0:39:24 GMT
Besides from fret buzzing due to changing climates, nothing really wrong with my black paisely TE-70 and pretty much plays onpar with MIM Telecasters. Pickups could use an upgrade but that's really about it. They're not $2500 guitars but he must have gotten a dud. I think he's just trying to be a d*ck and show how much he knows. I bet he'd pull the same sh*t with a Squier ... and basically saying that it's crap because it doesn't have the same wood and components as an MIA Fender. Pfft with some electronics/bridge/and tuner upgrades, I'm fairly certain these guitars can outshine their squier and epiphone counter parts, kinda to the point where theres minimal noticable differences between a modded HB and a lower end fender/Gibson.
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Post by mattmilton on Feb 11, 2019 9:34:28 GMT
To cut a long story short:
"Tuning was rather difficult as the guitar drifted a little ... After playing the guitar for a good thirty minutes and after stretching the strings extensively there was no way the guitar would stay in tune."
"there was a really bad issue with this guitar as supplied that to be honest I could not believe I was seeing as I stripped off the old parts. The bridge mounting holes had at least a 3-5mm hole wider than it should have been. In fact the bridge mounts not only slid in and out they literally dropped in and swayed back and forth. I had found the reason for the detuning! This problem now caused me to be in a dilemma. Should I rebuild this and return it to Thomann or not? Thomann would exchange it or refund me but likely I would be paying the shipping back to them? or not..."
If I brought a guitar from Thomann and it literally wouldn't stay in tune, I would return it. From what I read of Thomann's policy, they would cover shipping, as the item would be considered faulty.
So I don't really see what the problem is.
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608 posts
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Post by oghkhood on Feb 12, 2019 7:54:27 GMT
This guy is a clown.
Some years ago, he made a YT test of the L450+ at the end of which he concluded by by "sawing this crap in pieces to scrap it" .... this video has been erased from his channel...
And then he with a new to explain that it is possible to upgrade what he qualified a crap, to what would be a decent guitar.
Absolutely clueless clown
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3,457 posts
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Post by LeoThunder on Feb 12, 2019 8:50:23 GMT
Clowns have their use in that they can parody real behaviours. In this case, what we see is the exaggeration of small differences in the service of either confirming a prejudice or justifying irrationally partisan preferences.
I found a few flaws in some of my Harley Benton. None of them made the guitar bad. Their were either minor repairs or perfectly acceptable limitations considering the price. I was happy with what I got for what I paid and I know for having other guitars that all are fully serviceable as music instruments, just not as luxury objects or bragging tools.
I side with him, however, when it comes to pointing out essential flaws like that unstable bridge. I do not like the excuse of Thomann's return policy because it implies buying new and spotting the flaw within two weeks. Many of these flaws can spend that time undetected, depending on the buyer's knowledge and the nature of the flaw, to end on the 2nd hand market later. Many a beginner never does a set-up and ends up selling the thing, leaving the next owner to find out about bad fretwork or inappropriate neck angle.
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eddie
Harley Benton Club Member
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Post by eddie on Feb 12, 2019 13:27:52 GMT
I've lucked out with two good HB's. So maybe he received a lemon. It could happen. There have been other posters on this forum who have experienced poor quality shipments before. For me, it's worth the gamble. The two I have punch far above their price range. Even if my next one is a dud ... I'm still way ahead of the curve. Heck, I'd be disappointed if my next one is a dud ... but it's a risk I'm willing to take. Because a good one is worth many many times what I paid. Until I get a bad one, I can only go with my own experience ... and my experience is that these are excellent guitars for the price. But if they were $500, I suspect I wouldn't be so enthusiastic.
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