Post by repoman on Apr 26, 2022 11:55:53 GMT
My first HB arrived last week.
www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_fusion_t_hh_eb_bk.htm
Initially I was very disappointed with it. It looks absolutely gorgeous but there were a few issues. You can really feel the frets on this thing. They are jumbo frets, which is fine, but the do stick out at the edges a bit. Or at least they feel like they do. Compared to my budget Ibanez, it's like trying to play a train track.
The action is pretty high, the frets feel scratchy too and the trem isn't very responsive. It drops nice and low but you have to press quite hard on the bar to get it to really do anything. So lightly tremoloing chords for example isn't as nice as on other trems I've played.
Also, the neck bow was quite noticeable. I've been playing forever but I don't mess with truss rods, so that's not great.
I did contact Thomann to return it. They weren't brilliantly helpful and said I could return it if I paid for the shipping. So I left it on a stand in the corner of the room and ordered a fret polishing kit, some Nut Sauce and a fresh set of .10s to put on it. I'm going to take the plunge and actually set this thing up. It's a basic skill that I really ought to learn.
I will say that the guitar has settled a bit and is staying in tune a bit more and the neck seems to have straightened a smidge too. I spent a few hours playing it yesterday and I'm getting used to it and am hoping the adjustments I'm going to make will improve it.
So my final thoughts for now are that a) it looks lovely, b) the set-up is lacking and c) if this price point attracts new players, this is not the guitar for them. It's nowhere near as playable as my Ibanez RG(something or other) that cost me £307 new. But it looks nice and it'll do a job as my Eb guitar.
www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_fusion_t_hh_eb_bk.htm
Initially I was very disappointed with it. It looks absolutely gorgeous but there were a few issues. You can really feel the frets on this thing. They are jumbo frets, which is fine, but the do stick out at the edges a bit. Or at least they feel like they do. Compared to my budget Ibanez, it's like trying to play a train track.
The action is pretty high, the frets feel scratchy too and the trem isn't very responsive. It drops nice and low but you have to press quite hard on the bar to get it to really do anything. So lightly tremoloing chords for example isn't as nice as on other trems I've played.
Also, the neck bow was quite noticeable. I've been playing forever but I don't mess with truss rods, so that's not great.
I did contact Thomann to return it. They weren't brilliantly helpful and said I could return it if I paid for the shipping. So I left it on a stand in the corner of the room and ordered a fret polishing kit, some Nut Sauce and a fresh set of .10s to put on it. I'm going to take the plunge and actually set this thing up. It's a basic skill that I really ought to learn.
I will say that the guitar has settled a bit and is staying in tune a bit more and the neck seems to have straightened a smidge too. I spent a few hours playing it yesterday and I'm getting used to it and am hoping the adjustments I'm going to make will improve it.
So my final thoughts for now are that a) it looks lovely, b) the set-up is lacking and c) if this price point attracts new players, this is not the guitar for them. It's nowhere near as playable as my Ibanez RG(something or other) that cost me £307 new. But it looks nice and it'll do a job as my Eb guitar.