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!
