Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit Extreme-84

Arrived in a few days, well packed. The assembly instructions was in german (but you can download the english one)
The wood pattern is very beautiful on mine so I've deicided not try to paint it.
Assembled in a couple of hours without difficulties, was a lot of fun. Setup also went smoothly. Equipped 10-46 Elixirs instead of the bundled strings.
1st impression: Wow, that's a decent guitar. Neck is comfortable, the body is light (but doesn't feel cheap), the neck dive doesn't annoy me.
Sound is decent, a bit more noisy on high gain compared to a ZW set (81/85). I'm using with a PC (2i2 gen4 -> AmpKnob or other VSTs).
1-2 weeks after:
- I've got grounding issues. Apparently filing the paint from the string holder the solved it. Still a bit more noisy in hi-gain than a 81-85, but still rocks
- Although I take good care of it, the horns seem fragile, maybe the wood is too soft. Maybe it should be varnished
- Still happy with the guitar :)

De onderdelen zijn goed ingepakt in meerdere lagen karton, perfect. De body is prima afgewerkt alleen komen er heel snel deuken in, pas op met schroevendraaiers. De handleiding op papier is in het Duits maar online is de Engels te vinden. De handleiding zelf is een beetje beroerd. De plaatjes zijn in zwart wit en aangegeven met witte kabels, er zijn alleen rode en zwarte. Ook staat bijv. niet bij een straplock of pot of er nog een ringetje voor moet. Pickups zijn niet echt ruisvrij maar klinken prima. De fretten moeten wellicht wel nog effe geveild worden.

Al met al als je een beetje gitaarkennis hebt is het een hele leuke gitaar.

I was waiting for an EX kit since they launched the new series a few years ago. Here is my experience with the kit so far:
-Sanded the body to remove the protective coat so I could stain it the color of my licking. Decided to stain only the face, the sides, back and neck look nice natural. This took me ~5 days, finished it with shellac.
-the body is made of 4 wood pieces, the color may vary.
-Assembly took under an hour, the hardest part was hammering the bridge holder into place. Neck fits well in the pocket, all holes were drilled in the right place.
-The manual was in german, an english pdf is on the guitar page, but it is also black and white. The problem isn't the colors of the manual, but the colors of the pickup wires. In the manual they are yellow and white, but the HBZ we get have blue-red and red-red colors. I asked them via email which is the neck/bridge, they said the blue-red is the neck, but on the guitar page showcase the red-red is the neck. Also, the pickup plastic rim for the blue-red is taller so it is the bridge, not the neck. I tested the guitar sound borh ways and it is clear that the blue-red is the bridge. It would be great if a "new" model that was just launched had a manual that matched the build =).
-The pickups are great on high-gain, but on clean they have a static sound because of the grounding.
-the nut slots are cut too low for the strings we get on the kit and they buzz on the first fret, a different string gauge makes the buzz go away. I recomand making a bone nut for it and getting some quality tunners.
-Overall, I enjoy it, it made one of my dream guitars come true, HB also posted it on their Instagram story <3