Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit DC Style

what you get for the incredibly low price:
- beautiful well finished neck, which can almost be used out of the box without filing etc. Nut you may want to replace
- well machined body, which seems to be made out of a higher grade alternative/variety to/of basswood (stronger and darker colored). One or two drilling holes slightly off true, but nothing critical. Sufficiently well matched 2 piece body which is even grained enough to take a stain or a clear coat. An insane amount of sanding sealer means that this is already practically finished and ready for painting should you desire.

Now - should you be able to source these parts elsewhere you will I'm sure pay more than the overall purchase price here. (google search 'bolt on maple gibson neck' for example)

Hardware is passable, but you will probably want to replace the bridge and tuners (losing a star here as bridge is slightly smaller than standard width, so minor modifications required to fit new one, also doesn't match neck radius particularly well). Electronics and pickups are only ok - about standard for entry level guitars (pickups are better than the pots etc) Switch is nice quality, and the pickguard is a nice well finished 3 ply piece.

So in the final analysis - if this is your first stab at guitar building you have something you can enjoy with minor tweaking out of the box, and gradually learn the dark arts of guitar wiring and set up.

If you're a more advanced builder, you have a great platform for mods and tinkering (4 pot control panel etc).

and no, its not a true SG - but can make a great sounding piece all the same..

well done thomann - if my partner wouldn't divorce me, Id be tempted to try another one of your kits

EDIT: the first body part I received was a little out of shape (holes too small or too big, see below), Thomann team was superb (as always) in helping.

It's the first kit I've ever bought, so I won't make a comparison. I've a good friend, an artist, so I said to her: how about painting a guitar body? To prevent any counter-comment about the body of the guitar, she works as a restorer, mainly on paintings on wood.
Currently I own an HB 35, an old japanese strat and a gretsch acoustic guitar, so I decided to go on the kit also because I love the DC/SG style.

PROS
The neck is really a wonderful piece. Perfectly cut, thin, wonderfully comfortable. The fretboard is, too, really well made. I was really impressed before mounting the kit and now, playing the guitar, the neck is the best part. Another pro are the electronics, you don't have to weld cables, the two humbuckers are cheap built, but good.

CONS
With the guitar I received a manual in german and a manual in english referring to a previous model (the jackplate was on the front, not on the side like this one) and it is in black and white and explains how to fix a nut with an exagon key (even a monkey can do that...), 0 space to the wiring. Also, being In black and white, while the cables are colored it would be simple to do a manual referring to colors, with color images. Maybe it's not made in this way because the color may vary. Anyway I solved this problem by going on trial and error, I just inverted the volume and tone but understood that the volume is the one with the plug for the humbucker, the tone is the other one.
The really bad stuff was the body: the piece I received (even before being painted) had completely wrong holes. The stop tail and bridge holes too small, the pickup switch hole too, one of the pontentiometer doesn't fit very well and I have to fix it every time. Yet, the worst stuff was the jackplate. It was too big so the jack plug was unstable. I had to use a wood filler to fix it in a proper and stable position. I guess the neck is made in a different assembly line than the neck, because the difference is huge. Having problems with the jackplate and potentiometers (the jack was unable to stay in position for a long time, it went back inside the guitar. I received completely new parts to subsitute it and now it's fitting perfectly.

Another con is the strap plug, it's on the neck so when you play from 14th to the highest note your hand has to adapt to It. On the SG guitars is generally near one of the "horns". In this way I had to remove it.

SO
The guitar is, nice. Probably at the first time I received a faulty part, now it's ok. I love the feeling of the neck, really smooth. The machine heads are cheap but ok, the hardware is ok. After setting the truss-rod and fixing the bridge for the action I wanted I found that the guitar was already in tune with the octaves. The sound is kinda gloomy and quite "Iommi" style, even when playing on the neck pickup, that's not bad, I like it. Probably the sound is influenced by the body, which is in cheap wood and really lightweight.
I guess it is a good starter kit with good customizing options (for example the pickups can be replaced with something more aggressive). Thumbs up

I'll try to cover it all, if I forget anything, remember, it is about fun, and this totally delivers.

1) Packaging, beautiful. One outer box, three inner boxes. If it had gift paper on it, that would of really fit. Nice boxes and presentation.

But, on the hardware box, the bag for the tuners was open and I'm guessing this had to do with one of the tuners not working. I'll get to that later.

2) The neck, which is the first place most people look for quality and problems.

A) Frets, perfect, as far as I know. Ends meet binding perfectly. Frets had some debris on them, came off easily with proper cleaner.

B) Binding perfect, and really nice touch.

C) Straightness, perfect. Since I adjusted the bridge to height I like, perfect, no buzzing. Plays great.

3) Fit and finish. I'd say perfect. Although the grain on the back of the guitar is better than the front, it all looks really nice. The grain on the back of the neck is not perfect, but, I'll probably stain it dark enough that you won't see it and for the price, I can not complain.

I also really like the grain on the guitar body. I'm sure it will come out great with stain and a protective finish..

4) Hardware. I know it is relatively cheap hardware, but, most of it works really well 100%.

Issues with hardware:

A) One of the tuners would not allow me to tighten it so it fit onto the headstock. Thomann has agreed to fix it and I trust them to follow through.

Another tuner seems to be starting to have issues with tuning. Which, is a shame, since the tuners, overall feel really great.

Eventually, I 'll probably replace the tuners with Wilkinson's, but for now, it is working.

B) At first the middle position did not work, on the 3 way switch, but, it started working. Probably some debris from manufacturing that I worked loose by moving the switch.

C) There does not seem to be a perfect spot for the strap button near the neck, since this is a bolt on. There was a hole on the neck, above the joint, but that would be in the way of playing. I'm not sure where I'll put it eventually, but, I will find a spot for it.

Acclaim for hardware:

A) The pickups I love, they sound a little muddy, but, it is perfect for what I want to use the guitar for eventually. I had to move the bridge pickup down quite a bit for a good dirty sound. For me the sound is quite versatile.

I may add some other features, like coil taps later, but then I would have to change or modify the pickups. I don't think I want to do that on this guitar.

B) The tunomatic bridge and stop tail piece work great. They look like quality and adjust easily. I like them.

C) Volume and tone knobs, I think, work great, I see absolutely no reason to change them. I also really like the knobs. A little close together, but, they work fine for me and I like the look.

5) Issue with staying in tune:

The joint where the neck meets the body is not secure enough, I think. You can pull back on the neck and the guitar, immediately goes out of tune.

I just notified Thomann about this, and, I'm sure they will address it.

I have another Harley Benton, and it is rock solid at the joint. So, I know, they can make it work and will address it.

Conclusion:

I checked a lot of kit guitars and I believe these Harley Benton kits are the least expensive.

That being said, you really get value. The care put into this guitar kit under for $100.00 is amazing.

Also, it has been a great learning experience. I was always afraid to make adjustments on guitars before, but now, just give me the tools and I am ready to go. Remember, there are internet videos for everything regarding guitars. Do research, it pays off.

A great value, and a lot of fun. I hope to get more kits in the future.

I finished this kit, and I am very pleased with the sound. I used Duplicolor rattlecan lacquer in GM black metallic and for the burst I used duplicolor rattle can GM Cherry metallic. For the top coat I sprayed numerous coats of gloss nitro lacquer, wet sanded and polished. it turned out very nice. (I should have sanded a little better, but since it had a wood sealer applied from the factory and said it was ready for laqcuer I did not resand. The neck although very good needed a little fret dressing . I did not level the frets. Intonation was spot on. I left the satin finish on the neck and just sprayed the headstock with satin laquer to seal in the waterslide decal design of my choice. I replaced the tuners with Govers, i wanted to upgrade the bridge and tailpiece, but It seemed the epi replacements were just a tad differend size. I didn;t want to fill in the holes and redrill so I used the supplied parts, which seem to be fine. The neck pickup was DOA. Thomann offered a refund for the pickup, which I thought was OK. i replaced the pickups with Epi pro buckers anyway. I have also built a LP kit from a different supplier, and was very happy with that kit, which had flame maple top. I odered, and am now working on a 2nd SG kit from thomann. The only problems I found so far is the hole for the jack was chipped out probably by a dull bit and was filled in with a wood filler which looked terrible, but will not effect the sound. I am hoping the jack plate covers most of the issue. Anyway, I did notify thomann of the issue, and although I was not asking for any adjustment their customer service very promptly refunded me somthing for the bad drilling.

Bottom line, I don't play in a band, I play for my own pleasure and I am very pleased with the product. I have a amer Strat, and an Amer tele,, A Ibenez Jem 7 and a mini strat. along with the LP kit guitar (which I really like), but it seems that I always reach for the Thomann SG.

I bought 2 of these some time back as Christmas presents for my two boys. Then I found out the eldest doesn't like the LP style so had to get him an SG. This meant I had a spare so kept it for myself lol.

I've completed the first one and nearly finished the second. The whole thing could probably be put together in an hour including setup but I've spent a good deal of time on painting, using two different techniques for the finish.

Using water based dyes and Waterbourne clear gloss laquer, on one of the bodies I sanded off the sealer, applied several coats of blue stain direct to the wood and then added a very small amount of stain to the laquer of which I sprayed about six coats. Removing the sealer meant that the wood grain raised up and required flatting between applications. Whilst it is now very smooth to the touch the slightly raised grain is very pleasing, giving it that real wood effect and the darker colour of the grain is a lovely contrast. I finished the back with a black tinted clear gloss which built up to a nice dark contrast to the front but still shows off the wood grain to good effect.

On the second body I left the sealer intact and added more stain into the laquer coats, again in blue for the centre but with a dark red burst effect on the outer edge. The colour choices were my son's and I wasn't sure how it would look but it actually looks pretty cool. This method was much easier as the sealer keeps the grain from raising and gives a glassy smooth finish. This one was painted with the same red on the back as I used for the burst effect to which I added some black to darken it to match the front as the underlying blue made the red a lot darker. This finish completely covers the grain on the back.

The headstocks were finished in blue on mine and red on my son's and a few coats of clear satin laquer on the neck to seal the wood against dirty finger marks and general grime and to aid sliding your hand up and down the neck.

The necks supplied with these kits are a superb quality and have'nt needed any fretwork at all. I have, however, cut the nut string grooves slightly lower as the strings sat too high over the first fret making chords sound a little out of tune when played open.

Now for a few minor grumbles.

The beading on the body of both kits was very poorly finished around the neck pocket, mostly because the wood itself was poorly cut at this point and they required re-glueing onto the body at this point.

The wiring harness was already connected between the pickups and the selector switch and having pair marked them before detaching to feed into the body channels I found that when connected back in the original pairing that only one pickup worked. This meant removing everything to analyse and correct the error during which one of the pickup wires became detached and needed to be re-soldered and shrink sleeve sealed. I'm hoping for better fortune when I help my son with assembly on his tonight.

The majority of the pre-drilled screw holes were just slightly miss-aligned meaning that most of the screws went in on the slant. When fully screwed in this is hardly noticeable but annoying all the same.

On the plus side all the hardware worked perfectly, I may switch the volume pots from linear to audio taper as the sweep control all takes place in the first quarter turn of the knob and is difficult to set a balance when using both pickups together and for some strange reason both volume controls need to be turned up above zero together when soloing the neck or bridge pup. I was pleased with the smooth operating quality of the tuners and the overall tone is very nice all round. Needless to say, the stock strings supplied are not the best quality, I fitted a set of daddario XL's.

Discounting all the labour (which I really enjoy anyway) and material costs (approximately £40 for the pair) the finished guitar is excellent value for money and gives added pleasure when playing having put a piece of yourself into its soul.

Just realised that this review is on the wrong product. It was intended to be a review of the LP style SC kits that I purchased. If an admin proof reader can correct this I would be grateful. I have tried to cut and paste to the appropriate item but this option seems to be disabled in the text editing window. Sorry if I have misled or confused any readers.

This is a very fun project guitar if you wants something that plays and sounds great without too much work. The biggest reason I got this over the others is because I didn't have to shape the headstock myself. It was a little difficult trying to figure out which pots go where and how to orient the pickup switch. As a result, they are backwards, which isn't a big deal for me. What is a big deal is that it didn't come with the correct amount or types of screws, and as a result I can't properly screw my backplate or pickguard on. I basically have my pickguard wedged in place between the pickup mounts and the backplate is held in place by the 1 screw left that did fit. You'll need to take some time to get your bridge action and saddle intonation correct, which takes a bit of learning, but that's what a guitar like this is for. If I were to replace any of the hardware on this guitar I would replace the tuning machine. They're okay but could be better, but it's not too big of an issue.

But other that those issues, the guitar looks and plays great. I was originally going to sand and stain it purple, but I actually ended up really liking the look of the natural wood, so I left it as is. This is the only guitar I have tuned to E and it's perfect with the 24.75" scale. The stock pickups sound pretty good, no complaints. The tailpiece and bridge are pretty good quality, not made of cheap metal like on some other cheaper guitars. Fretwork was perfectly smooth and even and the neck was straight.

Overall, I would easily get another DiY kit from Harley Benton and I would recommend them to anyone. Just make sure they send you all the screws you need...

The story of this kit goes from a start of worried concern to a finish of absolute amazement. Bear with me.

This is my third Harley Benton kit, after a very disappointing lefty Stratocaster and an acceptable rightly Telecaster. Upon opening the box, I was worried by the number of minor defects in the woodwork. Bits had chipped away notably at the edges of the joint between the rosewood fretboard and the maple neck, and the routing of the control cavities appeared very rough. But after machine sanding down the whole stuff and hand sanding the cavities, it looked much better, and at least the neck seemed to fit nicely although none too tightly into the pocket. Moreover, to my utter surprise and luck, the body seems to be one single piece of basswood.

Once I had done away with the factory applied wood sealer and sanded down the body as smooth as possible without fine luthier equipment, I hand applied several washes of water diluted acrylic paint for a faded red translucent finish that allows the grain of the wood to seem through. Then I used a matt black spray and masking tape to create logos and artwork on the body and the headstock. After that, I sprayed on 10 coats of satin varnish, followed by three top coats of shiny lacquer, sanded down and debuffed manually with three coats of car polish. Lastly I soaked the fretboard in two successive washes of lemon oil. With that, the body was good to go, and I was starting to sense that this would become a nice guitar after all. As it later turned out at the assembly stage, a couple of scratchplate screw holes were misplaced on the body -- had I noticed that before finishing the paintwork, I would have filled the wrong holes, but this way I just drilled new ones next to them.

Regarding the mechanics, hardware and the electronics, I can comment only partially on the contents of the kit: I kept the scratchplate, back cover plate and trussrod cover which were all neat and free from any blemishes, although I had to file down 1mm from the edge of the scratchplate on the neck side, otherwise the hole for the upper bridge post wouldn't align with the hole in the body. I also kept the tune-o-matic bridge, the stopbar tailpiece and their respective posts, which all look nicely chromed and well finished. However, I replaced the tuners with an absolutely excellent Grover style Kluson MG33N set also from Thomann (the fixing holes of which, at the back of the headstock, are differently placed from the factory ones, so again I was left with 6 unfilled holes and had to drill six new ones instead).

As for the electronics, I kept the 3-way selector and the jack socket, but the stock pick-ups, pots and caps were replaced by coil-splitting vintage extra hot humbuckers from GFS and 500K DPDT pots for more versatility. The control setup is actually identical to what you would find on an Epiphone LP PlusTop Pro. I also shielded both the front and the back control cavity with alufoil, including on the back of the scratchplate and back cover plate. Thus equiped and wired, the guitar was ready stringing, and this is where the amazement really hit me:

I threw on the same 9-42 set as I use on all my guitars and based on my experience with the Strato and Tele kits, I was prepared to spend at least half a day to try to get the harmonic setup to an acceptable balance. Indeed, on the other two kits, nothing is perfect, but everything could be adjusted to be just about alright. Well guess what, this time it turned out to be the exact opposite. In fact, adjusting the stopbar, the bridge, the saddles and the trussrod took me only 10 minutes and it got everything absolutely right: intonation is perfect on all six strings all along the neck, action is as low as on my Ibanez JS (!!!!) without any fretbuzz anywhere from nut to fret 22 even on bent strings, and sustain is mind-boggling.

It turns out that eventually this kit is one of my very best playing guitars, and with the electronic upgrades I made, it roars like thunderstorm. Actually, it compares extremely well even with my genuine full mahogany and set neck Gibson SG. So what went into this kit is definitely money very well spent! I may just build another one of these very soon.

This is not the first kit I have made, but it is the first from Harley Benton.
First Impressions:
The instructions are better than others I have seen. I admit I didn't follow them, just read them when the guitar arrived and then filed them somewhere so safe they will never be seen again...
Construction:
The wood is nicely cut and sanded with a snug fit for the neck joint. I assembled the guitar straight out the box to test the components, played it for a bit (more on that below) and then took apart again to paint and correct any faults I had located. I would put this as ideal for someone looking to learn more about how guitars are put together and a great launch pad into the world of setting up.
Hardware:
The metal components are reasonable. I chose not to replace them as the guitar can hold it's tuning with no issues.
Playability:
The neck is massive! Maybe it is because I am used to shred machines but this thing took some getting used to! None of the frets buzz - a first for any kit I've made! Really good job.
Sound:
Oh dear... This is where the change was required. I binned all the electronics; it sounded weaker than the weakest cup of English tea in a swimming pool of water... Definitely worth buying new pickups if you want a good tone
Conclusion:
I really enjoyed this kit and I hope to buy another HB one soon. Best value kit I have made requiring the least overall work and clearly eye catching as my band mate instantly offered to buy it from me!

I love doing mods on guitars, and decided to try out one of these kits to build from the ground up. After a bit of work, I love the results.

No complaints about manufacturing or machining. All predrilled holes lined up as they should, and the neck fit snugly into its pocket. Even with shipping/taxes/fees, still less expensive than most kits. I would say that if you’re planning on tuner or electronics upgrades, you will probably be best served by installing them to begin with. That said, I wanted to see what the initial quality level and sound were like out of the box. Most hardware was good, though I had issues with the smallest screws in the tuners - but they were the only hardware I had a complaint about. And I found that I was happier with tuning stability after installing locking tuners - that’s where the hardware issue bit me, but I resolved it with a little work. The prewired plug-in electronics harness was well put together, but the bridge pickup was wildly microphonic. I’d planned on upgrading that anyway, so no big loss. The neck pickup was fine, so I decided to save myself some upgrade funds and kept it. Switching was solid, and pots were relatively noise-free. The wood finish needed relatively little prep for painting, and I found only a couple of smaller rough spots inside the cutaways. Binding on the fretboard was clean and very smooth, and frets were smooth and even. A little work on the slots in the nut was necessary, as I found the cuts a bit shallow. No big thing. After a few minor tweaks and upgrades to the bridge pickup and tuners (which, as I said, I’d planned on anyway), I’m very happy with the way it plays, feels and sounds. I’ve spent more “fixing” guitars at 2-3x the price, and I even got the opportunity to put my own artistic stamp on the finish. As with other HB offerings, you really can’t go wrong for the money - I’m just trying to decide on which kit I want to build next!