Harley Benton Extreme-76 BK Classic Series

I've had this guitar for over a month now and it's very nice. The body seems to be a tiny bit smaller than the Gibby and Epi version which, to me, is even better than those higher priced blocks of wood. I like the body and headstock, the neck feels a bit thick but that was expected. Most likely layered with poly paint so it ends up thicker than it should be but not a big deal unless you absolutely need a thin neck. The frets are nicely mounted but initially the strings would grind a bit when bending. The tuners were ok, no problems noted. The pickups seem pretty good. I have no desire to change them at this time. No extraneous feedback or nasty noises and they sound good. No noticeable problems with the controls/switch other than one knob being pushed in a bit initially (probably from shipping) that I simply pulled up away from the body now it's smooth. Bridge and tailpiece are fine other than an imperfectly drilled hole for tailpiece but there's no wiggle and it's tight so I'm good with it. Nut is cut well and action is nice.

What I've done to it: Changed to locking tuners. Moved the front strap holder to the back near where the neck meets the body. Added wheel weights to the backplate/cavity cover. Got a thick leather strap. All of this helped the neck dive that it initially had and which was made worse by the added locking tuners. Now it's much more comfortable and considerably less neck heavy. I cleaned the frets to get rid of the grind. Gonna keep the pickups in it for now because I can't find a reason to change them.

Overall, a very nice guitar in factory shape or you can do your own mods to it to suit your needs. I just wish shipping prices to the USA were not so astronomical. The fees are about the same as the guitar price.

The guitar came in one piece. Only the toggle switch was affected. Otherwise, I did not find any chips or defects. The guitar is exactly like the photos. The heel smoothly connects the neck with the body, there is a recess in the abdomen. The frets are smooth, it was almost not necessary to tune the guitar. After the acoustics, it feels quite heavy. But it is quite comfortable to play sitting down. In my opinion, this is a wonderful musical instrument. I admit, I was going to make a smaller headless guitar out of it, but my hand does not rise.

Bought a couple guitars from HB with the intention of maybe selling them on Facebook if they turned out to be a let down. I have been pleasantly surprised but not more so than this specific guitar.

The other TE style guitars were safe bets as long as they were built well. However, to see an Explorer style guitar at this price range had me curious. Most other brands it's hard to get a guitar that looks like this for under $450, with Jackson's Kelly model being relatively similar for about $100 less than that.

This blew me away. The neck is perfectly rolled and the frets are filed down to be very comfortable, if maybe a little messy from tool marks. But that is where the negative feedback ends because at it's current price of $139 I didn't even expect anything remotely close to that.

HB has impressed me greatly with all 3 instruments and how they can offer a satisfactory experience for entry level prices. In the future I am looking forward to buying a more expensive model to see what their higher end work must be like.