Harley Benton DC-Junior Pelham Blue

Summary: This guitar is great value for the money ‘as is’ and does not call for immediate major surgery, as long as you can accept it will not have the lowest of actions.

I had been playing rock music from the mid seventies until the nineties and picked up playing guitar again in 2013. Since then I’ve been adding to my ‘collection’ every now and then and I do some of the modifying myself as well when I think that’s necessary. A couple of years ago I got two Harley Bentons in exchange for a bass guitar I hadn’t been using for years (a TE-40 TBK deluxe and a JA-60 SB). The previous owner had spent some time on them; polished the frets and had given them good general set up.
I was pleasantly surprised. As a Les Paul DC with P90 had been on my wish list for a long time (but not the price they come at) I thought that by now I should try the HarleyBenton DC Junior in Pelham Blue. At this price I will judge it at ‘value for money’ standards. And by that ‘value for money’-standard it is a great little guitar but one that might benefit from some extra attention to detail. First impressions were very positive; it looks the part, good paint finish (+++++), no blemishes. Intonation was spot on straight out of the box (QC by John!). Fret board is of a beautifull pure-chocolate–bar brown (+++++). Not at all like the dried-out or pale-and-open-grain-with-purple-streaks kind of fretboards offered by some ‘other manufacturers’ these days. Frets have been finished nicely but some of the polishing/rubbing compound has been left behind because the first two days of playing , my fingertips were blackened. So out came the Axe-wax and the cotton cloth to clean that. The sides of the fret board have no binding but have been given a clear coat that also covers the fret slots, so in practice it feels very smooth; almost like the fretboard was bound (++++). The tuners are of the ‘white-bean’ style that’s correct for a Junior but not 3-on-a-strip. They do the job properly and you do not really need to replace them but even though they are ‘Wilkinson’ they feel a bit ‘toy-like’ to me. I will replace them with locking tuners with keystones. But that’s my personal taste. Looking into the pot-cavity shows conductive shielding paint and the cover has been given shielding foil. (+++++) The pots are (Korean made) Alpha so there too is no immediate need for modifying (++++). The cap is a tiny little dark-red ‘chicklet’ but I must say that the tone pot functions wonderfully (as does the volume pot) So: no immediate urge to heat up the soldering iron. Coming to the Roswell P90: the distance between the P90 and the strings is more than one would expect; usually bridge-P90’s are set quite close to the strings; here it is not. I may fit a shim under it. Having said that: at this set up it does sound very nice, clear, chiming and articulated (with a lot of ‘high’ and less ‘mids’) when played ‘clean’ with some reverb and echo. But there is less ‘bite’ (or call it ‘agression’) than one would expect (++++). Turn down the tone pot a bit (to about 6/7) and it mellows nicely. Meaning: you really do not need a neck pickup as well to get a usable palate of sounds. So what’s bugging me? It’s the action that could have been lower and more comfortable. Main cause is that wraparound adjustable bridge/tailpiece. It is of a design that has been around since the early seventies (Gibson has this very same design on their Tony Iommi SG’s these days!) but it is just a tad too highly-built for use on these DC juniors that obviously share the original design flaw Gibson built into their first series of Les Pauls in the early fifties: no neck angle. So you cannot crank the bridge down enough to set the action really low. It’s not the end of the world and many players these days do not crave the ultimate low-action I’m after but fitting a wrapround bridge/tailpiece that builds a few millimetres lower (may I be forgiven: like the one by Wilkinson.... of all things..) should do ‘the trick’ and should not have a huge averse impact on the consumer price of these guitars. But then the next issue may lie in the top nut. The string-slots have been cut to a ‘safe’ depth, meaning ‘not too deep’ and therefore are doing well enough with that slightly too high bridge settings. Unfortunately, once you have managed to get the action lowered at the bridge (i.e. after fitting a lower wraparound), the notes might go sharp in the lower positions and chords will be out of tune. Needing a luthier to cut the slots a little deeper. Conclusion: this guitar is great value for the money ‘as is’ and does not call for immediate major surgery, as long as you can accept it will not have the lowest of actions. If low action is what you want, you can easily find an affordable replacement wraparound bridge/tailpiece but then also be ready for a nut job by a luthier because if you are not versed at that you will only fall out of the frying pan and into the fire. Four stars out of five because I cannot give 4.5! Down half a star because of that wraparound bridge that's keeping it from full score. Cheers!

I'm very critical about guitars. I often find guitar setups to be less than average, out of the box. The first thing I normally do, when getting a new guitar, is get it over to the local guitar tech and get a professional setup - nut cutting and fretwork, if needed. This happens for about 90% of guitars, even high end ones.

I'm genuinely gob smacked how well this guitar has been built for the money.
- The fretwork is very good. Shiny frets, almost perfectly level. There is one high fret, but I'll take it to the tech to sort that out.
- The bridge doesn't have to be decked to the wood to get a low action, which can be common on this style of guitar.
- Amazingly clean fretboard (none of that usual black stuff that comes on on your fingers when playing)
- The nut is cut perfectly, no binding and cut properly to not give you out of tune cowboy chords, and even the dreaded F bar chord.
- Pickup is usable. Very much like a mellow tele pickup. I won't be swapping it
- The machine heads are very good quality, for the price
- A lovely, sparkly finish.
- Very smooth volume and tone controls
- Solid jack socket.

The only real con is that there is a slight ding on the top side of the neck, just near the fretboard, in the clear coat. You don't feel this, when playing, so I'm not too fussed about it.

On arrival, the neck had a bit of a forward bow, but the truss rod is good and it straightened up perfectly. I imagine this may be due to temperature fluctuations, or maybe the QC set it up this way as forward bow is better than back bow.

It may be that because this guitar was on pre-order, it hasn't been sat in a warehouse for ages and hasn't had time to develop any major faults. Either than, or Harley Benton have really up'ed their game on these newer models.

If this guitar was your first purchase, you would be very happy with the setup. I can't recommend this guitar enough. This is by far the best Harley Benton I've had my hands on. This guitar is the best is the best value for money guitar that I've ever purchased.

Very happy.

Since it arrived last Thursday I haven’t stopped playing it.
Build quality paint finish frets intonation out of the box is excellent.
I haven’t even bothered to change the strings yet.
The only things I will change are the two knobs because my fingers slide on them because of there finish.They are fine if you use a finger and thumb but I like to just slide with one finger.
£169 gets you one outstanding really fun playable great looking guitar .
It’s already one of my favourite Harley Benton guitars and I have a lot of them.
This Pelham Blue model is a limited edition 250 run.
Wonder how many Thomann have left ?

Nice playable light weight guitar.

I like the pelham blue colour with the black headstock and chrome hardware.

Unfortunately there were two screws that were loose in the scratch plate caused by over-tightened screws in manufacturing. This was also the case with the bottom strap button, and that could be potentially disastrous! Because the guitar looks and plays nicely I fixed the loose screws by fitting longer screws. This should not be necessary on a new guitar and suggests poor manufacturing and marginal quality control.

The Wilkinson tuners and bridge are good quality and perfectly functional and look good too. The volume and tone controls are smooth and progressive in their range. They are not noisey in use at all, which is commendable.

Neck is great for me and the painted neck is surprisingly smooth to play on. However there was a very small blue paint chip on the back of the headstock. The black paint around the tuning posts is patchy but you have to look close to see this.

Nice smooth fret ends with the no fret sprouting but the fret facings are a bit scratchy.

The guitar plays and sounds very good. It is of good value for money but the QC in production and pre shipping could be better.

I've always wanted an authentic looking DC Jr, but without the crazy price of the original. I play various styles of rock/metal and wanted one of these to cover the more classic - heavy rock stuff.

I am totally amazed that this guitar was achievable at such low costs! i love it!!!

Total honesty and transparency now. I think this is easily as playable as some of my more expensive guitars. The neck is VERY comfortable and probably one of favourite necks that i currently own. Fit and finish was very good.

I'm not a fan of the Roswell P90 in my personal opinion. Not thats its a bad pickup, but I prefer hotter pickups for a bigger bottom end and tightness. For cleaner or more classic styles of Rock, i would imagine it to be a great suited pickup. Its pretty clean and jangly so in that respect, its pretty good - just not my personal style so i cant mark it down for that.

Tuners seem ok so far and Wilkinsons are generally pretty good. mine felt a little 'gritty' but that may just be from factory dust etc. A little GT85 sprayed inside should clean that out nicely.

I will list some honest opinions below for total transparency, although none of these would stop me buying another one at all!!

Pros:
Solid build
great finish
decent hardware
superb feeling neck
great fret work
individual saddles for easier intonation

Cons:
Not a fan of the low output Roswell P90 (personal opinion)
slightly gritty feeling tuners (not a deal breaker though)
i prefer the look of the speed knobs to the top hats (again, a personal opinion)

Overall I am VERY impressed and this stunning Colour DC Jr has scratched the itch of wanting this style of guitar without the massive price tag. The quality is on par with much higher priced guitars. The price easily allows the buyer to swap or upgrade anything to suit their styles or tastes if they feel they need to.

My star ratings are not a deflection on the guitar but purely based on my own personal preferences

Extremely happy and would definitely buy again (maybe i'll get the SC version next!)

I know I've had this for some time, and it's really good for the money, but just to let potential purchasers of a few problems I had.

The nut was very poorly cut, but that's probably to be expected at this price point.

The action was really high with the bridge at its lowest point, I replaced the bridge with a "pigtail" style, which has a much lower profile, and that enabled a much better setup.

The bridge post bushings were loose, and fell out of the body when I took the strings off. Fortunately the set of bushings for the new bridge were a much better fit.

So, I might just have been unlucky, but you may need to sort a few things out to get it playable.

This guitar just rocks. Overall the quality was fantastic. There weren't any finish flaws at all. The hardware is just OK, but fully functional and no real issues. The pickup sounded good, but I personally prefer something more raunchy and loud. The electronics were very clean and the pots felt nice when turning (had some nice feel in terms of resistance when turning). The bridge has a small lean forward on the posts, due to a loose tolerance of fit, but it didn't affect tuning or intonation. As is, this guitar is great. I'm a maniac, so I'm likely going to change everything out for hardware and electronics that I love, but that's just me. ROCK ON!

Shockingly good for the money. Paint and finish appointments are almost perfect on the guitar I received. There is a VERY small gap at the base of where the nut sits in the neck route. That is the only flaw I have found after intense scrutiny, and again, it is minor. P90 is great, nice clarity and a little more open sounding in the low mids compared to soapbar style. Not a huge fan of wraparound bridges, but it gets the job done. Set-up out of the box was good, all I needed to do was lower the action slightly at the bridge. On mine the bridge was pretty low already, so this does not allow me much adjustment to lower strings more. So far it's been not an issue after having the guitar for 8 months. My favorite thing about this guitar is the feel of the neck and fretboard. Even thought the neck is fully painted it feels nice and fast, and the board is even better. Nicely rounded and polished fret wire ends and board edge make this guitar feel like it's been played for 40 years! I own guitars that are 10 times more expensive that do not have as nicely finished neck and fretboard as this does. I have played this guitar live and It is truly a gig worthy guitar at an unbeatable price! Thanks Thomann!!!