40 posts
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Post by jhscofield on Sept 28, 2015 19:23:32 GMT
Although Thomman's tracking dept. says my new P90 Goldtop is only "60%" shipped, it arrived today! Now I could complain about a few mildly high frets or how all of them feel gritty and need a good polish. I could whine about the nut slots being all over the place in height or how the pickguard plastic color doesn't match the other trim & plastics. Instead, what I will say is that for what I paid, nothing, and I mean NOTHING made by the competitors comes even close. I can easily recut or replace a nut, adjust a few frets and polish them on my own. I planned to remove the pickguard anyway. Once this is done, this guitar will outplay & outperform most $300-$500 instruments and man, that bridge P90 has some snarl and bite! If you are longing for a budget dual P90 guitar, look no further, you can do (and will do) much, much worse for 2-3X times what these things will cost you. While some bemoan the new body shapes, let me tell you the new neck joint cut makes reaching the higher frets so much easier than on a traditional shaped LP. I am thoroughly satisfied with this instrument, especially for that low price. Cosmetically, it is gorgeous, sound-wise, it is impressive. I am quite pleased, now go away so I can attend to these frets!
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5 posts
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Post by blueangel on Sept 28, 2015 19:35:52 GMT
Can you post a pic of that motherbitch when it's ready? and oh yeah give her a tight bitch slap when it's ready.
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Post by doofus on Sept 28, 2015 20:23:17 GMT
Congrats I always give the frets a polish regardless, I've been saving up for the Harley Benton CST-24HB Tortoise Flame but as always Sods Law comes into play & the car needs work doing & that's took a big chunk out of my guitar fund Grrr.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2015 20:54:53 GMT
I only needed to hammer the uneven frets gently with a rubber hammer (in my case the hard rubber handle of me screwdriver). Im yet to polish mine Congrats on the new toy!
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40 posts
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Post by jhscofield on Sept 28, 2015 21:17:31 GMT
Can you post a pic of that motherbitch when it's ready? and oh yeah give her a tight bitch slap when it's ready. Pretty much gonna leave this girl stock. I'll only replace the nut if filing the slots in the existing plastic one fails me somehow. Otherwise it will continue to look identical to the HB stock pictures (seems THOSE frets are always polished nicely lol). * edited for typos
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40 posts
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Post by jhscofield on Sept 29, 2015 7:51:10 GMT
UPDATE:
Upon moving to a brightly lit room to level what actually turned out to be 9 high frets (so much for requesting level ones when ordering), I soon found what the black sludge was the guitar left on my fingers. When detuning the strings, 2 of them simply shattered into pieces. Turns out they were NOT D'Addarios but rather some pitted, black spotted old chinese strings. Absolute junk strings, corroded and pitted beyond belief.
Not a big deal since I'd already intended to slap on a new set of Rotosounds after fret leveling anyway. Just kinda irks me that I didn't get the strings I was promised. The frets were extremely gritty from lack of finish sanding or polish, again, something I intended to alleviate anyway.
Just wanted to give a heads up to anyone new to HB guitars so they don't get false expectations from my initial cursory review. For the price they are nice instruments provided you can do this work yourself. In the US, a proper fret leveling will set you back anywhere from $75 to $100 by a properly experienced tech. One must figure that in as well when deciding if these guitars are always a true bargain. Then again, pretty much EVERY new guitar has unlevel frets, but at least most aren't all rough as a chalkboard upon leaving the factory.
Just some things to consider.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2015 8:21:04 GMT
Im sorry to say this but you were misinformed If you look again it clearly states on the Thomann page that this guitar comes with Harley Benton strings and not D'addarios. Its true that the old model did come with D'addario strings but not after they changed the shape, now its Harley benton strings;
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2015 8:25:50 GMT
Also to add my L-450Plus had no fret issues at all and they came even polished and crowned. The SC-550 had a few high frets which I sanded down a bit and then polished with strings still on it and now have no issues. Same can be said for my JB-75 bass, a few high frets hammered gently with rubber handle of my screwdriver and now no issues. I only used a credit card for leveling and finger fretting to re-test for buzzes.
In Denmark its about 50 Euros to level the frets which adds considerably to the price of HB guitars so I rather do it my self.
By the way, I did complain to Thomann about uneven frets for my ST-20 and they told me to send it back so they can send me new one. I didnt do that simply because I already started modding the guitar.
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40 posts
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Post by jhscofield on Sept 29, 2015 18:23:24 GMT
Im sorry to say this but you were misinformed If you look again it clearly states on the Thomann page that this guitar comes with Harley Benton strings and not D'addarios. Its true that the old model did come with D'addario strings but not after they changed the shape, now its Harley benton strings; Fair enough, but no way I should've gotten old, corroded pitted strings that 1/3 of them break while tuning down, lol! Still, a nice guitar, have been playing it all morning. feels nice to have a stock instrument that I feel no need to replace anything on at this price. Solid tuners, nice pickups, gorgeous finish.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2015 19:09:12 GMT
Agreed. I've got such strings on a HBO acoustic corroded and old. I returned that guitar but only because the neck was not strength at all. No adjusting could help.
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