Harley benton are so good for the money. I have their "copy" of the jim root strat and for a sub 150 guitar I was so surprised by the quality. The pickups aren't the best but it's such a solid instrument.
if you want very high quality guitar for reasonable money go with fusions or amaroks (my superstrat amarok is the best guitar for low price i ever played)
@@TheAndostro I just wanted something really cheap but playable at the time and was pleasantly surprised. My brother has a 6-string baritone Amarok and the thing is an absolute beast and not even just for the money, just all round great guitars.
Honestly get a good HB guitar build/finish, and give it some decent pickups and it will still be more vfm than paying for most "household" brands. I've planned on doing so myself on an sc-1000 progressive line (esp ripoff), and even the stock pickups sound... nice-ish. I'll still replace them with emg actives
I just picked up an ST-20 Root copy to do some mods and guitar work on. I will probably do a refret and all kinds of obscene things to it. No way I want to do my first job in years on anything expensive.
@@TheAndostro I was pleasantly surprised to see the Amaroks have neck through! I personally dislike bolt-ons so seeing something like that on a cheap guitar is insane. Could make an amazing guitar to work on like new pickups.
Wow, Harley Benton really stepped up their game. I remember getting the HB SC-200 back in 2016 which was a total piece of shit. But holy shit, I tried the new models and was really impressed with the quality of the guitars.
@@theophany1770 YEP IT'S IS STRANGE..Anyhow those guitars were OK since they were like 100$, they need some set up but for that amount even hen they were wow. Actually some older models were better since they had brilliant necktrugh tele models. Moreover on superstars like 620 i think it's a model- they use HB Floyd's and before they used Special FR which is better IMHO. Some say they are the same but nope they aren't. Still for that amount of $ they superb guitars. Some prices are strange, for example on a few models that are around 150$ you get a better tremolo and hardware then on some models which cost 200ish.
Dude those were guitars for 100$ back then and for the price they were superb, they needed usual setup and that was that. IMHO some of their models from 2016 were much better, because you could get some necktrough guitars for like 200$. They don't sell that model any more. Also back in 2018 for 220$ you had super start with SS frets, tremolo with roller sad. 1st class guitar, that model was ''dynamic'' pro serial with spalted maple tops ( thick one not a veneer) and they don't sell em any more. So they had amazing guitars in 2016 and before. Problem is if people expect to get pro guitar that can compete with boutique brands for 100$, but for 250-400$ for sure you can find such HB guitars and you could find 1st class guitars back in 2016 for a bit over 200$
glenn, you've GOT to try the HB victory classic. it's a 140 dollar flying V. it costs EXACTLY 1/20 of the mustaine V. it'll be HILARIOUS if it had just as good QC. i've been asking you since the mustaine V video. lmao it'll be even funnier since it's the shape gibson goes around suing people over. ps i love it when you give old priest some love! that riff 7 mins in was dreamer deceiver from sad wings of destiny, at 15 mins it was electric eye, and 16:30 it was heading out to the highway.
@@everennui1 I got a bass by Harley Benton for around 110 Euros - and it's a damn good instrument. The pickup and pot wiring is a little weird, but it sounds and plays way out of its league - I even prefer it over one of my two Fender basses
@@everennui1 nah, my first guitar (an acoustic) was 175 dollars when i got it. unlike my electrics, it never felt underwhelming compared to other people's or stuff i saw on stores. i have no doubt someone can pull off a decent electric for 140 dollars. that's why i want it reviewed. it is absolute crap, no one will be surprised or care. if it is good, it might be better than the 20 times more expensive gibson.
@@bassstisb fender has a big overpricing problem. the instruments are consistently good, sometimes consistently great, but there is always a much better option for the same or less price.
I have a few Harley Benton guitars and I get surprised everytime with how good of a guitar they really are. they also make a great platform for a mod project.
I want to tell you how much I appreciate you showing us how to open the box. If it wasn't for you mine would still be in the box. I was so puzzled but I just followed you and it was a peice of cake. Thank you again now I can actually play the God damn thing...
On these lower end guitars you could open the wiring backplates and look at the electronics, you'll see if the cavity is shielded (or not, so single coils get noisier) and since HBs are popular on the modding side of things it could be useful for tinkerers to know if the whole circuitry is due an upgrade or not. Also, I snagged one of the last hardail emg fusion HB, it's great for the money!
Yeah I was really considering that guitar! However, I went for an sc-1000 and I'll replace the pickups with EMG's, mostly cause I wanted the esp-like design.
@@ptr_does_music7042 I was lured by the slick matte paint, the stainless steel frets and the roasted maple neck. Stayed for the playability, tuning stability and sound when distorted. Great piece of gear, and the Tele style body? Super good. Reverse headstock? Ooooh boy. Can't go wrong with that one!
@@stanleysdad I swapped the whole pickguard on a strat style one with a pre-loaded one and that guitar sounds and plays wicked. I still have to open up the cavity on the fusion one
Kids these days don't know how good they have it! Back in my day, you had to shred fifteen bars with sharp frets, unstable trems, and particle board bodies!
Harley Benton user here, these are AMAZING!!! 🤘Especially considering the price point. 🤘 THE SINGLE COIL NOISE can be dealt with effectively with a little DIY, insulating the pickup cavity takes only a few minutes and it sorts it out completely. 🤘🤘🤘
I had bought the SC-500 as I always wanted an LP style, and honestly my only complaint is the pickups get a bit unruly (hard ringing on certain harmonics, even in plug-ins through headphones) in high gain, but its probably just because I suck at playing. Super comfortable and make me enjoy some light jamming at least!
@@buffdaddy2032 the alnico v5 humbuckers sound nice but slightly muddy (more stoner doom sounding or great for crowbar riffs). Its easily fixed by equalizing the settings. Its also split coil
An easy way to fix the way the pickup is sitting is with the foam they ship pickups with in the case of Seymour Duncan or any other semi ridged foam blocks. A lot of bass pickups have this style of foam under them, you can either just chuck it under there and tighten the screws or cut it to roughly the desired angle. There might even already be foam under there and it just moved if you are lucky or its just a matter of taking the screw out entirely and screwing them back in.
I just bought their brand new R-446 July 2022 model, and I have to say that it kicks as. Did some truss rod adjustments and some pickup height setup. It plays fantastic, it sounds fantastic, I have zero complaints. The blood red metallic finish was spotless and the craftsmanship was beautiful. Frets felt amazing to play on and is definitely worth more than it’s price. I own several other guitars from Ibanez and Aria, and the Harley Benton has no trouble with keeping up with those other fine instruments. Happy customer.
I'm from Germany and I bought Harley Benton Guitars and Basses. Most of them had some minor issues, but the quality you get from that price is still incredible. I visited their shop in Treppendorf once and although there was a lot going on the staff was very patient, friendly and we even had some laughs there.... I recommend Thomann and Harley Benton every time! Thanks for showing the world that a good Instrument doesn't have to cost 1k and above!
I own this one. Bought it used from 2nd owner as my new band wanted to play some Megadeth pieces. Actually it stays in tune. The frets a bit sharp above the 12th on mine and one screw for setting of the string was round on its head, I changed that screw. It has 24 frets you can almost play everything on it... only wonder why the other guys sold it. The mid pickup is noisy but not as much you exaggerate. Maybe I will swap it for sth better. I own one with a roasted neck. The price is a bit higher but definitely worth it. Quite good instrument for the money!
Your title is wrong. I AM a guitar snob, and I love Harley Benton. Once guitar companies all went CNC they took the magic out of it. You get consistent guitars, but in that process you lose those "one in a million" guitars that are just perfect, for YOU. So along comes Harley Benton, and others, who pay as close attention as the established companies. They have a motivated workforce, maybe some pride, too. All the right machines, and the desire to make a good product. And they can deliver it to you at a fraction of the cost, so you can buy more. And do it all without shitting in their panties , and becoming a raging asshole, every time another company makes a better product, and then sueing them. So, what's not to love?
Honestly mate, i got a fusion two HSH, it's an outstanding guitar. It's got room for upgrades, some of which I've preformed, but stock it's a really amazing guitar. If anyone's curious as to the mods I've done, I've installed geaphtech saddles to combat the string breakage i had from stock saddles - probably just caused by me being a very aggressive player and bending way to much. I've broken one string since i installed those saddles a year ago. I've also made my own ~0.02185 PIO cap and replaced the stock tone cap with it. I also changed up the coil split circuit with a on/of/on 4P4T switch, in position one both pups are split, in the middle both are full, and in the third the bridge is full and the neck is split. When a coil is split, there is a circuit which changes the impedance to 250K. So the humbuckers get humbucker impedance, and the single coils get single coil impedance. I've wanted to change the pickups, not because they sound bad(They sound great for everything i play, which ranges from clean blues to indie to metal) but because of some feedback issues I have sometimes at high gain. I learned and am still learning to play guitar on it, it's taken me from a shitty cover of astronomy domine to a mediocre cliffs of Dover. Pretty good I'd say for a guitar that cost like 200, 300 bucks. Hell, pretty good for a guitar that costs much more than that.
I feel like Harley Bentons went up dramatically in quality. I bought a jazz bass from them a few years back and it's absolutely fantastic! Great sound, great feel and it absolutely refuses to go out of tune.
I'm very pleased with my SC-1000 except (no surprise) the upper frets are essentially unreachable and therefore useless except for tapping. But the guitar sounds great, and it has the lowest action of anything I own.
Been having this guitar (with the ''Guthrie Govan finish'' haha) for few years, and I love it! Very versatile, feels very good and was set up perfectly when arrived!
Quite a bit of guitar for the price! Quality hardware, and tuners. Value based to be sure. One thing though Glenn, the pull switch is not a "coil tap." It is a coil split. A coil tap would require 2 positives, with one wire wired as a first output taken out midway through winding. The second positive wired normally as an output at the coil finish. Just a friendly tidbit from a retired touring tech from the 80's.
I always love your reviews glenn super honest as always, I do have a suggestion though. Considering that this is a budget guitar and meant for a beginner, I think it would be safe to assume that a beginner doesnt have the really nice amps you have. I think it would be pretty cool to hear these budget guitars ran through some more affordable amps, for example the boss katana mk50. Thanks again and keep up the good content.
You can fix that bridge pickup issue by looking at what's underneath the pickup. Body-mounted pickups like that typically have a block of foam behind the pickup to prevent it from rattling, and in this case either the foam on the neck side is weaker or the foam on the bridge side is too thick/dense. Or there may be none at all. Bottom line is that you can fix it by either adding foam to the low side or removing foam from the high side. TL;DR: check the foam under the pickup to get rid of the angle.
I bought their LP custom copy a while back (SC-Custom II FR). Less than $400 for a LP copy with an authentic Floyd Rose, humbuckers with coil split. Amazing value for money. Also looks nicem satin black with all gold hardware, had no sharp fret ends or anything.
Any hardware that it came with was most certainly not authentic, China makes counterfeit grover tuners and Floyd Rose Tremolos. Probably made in the same factory as the "authentic" ones in many cases however. . . .I doubt the grover tuners on this Harley Benton are any different than the "grover" tuners that come on a chibson les paul.
@@snap-off5383 Floyd Rose are made in germany, where I bought the guitar from (Thomann, I live in europe). The rest of the guitar is however made in indonesia. Most of the price is probably the FR.
@@tungtobak REAL Floyd Roses may be made in Germany. . . .But I'd bet the ones coming on Harley Bentons are the same as coming on Chibsons. . . .counterfeit.
@@snap-off5383 I don't know. However the situation, since I didn't really put down money of any magnitude in it, and since it works, I don't really care.
I'm a Gibson guy, but Glenn I've never seen you say anything that wasn't deserved period. The way I see it is if you are hailed as one of the worlds premier guitar companies like Gibson is......premier guitars are expected period. Cool guitar and cool channel bud. Please give this comment a shout out on your next video if you could?
Před 2 lety+3
I have the same guitar and remedied the pickup slanting issue by putting rectangular foam cut to the width of the cavity under the baseplates 🙂
i bought a b-stock hb-35 plus, which is Harley Benton's ES-335, it costed $170, and it's amazing!! didn't even need any adjustments to the action or anything, but my band's guitarist being the Gibson simp he is was PISSED at me at first for buying it lol
I’ve had a Harley Benton sc 550ii for over a year now, no issues, dream player. They must be locking their staff in and feeding them bread and water. Mine arrived in tune, it a keeper.
I got one of them fusion IIIs, I was surprised how thick the neck was. Going for the charvel thing I thought it would be thinner. I flattened it out a bit with some sandpaper and upgraded the pick ups. I really love it now.
Thank you being the only voice of reason on this platform and putting Gibson fanatics in their place. My bass player wanted to leave a comment too, but he doesn't know how to write.
Christ dude we get it. Gibson guitars suck. Even I owned a Gibson and hated it. Traded it in for an LTD bass and don't regret it for a single second. Your show has basically devolved into antagonizing Gibson fanboys and for what? More views? A couple extra clicks a week? The die hards are never gonna come around and the rest of us fucking get it. At the risk of being on 'butthurt of the week' can we get a guitar review that isn't made with the intent of just pissing of a subset of guitar players who aren't going to change their mind? I'm not gonna unsubscribe but goddamn I'm opening fewer and fewer videos these days.
Hey Glen a tip for mounting your pickups is to solder a small nut (if you have any, stewmac supply them) to the leg of the pickup for the adjustment screw to thread through this will hold it straight and give the adjustment screw a lot more thread. Wind the nut onto the screw then screw it in to the baseplate and solder the nut into position then remove and mount your pickup. It help transfer soundwaves into the pickup, how much difference that makes to your tone is for the internet to argue over
To fix the bridge pickup lean you could take the strings off; unmount the pickup and put some thin foam under the side that is leaning and adjust to height… or put the foam forward of the side that the pickup is leaning toward and maybe that will keep it from leaning forward… I find that the thin foam that comes in Seymour Duncan pickup boxes and or EMG boxes works just fine…. You seem to have fixed the lean just fine so use this information if a simple adjustment won’t suffice on a different guitar with the same issue.
I now own 2 Harley Bentons, a Fusion II HH/with Floyd Rose and a SC Custom HH/with Floyd Rose. Both were A stock and came through set up perfect. The only adjustments made were set to my preference. Both finishes are flawless and the fret edges smooth as a baby's butt. They are both as good as my Les Paul, Jackson, BC Rich and my Strat...!!! Thanks for a Grrr8 review on this product! Gibson, step aside...!!!
I have been playing guitar forever, and one of these is now my main guitar. With guitars they only have to reach a certain threshold and all bets are off as to whether they are playable by everyone. This is certainly playable and enjoyable by anyone at any level. It is great for blues, jazz, fusion and rock.
I'm in love with my Harley Benton, bought it around 2 years ago and I've had no issues whatsoever, no fret sprout and the fret ends aren't sharp at all
I actually got a harley benton LP kit once when I was starting out learning to build guitars. years later after I built it, I completely stripped it and redid everything and now it plays great. If the setup is done right and you got some decent pickups in there, any cheap guitar can be really good. it plays better than some of the more expensive factory guitars I got, and if I can find time I'll wind some new pickups for it.
How to level out a pickup that is leaning forward or backwards: shove a piece of foam underneath it in the pickup cavity. You'll have to play around to find the correct size of foam that works as well as exactly where to position it.
Oh hell yeah, I love Electric Eye! Its always nice seeing someone with good taste in music. I too recently purchased a Harley Benton Guitar. Its a gold top with P-90's. I figured I can jazz it up, and make look like a Mike Ness signature model. What I got was a bottom of the barrel, bargain bin crap! The paint job is runny, the back of the guitar was supposed to have a wood stained finish, looked like someone got lazy and just painted it black, and the strap button isn't even centered, but that's not even the worst part. There was a HUGE dent on the bottom of the guitar. Looked like someone dropped it from a two story house, or slapped it with a British Steel rod. I complained to Thomman, but all they did was return me my delivery cost, which was around $80. $150 for a kicker guitar with P-90's aint too bad. But seeing that dent...makes me not want to play it.
Glenn, Pop the pickup out and throw a bit of medium density open-cell foam under it. Like the foam that comes in new pickup boxes. It'll straighten out the pickup, and as a bonus, it can reduce ringing (like what you'd get from trem strings) during palm mutes. I like doing this in every guitar I have.
GLEEEEENNNNN!!!!! I’ve had the HB “Gilmour” black ‘57 Strat and the ‘52 Blackguard Tele for about 4 years now. The funniest thing about owning an HB is the Suhr guys and the Silver Sky players calling them Fender copies.
I set up my Harley Benton and it’s able to flutter! Just use 2 springs instead and slightly let the bridge be raised. It’s a great guitar once you do a bit of set up!
Pickups should be mounted with THREE screws to prevent them from tilting in the wrong direction. Then the angle of the pickup should be set so that it is parallel to the strings when the strings are depressed at the 12th fret. Gibson and a few other brands have had 3 screw pickup mounts on some of their guitars. Otherwise, the best that you can do is BEND the mounting screw tabs on the pickup to set the pickup angle.
I realize that most people here are too young to remember, or just never had the experience of going into a guitar shop and having each NEW guitar be different from the exact same model hanging next to it. Even though they had the same specs. Weight differences, how they hung from the strap, sounded and played, all depended on how the workers were feeling on that particular day your guitar was built. And that your guitar was unique. There's still a few companies I get that vibe from. Not many though. (Same specs in this case means "these guitars are all the same...ish")
About the pickup being asymmetrical: my main right now is a heavily modded Harley Benton Fusion II. I stuck some thin foam from some package in mine to straighten it out. For those interested, these are my mods on mine: swapped the pickups for Pariah Pasadena Reds (accurate copies of the pickups only available in the USA EVH Wolfgang) with coil splitting and parallel wiring available for each pickup separately, a Graphtech Piezo equipped Floyd Rose Bridge, green fender style knobs, and upgraded Floyd Rose Original Nut. Also, haven’t installed it again since changing the bridge, but was using a trem stabilizer to split the difference between a decked and floating Floyd rose and so I can use a tone vice to easily go from standard to drop D with a Floyd rose. It’s a ridiculously awesome instrument. Mine is the transparent blue HH Floyd rose fusion model.
I have a Harley Benton fusion 2 with a Floyd rose 1000 and stainless frets that was a gift from a close friend last year and it's awesome. I like coil splitting the pickups and it plays great. The pickups are a little microphonic, but I have picked what I want to swap in once I can afford to. I'm a DiMarzio guy.
As someone who just bought two Harley Benton guitars, and a Fender Mod Shop strat, I can attest these Harley Benton guitars are the real deal and really are fantastic. Can not say enough good things about them. Will be ordering more guitar, a banjo, an amp. They are great!
Played a gen 2 fusion (used duh) at guitar center and immediately bought it. For the 320-ish dollars I paid for it, I am infinitely pleased. Plays about as well as my $800 2018 Charvel
HB Fusion-II HH was my first decent guitar and I absolute loved it and I still do. I have no idea how they manage to make such good guitars for this amount of money. If you really inspect it closely you may find some small flaws which are to be expected and the pickups aren't really high-end stuff BUT if you replace them you have a guitar that could cost twice as much and it would still be a steal.
Thanks Glenn another great video. I always thought the fusion wasn't for me and your videos proved me right. Fearless gear reviews rules. I finally bought a gibson studio and my epiphones ended up blowing it away.
It’s a dive only tremolo like the Floyd Rose Rail Tail tremolo unit. I have a Rail Tail on my Mexican Strat , Washburn X Series and I just rebuilt a Squire Strat for my grandson. Match this tremolo with a set of Graphtech Ratio locking tuners and you get a very stable tremolo system that stays in tune well. I also use Graphtech Tusc nuts for tuning stability
I had the same exact guitar. Played pretty well for what it is. The Roswell pickups weren’t great so I changed them out. Sold it after a month or so. Great for a beginner. Oh one thing I found was the springs on the trem were feeding back through the amp so I used some foam underneath them and problem solved.
I have picked up a Harley Benton TE-20HH SBK just a over a month ago, and was pleasantly surprised. The matt black finish was spotless, and after changing strings, lowering the action and adjusting intonation on two strings it was ready to go. It is crazy good value and I'm still super happy with my purchase. Of course the pickups aren't amazing and the thing that would benefit the most from an upgrade. But this tele looks great and I love it.
I just rebuilt my first chibanez jem kit build into the newer Ibanez Pia body. I painted it amid 70s General motors deep blue green color, that looks fantastic against the black pickguard and gold DiMarzio pickups I got from Mad Hatter in Arizona. Wish I could show you man this thing's awesome. I custom shave down the neck too so it would be the same super skinny width as a real gem. It gave it this unique flat back profile that I think is really cool. I couldn't wait to get it all together so I rushed the paint prep bit, and didn't get the quality I was hoping for in the finish but it plays great and looks great from 10 ft away so that's all I care about.
I have a HB DC-600 VI (basically a SG copy with triple humbuckers). I absolutely love it. Only thing I’ve had to do is adjust the truss rod a hair to get the neck relief where I like it.
I've been playing my HB pro series tele...roasted neck, wilkinson trem, splitable humbuckers...for a year now. I keep saying maybe I'll change the bridge and pickups, but I haven't. It's just fine. Couldn't be happier for $400.
Gleeeeeeen! Call me Mr. Nitpicker! Is it Thomann, or is it you who don't know the difference between coil tap and coil split? Coil tapping is mostly a single coil thing, cause you take away some winds of the coil, which results in less DC-resistance. It can reduce output, if the coil is underwound after tapping. And coil splitting is when you take one coil of a humbucker out of circuit. You could also coil tap one coil of a humbucker and have a different symmetry after the coil tap.
I am an owner Fusion II (HSH, Blue) and I do like it but it was awful out of the box. The setup was terrible, some of the saddles were only raised on one side, because that is actually possible with the way this bridge is designed, it wouldn't stay in tune for shit, and the plug for the cable was probably not secured enough either because it unscrewed itself after about 2,5 months. It also had the same thing you are experiencing with your bridge pickup, but on the neck pickup and a lot more pronounced. As for how I fixed that, there should be a piece of some kind of foam-like material under the pickup body, it wasn't cut properly on mine so the pickup became slanted. What i did was take the thing off, cut up a piece of dish washing sponge and shoved it in there instead, quite unorthodox but works well.
I'd rather spend the same money on an Ibanez, I'd get a quality brand without the shortfalls of the Harley. It would have a great working trem too. It looks like HB are moving into territory they can't keep up with here. I don't see them ever being anything more than the top of the bottom of the pile.
I bought a fusion 3 as my live guitar as it is nice and cheap, and I wouldn't mind it getting some dings... But man after setup, that guitar has become one of my favorites... Just so good. Best bang for your buck I have ever bought.
The USA price has already gone down, it shows $249 on the Thomann website now. Pretty amazing for the price. $70 for shipping to my location, so $320 total.
My Harley Benton Cab with 2x12 V30 Vintage cost 250 euros, and once you cut the lows and highs it sounds like an similar expensive one. I have a 100w power amp/pedal from harley benton too (it costs 80 euros), it have stereo. Perfect setup for my HX Stomp, live and in home. Maybe i will buy 2 1x12 cab from them to use in stereo.
Looks and sounds great! I’m a huge fan of your honest reviews, and it’s nice that you’re a fellow Canadian (eh?) and that you disclose the shipping, import and fees in CAD $. Love your channel!!!
Glenn for the first time I think I actually have advice for you! (Having taken loads of yours over the last 4 or 5 years). Do not worry about your keyboard skills when you want synth. Synth is all about feeling the filter sweeps. Keyboard skills are for pianists
I have an Ibanez GRG 7221 that broke down at a point, that coincided with the time I moved and long story short, I left it in storage for a while until I managed to get it back and fix it. Meanwhile, I bought a $125 Harley Benton RX-10 (Flying V) and then I also fixed the Ibanez. Now, the unexpected thing is that I often prefer to play the Harley Benton. If you have $125 to spare, please do a fearless gear review on it. I think you'll be impressed what that little money can get you.
HB has shown us how good a less expensive guitar line can be. I remember when spending this much would get you a guitar with a bow in the neck so bad you shoot arrows with it. I have bought several HB bass guitars over the years, there quality keeps improving. Today I can afford more expensive basses but I still choose HB.
Just got a silver sparkle Fusion 3 HH with a baked maple neck. Trem knife edges on the 50 are round and not hardened, so it does a bad job staying in tune, it’s like an FR Special, will replace it with a Gotoh VS100-N. Mine came with a nut that has been cut to deep at the lower strings, also going to replace that with a tusq xl and cut it myself. Removed the string trees since the locking tuners are propper staggered tuners. The neck on mine is real good, much smoother than any of my Fender maple necks, and the fretboard edges are even rounded. The stainless steel frets have good rounded edges and are polished, so the whole neck feels insanely smooth, think only cheap guitar I have seen with a better fretjob is from Eart Guitars, the fret edges are very round on those. Paint job is good too without me starting to nitpick, would have liked if they had stained the sides and back of the 3 piece body to match the neck color though. Pickups sound like PAF-70’s SD, so they work well for blues rock and 70-80’s hardrock/heavyrock, but can also do metal with some gain stage trickery and hard pick attack. Not a fan of the coil split sound, for that sound prefer real single coils. Definetively think the Fusion 3 is worth it even with the comming tremolo and nut change, since other brands would push the price higher to end up with the same features.
oooooh...bubble wrap...yum yum
Personally I prefer the taste of silica gel but bubble wrap will always have a place in my heart
I thought the silica gel was just the seasoning for the bubble wrap
My favourite snack
Gremlin
Y'all philistines have no palette.
I wrap the silica gel in the bubble wrap, as they bring out the flavors in each other.
Harley benton are so good for the money. I have their "copy" of the jim root strat and for a sub 150 guitar I was so surprised by the quality. The pickups aren't the best but it's such a solid instrument.
if you want very high quality guitar for reasonable money go with fusions or amaroks (my superstrat amarok is the best guitar for low price i ever played)
@@TheAndostro I just wanted something really cheap but playable at the time and was pleasantly surprised.
My brother has a 6-string baritone Amarok and the thing is an absolute beast and not even just for the money, just all round great guitars.
Honestly get a good HB guitar build/finish, and give it some decent pickups and it will still be more vfm than paying for most "household" brands. I've planned on doing so myself on an sc-1000 progressive line (esp ripoff), and even the stock pickups sound... nice-ish. I'll still replace them with emg actives
I just picked up an ST-20 Root copy to do some mods and guitar work on. I will probably do a refret and all kinds of obscene things to it. No way I want to do my first job in years on anything expensive.
@@TheAndostro I was pleasantly surprised to see the Amaroks have neck through! I personally dislike bolt-ons so seeing something like that on a cheap guitar is insane. Could make an amazing guitar to work on like new pickups.
Wow, Harley Benton really stepped up their game. I remember getting the HB SC-200 back in 2016 which was a total piece of shit. But holy shit, I tried the new models and was really impressed with the quality of the guitars.
Surprised you bought another after the horrible experience
@@theophany1770 YEP IT'S IS STRANGE..Anyhow those guitars were OK since they were like 100$, they need some set up but for that amount even hen they were wow. Actually some older models were better since they had brilliant necktrugh tele models.
Moreover on superstars like 620 i think it's a model- they use HB Floyd's and before they used Special FR which is better IMHO. Some say they are the same but nope they aren't. Still for that amount of $ they superb guitars.
Some prices are strange, for example on a few models that are around 150$ you get a better tremolo and hardware then on some models which cost 200ish.
Dude those were guitars for 100$ back then and for the price they were superb, they needed usual setup and that was that. IMHO some of their models from 2016 were much better, because you could get some necktrough guitars for like 200$. They don't sell that model any more.
Also back in 2018 for 220$ you had super start with SS frets, tremolo with roller sad. 1st class guitar, that model was ''dynamic'' pro serial with spalted maple tops ( thick one not a veneer) and they don't sell em any more.
So they had amazing guitars in 2016 and before. Problem is if people expect to get pro guitar that can compete with boutique brands for 100$, but for 250-400$ for sure you can find such HB guitars and you could find 1st class guitars back in 2016 for a bit over 200$
glenn, you've GOT to try the HB victory classic. it's a 140 dollar flying V. it costs EXACTLY 1/20 of the mustaine V. it'll be HILARIOUS if it had just as good QC. i've been asking you since the mustaine V video. lmao
it'll be even funnier since it's the shape gibson goes around suing people over.
ps i love it when you give old priest some love! that riff 7 mins in was dreamer deceiver from sad wings of destiny, at 15 mins it was electric eye, and 16:30 it was heading out to the highway.
Yes we need this!
$140 for a guitar is a very bad sign.
@@everennui1 I got a bass by Harley Benton for around 110 Euros - and it's a damn good instrument. The pickup and pot wiring is a little weird, but it sounds and plays way out of its league - I even prefer it over one of my two Fender basses
@@everennui1 nah, my first guitar (an acoustic) was 175 dollars when i got it. unlike my electrics, it never felt underwhelming compared to other people's or stuff i saw on stores. i have no doubt someone can pull off a decent electric for 140 dollars.
that's why i want it reviewed. it is absolute crap, no one will be surprised or care.
if it is good, it might be better than the 20 times more expensive gibson.
@@bassstisb fender has a big overpricing problem. the instruments are consistently good, sometimes consistently great, but there is always a much better option for the same or less price.
I have a few Harley Benton guitars and I get surprised everytime with how good of a guitar they really are. they also make a great platform for a mod project.
Most certainly! I'm never giving up my EX84 model!
I want to tell you how much I appreciate you showing us how to open the box. If it wasn't for you mine would still be in the box. I was so puzzled but I just followed you and it was a peice of cake. Thank you again now I can actually play the God damn thing...
#METOO
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
On these lower end guitars you could open the wiring backplates and look at the electronics, you'll see if the cavity is shielded (or not, so single coils get noisier) and since HBs are popular on the modding side of things it could be useful for tinkerers to know if the whole circuitry is due an upgrade or not. Also, I snagged one of the last hardail emg fusion HB, it's great for the money!
Yeah I was really considering that guitar! However, I went for an sc-1000 and I'll replace the pickups with EMG's, mostly cause I wanted the esp-like design.
I got a HB recently and modded the wiring, the cavity was very neat and completely lined with copper tape
@@stanleysdad nice.Thanks
@@ptr_does_music7042 I was lured by the slick matte paint, the stainless steel frets and the roasted maple neck. Stayed for the playability, tuning stability and sound when distorted. Great piece of gear, and the Tele style body? Super good. Reverse headstock? Ooooh boy. Can't go wrong with that one!
@@stanleysdad I swapped the whole pickguard on a strat style one with a pre-loaded one and that guitar sounds and plays wicked. I still have to open up the cavity on the fusion one
Kids these days don't know how good they have it! Back in my day, you had to shred fifteen bars with sharp frets, unstable trems, and particle board bodies!
I know you dont need your playing validated by random strangers, but youre improving all the time glenn, keep it up!
Ty!!
Just play your notes deliberately, and don't 'hope' that you like how they sound.
Harley Benton user here, these are AMAZING!!! 🤘Especially considering the price point. 🤘
THE SINGLE COIL NOISE can be dealt with effectively with a little DIY, insulating the pickup cavity takes only a few minutes and it sorts it out completely. 🤘🤘🤘
I had bought the SC-500 as I always wanted an LP style, and honestly my only complaint is the pickups get a bit unruly (hard ringing on certain harmonics, even in plug-ins through headphones) in high gain, but its probably just because I suck at playing. Super comfortable and make me enjoy some light jamming at least!
The Roswell pickup are not that good .
@@buffdaddy2032 the alnico v5 humbuckers sound nice but slightly muddy (more stoner doom sounding or great for crowbar riffs). Its easily fixed by equalizing the settings. Its also split coil
Roswell pick ups are not the best.. but had one Harley Benton guitar that surprised me... but ended up putting in Seymour Duncan jb-4 in its places.
An easy way to fix the way the pickup is sitting is with the foam they ship pickups with in the case of Seymour Duncan or any other semi ridged foam blocks.
A lot of bass pickups have this style of foam under them, you can either just chuck it under there and tighten the screws or cut it to roughly the desired angle.
There might even already be foam under there and it just moved if you are lucky or its just a matter of taking the screw out entirely and screwing them back in.
I just bought their brand new R-446 July 2022 model, and I have to say that it kicks as. Did some truss rod adjustments and some pickup height setup. It plays fantastic, it sounds fantastic, I have zero complaints. The blood red metallic finish was spotless and the craftsmanship was beautiful. Frets felt amazing to play on and is definitely worth more than it’s price. I own several other guitars from Ibanez and Aria, and the Harley Benton has no trouble with keeping up with those other fine instruments. Happy customer.
Yay!!! U won a prize!! 🤣🤣
@@tun-tunninc.6492 are these comments for real?
@@joshuablume807 only one way to find out 👀
@@joshuablume807 what makes you think they'd be real?
@@n00bje cause it sounds too good to be real. Lol
I'm from Germany and I bought Harley Benton Guitars and Basses. Most of them had some minor issues, but the quality you get from that price is still incredible. I visited their shop in Treppendorf once and although there was a lot going on the staff was very patient, friendly and we even had some laughs there.... I recommend Thomann and Harley Benton every time! Thanks for showing the world that a good Instrument doesn't have to cost 1k and above!
I own this one. Bought it used from 2nd owner as my new band wanted to play some Megadeth pieces. Actually it stays in tune. The frets a bit sharp above the 12th on mine and one screw for setting of the string was round on its head, I changed that screw. It has 24 frets you can almost play everything on it... only wonder why the other guys sold it. The mid pickup is noisy but not as much you exaggerate. Maybe I will swap it for sth better. I own one with a roasted neck. The price is a bit higher but definitely worth it. Quite good instrument for the money!
Your title is wrong.
I AM a guitar snob, and I love Harley Benton.
Once guitar companies all went CNC they took the magic out of it. You get consistent guitars, but in that process you lose those "one in a million" guitars that are just perfect, for YOU. So along comes Harley Benton, and others, who pay as close attention as the established companies. They have a motivated workforce, maybe some pride, too. All the right machines, and the desire to make a good product. And they can deliver it to you at a fraction of the cost, so you can buy more. And do it all without shitting in their panties
, and becoming a raging asshole, every time another company makes a better product, and then sueing them.
So, what's not to love?
Too many cork sniffers! Love both my Harley Bentons!!! Glad you are dropping knowledge on the masses!🔥🤘😂
Honestly mate, i got a fusion two HSH, it's an outstanding guitar. It's got room for upgrades, some of which I've preformed, but stock it's a really amazing guitar. If anyone's curious as to the mods I've done, I've installed geaphtech saddles to combat the string breakage i had from stock saddles - probably just caused by me being a very aggressive player and bending way to much. I've broken one string since i installed those saddles a year ago. I've also made my own ~0.02185 PIO cap and replaced the stock tone cap with it. I also changed up the coil split circuit with a on/of/on 4P4T switch, in position one both pups are split, in the middle both are full, and in the third the bridge is full and the neck is split. When a coil is split, there is a circuit which changes the impedance to 250K. So the humbuckers get humbucker impedance, and the single coils get single coil impedance. I've wanted to change the pickups, not because they sound bad(They sound great for everything i play, which ranges from clean blues to indie to metal) but because of some feedback issues I have sometimes at high gain. I learned and am still learning to play guitar on it, it's taken me from a shitty cover of astronomy domine to a mediocre cliffs of Dover. Pretty good I'd say for a guitar that cost like 200, 300 bucks. Hell, pretty good for a guitar that costs much more than that.
I own 2 myself, and I must say, they are surprisingly solid guitars for the money.
I feel like Harley Bentons went up dramatically in quality. I bought a jazz bass from them a few years back and it's absolutely fantastic! Great sound, great feel and it absolutely refuses to go out of tune.
My harley benton sc-1000 b-stock came yesterday and is tremendous, it cost me 160€, becouse it had a pair of scratches but functionaly is perfect
@Cameron well mine was perfect, it could be the shipping
I'm very pleased with my SC-1000 except (no surprise) the upper frets are essentially unreachable and therefore useless except for tapping. But the guitar sounds great, and it has the lowest action of anything I own.
I'm just modding a BM-75 so it's actually to Brian May specs. The wiring is very tidy, the cavity is shielded and Alpha pots! Very impressed.
Been having this guitar (with the ''Guthrie Govan finish'' haha) for few years, and I love it! Very versatile, feels very good and was set up perfectly when arrived!
Yay a new specter sound studio video!
Surprise surprise, it looks and sounds like a guitar. It's almost magical!
Shocking, isn’t it?
@@SpectreSoundStudios At least it's not a 2x4 😬
Quite a bit of guitar for the price! Quality hardware, and tuners. Value based to be sure. One thing though Glenn, the pull switch is not a "coil tap." It is a coil split. A coil tap would require 2 positives, with one wire wired as a first output taken out midway through winding. The second positive wired normally as an output at the coil finish. Just a friendly tidbit from a retired touring tech from the 80's.
I always love your reviews glenn super honest as always, I do have a suggestion though. Considering that this is a budget guitar and meant for a beginner, I think it would be safe to assume that a beginner doesnt have the really nice amps you have. I think it would be pretty cool to hear these budget guitars ran through some more affordable amps, for example the boss katana mk50. Thanks again and keep up the good content.
You can fix that bridge pickup issue by looking at what's underneath the pickup. Body-mounted pickups like that typically have a block of foam behind the pickup to prevent it from rattling, and in this case either the foam on the neck side is weaker or the foam on the bridge side is too thick/dense. Or there may be none at all. Bottom line is that you can fix it by either adding foam to the low side or removing foam from the high side.
TL;DR: check the foam under the pickup to get rid of the angle.
I bought their LP custom copy a while back (SC-Custom II FR). Less than $400 for a LP copy with an authentic Floyd Rose, humbuckers with coil split. Amazing value for money. Also looks nicem satin black with all gold hardware, had no sharp fret ends or anything.
Any hardware that it came with was most certainly not authentic, China makes counterfeit grover tuners and Floyd Rose Tremolos. Probably made in the same factory as the "authentic" ones in many cases however. . . .I doubt the grover tuners on this Harley Benton are any different than the "grover" tuners that come on a chibson les paul.
@@snap-off5383 Floyd Rose are made in germany, where I bought the guitar from (Thomann, I live in europe). The rest of the guitar is however made in indonesia. Most of the price is probably the FR.
@@tungtobak REAL Floyd Roses may be made in Germany. . . .But I'd bet the ones coming on Harley Bentons are the same as coming on Chibsons. . . .counterfeit.
@@snap-off5383 I don't know. However the situation, since I didn't really put down money of any magnitude in it, and since it works, I don't really care.
@@tungtobak yep. Function trumps form.
I'm a Gibson guy, but Glenn I've never seen you say anything that wasn't deserved period. The way I see it is if you are hailed as one of the worlds premier guitar companies like Gibson is......premier guitars are expected period. Cool guitar and cool channel bud. Please give this comment a shout out on your next video if you could?
I have the same guitar and remedied the pickup slanting issue by putting rectangular foam cut to the width of the cavity under the baseplates 🙂
Foam under the pickups keeps them in place and corrects the angle. Pretty sweet guitar 🎉
i bought a b-stock hb-35 plus, which is Harley Benton's ES-335, it costed $170, and it's amazing!! didn't even need any adjustments to the action or anything, but my band's guitarist being the Gibson simp he is was PISSED at me at first for buying it lol
I’ve had a Harley Benton sc 550ii for over a year now, no issues, dream player. They must be locking their staff in and feeding them bread and water. Mine arrived in tune, it a keeper.
I got one of them fusion IIIs, I was surprised how thick the neck was. Going for the charvel thing I thought it would be thinner. I flattened it out a bit with some sandpaper and upgraded the pick ups. I really love it now.
I love the baseball bat sized necks on the Harley Bentons, personally. That's pretty universal for them.
Thank you being the only voice of reason on this platform and putting Gibson fanatics in their place.
My bass player wanted to leave a comment too, but he doesn't know how to write.
Christ dude we get it. Gibson guitars suck. Even I owned a Gibson and hated it. Traded it in for an LTD bass and don't regret it for a single second. Your show has basically devolved into antagonizing Gibson fanboys and for what? More views? A couple extra clicks a week? The die hards are never gonna come around and the rest of us fucking get it. At the risk of being on 'butthurt of the week' can we get a guitar review that isn't made with the intent of just pissing of a subset of guitar players who aren't going to change their mind? I'm not gonna unsubscribe but goddamn I'm opening fewer and fewer videos these days.
That has to make butthurt of the week.
He said their qc sucked.
@@johndef5075 I can absolutely confirm it does. I'm just tired of the same video every other week. Dude needs to move on.
Hey Glen a tip for mounting your pickups is to solder a small nut (if you have any, stewmac supply them) to the leg of the pickup for the adjustment screw to thread through this will hold it straight and give the adjustment screw a lot more thread. Wind the nut onto the screw then screw it in to the baseplate and solder the nut into position then remove and mount your pickup. It help transfer soundwaves into the pickup, how much difference that makes to your tone is for the internet to argue over
I like over paying for a guitar that doesn’t stay in tune. It builds character.
As a Gibson player and fan for many many years, I can't wait to get my hands on a Harley Benton Jr. DC
To fix the bridge pickup lean you could take the strings off; unmount the pickup and put some thin foam under the side that is leaning and adjust to height… or put the foam forward of the side that the pickup is leaning toward and maybe that will keep it from leaning forward… I find that the thin foam that comes in Seymour Duncan pickup boxes and or EMG boxes works just fine…. You seem to have fixed the lean just fine so use this information if a simple adjustment won’t suffice on a different guitar with the same issue.
I now own 2 Harley Bentons, a Fusion II HH/with Floyd Rose and a SC Custom HH/with Floyd Rose. Both were A stock and came through set up perfect. The only adjustments made were set to my preference. Both finishes are flawless and the fret edges smooth as a baby's butt. They are both as good as my Les Paul, Jackson, BC Rich and my Strat...!!!
Thanks for a Grrr8 review on this product!
Gibson, step aside...!!!
I have been playing guitar forever, and one of these is now my main guitar. With guitars they only have to reach a certain threshold and all bets are off as to whether they are playable by everyone.
This is certainly playable and enjoyable by anyone at any level. It is great for blues, jazz, fusion and rock.
First of all, your playing getting much better.
I'm in love with my Harley Benton, bought it around 2 years ago and I've had no issues whatsoever, no fret sprout and the fret ends aren't sharp at all
I actually got a harley benton LP kit once when I was starting out learning to build guitars. years later after I built it, I completely stripped it and redid everything and now it plays great. If the setup is done right and you got some decent pickups in there, any cheap guitar can be really good. it plays better than some of the more expensive factory guitars I got, and if I can find time I'll wind some new pickups for it.
The pickups the LP kit comes with now are absolutely fantastic, alnico V magnets, crunchy PAF sound.
How to level out a pickup that is leaning forward or backwards: shove a piece of foam underneath it in the pickup cavity. You'll have to play around to find the correct size of foam that works as well as exactly where to position it.
I can't tell you how happy I am that I discovered a new band today because of your shirt....
Was not disappointed.
Oh hell yeah, I love Electric Eye! Its always nice seeing someone with good taste in music. I too recently purchased a Harley Benton Guitar. Its a gold top with P-90's. I figured I can jazz it up, and make look like a Mike Ness signature model. What I got was a bottom of the barrel, bargain bin crap! The paint job is runny, the back of the guitar was supposed to have a wood stained finish, looked like someone got lazy and just painted it black, and the strap button isn't even centered, but that's not even the worst part. There was a HUGE dent on the bottom of the guitar. Looked like someone dropped it from a two story house, or slapped it with a British Steel rod. I complained to Thomman, but all they did was return me my delivery cost, which was around $80. $150 for a kicker guitar with P-90's aint too bad. But seeing that dent...makes me not want to play it.
Glenn,
Pop the pickup out and throw a bit of medium density open-cell foam under it. Like the foam that comes in new pickup boxes. It'll straighten out the pickup, and as a bonus, it can reduce ringing (like what you'd get from trem strings) during palm mutes. I like doing this in every guitar I have.
Bass player here. I was just about to have a nice bowl of silica gel but you saved me, Glen. Thank you. I'll go back to eating crayons.
GLEEEEENNNNN!!!!! I’ve had the HB “Gilmour” black ‘57 Strat and the ‘52 Blackguard Tele for about 4 years now. The funniest thing about owning an HB is the Suhr guys and the Silver Sky players calling them Fender copies.
Glenn tryin to flutter the bridge reminded me of my first hand job 🙋🏻♀️
I set up my Harley Benton and it’s able to flutter! Just use 2 springs instead and slightly let the bridge be raised. It’s a great guitar once you do a bit of set up!
Glenn you really have gotten SO much better at playing! guitar is great too
Really, was it even worse before?
Pickups should be mounted with THREE screws to prevent them from tilting in the wrong direction. Then the angle of the pickup should be set so that it is parallel to the strings when the strings are depressed at the 12th fret. Gibson and a few other brands have had 3 screw pickup mounts on some of their guitars. Otherwise, the best that you can do is BEND the mounting screw tabs on the pickup to set the pickup angle.
I realize that most people here are too young to remember, or just never had the experience of going into a guitar shop and having each NEW guitar be different from the exact same model hanging next to it. Even though they had the same specs. Weight differences, how they hung from the strap, sounded and played, all depended on how the workers were feeling on that particular day your guitar was built. And that your guitar was unique. There's still a few companies I get that vibe from. Not many though. (Same specs in this case means "these guitars are all the same...ish")
About the pickup being asymmetrical: my main right now is a heavily modded Harley Benton Fusion II. I stuck some thin foam from some package in mine to straighten it out.
For those interested, these are my mods on mine: swapped the pickups for Pariah Pasadena Reds (accurate copies of the pickups only available in the USA EVH Wolfgang) with coil splitting and parallel wiring available for each pickup separately, a Graphtech Piezo equipped Floyd Rose Bridge, green fender style knobs, and upgraded Floyd Rose Original Nut. Also, haven’t installed it again since changing the bridge, but was using a trem stabilizer to split the difference between a decked and floating Floyd rose and so I can use a tone vice to easily go from standard to drop D with a Floyd rose. It’s a ridiculously awesome instrument. Mine is the transparent blue HH Floyd rose fusion model.
I have a Harley Benton fusion 2 with a Floyd rose 1000 and stainless frets that was a gift from a close friend last year and it's awesome. I like coil splitting the pickups and it plays great. The pickups are a little microphonic, but I have picked what I want to swap in once I can afford to. I'm a DiMarzio guy.
As someone who just bought two Harley Benton guitars, and a Fender Mod Shop strat, I can attest these Harley Benton guitars are the real deal and really are fantastic. Can not say enough good things about them. Will be ordering more guitar, a banjo, an amp. They are great!
Love the Bad News t-shirt. Bad News, what a band. That lead guitarist/singer was awesome!
Played a gen 2 fusion (used duh) at guitar center and immediately bought it. For the 320-ish dollars I paid for it, I am infinitely pleased. Plays about as well as my $800 2018 Charvel
I picked up a used HB Amarok and have been absolutely blown away by the value
HB Fusion-II HH was my first decent guitar and I absolute loved it and I still do. I have no idea how they manage to make such good guitars for this amount of money. If you really inspect it closely you may find some small flaws which are to be expected and the pickups aren't really high-end stuff BUT if you replace them you have a guitar that could cost twice as much and it would still be a steal.
Thanks Glenn another great video. I always thought the fusion wasn't for me and your videos proved me right. Fearless gear reviews rules. I finally bought a gibson studio and my epiphones ended up blowing it away.
that head banging intro was awesome
It’s a dive only tremolo like the Floyd Rose Rail Tail tremolo unit. I have a Rail Tail on my Mexican Strat , Washburn X Series and I just rebuilt a Squire Strat for my grandson.
Match this tremolo with a set of Graphtech Ratio locking tuners and you get a very stable tremolo system that stays in tune well. I also use Graphtech Tusc nuts for tuning stability
I had the same exact guitar. Played pretty well for what it is. The Roswell pickups weren’t great so I changed them out. Sold it after a month or so. Great for a beginner. Oh one thing I found was the springs on the trem were feeding back through the amp so I used some foam underneath them and problem solved.
9:57 “I did have a strap on here…😳” lmfaoo😂😂
Always gotta love hearing Priest riffs
I have picked up a Harley Benton TE-20HH SBK just a over a month ago, and was pleasantly surprised. The matt black finish was spotless, and after changing strings, lowering the action and adjusting intonation on two strings it was ready to go. It is crazy good value and I'm still super happy with my purchase. Of course the pickups aren't amazing and the thing that would benefit the most from an upgrade. But this tele looks great and I love it.
Finally someone actually using the trem ❤
I just rebuilt my first chibanez jem kit build into the newer Ibanez Pia body.
I painted it amid 70s General motors deep blue green color, that looks fantastic against the black pickguard and gold DiMarzio pickups I got from Mad Hatter in Arizona.
Wish I could show you man this thing's awesome.
I custom shave down the neck too so it would be the same super skinny width as a real gem.
It gave it this unique flat back profile that I think is really cool.
I couldn't wait to get it all together so I rushed the paint prep bit, and didn't get the quality I was hoping for in the finish but it plays great and looks great from 10 ft away so that's all I care about.
I have a HB DC-600 VI (basically a SG copy with triple humbuckers). I absolutely love it. Only thing I’ve had to do is adjust the truss rod a hair to get the neck relief where I like it.
I have two Harley benton double cutaway guitars (PRS style) and after a pickup change and setup, I love, love, love them.
I've been playing my HB pro series tele...roasted neck, wilkinson trem, splitable humbuckers...for a year now. I keep saying maybe I'll change the bridge and pickups, but I haven't. It's just fine. Couldn't be happier for $400.
Gleeeeeeen! Call me Mr. Nitpicker!
Is it Thomann, or is it you who don't know the difference between coil tap and coil split?
Coil tapping is mostly a single coil thing, cause you take away some winds of the coil, which results in less DC-resistance. It can reduce output, if the coil is underwound after tapping.
And coil splitting is when you take one coil of a humbucker out of circuit.
You could also coil tap one coil of a humbucker and have a different symmetry after the coil tap.
Tone sounds killer!!! You’re getting better everyday.
Those dings and stain bleed throughs are what is known as character in a high priced guitar.
🔥
I am an owner Fusion II (HSH, Blue) and I do like it but it was awful out of the box. The setup was terrible, some of the saddles were only raised on one side, because that is actually possible with the way this bridge is designed, it wouldn't stay in tune for shit, and the plug for the cable was probably not secured enough either because it unscrewed itself after about 2,5 months. It also had the same thing you are experiencing with your bridge pickup, but on the neck pickup and a lot more pronounced. As for how I fixed that, there should be a piece of some kind of foam-like material under the pickup body, it wasn't cut properly on mine so the pickup became slanted. What i did was take the thing off, cut up a piece of dish washing sponge and shoved it in there instead, quite unorthodox but works well.
I'd rather spend the same money on an Ibanez, I'd get a quality brand without the shortfalls of the Harley. It would have a great working trem too.
It looks like HB are moving into territory they can't keep up with here.
I don't see them ever being anything more than the top of the bottom of the pile.
Put a little bit of sound foam behind the pickup,works mint every time
I bought a fusion 3 as my live guitar as it is nice and cheap, and I wouldn't mind it getting some dings... But man after setup, that guitar has become one of my favorites... Just so good. Best bang for your buck I have ever bought.
Don't tell me what I can and can't eat! Other than the silica gel advice for bassists I love the channel. Keep up the good work.
A rubber pad or the protective sponge they pack PC parts with right underneath the pickup works like a charm to keep it straight.
The USA price has already gone down, it shows $249 on the Thomann website now. Pretty amazing for the price. $70 for shipping to my location, so $320 total.
A tip for leaning pickups is to put some foam under them, like the kind you get in pickup packaging and such. A sponge should also work well.
gotta love this mans honesty..
My Harley Benton Cab with 2x12 V30 Vintage cost 250 euros, and once you cut the lows and highs it sounds like an similar expensive one. I have a 100w power amp/pedal from harley benton too (it costs 80 euros), it have stereo. Perfect setup for my HX Stomp, live and in home. Maybe i will buy 2 1x12 cab from them to use in stereo.
I’ve had my HB thru neck 6 string active bass at least 12 years, it’s lovely
Looks and sounds great! I’m a huge fan of your honest reviews, and it’s nice that you’re a fellow Canadian (eh?) and that you disclose the shipping, import and fees in CAD $. Love your channel!!!
Glenn for the first time I think I actually have advice for you! (Having taken loads of yours over the last 4 or 5 years).
Do not worry about your keyboard skills when you want synth. Synth is all about feeling the filter sweeps.
Keyboard skills are for pianists
I have an Ibanez GRG 7221 that broke down at a point, that coincided with the time I moved and long story short, I left it in storage for a while until I managed to get it back and fix it.
Meanwhile, I bought a $125 Harley Benton RX-10 (Flying V) and then I also fixed the Ibanez. Now, the unexpected thing is that I often prefer to play the Harley Benton.
If you have $125 to spare, please do a fearless gear review on it. I think you'll be impressed what that little money can get you.
My HB TE-52 is definitely one of the best Telecasters I have. It's a bit on the heavy side for a Tele, but other than that it's great
As per the giveaway text request, here you go _ Al
“Bubble Wrap……. Bass players…. Please don’t eat it!!” Love love love that !!
A broom with strings one would sound f*n awesome with that amp and that distorsion.
HB has shown us how good a less expensive guitar line can be. I remember when spending this much would get you a guitar with a bow in the neck so bad you shoot arrows with it. I have bought several HB bass guitars over the years, there quality keeps improving. Today I can afford more expensive basses but I still choose HB.
Glenn I'm not supposed to eat that stuff? Damn next you're going to tell me I didn't win that stuff in telegram! Keep killing it friend!
Just got a silver sparkle Fusion 3 HH with a baked maple neck.
Trem knife edges on the 50 are round and not hardened, so it does a bad job staying in tune, it’s like an FR Special, will replace it with a Gotoh VS100-N.
Mine came with a nut that has been cut to deep at the lower strings, also going to replace that with a tusq xl and cut it myself.
Removed the string trees since the locking tuners are propper staggered tuners.
The neck on mine is real good, much smoother than any of my Fender maple necks, and the fretboard edges are even rounded.
The stainless steel frets have good rounded edges and are polished, so the whole neck feels insanely smooth, think only cheap guitar I have seen with a better fretjob is from Eart Guitars, the fret edges are very round on those.
Paint job is good too without me starting to nitpick, would have liked if they had stained the sides and back of the 3 piece body to match the neck color though.
Pickups sound like PAF-70’s SD, so they work well for blues rock and 70-80’s hardrock/heavyrock, but can also do metal with some gain stage trickery and hard pick attack.
Not a fan of the coil split sound, for that sound prefer real single coils.
Definetively think the Fusion 3 is worth it even with the comming tremolo and nut change, since other brands would push the price higher to end up with the same features.
Crazy how far intro guitars have come in the past 10+ years.