Harley Benton RB-600BK Classic Series

Rapide tour de l'objet. À priori pas de gros poc ni d'élément manquant ou cassé. Mais ça s'arrête là. La guitare est inutilisable pour vice de fabrication énorme. je rappelle que c'est de la lutherie, pas des étagères Ikéa. 3 millimètres ça compte! Surtout dans le montage d'un chevalet et d'un cordier. Ici tout est de guingois et les cordes se retrouvent à trois millimètres des plots graves (mi la ré) du micro chevalet... donc question son, y a comme un trou... Je sais pas comment ils se sont débrouillés, mais ils ont réussi à sortir de l'usine un instrument injouable ... Honnêtement, en m'acharnant, en sortant les outils, je pourrais peut être arranger le coup sans que ça se voie trop, peut être... mais pourquoi tenter le coup? D'autant que le manche est un tronc et qu'elle n'est pas très agréable à jouer. Voilà une jolie guitare qui ne sert à rien. Alors autant d'énergie et d'argent dépensé pour rien... c'est scandaleux en termes écologique et social.
Franchement, si un débutant achète cette guitare, il va se retrouver avec au mieux 150 euros de modifs chez un luthier... sympa! Vous gagnez peut être encore sur la quantité, mais sur la qualité vous êtes en chute libre!

FYI, the guitar cost me US $360 total, delivered to Arizona, w/gig bag. About the same as a high end Fender Squier from Guitar Center - so inexpensive, but not cheap.

For starters, the guitar arrived essentially unplayable. All of the frets had needle sharp sprouts, and the neck was significantly up-bowed. The strings were D'Addarios, but they felt sticky and grimy, and the action was set very high. The fretboard was also dirty. The tuners were very cheaply made. Nowhere close to the quality on most Squiers. Finally, one corner of the pickguard was popping up.

So why 5 stars? First off, because I know how to fix these things myself. I sanded down the fret sprouts, cleaned and oiled the fretboard, adjusted the truss rod, mounted a set of Wilkinson/Jin-Ho locking tuners, screwed down the pickguard and put on fresh D'Addario strings.

I now have a rather amazing and unique guitar. The fit, finish and overall look is great. The short scale neck is slim and fast. The bridge is a little tricky to adjust, but it works well enough, and I actually like the little cover over it. I suspected the neck would be unstable, but I was wrong. After the major adjustment the truss rod has only required minor tweaks.

I've saved the best for last . . . this freakin' thing sounds amazing! No, no, no it does not sound like a Ric, but it sounds like nothing else I've ever played, and I definitely will NOT need to swap out the pickups. Oh, and the controls also perform well, giving me access to a range of tones that I really like, and that I wasn't expecting. Fantastic fun!

In conclusion, an excellent purchase if you understand what you're getting. I expect you would pay at least US $100 for the set up work if you don't do it yourself. Add another $50 or so for the tuners and strings. Beginners with no experience of these things will likely be disappointed. Oh, and this will be my last Harley Benton unless and until Thomann sets up distribution and return facilities here in the US. I hope some of you find this helpful!