Harley Benton DC-Junior TV Yellow

I have owned this guitar for about a year now and I still love it. Equipment level is excellent, setup was excellent, sound is excellent and playability is brilliant. I have several guitars in my collection and this guitar is easily the most affordable.
And this one is the guitar I enjoy playing the most!
The Roswell P-90 is a snarling tone machine. I originally intended to get a Lollar replacement but there is no need. This pup does everything I ask of it.
In conclusion this guitar is an asset in any collection. It holds its own in the company of my Gibson, MusicMan,PRS and is usually my go to guitar.
Highly recommended.

I bought this guitar over a year ago now from Thomann and I had to wait a few weeks for it to arrive (which I was informed about in advance) well packed and without damage.
The first thing is it isn't TV yellow. It's more like a Dijon mustard colour which is no bad thing but was a bit of a shock.
The set up was ok but the nut had been cut a little lopsided (it was slightly higher at one side than the other). This didn't bother me that much as I wasn't expecting that much for the price so I took it to my local guitar shop who did a full set up on it.
The neck is beautiful, slim and easy to play. The whole fit and finish of the guitar feels like a much more expensive instrument which for under £200 is just what you're looking for. The Wilkinson Tuners work as they should and the electronics all seem solid and crackle free.
I'm one of those players that likes to tinker with my guitars.
After playing it for a while and doing a few gigs with it I found that the action was a little too high for my taste and the design of the bridge wouldn't allow me to lower it any further so I bought a new wraparound bridge (cost about £18). I also found the pickup was squeeling a bit at high gain settings so I swapped that for another (£35).
With the set up, new bridge, new pickup and a set of locking strap buttons (essential if you want to keep your guitar in one piece) my £189 guitar has cost me about £300. I still feel this was a bargain for such a solid instrument.
If you're looking for a LP Junior for a fraction of the price of the main brand then you could do much worse than this.

A great little guitar that with some set-up and attention feels and plays absolutely amazing!

For the people looking for more info!

The guitar has a medium 12'' neck, slightly skinnier than a 60s les paul kind neck. The bridge has about a 12'' radius as well.

Comes with full sized pots and a .22 tone cap.

The P90 dog ear pick up isn't height adjustable, so you will need a shim or spring of some kind to get it to the right specs.

The only things I found needed some attention where the nut action and the rolling of the fretboard edge, which was a little harsh. Other than that, a solid 4,5/5!

I read all the reviews before buying this and decided to buy one.
Firstly all the hardware is very good and the finish is excellent.
There are however some major issues to address if you need this to be a pro guitar tool.
I'm going to list the good points first.

Neck, nice dark fingerboard with expertly fitted frets with no sharp edges.
Neck shape, as other reviewers have said is not fat and not thin, just somewhere in between, I love it.
Pickup ok, seems to be noise cancelling and has a medium output.
Wrap around bridge is not bad and with the stud adjustment screws in the bridge I was able to fully intonate.
Machine heads are good, there's no slip and holds tuning very well.
The nut is white graphite and there's no friction to worry about here.
As I mentioned earlier, the finish on mine is as good as I've seen on any guitar, even the big names.

So far so good

Things in my opinion as a luthier, that will need to be addressed:

Pickup height straight out of the box is nowhere near close enough to the strings, so output is very low and uneven . The pickup will need raising at least 4.5mm to achieve a good balanced output. A dogear pickup shim or two will do this.
The machine heads on mine were all loose , some literally fell of when I removed the strings. The machine securing holes at the rear of the headstock will need plugging as these screws are too short to hold the machines in this mahogany neck, they should be longer.
The 500k tone control doesn't have a smooth taper even when the pickup is at correct height, it attenuates highs only on the last three digits of travel. This should be lower in value, I changed mine for a 250k log and this sorted the problem.
Finally to get max playability and low action from any guitar, fret dressing is usually required.
This guitar wasn't bad but like any guitar it did benefit from having one.

To conclude, I can honestly say this guitar punches well above it's weight and with some tlc will hold it's own with any name guitar out there.
I'm absolutely blown away with it.

To be honest, I was a bit wary when ordering this guitar. I was looking for a straightforward rock guitar that allowed me to play some blues as well: I wanna be your dog-type-of-thing, but also some Hendrix and SRV without bother of having to nitpick with pickups, pedals etc. When I received the package, at first glance there was nothing to give a remark on. Frets, neck, paintjob all looked excellent. I was worried about the quality of the tuners though, because at first a small bend of the high E was enough to push it way out of tune. I considered sending it back at that moment, but the day afterwards and ever since it stays in tune rather well. In the meantime, I played it quite a lot and I like it. Last week I played on a Gibson SG and to be honest value wise, the HB gives you much more bang for your buck. I looked, pretty intensively, and couldn’t find a fault at all - so happy customer here and I will buy HB again. Colonel Mustard has a lead pipe and he’s killing it !

I really love this guitar. I never had any guitar with 628mm scale length, and I must say I got to love it for that. I play mostly jazz, but really want to play some rock stuff sometimes, and wanted to have a guitar that can do that. Of course, for the versatility, I would like to see a neck pickup also on this guitar, so I could play even jazz on it. I think it should sound good, as it seems to have a less brighter sound than other guitars, with maple caps. First I thought I would get it to a luthier to get it routed for a neck pickup, but then I started reading about the way Junior type of guitars connect to the body, and realized that modding it could make the neck not stand the pressure and ruin the guitar. Especially if I would like to have some 11s strings on it. So I guess I would buy an another Harley Benton Special Double Cut TV Yellow with 2 P90, if they decide to make one. Until then I am enjoying this one.
The guitar came setup really well. I measured all the specs, and it came close to what Gibson recommends for it's solid body guitars. As I own it already, for almost a year, I got the chance to make some weather influenced adjustments of the truss rod, and it holds up really well.
Tuners - not the best for staying in tune, but still ok.
Love the color. It's not the TV Yellow as you would expect on classic guitars, but I think I like it better, this mustard yellow.
Still, you should know that the fretboard is stained. They made it so, to look close to black. And the stain they used gets on your fingers after you play it, but can be easily washed away. Eventually it goes away, after several weeks/months (depends on how often you play it). But no big deal, I can live with that, for the price ))
I must say I'm really impressed with the quality you get for this price, and I mean mainly for playability. Good job HB!

I'd seen some very good reviews but truthfully I was skeptical. I no longer am. I've been playing guitar for 50++ years and have owned many classic Gibsons, Fenders, etc. One of the models I always loved was the LP Junior. I've played my share of these in the past. This Harley Benton definitely scratches that itch for me. What's remarkable is the price and the quality of this instrument! Not 3-4k for a reissues replica from the original manufacturer, not even the $400 or so of an Epiphone, but for less than $200(plus shipping) a guitar that in my opinion can hold it's own! Sure, it's not a big brand name. If that's your criteria then this will be a pass for you. But if your criteria is a high quality guitar that plays and feels like it cost a whole lot more, then pull the trigger on this and you will not be disappointed. In my opinion if more people realized there are guitars of this quality available the big name brands would be in deep trouble. Lastly the guitar arrived set up perfectly-intonation spot-on, very good action. Only thing I needed to do was polish the frets a bit to remove some slight grit. I'm still pinching myself that I was able to get a guitar like this for that kind of price! Maybe the gift of making it to my age is that I no longer care about the prestige of a "name"- to paraphrase Duke Ellington, "..if it plays good & sounds good, it IS good"
The Hartley Benton LP Junior is all that and then some.

I originally bought a guitar out of curiosity (I didn't have a P-90 equipped guitar yet). Can´t believe this guitar is for 199 EUR only. Really good made, neck profile near to my LP Custom, pickup very nice sounding Alnico 5, perfect fret job, no chinese building timber...
Donť forget set the guitar first, truss rod was fully loose and works very fine, do not overtighten (hex wrench is included)! This was the only setting that should be done.
Weak points:
Nut (zero fret) looks like strange material, will be replaced for bone soon.
Bridge can´t go low enough, saddles shoud be cca 1-2 mm lower to let set action less than 3 mm (for many players maybe O.K., but I like action little lower) - result: pickup to strings distance gets more than 5 mm, so I gave there a washer ring. Original Gibson LP Junior Tribute has got the same problem:-)
All in all, perfectly sounding and playing instrument for that money, comparable to another my much more expensive guitars!

A modified dc junior was my favorite in the 70's, back when you could find them under 200 us. By my intimate recollection these harley benton versions feel very much like the originals, and at a price that makes it possible for me to recreate those modified favorites again. And while I totally expected at this pricepoint to find the cheapest electronic components inside, I was amazed to see full size pots, braided shield wire and an incredibly faithful recreation of the dogear p90 pickup, right down to the bobbin. Admittedly, shipping a guitar halfway round the planet left me a little apprehensive ordering from thomann. Been tempting me for months. In spite of the christmas week shipping crunch I pulled the trigger and 4 days in transit the guitar arrived on my illinois porch in pristine condition, intonation set and very nearly in tune. So pleased with the whole experience I won't hesitate to order again.