freeman
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by freeman on Jul 4, 2018 5:11:26 GMT
Hi all, ordered the Gold Top P90 months ago. They've arrived and they've begun shipping them. This guy already got his:
Headstock logo looking good.
Can't wait to get mine.
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3,457 posts
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Post by LeoThunder on Jul 4, 2018 7:10:42 GMT
There's a happy customer. He's even praising the fretwork. I like the new logo. It's fine. The pick-ups sound clear enough too but that sound is funny, which is mostly the amp anyway. I don't think "Chinese capacitors" are worse than any others but their choice of value might not be optimal for the pick-ups. Maybe this is an area where cheap instruments save money at the design stage (no one employed to do an optimisation) and in production by using generic parts over the product range.
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freeman
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by freeman on Jul 6, 2018 22:27:15 GMT
Well, the Gold Top finally arrived yesterday. It's flawless apart from a little nick in the top, under where the top pick guard screw is. It's slightly visible (if you play without a pick guard) and Thomann have been quite accommodating as far as that is concerned. If I leave the pick guard on I can live with it, as it's perfect otherwise. Sooner or later there'll be dings and dongs anyway. They either need to shorten the screw or put something in there to stop contact while in transport. I'll be changing the pick guard, the pickup covers and the Rhythm/Treble plate anyway, as I'm not a big fan of the Harley Benton vintage plastic colour. I've already found the right gear in bone white and it will total something like 15 Euros. An investment worth making in my view. May even put on some gold, silver top knobs. Apart from that, I agree with the guy in the video. It's quite beautiful and sounds great, especially the neck pickup. Wow. A blend between a Strat and a Les Paul. Plenty of sustain and a nice tone. No sharp fret ends, the tuners work fine and they're on straight. The frets do need polishing, the board needs some lemon oil and I'll be changing the strings, but that's something I do with all new guitars. It was even almost in tune out of the box. Doesn't even need a setup. Intonation is spot on and the action is low enough for me. Perfect. Mine is a three piece body, weighing in at 4,17 kg. Quite heavy for basswood. The fretboard is made of blackwood, which is a type of pine which has been treated to look and feel like rosewood. Looks and feels fine. As you can see in the video of the guy above, it has the new Harley Benton logo on the headstock, which looks a lot better than the old one.
Verdict: A keeper.
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3,457 posts
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Post by LeoThunder on Jul 7, 2018 6:40:43 GMT
Another confirmation that Harley Benton guitars come well set up. Tweaking them remains a matter of personal preferences, not a necessity unless the neck has moved on the way, which is a simple truss rod adjustment.
A guitar with new strings should not be expected to stay in tune between the shop and its destination. Strings are still stretching and temperature changes will cause steel to expand or contract.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2018 6:56:42 GMT
I would love to get an update from gigging musicians using this Harley Benton Pine Blackwood fretboard to tell me how it behaves when exposed to various weather conditions. Mine reacted even at home by shrinking so much all fret ends were sticking out.
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Post by DerAlex on Jul 7, 2018 7:02:04 GMT
I'll be changing the pick guard, the pickup covers and the Rhythm/Treble plate anyway, as I'm not a big fan of the Harley Benton vintage plastic colour. I've already found the right gear in bone white and it will total something like 15 Euros. An investment worth making in my view. May even put on some gold, silver top knobs. I love that little gold bugger as well. And I agree the plastic pickguard is aweful. I also changed tuners as they were bad (but I have the originak version with the round horn, so this may not be needed anymore). Do you have link for the replacement pickguard and the other stuff you mentioned as I want to change those as well?
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freeman
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by freeman on Jul 7, 2018 9:48:34 GMT
Hi Alex, like me you may have realized that cream isn't always cream and white isn't always white. It's hard to match the tones if you get your stuff from different suppliers. I've ordered everything in white. If need be I'll age it myself. I've ordered some stuff from a Chinese ebay shop, from where I've got things in the past, like Strat knobs, luthier tools, off-white colored Humbucker frames for my SC-450 Plus, nut files or a set of black Jazz Bass Knobs for 1.50 Euro!! They have 6000+ musical instrument articles and be warned....if you start looking through their pages, you'll end up with stuff in your basket. stores.ebay.de/fellaptopAs as soon as it arrives, I'll put up some pics so you can see if you want invest. Cheers Freeman
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Post by spacelord77 on Jul 7, 2018 16:54:32 GMT
Another confirmation that Harley Benton guitars come well set up. Well, that cannot be said about all their guitars, my CST-24 came in a horrible state, dirty, a lot of fretbuzz here and there.. After hours of adjustments, neck reliefs.. still buzz at the 12th fret... My DC-Custom is another story, B-Stock item, some paint incostensies, rattling pickup cover, but the thing plays incredibly well, stays perfectly in tune, i haven't done any adjustments to this one, its become my number one guitar.. At these prices, HB could be a market leader in the cheap guitar segment, if only they would focus more on QC, they dont need marketing or publicity,since the internet is spreading the word for free....
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3,457 posts
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Post by LeoThunder on Jul 7, 2018 17:02:44 GMT
Another confirmation that Harley Benton guitars come well set up. Well, that cannot be said about all their guitars, my CST-24 came in a horrible state, dirty, a lot of fretbuzz here and there.. After hours of adjustments, neck reliefs.. still buzz at the 12th fret... My DC-Custom is another story, B-Stock item, some paint incostensies, rattling pickup cover, but the thing plays incredibly well, stays perfectly in tune, i haven't done any adjustments to this one, its become my number one guitar.. At these prices, HB could be a market leader in the cheap guitar segment, if only they would focus more on QC, they dont need marketing or publicity,since the internet is spreading the word for free.... It makes me wonder if B-stocks are set up again or simply put back on sale after a basic check. The CST-24 you got might have been the result of sorry attempts of the previous buyer at making the thing work the way they wanted, as well as the reason for returning it. The other one was returned for the paint and rattling but left in its original state. I wouldn't buy a B-Stock. The minimal price difference is not worth finding out why someone didn't keep them. I know some will be fine because buyers just wanted to try them out and never intended to keep them, but a good deal of them had issues.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2018 18:46:43 GMT
B-stock set-up again ... let me tell you a story of a TE-90FLT; I have ordered a B-stock and after opening the package I have seen a household sponge (the one that has green on one side used for washing dishes) used for protecting the 3-way toggle switch Im certain Thomann NEVER opened that return! Otherwise, they would have taken that household sponge out! I have returned it because the bridge was misaligned not because of the sponge
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Post by spacelord77 on Jul 8, 2018 16:56:29 GMT
Well, that cannot be said about all their guitars, my CST-24 came in a horrible state, dirty, a lot of fretbuzz here and there.. After hours of adjustments, neck reliefs.. still buzz at the 12th fret... My DC-Custom is another story, B-Stock item, some paint incostensies, rattling pickup cover, but the thing plays incredibly well, stays perfectly in tune, i haven't done any adjustments to this one, its become my number one guitar.. At these prices, HB could be a market leader in the cheap guitar segment, if only they would focus more on QC, they dont need marketing or publicity,since the internet is spreading the word for free.... It makes me wonder if B-stocks are set up again or simply put back on sale after a basic check. The CST-24 you got might have been the result of sorry attempts of the previous buyer at making the thing work the way they wanted, as well as the reason for returning it. The other one was returned for the paint and rattling but left in its original state. I wouldn't buy a B-Stock. The minimal price difference is not worth finding out why someone didn't keep them. I know some will be fine because buyers just wanted to try them out and never intended to keep them, but a good deal of them had issues. Yeah, it seems they do not check all of them, the CST-24 was an "A-Stock" item, but still the weaker one of the two. I was thinking of returning it, but managed to get the fretbuzz to a minimum, but still annoying.. so, since its a nice looking guitar, and i paid just 160€ for it, I'm keeping it as a songwriting guitar.. here is a video i recorded using it.
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