Harley Benton Fusion-T HH HT EB OCT

The guitar looks and feels great. I stumbled upon this guitar on youtube and immediately fell in love. It's what I was looking for: tele shaped guitar with alternative design decisions (mahogany body, simple 6 saddle fixed bridge, and the last but not the least - humbuckers). Gotta love stailess steel frets, Graptech TUSQ XL nut, ebony fingerboard and locking tuners.
I love the Tele I have but I wanted something more versatile and lighter (the ash body on my tele is as heavy as cast iron). I initially wanted a black one but they quickly went of stock and I ordered a sparkled green one while they lasted.
The quality of manufacturing is excellent, I haven't found any flaws or imperfections, so no complains whatsoever on that side. The color in reality is very eye pleasing and not too "poppy", which I was kind of apprehensive of. Wood "binding" looks neat too.
The neck with natural satin finish is very pleasant to touch and move hand around, the grip is very comfortable.
The hardware looks and feels solid. The volume knob makes some sound when turning like it's rubbing something but I can live with that.
I slightly more prefer regular size frets on my Tele to jumbo frets here but it's a matter of getting used to the instrument.
The guitar came well intonated with action a bit higher than I am used to but the adjustment took just a few minutes.
Speaking about tone, I'd say that I expected slightly thicker and darker tone from the Rosewell humbuckers after all youtube reviews I saw but not a big issue, it can be compensated later in the sound chain for the most part.
I didn't closely inspected the electronics, they work fine, no humming, buzzing or knobs screeching, so why bother.
All in all, it's my daily "go to" instrument now (I've got 4 guitars including this one).
The only cons I noticed by now is that it has a tendency to a very slight neck dive. The other minor nuisance is the positioning of the 3 way pickup selector. It's too close to the strings and I often bump into it with my hand. But these I can live with easily given all the joy it is to play. Anyways, I do it mostly at home now.
So, it's my first Harley Benton and most likely not the last one :).
BTW, the delivery was quite fast (I was afraid that there would be issues given the situation with the pandemic now). The only thing that I was looking for in the box but it was missing was the sticker "Rescue my guitars first". No big deal.
Keep good work up Thomann!
Thanks!

I was lucky enough to grab one of these before they sold out but mine is going back to Thomann. I just couldn't live with it.

Firstly, the construction and components on this guitar are really very good. It's easily the best HB guitar I've played or seen. It is one of the few HBs that have cavities painted with shielding paint and the effect is very, very good on reducing hum and buzz. The guitar was dead quiet. The pickups were a bit muddy and warm but I could have fixed that a bit in the mix.

The finishing on the guitar was also excellent and I couldn't complain about it - even the frets were done to a very high standard. A few slightly high frets but hardly anything to get excited about. The nut wasn't cut properly but that's easy to fix. The shaping of the body was great with body contouring and carve-outs on the back of the horn to allow easy hand access to the upper frets.

The big problem for me (and why I returned it) was the weight imbalance. The guitar is light overall but this thing is the worst neck diving guitar I've ever had. I couldn't play it sitting down without having the horn sit on my thigh and the guitar refused to stay put as it started sliding around. Standing up with the guitar was a disaster - it was like there was an anchor attached to the end.

I assume that the neck, truss-rod and locking tuners were just too heavy for the light body of the guitar. That is made worse by the weight reduction in the body for the contouring. Some suggested adding lead weights inside the control cavity but that sounds ridiculous to me.

I was really disappointed because I wanted to love and keep this guitar. Thomann clearly put a lot of effort into building and designing this guitar but it all came undone with this one major flaw that made it tiring and frustrating to use.

First impression: wow! It's a gorgeous guitar. Very beautiful from each point of view.

It stays in tune always, no matter what you do with it. You can practice Hotel California solo for hours and even 3rd string would stay in tune. Thanks to the locking tuners and TUSQ nut.

Frets are awesome, too - they are high and smooth, it's a pleasure to play bends and vibrato on it. And as far as it is stainless steel you can be sure they would last.

Sound is decent. It's not perfect - maybe pickups should be replaced with some fancy DiMarzio, or maybe I am just not very good at sound engineering with my gear. Minor issue, I reckon it is solveable by just adding a little bit of gain.

What I did not like is when humidity went down in late autumn the frets started to point out from sides of the neck, so I had to sand them flat.

The rest was perfect - it's comfortable, plays like a dream, sounds fine and not so expensive. The next time I would consider buying roasted neck option

I wanted a tele style guitar, so I found that Harley Benton was doing several afordable models, but the price always made me kinda sceptic about the actual value of these instruments, but after acquiring this one, I can say that I don't understand how they do it, at least on this specific one: locking tunners, stainless steel medium jumbo frets, hardtail Hipshot bridge, amazingly comfortable unfinished neck, and this beautiful ocean turquoise colored top. I preferred the fixed bridge version, because I rarely use a trem bar when playing, and I like the simplicity.

When it arrived, it needed some intonation, especially after downtuning half a step, like I normally play, but was very easy and straightforward to setup, with the Included truss rod adjusting bar (to use next to the neck pickup), and alan key for the bridge saddles.

The guitar is very comfortable and easy to play, feels good and looks good. There are very minor finishing issues on the neck that don't bother me at all, but might bother some one else, like the fretboard not being perfectly parallel with the body top on the neck joint, and a very small chip imperfection on one side of the fretboard, which is not noticeable on the touch, but these don't ultimately weigh on the overal experience you get with this instrument, the fret edges are very smooth and well finished, and there are no aparent finishing problems on the body itself.

If there's really anything that is a lesser part which lowers a star on my overall rating, it's the pickups. They're not bad, but they're not great either, at least comparing with Seymour Duncans on another guitar I have (JB on the bridge, Jazz on the neck), but I guess that's a taste thing, I'm very much a SD guy, so in comparison these seem less capable, but some might like it depending on the usage. They have the split coil functionality, which adds a great layer of versatility, but they don't "open" as much as some SDs on higher strings, and don't have the same clarity and have weaker output. Ultimately, I'll upgrade the pickups, and expect to make of it a great instrument to gig with.

Overall, I am very satisfied with purchasing this guitar. It shipped to me in the USA within 3 days and Thomann was very responsive to my emails. Below are my positive and negative impressions.

Positive thoughts:
- Tuning machines are good

- Guitar was almost completely in tune out-of-the-box except for one string

- Fretwork was good; no tool-marks or sharp or protruding frets

- No blemishes in the finish at all

- I did not know I would be getting a satin finish on the neck and I was pleasantly surprised that it came with one.

- I've heard many people say the neck is chunkier on Harley Benton guitars (for better or worse), but I really have to disagree. It's certainly not ibanez-thin but I do not feel it is "chunky". I have small hands and the neck feels very comfortable.

- I thought the pickups were completely serviceable, as was the split-pull function. I'm sure there's better pickups out there but i thought these were good enough.

Negatives:
- The tone knob was notably "looser" than the volume knob

- The height adjustment screws of my bridge pickup fell out of the box when I opened it up and the bridge pickup was sunk into the guitar. Thomann advised me to try and leverage the pickup up, so I used a combination of debit cards, tweezers, and a small allen key to shunt the pickup up high enough to thread the screws back in. I was successful after many attempts, but caused minor surface scratches to the pickup cover. Didn't bother me that much.

I think you get an incredible value in this guitar. While I had issues with the bridge pickup, I was able to fix them myself per Thomann's advice. I am overall highly pleased with the purchase and customer service I received.

I thought for a long time about buying a Harley Benton, I should've just pushed the button earlier. But this guitar with locking tuners, looks amazing, plays brilliantly straight out the box. I've now spent some time with it setting it up and putting lighter strings on. It is superb.
If there was one thing that could be improved on its the pick ups, but then again I'm comparing with my gibson les paul which cost a few times more dosh.
If you are considering buying but are worried about the quality, dont be, just buy it.
I have bought 3 harley bentons now, this one and 2 basses. My mate having tried this guitar out has also bought 2 and is trying to justify a third to his Mrs.

I'm very impressed with my new Fusion-T Hardtail. I can probably come up with some minor cons but this is a great "midrange" guitar (normally guitars in the £500 to £1000 price range to my mind) for an excellent price.

Pro
Finish - impeccable, can't find anything substandard
Tuners - the best I've ever used - and locking
Nut - well-cut, no tuning problems
Frets - perfect, no buzzes, smooth ends and actually so high it feels like a scalloped neck to play
Neck Joint - perfectly tight, perfectly finished
Neck Profile - a little deeper than what I would call "Modern C" but I love it.
Neck Finish - nice satin feel
Controls - better placing than in the pictures and the switch is at an angle, as it should be, ideally
Pickups - very good and of a Vintage tone, great for low gain. Very low noise even in single coil mode, great for high gain.
Bridge - just as it should be and gives excellent sustain

Cons
Bridge Pickup could be a bit hotter
Tone Pot could have a little more torque resistance to match the volume
I hope the wood is properly seasoned

That's it. Amazing

After 8 months:

Still a great guitar. Wood was seasoned well, perfectly stable. This is second only (just) to my Gordon Smith, which cost over 3 times as much

What can I say that hasn't been said? It is not a good guitar for the price, it is a good guitar, full stop. I like it much more than my Gibson Les Paul Studio in regards of finish and feeling and it is on par with other expensive guitars. I love the stainless steel frets, fretjob is very very good. First time I have an ebony fretboard, it is awesome, it is my favorite now, like it much better that the rosewood in my les paul. Maybe in the future will change the neck pickup for a P90 humbucker size, but honestly, those work quite good for my taste. Kind of low gain, but I liker them in high gain as you can have more dynamics, they sound good for any style (again, for my taste). Definitely worth the money, do not think about it.

Apsolutely amazing !
Out of the box guitar needs restring, truss rod and intonation setting which is normal. Quality of made is perfect, nothing less then other expensive guitars I own. No sharp edges, fret work is excellent (who wants, can do extra frets polishing), WSC locking tuners works great, saddles as well. Neck finish is clear satin which suites me the best. Graptech TUSQ XL nut is excellent. Rosewell pickups do the great job especially bridge. Only minor minus is knob with no screw which gives possibility of pulling off from push-pull pot wile doing a split coil pickups thing. Overall impression is ... high-class guitar !

This is my first HB guitar and I'm amazed by the excellent fretwork and the overall quality, especially considering the price. After a setup and a pickup replacement, it is now one of my favorites.

PROS
-- Amazing fretwork: neck is straight and even, trussrod works well and there's no fret buz even with silly low action.
-- Very thick and "juicy" ebony fretboard
-- Flawless body and headstock finish
-- Satin finish of the neck - feels almost like bare wood
-- Locking tuners work well and tuning stability is great
-- Good acoustic sound: highs are mellow, just a right amount of low end and the mids are even, all of which which can be expected from the maple neck with sapele body combo. Doesn't quite have the low mid push and warmth of a honduran mahogany Les Paul though.
-- Pots and pickup switch are well placed and do not get in the way of my right hand. My guitar is from a new batch where HB fixed the switch problem some were complaining about- it's at an angle now - not as in the posted here pictures.

CONS
-- My guitar came with very high nut action, and filing ithe nut was actually not an easy job.
-- Does not come with a good setup - you have to spend time to DIY or take it to a luthier, but that is the case with 99% of instruments under 1000 euro, but hey, this one is only 300.
-- Bridge pickup is awfull.

Overall a great guitar