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#Post#: 1888--------------------------------------------------
Harley Benton guitars?
By: AJ Date: January 7, 2018, 9:25 pm
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...It's German outfit that sells both guitar kits and ready to
play guitars. Seem too reasonably priced to be worth much.
Anybody got any intel on them?
#Post#: 1890--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harley Benton guitars?
By: bieke Date: January 8, 2018, 7:57 am
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yeah, they're everywhere at this side of the pond
it's the house brand of one of the bigger German big box stores,
Thomann
the other German big box store Musicstore, has J&D Guitars as a
house brand
Musicstore and Thomann are always trying to beat eachother in
the budget segment, so these J&D or Harley Benton guitars are
cheap
and surprinsingly good value for money
they focus on making copies of popular models from Gibson,
Fender, Gretsch, PRS, Ibanez, Ovation, Martin, Rickenbacker,
Musicman
Harley Benton also has amps, cabs, effects (rebranded Joyo
pedals) and accesories
Harley Benton started 15 years ago
can be compared to Agile or SX
I never had one, the ones I tried felt OK
construction and finish is usually OK, hardware and electronics
are a bit wonky
They have an unofficial forum
HTML http://theharleybentonclub.proboards.com/
And browse the endless Harley Benton inventory at Thomann
HTML https://www.thomann.de/gb/search.html?gk=gi&bf=harley_benton&vf=true&filter=true&price-first=0&price-last=55000&viewMode=block
#Post#: 1892--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harley Benton guitars?
By: AJ Date: January 8, 2018, 6:25 pm
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Thanks for the info Bieke. A guy at HC has a video up of him
taking delivery and playing a HB that looks kind of Teleish .
Sounded pretty bland clean though.
#Post#: 1893--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harley Benton guitars?
By: bieke Date: January 9, 2018, 4:17 am
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Well, HB used Wilkinson pickups before and now switched to
Roswell pickups
the pups (and the electronics) are the major cons of the HB
guitars
there's a nice looking Rosewood style Tele in the practice room,
not mine
but I did try it and it was OK, I'd say 90% of that Tele sound
is there
playability and finish is very good for a 150$ guitar
one of these TE70-RW
HTML https://thumbs.static-thomann.de/thumb/bdbmagic/pics/prod/329661.jpg
#Post#: 1899--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harley Benton guitars?
By: AJ Date: January 9, 2018, 10:17 pm
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Have you ever seen one of their kits? There seem to be a number
of places that offer guitar kits. I noticed on some of HB's
kits, the headstocks just look like blanks where you could shape
them your self. I suppose it's a given that the electronics
supplied with the kits would be sub-par at best.
I've been toying with the idea of buying a kit and trying my
luck at building a guitar. I do have several good pickups laying
around, DiMarzio, Emg, Fender. But it's just an idea at this
point.
#Post#: 1900--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harley Benton guitars?
By: bieke Date: January 10, 2018, 5:09 am
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haven't seen the HB kits in person
but the other guitarist in my other band ordered a P-bass style
kit
he just retired and has loads of free time
and he's handy with woodworking tools
it also was his first build
and the assembled finished guitar is of course not a quality
instrument
but it plays and sounds fine
and he said it was fun project
when I decided to build that Tele (featured in the sticky
thread)
I took my time and waited for parts to pop up in the local ads,
on eBay, Reverb, guitar shows I visited
that was a bit time consuming and took me a while, 1,5 years to
obtain all the parts, but the hunt is nicer than the catch
and once I got all the parts, the final assembly only took a
couple of hours
so all in (including my latest upgrades, I think I have little
more than 445$ invested in that guitar, and it has a proper
nitro finished alder body (blem, has a couple of dents in it but
who cares), a Fender licensed neck (also blem, had some finish
flaws), all hardware is Fender, compensated saddles, Gotoh
tuners, Alpha pots, cloth wire, Fred Stuart blackguard pickups,
a bakelite pickguard, bone nut, ...
the only thing I still want to sort out are fitting slothead
pickguard screws and shorther slothead saddle screws
and then it's just perfect
it is the 3rd Tele I made like this, same process, sourcing the
parts was more exciting than finishing the build
so if you got a good set of pups already, start from there and
accumulate all the parts you need to make the guitar exactly to
your own specs
you'll be much better off in the end
yeah, you can get a kit
I would not recommend the HB kit, the bodies are really poor
quality wood, not basswood for sure, the necks are acceptable,
hardware is a bit iffy, electronics are cheap
but slamming it together is fun and you'll have the freedom to
finish and upgrade it to your personal taste, but anything
invested in one of those budget MIC kits is money thrown out the
window imho
you can't polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter
#Post#: 1901--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harley Benton guitars?
By: AJ Date: January 10, 2018, 6:12 pm
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That's good advice and info Bieke...Thanks Bro!
#Post#: 1902--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harley Benton guitars?
By: belleswell Date: January 11, 2018, 7:22 pm
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I've read some good things about them (HB's), on a forum for
Agiles. As far as entry level pricing, quality and sound, I've
been a fan of Agiles. Made in South Korea and one of the best
bangs for the buck going imo. I bought one to start. I fell in
love with it, and ordered a custom made LP style with Floyd, and
was very impressed. Between 2012 when I bought my first, and
2015 when I bought my last one, (I've actually not bought any
guitars in over 2 years which is a new record for me), I now
have 6 of them out of 36 total in my collection. They are that
good.
Jeff
#Post#: 1903--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harley Benton guitars?
By: AJ Date: January 11, 2018, 7:53 pm
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Really haven't checked Agiles out at all....I may need to go to
that special place in Hell...Guitar Center. and check one out.
#Post#: 1904--------------------------------------------------
Re: Harley Benton guitars?
By: belleswell Date: January 11, 2018, 9:07 pm
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[quote author=AJ link=topic=183.msg1903#msg1903 date=1515722028]
Really haven't checked Agiles out at all....I may need to go to
that special place in Hell...Guitar Center. and check one out.
[/quote]
Go to www.rondomusic.com. Once at the site, type in the word
Agile in the search window. (Rondo also sells Douglas , SX and
some others).
Once at the Agile page, there are two drop down windows at the
top of the page. Select "highest to lowest price" from one of
the drop down windows.
From the other you can select how many to see per page. Select
"all". This will put everyone of them on the same page from the
highest price to the lowest.
These offerings change often and are stock pics of the guitar.
The one you will receive will usually be nicer than the stock
photo, but if it's not, and your not
happy for any reason, you can send it back for another with a
"nicer" top, or get a complete refund. Kurt stands behind them
and has a great policy in this regard.
J
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