Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit JA

First one I got: the wholes were misaligned for the pick-guard and saddle/bridge, and foam for pickup cavities was missing. Thomann replaced the kit immediately, no fees, in fact it had become cheaper by that time and Thomann gave me back the €20 difference. Excellent service!
I built the replacement kit, alignment much better but not perfect.
Fretboard looks like a different material.
Had to replace the tone pot which didn't work.

Plastic nut
Bridge p-up: 9.6
Neck p-up: 9.5
Pole spacing at neck p-up: 50mm
Pole spacing at bridge p-up: 52mm
String spacing at neck p-up: 48mm
String spacing at bridge p-up: 50mm

Pros:
Cheap
Excellent neck. Straight, no fret-sprout (frets rough, need a polishing)
Nut cut ok, action height acceptable
Tuners good (was expecting cheap and flimsy)
Body nicely carved
Neck sits correctly/snugly/tightly into body
Proper alignment of strings over fretboard
Solderless kit
Easy to connect electronics
Truss-rod key included (which I haven't tested)
Good P90 pickups

Cons:
Screw holes are mostly not drilled straight
This is specially annoying when installing the pickups as they don't sit parallel to the body (will have to re-drill)
Low-quality electronics
Low-quality strings
A little neck-heavy
Instructions manual needs to be more detailed

Conclusions:
I got this kit because I wanted to know how to put together a guitar, and have a cheap one to tweak and mod. Got exactly what I wanted. I also wanted P90s, so a win/win.
If you want a cheap guitar without having to buy tools or pay for a setup, you should get equivalent priced ones from Thomann that are already painted/built and might have better quality electronics. This kit is definitely for modders and builders.

Like the title says it's a decent wee kit. The neck has a lovely hand feel with no major fret end issues. Needed a little bit of minor fretwork, but was perfectly playable straight out of the box.

The pickup and control cavities were routed a bit roughly with lots of cut marks and jagged edges left behind. I had to spend a bit of time sanding them to an acceptable level of smoothness, but Thomann generously gave me money back on for the inconvenience. They did offer to send a new kit, but I had the tools to sort it, so I did.

The hardware is a bit of a mixed bag I'm afraid. It's all ok, perfectly fine for a sub-£100 kit. However, the bridge was a very tight fit, as though the posts had been drilled a fraction to close together. I had to use a mallet to get it to fit on the posts.

The pick ups are average quality, ceramic p90s and nothing to write home about. They sound fine for a jam, but not something I would record or gig with.

The electrics are your typical cheap small pots and cheap switch, that work fine.

The tuners are actually quite good, they hold tune well and are neither too stiff or too loose.

With a few upgrades and some elbow grease this becomes a fantastically playable guitar. I levelled the frets, dressed the ends properly and polished them smooth. I also changed the pickups to a set of Alnico V p90s (nothing fancy, I just don't like ceramic pickups) which instantly brought more life to the overall tone of the guitar. Finally I changed the pots and switch to higher quality ones and used better wiring which helped reduce hum and clean up the sound.

Overall this is a decent Kit, but with a little work becomes a great kit. Very playable and versatile for most styles.

Loses marks for the lack of trem, which is criminal on an off-set j-type guitar!

I should start this review saying that this was my first pre-assembled guitar, and the first time I use P90s. Overall, I had lots of fun building it, the neck is nice, and the setup was easy.
After few days I had a nice sounding guitar - of a decent quality! and I learnt a lot. The P90 sound is warm and very nice when clean. Can be also punchy when distorted.
I am having a little issue with grounding noise, but I suppose that is due to my building skills. I will soon unbuild the bridge to fix that.
I found the instruction manual very vague and pretty useless. Would be very useful to have a proper manual.

I replaced the plastic nut with a bone nut, and finished with mahogany stain and danish oil! the color is super cool :) ! Suggested to whom wants an entry level guitar and have fun learning how to setup and how the components work. The price is very accessible and is worth every penny for whoever loves guitars as objects beyond playing them.

I have wanted to build a guitar kit for a long time and was very excited when my Thomann kit arrived. The overall process was very enjoyable and a great learning experience in preparation for my next kit.

Even though the body was prepped for painting, i should have sanded the body down to bare wood, applied a grain filler and a sanding sealer before painting. I was still able to get a really nice finish but there are some imperfections that i should have addressed in the beginning.
I had chosen to upgrade the potentiometers and capacitor as part of the build so i cant comment on the standard ones. Remember to get replacement knobs if you're going to do this.
Pickups sound great, my only obtacle was not knowing which pickup to install in which position. They have different resistances so i just put the hotter one in the neck!

I also did a full fret level, recrown and polish, just because i wanted to so i cant say if it actually needed it. I will say that the fret ends felt really nice right out of the box so i just left the ends alone after recrowning.
The neck feels real nice. Very smooth and confortable.

I would also recommend a set of nut slot files, the nut on my guitar needed some very slight filing to improve the break angle towards the headstock. This was causing a Sitar-like sound on the open B and open high E strings. I had intially planned on installing a Tusq nut but i'll leave that for another time.
The instructions were clear and concise, i would recommend indulging in some online videos for added learning and inspiration before building.

Overall this kit was great to build and gave me a guitar that i am very happy with!