Harley Benton DC-Junior LH TV Yellow

Really impressed...plays and sounds great! As a lefty I have a somewhat limited selection and I was looking for a single pickup guitar with P90s. Since they are so hard to find in lefty, I was considering building one from parts when I came across the Harley Benton and figured I'd take a chance. Quality work on the fretboard - nice rounded edges on the frets (even better than my Gibson SG) - I looked carefully and I'm convinced that the one I got is one single block of wood for the body, not 2 or 3 glued together like many cheaper guitars, nut is cut right, action is perfect, straight neck, perfect paint job, wiring is set up properly for a lefty. Sounds like they even used lefty pots (Gibson sucks about this - they wire lefty Guitars the same as right handed so you have to dial the knobs the opposite direction - and if you rewire using the same pots, the logarithmic response curve is backward so the knobs have no response and essentially become on/off switches ). Intonation was a little off but it only took about 10 minutes to get it right. Bridge is good, not great, individual saddle adjustments felt a little sloppy when adjusting the intonation, but there's also an angle adjustment which helped with the set up. Didn't love the knobs - too small and hard to reach/turn but I had some speed knobs lying around and that was an easy fix and made a huge improvement in playability. Pickup is great - but was set too far from the strings, which deadened the tone and volume - I shimmed it raising it about 4 mm and it improved the tone and volume quite a bit. Tuners are good but I'm used to higher end and might see about replacing them at some point depending on how well it holds tune...overall it's very impressive for under $200 US, easily compares to a $400 or $500 guitar and I could see it comparing to more expensive guitars with just bridge and tuner hardware upgrades.

This is a very good guitar , the build quality is what we have come to expect from Harley Benton , this is the first guitar I’ve had from their Indonesia plant and the quality is amazing
It feels very solid and well balanced. HB have improved their hardware , the tuners on this are great quality and the nut is much better , on my previous HB guitars I have always had to change these but not this time , the nut is still a little too high by a mil but this is a common thing with every guitar bar custom shop ones but it’s still really nice. I think HB have listened to customer feedback here which is a good thing.
This is the first HB I’ve bought that has full sized pots as well and they are alpha ones which are pretty good . I will change the tone pot out to a linear one and put in my preferred capacitor as well( 0.22 pio vintage ) as this is a single pickup guitar so the tone pot really has to work to get those p90 sounds dialed in.
The Roswell p90 isn’t as punchy as some and sounds actually like a telecaster , this isn’t a bad thing really as it takes dirt really well from amp or pedals , anyways I’ll see what it’s like with a different tone pot and cap before making any decisions about swapping it out.
The bridge however is a different matter , it has a standard type of tune a matic wrapover bridge , the problem with this is that it is quite thick so even with it as low as you can get it the action is still too high , only by a tiny amount but that is still too much so I have ordered a new one that’s thinner and also isn’t so sharp.
The frets are very nice and dressed perfectly and the finish is flawless.
For this price level this guitar is frankly amazing , spend another £100 on some upgrades and it will be as good as the current junior made in Kalamazoo.
There are a few little niggles like I don’t love the 3 ply scratch plate on this and I don’t like the pick up cover either , it’s too angular but these are personal things , I love the tuners white buttons and the thin headstock and no extra tummy cuts , I love that they have shielded the cavity and the jack input is nice
This is a great deal of guitar for the money and is very playable straight out of the box , it’s certainly the HB I’ve had least to fix as well as other have had tarnished strings , fret buzz , undressed fret ends , poor tuners , small pots , high Poorly cut nuts Etc but this one had none of those little problems except the nut height and that is pedantic as it’s nearer perfect than every fender or Gibson I’ve ever had. The bridge height is problematic for me as I like my action low as snake belly and I just can’t get that with this bridge but it’s still a good quality one which would be great for most players . The capacitor is a personal thing as well , you can’t expect makers to source vintage paper in oil caps that were used in jjunior guitars in the 50’s really at this price point but for a few pounds and 5 mins work it’s well worth it .