I spent a couple days with the HB35plus before reviewing it so I could give it a fair review. Here is the good, the bad and the great. First, it ships from half a world away, through different climates so don't expect it to be gig ready when you get it! It was close... I did give it a slight truss rod adjustment to put a little relief in the neck. Lowered the bridge saddle a few mm, raised the neck pickup and lowered the bridge pickup. Took a total of 5 minutes and the action was then exactly how I like it. The fret ends are not bad at all. Harley Benton obviously put some effort into finishing the ends. Only had 1 fret (7th) that was slightly high, but overall most of the frets were level although very rough and gritty. I spent maybe 2 hours polishing them to a glass like smooth. The tuners are solid, but maybe a little aggressive. Not sure what ratio, maybe 14:1? They work and hold tune though. The Roswell pickups are great sounding pickups and the coil split gives the guitar so much versatility. They are maybe a little quiet and won't really push your amp, but are otherwise perfect for this platform. I am perfectly happy keeping them.
The finish is flawless and glossy. I honestly do not see a flaw other than one tiny speck of dust in the finish near the jack. The binding is smooth and consistent. The f holes... are kind of rough, they aren't finished nearly as well as the rest of the guitar, but they still look good, and you wouldn't notice any of the flaws from more than a few inches away.
All in all I am blown away that Harley Benton can offer such an amazingly high quality instrument at this price point.
