I have been a pro for over 20 years. I mastered (yes, mastered) both electric AND classical guitar. I certainly don't say I am the only one, but I know I have facts to back up my seemingly boisterous claim. And I am trained in classical piano too, although I am only a good intermediate there. And I have seen plenty of gear, guitars, amps, pedals, you name it.
In short: this guitar is one of the VERY BEST guitars I ever came across. It greatly exceeded ALL my expectations. This guitar is frankly INCREDIBLE value for money. Easily compared with more expensive guitars (which I have). Not only that, the Harley Benton I consider BETTER, because it has fantastic stainless steel jumbo frets, are nice and tall. I am in luck, because the frets on my HB are, incredibly, PERFECTLY level, except for a couple of frets that are a little taller, but this doesn't create me any problems. This is quite uncommon, but probably more common with ss frets, I think these are WAY more consistent compared to the outdated, cheap silver nickel frets.
You only find stainless steel frets like on the Harley Benton, on guitars starting from £ 1000, and even then, not all of them. I could lower the action to lower than recommended on my Music Nomad tool. I have 1.10 mm on low E and 0.90 on high E. The guitar almost plays by itself. The tone is to die for, with my tube amps it owns the place. It has a tight tone with excellent sustain. I play metal, so this is exactly the tone I want.
The trem system is exactly the one you find on many guitars starting at £ 800-1000. Proper Floyd Rose Korean 1000 series, which is made with same materials as the expensive 'Original', but built in Korea. The provenience is a trivial detail that doesn't affect the quality of the trem. I lubricated all the screws and fine tuners and it works like a Swiss watch, superb tuning stability.
The pickups? I had never tried these Roswell before. I had tried the Tesla ones on my Harley Benton MAX signature. I thought they were of excellent quality, but I am a dimarzio and seymour duncan guy. Used these for decades, never found one that I did not like.
But when I play this superb superstrat, I totally forget I have the Roswell pickups on it. They sound and feel excellent, they have a meaty output and tone, honest I am not even going to bother replacing them.
Wow. I absolutely love this guitar, the value is extraordinary. If it costed 3 times as much, and I had tried it, I would still have bought it. This is going to be my main axe, period. I will use it extensively in my new recordings.
BTW, I also have the cst24t, and the MAX Signature, both stellar guitars. The MAX signature is great but I actually prefer these Fusion III. The neck on the MAX is fatter, and I really like these Roswell pickups.
Look, this guitar is TOTALLY PRO. Mine came a total killer, stock. But they are also awesome to modify if that's your thing. Back in the day, there were only 2 ways to get a great guitar: either you had to spend a lot of money for one, or get a lower cost one, and replace the pickups and hardware with high quality parts. All the rest was JUNK.
Harley Benton is totally KILLING it. This brand deserves huge success. You can tell they are bending backward to offer as much value as possible for your money, and NO other brand is doing this.
Oh, and another thing: lots of players buy expensive gear because they are insecure. They know that a Bugera amp can sound every bit as great as the fancy super-duper overpriced amp. But because of their insecurity, they don't like to be seen with lower cost gear. And with these Harley Benton guitars, lower cost does NOT mean inferior, and in some areas are SUPERIOR, such as the jumbo stainless steel frets, which many other guitars do not have, even far more expensive ones.
This is just vanity. I can play my butt off, so I have none of these problems. I'd go on tour with these Harley Benton guitars with absolutely no problem. If you had given this guitar to Dave Murray, or Clapton, or any of the greats, 35 years ago, they would have been over the moon.
Incidentally, my Fusion III FR reminds me of a Valley Arts superstrat I used to drool over. It was about 5000 dollars, so of course I never bought it.
And it didn't even have stainless steel frets. Ha ha....
Conclusion: this guitar is not just a good guitar, but GREAT, and AWESOME. The value for money is ridiculously high, higher than any other guitars.
Thank you, Thomann. Your rock.
-----
PS. and after writing all the above, like other buyers, I too ordered another one! This time in a blue flame top, it's amazing how different they sound, each with their distinct personality. This is getting addicting!
