Harley Benton Fusion-III HSS Roasted SP

This was my first blind guitar purchase and my second Harley Benton (first one being SC modern, long time ago) and I went into it with, what I believe were - reasonable expectations.
And I wasn’t disappointed for the most part!
The main thing that really bummed me was the lack of QC on the body finish. I understand this is a lo-cost instrument and ok, I can live with pour job of coating the pickup cavities but the paint buildup on the edges of the guitar near neck pocket and all of the cavities is just bad. Plus the paint coat is really thin. I do believe that this will age quickly and that will give it a cool distressed look but if you are not into it - be aware. Shell pink is a bit light bu I like it! Chrome hardware looks great, the roasted neck is dark enough so it provides nice visual contrast.
It’s a good looking guitar, no doubt.
Another disappointment is the pickups. Again - yes, I get that it’s a lo cost instrument but my God! The single coils are just awful. Trebly, harsh, hollow and super quacky. Humbucker is passable but very flat sounding very little sustain… It has some lo-end bump so at first it sounds ballsy but it’s just undefined.
I record and play through sims and my setup is active DI box (warm audio with cinemags), UAD Apollo twin with Neve 1073 in unison slot and my PRS Tremonti USA, Gretch gt600 and custom Tele with BK pickups set certain sonic benchmarks. Again - I didn’t expect much and was planing investing in other pickups but these Roswells are below acceptable.
Maybe mine are defected somehow?
The wiring job is amazing though! Really, really good job.

Ok, with that out of the way - the good and great things:
The rest of the hardware is punching way above this price range. The trem is good (dives smooth and gets back in tune most of the time), the locking tuners are staggered and (impressively) smooth and the neck is exactly what everyone is raving about! I never had stainless frets so I can’t really compre my impressions but the fret work is good, leveled properly and they don’t stick out. It would be great if they were rolled off a bit better but I’m ok with doing that on my own. The nut is good enough and lubricated as well.
There’s really nothing to complain here about, especially for this price.
The guitar is also extremely light. I personally don’t like this and I hope that with new pickups and a brass tremolo block I plan on installing, this will change but for the guys that actually plan on giging with this axe - you’ll love it! It’s just a bit neck heavy but not to a point of working against you.

All in all - money well spent at n a brand new instrument but it definitely requires additional investment if you wanna make it great.

I hope Thomas will dick this pickups for some future models. It really hurts these instruments.

And if they make a four version of this guitar… I’m gonna be pissed because then I’ll need to sell this one and get that one :))

I play pubs & clubs in UK covers band and never keen on using my 'expensive' guitars in case of damage ..I own a Fusion T which is pretty good but was really impressed with this fusion lll .
Delivered just after xmas ,a set up and new strings then a couple of gigs to bed in,then a quick reset up ,now im using it on all gigs since (only 10 so far but be with me for another 3 this weekend)
The neck is super fast (similiar to my 92 Ibanez RG550) frets are good and trem stays in tune......my only fault was i wanted the deep pink but my stupid finger & brain pressed wrong button on phone...!!!!
Tho on saying that the shell pink looks cool under stage lights
And its even cheaper than last month

HB instruments' prices always seemed suspiciously low to me, but after a friend of mine, a much more experienced musician, vouched strongly for them, i decided to give one a try.

And what do you know, it did not disappoint. After a quick setup at a local guitar tech, this axe feels and plays like an instrument double its price. Solid build, good quality components - locking tuners, wilkinson trem, great feeling neck, what more one can want? The pickups are nothing special, but they're workable, probably will swap them out in a couple months. Coil split works and sounds fine. For some reason though, the volume pot is a lot harder to turn than the tone pot, thought that it would be more comfortable the other way around. Not a flaw, just required a bit of getting used to. Also, it came with a fresh set of 10/46s, which was a nice touch.

With delivery and customs services, it came out still cheaper than even cheapest Squier Affinities in these parts (Russia). Overall, great instrument, 9/10 probably will order a HB bass soon.

UPD: After gigging with it for a little bit, the pickup switch started losing contact in the neck position. Rendered the neck position practically unusable.

I enjoyed playing this guitar whilst I had it. Great neck and body feel, hardware all sturdy.

There was an issue with the bridge when it arrived - one of the pins was sitting out of place. I had to take it to a luthier to address. Thomann kindly paid for this invoice (it was about 50 EUR) so I was glad to have it done.

I eventually sold this as I found the pickups just too weak and muddy for my liking, even after playing with pickup height. I could have swapped them out for something a bit grittier (e.g. some Bareknuckles) but in the end decided to go for a HH guitar with Duncans installed.