A Guitar made for weekend playing, so i dont need to bring one every time.
DC kit, great out of the box, after fretjob unbeatable.
Neck Pickup original, bridge a donlis i had lay around.
Horro movie stickers, whos phil x you say? ;)
Price: retail price at Thomann is 249,-EUR / $238 / £215
I paid 199€ for a b-stock (returned item), which is - considering that it's a artificially aged instrument - a pretty good deal tbh.
Here are some specs:
- body: american alder
- neck: lightly caramelised and vintage tinted canadian maple
- fingerboard: laurel
- block fingerboard inlays
- neck profile: C
- double action truss rod
- scale length: 648 mm (25.5")
- nut width: 42 mm (1.65")
- pickups: 2 Isola CL-JM Alnico 5 single coils (bridge and neck)
- 3-way switch (no rythmn circuit switch thumbweels)
- aged 3-ply white pickguard
- Tune-O-Matic bridge
- aged Kluson-style machine heads
- lacquer: matt polyurethane
- paintjob: Shell pink lightly aged
---
Price performance guitar 9/10. For this price it's an absolute monster of an instrument... Love, love looove the poly finish. It just feels vintage and gives the aging some dignified authenticity.
The heavier alder body makes the guitar super balanced on the strap. I do have the same guitar with a basswood body: Harley Benton JA-60 CC in Shell Pink (see my post history). The cheaper and lighter basswood makes the instrument a bit top-heavy and some neckdive because both guitar necks are solid hard maple and heavy with the cheap chinesium tuners at the headstock.
Speaking of the headstock: that's really the only thing that's bothering me. And it's just the aesthetics: way too small for an offset - and especially Jazzmaster - enthusiast! The small headstock (picture 4) is tinier than a Strat one. Almost as slim as a Telecaster headstock. But again it's purely aesthetics....
The neck is fine, some slightly sharp fret edges but that seems okay-ish considering the price and manufacturing in far-east. The back of the neck feels really smooth and I have to acknoledge the sandig, aging and paintjob there.
Chrome (aged) hardware is working well too. Vintage tuners are a nice choice and are somewhat authetic to the JM vibe of the Squier CV and VM line, could be the same manufacturer, who knows?
The hardtail bridge is aged too, working fine but takes a way a lot of the true Jazzmaster experience ! But behold:
I will Jazzmaster the shit out of this guitar 🧑🏻🔧🎸🪚
and that's where I'll start: drill a tremolo cavity and install a JM vibrato bridge plate. I'll transfer this baby as much JM as it possibly can...
---
Played it acoustic: good string qualitaty, Harley Benton!! (coated "high quality" strings as it appears) and I'm surprised how bright and clear as a bell the guiatr sounds acoustically. Back of the neck feels amaaaaazing! 🤩🥰😍 Compares to my CME satin finished JM (made in Mexico) that feels equally good.
Fretboard and block inlays are fine. Had some troubles with laurel and Harley Benton fingerboards in the past (knotholes in the wood grain directly underneath the strings - no bending possible). Gave it some lemon oil and now it's good as new (or aged)...
I haven't had the chance to play it on the amplifier - so this is just my first impression of that instrument.
In the end I have to acknoledge my privilege to be an EU citizen and to live in the land of Thomann (Germany): it was soooo easy to order and get this guitar delivered without any fuzz or hussle, or paying shittons of taxes or tariffs.
I see this privilege and feel blessed.
Just wanted to share a few words after my visit to Treppendorf, mainly listing some observations
- Went around like 4 different road closures, crazy roadworks going on
- Very friendly staff, some also able to help in other languages like Spanish. Also perfect balance in that they were not pushy but helped when needed. Apart from a few questions, I preferred to be left by myself.
- Amazing selection of everything. I tried some of the drum kits but then mostly went through several bass guitars in the budget range (because that's where I feel at home)
- Spent about 3 hours there in total
- I think I saved Thomann a bunch of shipping fees as several Harley Bentons I tried were not to my personal taste after seeing them up close. Many had the issue of being quite on the heavy side, some others didn't feel as nimble as I prefer.
- That said, JB-40FL, B-550 Progressive, JB-62SB and MB4-SB I found interesting and very competitive for different reasons (yes, some of these were heavy too, but were otherwise of interest).
- On the slightly more pricier models I simply was more attracted to Sires than the Bentons.
- They also had one of the Bass the World -models there, at 700 EUR IIRC. It didn't feel quite right in my hands although I do appreciate it will find its audience.
- A few other "deluxe" Bentons were quite alright but since I didn't note them down, I probably simply didn't get my perfect match. Everything should feel right in the upper range, including paint etc. ; I give more slack to the cheaper models. One of the wood colored Bentons for example felt really good but I don't see myself playing it because of the colour.
- T-bone headset at 32 EUR seems like a good deal, though I didn't check the specs but they had a good fit and sounded great with the samples.
- Acoustic guitars seemed to be of high quality (as far as I can tell from my experience). Didn't really spend time with the electric guitars, but walls were stacked with them so highly recommended visit for guitarists to get inspired.
With fewer and fewer brick and mortar stores these days, I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to better understand which models might be right for me. I will now need to make some space in my den and then figure out what I should order first. Bought only some small stuff while there.
You never know if there is a shill trying to get money or free gear with affiliate links. But TravisDykes doesn't seem to be a review channel, so it seems kind of trustworthy.
But all the blindfolded reviewers over estimate the price of the Harley Benton LO-65se NT. Now, of course they might be able to tell by the set up, and be told to overestimate everything. But the question is how many grains of truth are in this? I mean, if I saw a string of Harley Benton reviews, I would have ignored it. But it looks like performers and "teachers" for the most part.
Picked up another "telecaster" as a backup guitar for down-tuning. Harley Benton really knows how to surprise - I didn't expect this level of quality at that price point.
Chibson USA's new Cease & Desist Guitar Knobs mock Fender's 2026 lawsuit spree. A hilarious take on guitar industry litigation.
Just ordered a Harley Benton G212 Vertical Celestion V30 guitar cab. This will be my first time diving into this brand. In the past, I have always preferred Mesa boogie rectifier cabs. unfortunately, that is not entirely in my budget right now. After doing some research, I’ve been seeing a lot of people comparing the rectifier cabs to these Harley Benton cabs. Definitely not a one to one comparison, but with my budget in mind, this definitely seems like my best option moving forward for now. I will be pairing it up with an orange super crush 100 head as well as my current pedal setup: Fortin Natas, Fortin Zuul+, and MXR Carbon Copy Delay. Main guitar is a cheap Tele style Charvel with upgraded pickups (Seymour Duncan JB bridge and Seymour Duncan jazz neck). Primarily going to be playing blackened death metal with this setup. I will make sure to update once the cab comes in, next week.