Harley Benton Fusion-T HH Roasted FNT

Ive been waiting a couple of weeks for it to be ready to ship and when I finally got it, all I can say is its totally worth the wait. "It sounds as good as it looks" I do own a couple of Suhrs and Tom Andersons and in terms of specs and parts I was immediately drawn to the guitar especially at the price point Thomman is offering it for. The Fusion T probably has the most comfortable neck I've ever played. My main concern when getting the guitar was the need to change the pickups but Harley Benton hit a home run on these pickups. A little tweaking on the pickups height was needed out of the box to balance the volume between the bridge and neck but no biggie there. I need a couple of recordings and sent it over to some friends and told them I got a new Suhr, they all said it sounded great, lets just leave it there :)

I just bought one after reading some rave reviews. Guys, you must have gotten a completely different guitar. Yes, it's well designed, has some great features (Wilkinson trem, staggered locking tuners, rose maple neck) and looks amazing from a distance. But, the quality control at the HB factory must be really lax. So some problems I ran into: 1) Inconsistency in polishing the neck, even one dent. 2) Frets very poorly polished, squeaky sounds when bending with dry sound. 3) Neck pickup screws drilled at an angle so that the pickup is tilted with the front side down. 4) No springs on the pickup screws. 5) Spoke wheel for trussrod adjustment has smaller holes than the rod provided with guitar. 6) The neck is screwed on slightly with an offset so that there is a small gap between it and the body and the strings do not go exactly over the screws of the pickups. 7) Since I was not able to set the string action (there was buzzing almost everywhere with the factory setup), I removed the strings and checked the fretwork. One small dent on the 14th fret and a bigger, really ugly one, on the 16th fret. A simple rocker test revealed that the fret leveling was sloppy or not done at all. So the main pros for the purchase, stainless steel frets, turned into a nightmare, because leveling this fret wave will be very difficult.
I bought a cheap travel guitar from Harley Benton a long time ago and was pleasantly surprised by the build quality and good setup. I really didn't expect so many problems from instruments from the opposite end of the price spectrum.

I was the fortunate owner of 4 Harley Benton Tele Style guitars.
The TE52 NA, TE90QM and the Fusion T HH EB OCT
I love each one of them as, collectively, they provide me with a great pallet of sounds.
I thought that would be enough but I kept going back to the Fusion T Roasted FNT, watching reviews on youtube and deliberating on whether I actually really needed this guitar, as it was very similar, in spec, to my existing Fusion T.
I just loved the look of the neck though and the flame top.
I took the plunge on Friday and ordered one. It had to happen lol
I was definitely influenced by the price point, thinking well at not much more than £300, I had very little to loose.
It arrived today and I am absolutely smitten already.
The guitar is a seriously great instrument and, in my opinion, as good a guitar as I have ever played, irrespective of its price.
The roasted maple neck is outstanding and the stainless steel frets, Graph Tech Tusq Nut and Locking Tuners make it a superb playing experience.
The Wilkinson Trem is excellent. The pots and switch feel great and, regardless of what some people say, the Roswell Humbuckers are wonderful. ( I don't know what the detractors are listening to them through but plugged into my Bugerra V22 Infinium they sing beautifully )
Because of the staggered locking tuners, I don't see the need for the two string trees ( but nice to see they are roller trees ... although a single Graph Tech tree would have been better, in my opinion - although this isn't really a quibble, rather a suggestion ) Also, I will be taking one spring out of the Wilkinson Trem ( another personal preference thing ) - other than that, I wouldn't change a thing .
I had to laugh when I took the guitar out of its box, strummed it and it was bang in tune, after a journey from Germany to Nottinghamshire England ? ... amazing ! ... and the dispatch and delivery were very speedy too.
So if you are considering buying a T style guitar with twin Humbuckers and you have a thousand pound budget, do yourself a favour : buy one of these and treat the wife to a new fur coat ! She will love you for it, you won't get nagged and you will have a guitar worth much more than its price point.

I wanted one of these for about a year and when I went to order I convinced myself I needed an SC-550ii. I was so pleased with my SC-550ii (minus a few small issues) that I decided to spend a little more and get the Fusion T-HH. Both are amazing guitars - and not just for the money. They are amazing guitars period. With that said there are a few small issues. Here's my pros and cons:

Pros: The Fusion T-HH arrived in near perfect condition. I would give it a 9 out of 10. For the money a 10/10. I do own a couple high end made in USA guitars that are finished a little nicer, but they are 4 or 5 times the cost. So no complaints! It is cosmetically great. The sound is very good. No complaints. I'd be interested in some Tesla pickups in the Fusion line, but I think the Roswell pickups sound really good. Amazing neck. Fretwork is really good (9/10). The trem is nice. I love that it has it's own vibe. It's different than a telecaster - it's moving into it's own so to speak. I hope Harley Benton continues to make guitars "their own" and really add their own flavor to the market.

The Cons: Not much to say here. A few slight cosmetic details. I don't even really want to mention them because they truly are pretty minor. The natural binding is okay. The logo looks to be on top of the finish and looks like a sticker. No big deal. But it'd be cool to see it wood burned into the headstock or printed under the gloss. Again, no big deal.

Overall: Very happy with the guitar. Awesome value. And Thomann was good to deal with. Very pleased. Will I order again? Yeah! I just did today.