Simple and Good? Harley Benton DC Junior FAT Review
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- čas přidán 5. 08. 2024
- Back in the day the junior was a cheap guitar for the beginner, but that has changed over the years. Harley Benton brings the Junior is a semi fat neck back in the price range that even guitar newbies can afford!
#doublecutjunior #harleybenton #dcjuniorfat
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0:00 Slideshow
2:12 Full Track „Off the Ground“
8:00 Introduction
9:22 Specs
16:11 Sounds (Tone King Gremlin)
18:02 Rant about Test Setup
19:02 with Fender Deluxe Reverb
19:50 with Revv 7-40 Crunch
21:00 with Achillies Argos (JTM)
21:52 Engl Fireball
23:38 MY2CENTS
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"Back in the day the junior was a cheap guitar for the beginner, but that has changed over the years." Yep, nowadays they are way over $3000, with an occasional $2000 Green Day budget model, for lawyers and dentists with spiky hair and punk urges in the weeknd. OK, for 'beginners; there is the semi-Fendery Special Tribute, but who would call that 'authentic'? HB, for the Honest Beginners.
True .. 99$ back then is more equivalent to 1000$ now, so HB is actually doing a better job making it affordable than G ever did 😄
@@dragonsquare2802 Back then they were also crafted 100% by Hand !
Even in the 90's when they were still affordable. I can distinctly remember Juniors in the summer of 1991 going for $450 USD. Today that would be about $899, which is the going rate for the tribute models. Granted wages weren't what they are now, however what Gibson is doing with these guitars, and I'm saying this as a Gibson player for more years than I can remember, is highway robbery.
@@RobotShlomo a Les Paul Jr shouldn't be over $500.
I have been playing for 30+ years and recently picked up one of the DC Juniors in TV Yellow - it gets more playing time than my Gibsons and Fenders. Only think I have changed is the bridge for another $8 one! Not just for beginners :)
After checking with Thomann, they informed me that the neck thickness of the regular DC is 0.83 inches (21mm), whereas the FAT neck is 0.87 inches (22mm).
Thanks man, that's what I've been unsuccessfully trying to find somewhere!
Henning, you are a superb musician! Thanks for your content over the years. I’ve been watching since the first Joyo pedals 😃
I bought one of these when the first batch was made because I wanted something super cheap and simple for a practice guitar. The neck is shape really comfortable down by the nut and the pickup sounds decent too. Keep up the good work Henning, your videos are great 🙂
Loved the review and your delivery, mate. Loved it!
HB DC Fat incoming
Thank you for making my day- you are hilarious, while being spot on excellent review!!
and back in the 50s, $99 was around $1000 now , they were never actually cheap
Back then they were also crafted 100% by Hand !
avg minimum wage in the US in 1955 was 1 USD/hour, nowadays it is 7.5 USD/hour, so you would have had to work 99 hours in order to afford that guitar. To afford a $1000 dollar guitar nowadays you would have to work a bit over 133 hours.
This will b my second HB that you have sold me on. Kick ass job Henning, that's your name now kick ass Henning!👏👍✌🤘💪🎸🍻🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Love the track! Great arrangement, great vocals, great playing! Awesome stuff.
...I like how the song is called "Off the ground", and the key keeps going up...
The volume and tone knob are how you unlock the tones on a jr. It’s actually a very versatile guitar
My view? It encourages the player to be more versatile.
Very nice Song, I'm impressed! Many Thanks for that Video!
I bought a 1964 Gibson SG Jr in 1981 for $150 in good condition ( all I could afford at 17 years old ) I sold it a few years later for $200 as I was moving to Germany and trying to raise some money. Never thought these would be going for $3k-5k as they are these days, but I get as that guitar with the Black dogear P-90 is pure magic especially through a Marshall 1/2 Stack.
Well, now I'm your 9897th follower. Looking forward for your Instagram posts. Cheers from Romania and thank you for your work!
Great keyboard tone ! And playing as well !
I have the version in Ferris Blue from your good friend on the Guitar Geek channel. I totally agree with you about the pointy bridge and that was the one and only thing I changed.
Well done on explaining why you should review an affordable guitar with a good quality amp!! I get so frustrated when people moan about it and I wonder why they can't see the logic. If you want to compare a Harley Benton Guitar with a Fender or Gibson at least give it a level playing field with the amp being used for the comparison. Likewise, if you want to compare a Harley Benton amp with a Fender amp, it's fair to use the same guitar(s). Keep up the good work!
I got mine this week. The one in Benton Blue and it is f'n amazin! For 255€ a hardcore bang for the buck!
Love the look of it.. I hope they offer a kit version..
I got the same exact guitar, which I really love. I changed the bridge & the tuners, which improved the guitar. I also changed the knobs & put a tortoise pickguard on it. The neck on this guitar amazes me. Very comfortable!!
Was it neck routed under the pickguard like some Esquires ?
@@terryenglish7132 according some pics on the web it's not routed for the neck pickup like e.g. the Gibson tribute juniors...
What bridge and tuners did you use? And did you have any problems with the tuners?
Hi!! Whre can I get a Tortoise Pickguard for the Dc Junior?? I Also want to change it!!
Once again a great guitar, which I wished they had used a normal clear sealer for, and not a matt finish. But not too bad considering the custom shop Gibson version goes for more than 15x as much ;)
When I read James Labrie's name I was like "haha he's fun". And then I heard him, and I'm like "wow sh*t !" As always your songs are killer songs !!! Particularly love this one.
I have this and it is my go to guitar since it arrived! It is beautiful to play and the fit and finish is as near perfect as I give a shit about! :-)
Yeah... I'd miss the neck PU, too. I have a Gibson SG 50's Tribute with two P90s and actually I'm almost always using the neck pickup, which is why I think about replacing the bridge PU with a DiMarzio DP209 (Super Distortion in a P90 form factor) so maybe I'll find more use for the bridge PU.
The track is fantastic!!🔥👍🏼
Nice video. I actually had the Gibson Les Paul Double Cut Tribute (2 pick up version) ... it looked exactly like that HB. The Gibson had really rough fret ends and was IMO not a good guitar at all. I sold it. The Harley Benton one sounds great and, again, except for the name on the head-stock - It looks just like the Gibson all the way down to the tuners. At a fraction of the price, too.
These three HBs are in my arsenal and are absolutely brilliant! I just need to get better at playing.....😁🤘🎸🤘 ( HB-35 Plus, SC-Special, DC Junior Ferris Blue)
2 years later, but do you prefer the SC Special or the DC Jr.? I'm torn.
@@aluthman281 The Special definately! 🎸🤘🏼🎸
@@gearViewmirror Cool; this is the impression I got from this vid and from my own instincts. Plus that thing just looks sharp. Thanks for the reply!
Nice looking axe for sure,,, I love all 3 of my Harley Benton guitars and looking for number 4 ,,,,they can't be best for.the money,,,,no way.!!!
Damn I would love you to review soft synths, VST, etc. I am so tired of seeing people who can't play review them, just talking about the amount of filters the synth has. Seriously that was really good with Labrie, big fan of DT since their first album when dream and day unite. Even though you are not good like Keith Emerson you can really defend yourself on that keyboard.
Mine is almost one year old and i like it. I swap the pickup with an old Gibson p90 clear bobbins and love the Sound and simplicity. No magnet pull from 2 pickups, Nice . Anything that could be better ? Yes. 1 or 1.5 mm wider fretboard at first fret, maybe a sligtly more Dense body and the Black stain on the fretboard dont looks Nice anymore at first fret, but i dont Care so much about that, its a tool and i use it a lot. I lowered the bridge to the limit and adjusted the intonation, nothing else, no fretbuzz, whats not too like :)
I’m in love with my HB SC Junior silver sparkle, so impressed! But I’m not sure how I should clean the Amaranth fingerboard! It was filthy! One thing I notice with only one pickup, I have no fret buzz at all, it’s great!
Even if the neck isn’t that fat, the tones are, in a good way. Cheapest dc jr I can find. I like the stacked pickup, and it looks awesome. I’m in the states so the only disappointing thing will be the shipping lol thanks for the honest review
Nice! Pete.
15:52 exactly what I discovered in my review haha - I instantly installed a Wilkinson WOGT3 and it feels&looks so much better now
I just placed an order for one today, Cherry Red! Thanks EytschPi42 for your presentation, it helped me to make my decision. My 6th Harley Benton! 😁
Wow I had no idea they were gonna name a model after me. Thanks to all my friends at Thomann.
That opening organ riff was bonkers
The Musiclily bridge is supposed to be a good replacement, and it is inexpensive.
I wish postage from Germany would come down for the Antipodeans.
that sounded heavenly through the Deluxe Reverb. It's like they were meant for each other.
What do the necks feel like on the regular non fat models? They are listed as a 60's C profile but I've heard a lot of people say they find the necks too thin, but what is the standard to which they are being judged? Are these guys with massive hands where only a 50's baseball bat neck is good and anything else is too thin or smaller hands? I have smallish hands but can comfortably play on a Gibson 50's neck but my favorite is the Fender deep C on the current American Professional 2 Telecaster, it's the perfect combination of thin and thick...I also have an '02 Squier Affinity Strat and it had a very thin neck that is very uncomfortable to play on. I'm interested in getting a guitar with P90 pickups but I don't want something with a wafer thin neck, an extremely thin neck would be a deal breaker for me.
wild man what model was the green guitar you were playing / great job
I would love a FAT Faded Cherry version with an additional neck pickup. For the bridge, I'd swap it out for a MusicCity tail-piece. Not sure whether it would fit though. Haven't tried it myself.
I quite like the mustard coloured LP junior, thomanns website shows it weighing in at 4.42 kilos. Anyone know if this is correct?
We're going to go into the sounds, not a lot because of the one pickup. Phil X walks in and totally makes love to the guitar, getting a full plethera of classic tones! Henning, jaw on ground, takes back guitar and hangs his head in shame.....!! Don't sweat it, I tried to milk one of these trying to jam like Phil X and found my tone dialing skills wanting..... ;)
...or the pick-up route changes how the neck vibes couple w the body. Either way or both , bridge only guitars do sound different.
I would say Phil X has a solid opinion about the magnetic pull of a neck pickup.
This would be one reason why most times manufacturers who sell matched sets or make separate neck and bridge models of the same pickup will often have a weaker output pickup on the neck position. 🤔
I always thought it was just that hotter pickups resulted in too much distortion in the neck and causes the sound to become muddy, but the extra string pull makes a lot of sense too.
Love it when you dust off and reinvigorate those Labrie tracks, Best playing by you I've seen this year!
not sure if this has been mentioned before but I believe FAT refers to the stacked pick up
really dig this guy and his playing, but to say there isn’t a lot of sounds with a single pickup is a little obtuse. I suppose it depends on if you regularly use a single pickup.
For hand cutting, nothing beats a 3 barrel Telecaster.
Honestly never got the kinda snobbish 'Don't play a cheap guitar trough an expensive amp'-argument in the first place.
If it sounds good, it sounds good. Period.
If I'm paying less for a guitar to get that good sound, that's even better.
Thankyou... You took my advice and are giving us some good music! I appreciate the work you put into this. As a Prog Metal player I know the kind of time that went into this :-)
it has zero to do with your advice.... different people like different music and there will always be a wide variety on my channel
Same with 2 pickups please Thomann !
Great vocals
Hi. Does it have noise? Does it have a real humbucker?
18:05 It's a matter of logic. Anyway, it is also about the difference between necessary and sufficient conditions. A good guitar is not sufficient, neither is a good amp, the are both necessary, both, at the same time. Many, many people only think in sufficient conditions; "If only I have a good....I will..... ".
meine FAT ist ein 2 piece body und auch die bridge ist nicht zu beanstanden. Hast bestimmt ein Montagsmodell. Ich bin absolut happy mit meiner Krawallmaschine.
Pretty sick guitar.. no brainer for that money actually.
Can i have a 3/4 guitar when i am 170cm tall?
Hadn't noticed the hoody design until 20 minute mark as I was so focused on the guitar 🎸
Yes, bridge is "ugly" but mine isn´t sharp at all. Volume and tone is your friend for different tones man... But you know that right ;-) I agree that the P90 has very little difference in humbucker mode.
Wish they’d bring this color back. Not a fan of shiny even though the new blue is a cool color
HP your vids are always too long and too crazy! No, you don't actually need that to compare the guitars! But you are always in a good mood! Chapeau, this point really goes to you! 😘 😎🤘🤘🤘🤘😂 But, U make us all to "durcheinander"! 😘
HP deine Vids sind immer zu lange und zu verrückt! Nein, das braucht man eigentlich nicht zum Vergleich der Gitarren! Aber bist immer gut drauf! Chapeau, dieser Punkt geht echt an dich! 😘 😎🤘🤘🤘🤘😂
I only have old harley benton les pauls, the left "vebel" is horrendous (schrecklich) thats why Im not into the new ones.
I'm curious how different is this from Gibson and Eastman hardware aside. I'm talking about the feel of it.
pretty different
@@EytschPi42 so they're better when you say different or just 'different'
I love my ugly mustard H.B. dc junior from late '19 and most especially my SC450GT
Top E way too close to the edge, I seemingly need to reposition the nut 1 millimetre (or find a nut with less interval between each string). I'm quite annoyed, it shouldn't shop like this (from Thomann).
Whats the outro song?
HB Preis Leistung perfekt. HP42 Video perfekt. 👍
Still waiting, since January, on the upgrades video for the single cut, the bridge in particular. I assume the tolerances are good, so the same swap is possible in mine.
I have the DC Junion, non-fat. It was an impulse buy, to round up the value of the order, and make it worth the delivery fees from Germany to Mexico.
My guitar tech liked it a lot, as it didnt have any of the problems cheap guitars have had in the past, and better than some G****n out of the box that he has to adjust for the store he works in. But yes, the bridge is kinda shitty.
About more tonal options, I went for the DC cut, because I like the shape of the guitar, AND the shape of the pickguard, which is not possible with 2 pickups. But, I wonder if a company, in this case HN/Thomann, could do what Fender has done in some Telecasters, with a hidden pickup under the pickguard.
It would need a smaller than P90 normal housing though, but it would be cool. Tonal possibilities, simple utilitarian looks.
(You could totally tell that to Thomann *wink* *wink*)
I have the HB single cut junior, it's a good guitar.
Hi
What is your opinion on the tuners?
@@chrisseger6420 The one's on mine are Wilkinson Deluxe , they are ok, guitar holds tune well, they feel like inexpensive tuners.
@@chrisseger6420 dont worry about the tuners, they can be changed pretty cheaply, as can the electronics and pickups. The only the things that cant be changed is the body and the neck, if they feel good then its a keeper!
Oh, schönes Teil! Aber schade, mir gefällt alles an ihr, bloss fehlen die Komfort-Abschrägungen hinten und vorne. Muss ich halt wohl schleifen müssen…🤷🏻♂️🤭 Naja, langsam hab ich schon etwas Übung darin…😊 mach ich‘s doch an Allen die‘s nicht haben…
13:59 You should really like that guitar then.... It HAS no neck pickup.
I know, you meant to say "I'm not the biggest fan of just having a BRIDGE pickup".
Not my kind of guitar, but wow it looks nice.
19:00 couldn’t you just keep one horrible sounding amp around just to show “yup, as awesome as (item X) is this still ruins it”. I’d give an example of an amp I couldn’t get a good sound out of but that’s more my fault than that of the _____ . I’m not gonna name names but I’ll leave you with this 🦍 , do with that as you will.
He's full of it I tell ya. He does have cheap amps. Heck, there's a Joyo right there on the shelve....
@@StudioChimiel cheap is one thing, horrible sounding is another.
My ex girlfriend is both, cheap and horrible wait what are we talking about?
Andertons have the opposite view from Henning, using budget effects and amps because that's what the potential budget guitar buyer probably has. Henning's idea that you want to hear the guitar's short comings is an excellent idea as well. Opposite approaches where both are right and informative.
Not Big White Monkey amps surely, the Kong I had was a great sounding valve head.
These „good“ amps didn‘t sound …ähh… not my cup of tea. So what did we hear. Amps, more or less crunched up, but we didn‘t hear the guitar. We hear distorted amps, sorry
Is that Dream Theater's James Labrie on the vocals? Sure sounds like him.
Yes it is
DC Jr (or duo-sonic) being a student guitar isn't really any more or less stupid than super twangy Jazzmaster for jazz players or SG as a full replacement for LP or many other ideas that some of these companies have come up with. They've often managed to come up with great guitar designs more despite rather than because of their marketing and design goals.
You basicly can't go wrong with a massive, non chambered mahagony guitar with a set.in neck, as long as there is a decent neck/fretboard contour and a good fretjob. You can upgrade a nut within five minutes, so definitely worth the money.
But: Nowadays there is a lot of strange wood declared as mahagony as well as it is very astonishing that a guitar of this price has an ebony fretboard.
👍
have to say i so totally agree with you about the pickup gripe-you had mentioned, it's a gripe of mine too, i hate when someone has a guitar and it has two or three pickups but they say "i only use the bridge pickup" i always think why didn't you buy a guitar with one one pickup in the first place, what the point o9f having another pickup on it or two if you don't use them, i like to use all the pickups it actually genuinely makes me mad, i've even had cross words with a couple of them over it, don't understand it
Man, I should have seen it before, you're better on keys rhan guitar! Seriously sweet tunage! I had to watch the video twice to listen to the guitars rather than the songs!
danke
If they'd put in a neck pickup, I'd buy it in a split second. Only bridge? Nah, I pass on these.
The Les Paul Jr only has one pickup...if you need 2, go with the Les Paul special
I absolutely love the subtitles, apparently the guitar he's reviewing is a Taliban guitar. Obviously the Taliban have gone into guitar production because they love to rock.
I bought 2 of these a couple of years ago, hoping for a nice simple thicker necked basic guitar. Both of mine have necks thinner than a lot of my Ibanez guitars. The nut width on both was 42mm (not 43) and the string spacing was much narrower. Really a small feel overall. Certainly not "Fat" as advertised at all. The necks are set in at too steep of an angle to accommodate the cheap "Badass" style knockoff bridge. That leaves the stud posts sticking out of the body too far and loses a lot of sustain potential. It also keeps the strings too far away from the non-height adjustable pickup, so that sounds anemic unless you shim it up. Just adjusting the polepieces alone doesn't do the trick sound-wise.
I contacted Harley Benton about these problems and my dissatisfaction with them. Their response was that those were all allowable variances. No - those were bad design choices. It's a simple, easy to build guitar and they don't care about doing it right! I never play mine because of that.
If you're looking for a more "authentic feeling neck that is closer to the original Juniors, do yourself a favor and spend a little more and find a used PRS Santana SE Standard P90. You'll get another pickup, a whole lot more versatility and it will be built properly and sing like a bird with sustain for days with a pleasantly palm filling neck profile that is wide enough to comfortably play with out cramping your fingers.
These HB Jrs look nice and they are well-constructed with good materials, but they really goofed on the most critical design aspects. From the looks of things, they haven't changed a darned thing despite the flaws being pointed out over two years ago. If you have tiny hands and don't mind your guitar having a severe lack of sustain and sounding generally anemic, then go for it. Otherwise, stay away from these turkeys and the company that doesn't really care anymore!
Some say "one frickin' pickup" is all you need.
Himmler?
not funny AT ALL. Rather ignorant actually.
i went ahead and got ibanez RGRT 421 just because i trust ibanez with my balls
I was curious about how much 99 dollars from 1958 were in today's money. So I went looking on the web; about $925. However, Wikipedia says the guitar was $49,50 back in 1958. If that's true, it would be $462,50 in today's money. When you want to have it right, you'd have to include the wages of those days. How many hours of selling hamburgers at Freddy McKing would get you a LP Jr DC in 1958, and how many hours today?
A Fender Strat in those days was about $275.
These days a Gibson LP Jr DC is more than twice the price (>200%) of a decent Strat. Then it was < 20%.
Comparing prices from different eras is dodgey. Not everything inflates at the same rate
@@terryenglish7132 that's right, that's why I sought a more common denominator, like the wage of an average schoolboy/-girl job, and the number of hours they'd have to work for their beginners guitar. The price comparison between Strat and Jr holds, unless the Strat was more upmarket then, and you'd have compare them with, say, a PRS. Complicating factor is in those days the guitars were made in the US, so you might have to use US Strats for comparison, which I did.
@@fritsvanzanten3573 Good work !
Hear what you say about cheap amps but you should have something like a Boss Katana or Blackstar HT5 to trial cheaper guitars as, let’s be honest, that’s the kind of kit they WILL be played through not a €2500 head and expensive 4x12 cab!
You don’t have to go ultra cheap but something reasonably affordable as most buyers will never be able to achieve the sonic results you display!
Andertons Music have finally come to the same conclusion when “The Captain” realised his “pedal board” had a value of around £4,000!
He’s now put together a “reasonably priced” board to use specifically with guitars of lower value!
Singer sounds like James labrie when he was good
Haha, maybe because that is James LaBrie ; )
It's from Henning's first Frameshift album, I think that was in 2003.
Pretty sure it is Jamie Labrie mate :)
@@DerEchteBold lmaoooo I suppose that’s why he sounds like him
Any one named a pro or gigging artist that endorses these ? Haven't heard of one yet. Why not ?
because they can play better guitars
Did you murder Rafa?
why?
@@EytschPi42 Your shirt is covered in blood! 🤣
2023: Thank God I can insert the proper emojjis now
that does not sound like the new york dolls
ahm, what?
@@EytschPi42 sorry, just being facetious. every time i see a LP junior-type guitar i think of the new york dolls. can't help it, i'm that old. your tones on the song sounded great.
Du solltest deutsch sprechen
macht keinen Sinn
Wash your sweatshirts, please. Thi is messy.
Mr. Funny guy huh?