Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit Single Cut

I always wanted a Gibson Les Paul, but this was way out of my financial resources. The HB Single Cut Kit seemed a good alternative, as I already own a Harley Benton bass guitar & bass amp (both bought 2nd hand separately) and have been impressed with the quality and finish and I was keen to have a go at making my own instrument from a kit.

Delivery was fast and I was able to track the package with no problems - it was delivered to my door within a few days of ordering (I live in Sweden).

Opening the package - well packed with lots of protective air bubbles - I was pleased with the overall impression.

A couple of small points, though: the glue used in the construction was well spread across the front and sides of the body and needed a fair amount of sanding to remove the rough spots. Had I intended to finish the guitar with transparent finish, this would have entailed a lot more work, but I used opaque gloss lacquer, so it was only necessary to sand down carefully to obtain a smooth surface suitabel for painting.

Secondly, the cover for the truss rod at the headstock has been poorly cut, with very rough edges, which needed careful sanding to remove the roughness...

Assembly was straightforward, with no problems with the instructions supplied.

The finished guitar looks impressive and plays well - although I am only an amateur. It sounds great to my ears when played through my Fender Princeton Chorus amp and has a smooth action, easily adjusted by the truss rod and bridge.

All in all, very good value for money and for anyone prepared to put in a fair amount of effort (particularly in the finishing and setting up) I would recommend anyone to give it a go with one of these kits.

Would I buy another HB kit? Well, I already have a T-style and DC-style kit in my Thomann wish list. If I could find a kit for an HB-35 CH Vintage series, that would go on the wish list too. I think that says it all.

Additional comments after buying a second one of these kits:
1. It would be great if Thomann/Harley Benton could offer a kit without the sealer applied - it takes an awful lot of sanding to remove this if you want to apply a stain finish rather than a paint.
2. The second kit arrived on time with quite a few extra screws included, together with an extra 3-way switch...
3. While the wiring supplied is mostly shielded cable, the plug in connectors at the volume pots and the 3-way switch are totally unshielded, and in the case of the switch, seem to be unreasonably long.
4. The wiring harness itself also seems to be extra long. Not sure if it's this or the unshielded portions of the cables, but I found a degree of hum on plugging in to my amp, which disappeared when touching the strings. Tested the same cable and amp with several other guitars and no hum. All the earth connections inside the guitar test OK with a multimeter, so I'm now in the process of a) shortening the wiring harness and removing the unshielded wires, soldering the shielded wires directly to the various switches instead and b) applying copper shielding to the control and switch cavity to see if this helps....
Otherwise, I'm still pleased overall with the kit!

Det var med stor spänning jag öppnade paketet från Tyskland den här gången. Jag var som vanligt ute efter en bra hals att kombinera med en hemsnickrad kropp, och när det gäller halsar har jag bara fått bra gitarrer från Thomann. Halsen var mycket bra gjord, faktiskt behöver jag inte fila bandändarna eller slipa till grova bandytor som jag brukar få göra.
Kroppen är rätt snygg och är förberedd med filler för lackning. tyvärr har man inte slipat ordentligt innan, fräsningen har lämnat en del skägg, så man måste definitivt fram med sandpapperet och då faller ju hela iden med förbehandlingen.
Jag tänker använda kroppen till nåt annat HPD-projekt i framtiden och betsa ytan så då måste ju fillern bort i alla fall.
Ljudet kan jag egentligen inte kommentera, men det finns recensioner på Youtube, tex John Couplands.
För den som gillar att bygga/bygga om är byggsatsen ett fynd.
Naturligtvis lär det finnas dom som inte är nöjda med budgetpickuper och d:o elektronik men det är ju lätt att byta ut om man i övrigt är nöjd med sin egenhändigt ihopskruvade och ytbehandlade pärla!

I got this kit to maybe learn more about how an electric guitar works and how to set it up, and so far I've been having nothing but fun with it. The top of the body looked pretty bad out of the box with white stains (probably excess sealing compound) and some ugly tool marks, so I sanded it down and finished it with teak oil, which I probably would've done anyway.

The spacing between the drill holes for the bridge and the string holder seemed a bit wide, but I managed to coax them into position, hopefully that doesn't cause problems further on.

First fret action was quite high, so I removed the nut and sanded it down. I also had to level a couple of frets with sandpaper to get the overall action down to where I want it. I use quite heavy strings, and the two lowest strings didn't fit the slots on the bridge, so I had to widen those with a small file. The bridge actually doesn't seem to match the radius of the fretboard, so maybe I'll buy a proper bridge at some point.

But with all that done it plays great! Low action, comfortable neck profile and nicely balanced. I really like the sound of the neck pickup; bridge pickup not so great, but I never liked the sound of bridge pickups on any guitar I've owned, so I might be biased. The tuners seem stable enough, but that's another possible upgrade.