Post by gearhunter on Jul 6, 2019 13:36:11 GMT
Now this one arrived, which I ordered at the same time as the ST62 DLX, but this one took longer:
www.thomann.de/de/harley_benton_dc_custom_white.htm
The good stuff:
It's the only gibson scale neck one I own so far, and I like the feel of the neck better than real Gibsons I had in my hands, hehe.
I like the overall feel, the weight distribution body vs. neck.
The tuners are quite nice.
I really like the sound. But the PUs have quite a bit of noise / hum, although humbuckers. Bad wiring inside?
The set-neck seems to have worked *g* As I undertand it's considered difficult vs. bolted neck, for cheap production lines. Seems ok overall.
Overall it's a gorgeous thing.
The bad stuff:
But the fretboard on this is crap. Lots of places with deep markings, even holes, and splinters which uncover lighter colored wood.
Is the latter a longterm stability issue? E.g. is this more susceptible to dirt, or "active" organisms eating on the wood, like mold or whatever? Fingers supply humidity and organic material...
The edges of the board look rather sloppy, and there's crud (& hints of white paint?) everywhere.
The nut groves are produced by people scratching with their fingernails, as tools are too expensive.
My particular specimen was made on friday - hardly any nail left. BUT at least the nut will remain in place like no other, considering the fat glue blobs on the head side, left and right edges.
The frets look like they are not as deep into the wood in the middle as they are closer to the edges of the board, hence more shadow there, I've never seen that before. Is it an issue or can be normal?
Anyway: Fret buzz on e.g. 13. for strings A to B, but not e.g. one after that. On fret 7 I get nice long sustain, on 13 it's dead shortly after attack - but better on some of the frets after 13. Fret 10 has a very brief and hardly audible buzz, but it kills the sustain.
This seems more irregular than just "the 2nd half of the board has buzz due to bad neck curve",
i.e. this is not just a trussrod adjustment issue, or is it?
Can this actually be fixed with reasonable likelihood?
I might try, before sending back and waiting another 6 weeks for the next one being available.
Let me mention that the dozen or so real Gibson's which went through my hands between ~ 2010 and 2018 also all had some issues of different kinds. So maybe they are just trying to replicate that faithfully and went a bit over board?
(feel free to skip my little half rant / life story, lol)
Or, instead, making use of the "money back" option on a bunch of these, and buy a real guitar, settling with less tonal options / styles for my hobby studio to be. (still "hoarding" gear, every month/paycheck some piece of gear more Monitors are due next, after the Behringer synth I'm deck enough in instruments I guess IF I actually get a bass that's not crap finally, or I'll settle with MIDI bass for a while...)
I am somewhat tired of sending stuff back to Thomann... the 350€ LTD baritone guitar I got half a year ago was absolutely flawless, a Peavey Raptor Plus for 200 EUR I got for my father elsewhere was absolutely flawless, and this 222 EUR HB looks so shoddy on so many spots, the first 180 EUR ST62DLX similar,... is "dude, look at the price tag" really the easy answer and I should shut up already? Others seem to get it done properly for not too dissimilar prices, and then considering the raving youtube reviews of, I have to presume now - pre-selected-by-Thomann "lucky good ones", I feel slightly deceived, as every single HB I ordered so far had issues on the first try. (and remember, my first Fusion II was not the one were you could say "just do truss rod adjustment, fool" - the 1st one had a PU switch which was broken for every position, hard to miss - quality control much, lol.)
.
Some photos (made with horrible equipment on a too dark day, sorry)
Does it only look that way to me, or are the frets sticking out more in the center of the board? (see shadows)
Maybe an illusion because the sides are more filled with paint/dirt
"I've seen better nuts" (is not what she said, to me anyway. I'm trying to be Henning! Not.)
Also, now I know where the main star of the movie "Jaws" got employed after Part V or so. I'm talking of the shark! He's biting fingerboards now for Thomann.
(this line would be funnier if the photo were crisper, and you could see all the end marks witnessing someone's first try with a nokogiri.)
So, not only fingernails for nut groving are out on Fridays,
but also masking tape:
Also, the famous monks of the ancient Chinese monastery I heard of were at work here. "Shaolin"? You watch too much TV, Daniel san. It's the chip-monks. Who like to... chip away stuff from surfaces, with very precise side-of-the-hand chops. Like on the top left-ish, the first bump of the two-open-books-next-to-each-other-to-avoid-Gibson-LOL-suits shape.
Here you can see the new & stylish "moon landscape" fingerboard surface, with craters (lower left below fret) and even the flag that Neil Armstrong placed sticking up there (lower right, just above fret)
That splinter already fell off, which is a feature - it won't be in one of my fingers? (or wait... is it already... *looks at finger tips* phew...) (yes I like to fret behind the last fret. Why not? )
Some more board surface goodness:
www.thomann.de/de/harley_benton_dc_custom_white.htm
The good stuff:
It's the only gibson scale neck one I own so far, and I like the feel of the neck better than real Gibsons I had in my hands, hehe.
I like the overall feel, the weight distribution body vs. neck.
The tuners are quite nice.
I really like the sound. But the PUs have quite a bit of noise / hum, although humbuckers. Bad wiring inside?
The set-neck seems to have worked *g* As I undertand it's considered difficult vs. bolted neck, for cheap production lines. Seems ok overall.
Overall it's a gorgeous thing.
The bad stuff:
But the fretboard on this is crap. Lots of places with deep markings, even holes, and splinters which uncover lighter colored wood.
Is the latter a longterm stability issue? E.g. is this more susceptible to dirt, or "active" organisms eating on the wood, like mold or whatever? Fingers supply humidity and organic material...
The edges of the board look rather sloppy, and there's crud (& hints of white paint?) everywhere.
The nut groves are produced by people scratching with their fingernails, as tools are too expensive.
My particular specimen was made on friday - hardly any nail left. BUT at least the nut will remain in place like no other, considering the fat glue blobs on the head side, left and right edges.
The frets look like they are not as deep into the wood in the middle as they are closer to the edges of the board, hence more shadow there, I've never seen that before. Is it an issue or can be normal?
Anyway: Fret buzz on e.g. 13. for strings A to B, but not e.g. one after that. On fret 7 I get nice long sustain, on 13 it's dead shortly after attack - but better on some of the frets after 13. Fret 10 has a very brief and hardly audible buzz, but it kills the sustain.
This seems more irregular than just "the 2nd half of the board has buzz due to bad neck curve",
i.e. this is not just a trussrod adjustment issue, or is it?
Can this actually be fixed with reasonable likelihood?
I might try, before sending back and waiting another 6 weeks for the next one being available.
Let me mention that the dozen or so real Gibson's which went through my hands between ~ 2010 and 2018 also all had some issues of different kinds. So maybe they are just trying to replicate that faithfully and went a bit over board?
(feel free to skip my little half rant / life story, lol)
Or, instead, making use of the "money back" option on a bunch of these, and buy a real guitar, settling with less tonal options / styles for my hobby studio to be. (still "hoarding" gear, every month/paycheck some piece of gear more Monitors are due next, after the Behringer synth I'm deck enough in instruments I guess IF I actually get a bass that's not crap finally, or I'll settle with MIDI bass for a while...)
I am somewhat tired of sending stuff back to Thomann... the 350€ LTD baritone guitar I got half a year ago was absolutely flawless, a Peavey Raptor Plus for 200 EUR I got for my father elsewhere was absolutely flawless, and this 222 EUR HB looks so shoddy on so many spots, the first 180 EUR ST62DLX similar,... is "dude, look at the price tag" really the easy answer and I should shut up already? Others seem to get it done properly for not too dissimilar prices, and then considering the raving youtube reviews of, I have to presume now - pre-selected-by-Thomann "lucky good ones", I feel slightly deceived, as every single HB I ordered so far had issues on the first try. (and remember, my first Fusion II was not the one were you could say "just do truss rod adjustment, fool" - the 1st one had a PU switch which was broken for every position, hard to miss - quality control much, lol.)
.
Some photos (made with horrible equipment on a too dark day, sorry)
Does it only look that way to me, or are the frets sticking out more in the center of the board? (see shadows)
Maybe an illusion because the sides are more filled with paint/dirt
"I've seen better nuts" (is not what she said, to me anyway. I'm trying to be Henning! Not.)
Also, now I know where the main star of the movie "Jaws" got employed after Part V or so. I'm talking of the shark! He's biting fingerboards now for Thomann.
(this line would be funnier if the photo were crisper, and you could see all the end marks witnessing someone's first try with a nokogiri.)
So, not only fingernails for nut groving are out on Fridays,
but also masking tape:
Also, the famous monks of the ancient Chinese monastery I heard of were at work here. "Shaolin"? You watch too much TV, Daniel san. It's the chip-monks. Who like to... chip away stuff from surfaces, with very precise side-of-the-hand chops. Like on the top left-ish, the first bump of the two-open-books-next-to-each-other-to-avoid-Gibson-LOL-suits shape.
Here you can see the new & stylish "moon landscape" fingerboard surface, with craters (lower left below fret) and even the flag that Neil Armstrong placed sticking up there (lower right, just above fret)
That splinter already fell off, which is a feature - it won't be in one of my fingers? (or wait... is it already... *looks at finger tips* phew...) (yes I like to fret behind the last fret. Why not? )
Some more board surface goodness: