Reviewed by:
Rock God #1, on november 20, 2006
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 144.6798
Purchased from: www.thomann.de
Features: Then again, for an 80 quid guitar (now that is dirt cheap), what do you expect? Saying that, when I opened up the package, the guitar looked absolutely stunning. // 8
Sound: This guitar is suited to heavier styles of music. Therefore, I took it on as a challenge because I'd never really played heavy stuff before (Muse being the heaviest music I've played, especially Origins of Symmetry era). The guitar fits nicely with De-tuned songs (drop D in particular, although it takes some getting used to because of the action). At the moment, I've only used a 50 watt Marshall amp with it. On full volume and with a band to fill in the emptiness, it sounds quality. By design, it's a noisy guitar. I emphasise this though: you don't get any stray sounds from it. Once you play a string, you shouldn't here anything (or very little) from the other strings, so there is no need to palm mute some strings so that they don't sound, unlike on some guitars. It gives off a range of sounds, so it's hard to pin it to a singular. As I've said it can make a variety of sounds. The only problem I have with this is right and left hand tapping. Because of the action and the strings, not much sound comes out when you tap. Therefore, I suggest that you change the strings when you get them, as they are very Standard. // 8
Action, Fit & Finish: The strings are a little too far from the fretboard for my liking. Because of this, you may sometimes hear a 'twangy/plasticy' sound (especially when striking the bottom E string when you're in Drop D or lower). Nonetheless, I've been playing it for about 3 months now, and have adapted to the action. To be honest, it doesn't really effect your playing (other than tapping, as stated earlier). The pickups are fine as far as I can tell, so it'll do for me. Everything is working fine (and believe me, I mean everything. When I first got it, I tried every note on every string to see if they played. I really didn't want a guitar that had a chink in the 19th fret that messed with the notage). One thing that did happen, funnily enough, was on the first day that I got it. I scraped it against a wall, and a piece of the plastic coating of the guitar came off, where the neck is joined to the body. With a bit of help from my friend, Mr. Superglue, the guitar was fine once again. This being said, I would have rather it not fell off in the first place. // 7
Reliability & Durability: This guitar is made for live playing. I would rather use my other guitars for studio work, as they are crisper and clearer. But, this guitar is very good for Live playing as you can get a lot of sounds out of it and, because of it's shape, is easily maneuverable (i.e. you can swing it round your body/head, bash it against things and keep on playing). I think the hardware will last. No sign of rust yet and even the strings are holding well! The strap buttons on the guitar are very reliable. The strap hasn't broken free in the middle of a Live session yet. The guitar is dependable, although I would always take at least one back-up guitar to a gig, just in case a string or the guitar itself gets broken (the latter is only likely if you actually swing it into someone/something). The finish is great, although smudges from fingers can be seen clearly, as it has a black finish. I'm pretty certain it will last. // 9
Impression: As I said earlier, my style of playing is very mellow stuff, and yet, because of the guitar, heavier songs just come naturally through it. Saying that, the guitar isn't limited to one genre. I've been playing for 5 years now and this is my 6th guitar (I have five 6-strings and one bass guitar). I won't go into great deal about them here, but I may write a review for them as well. This Harley Benton is my 6th guitar, and matches up to the other guitars (which is astonishing considering it's price). If I lost it or had it stolen, then I would definitely buy another one (since it's on the house insurance). I love the look of it overall, since that is what I bought it for. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I played it, I really didn't expect it to be that good (again, because of the price). For me, this was a preliminary purchase. I had heard of thomann and I wanted to see if an 80 quid guitar would live up to my standards. Thankfully, it did, and so I am probably going to buy a few more guitars from Thomann. This is a great guitar, for a beginner especially. My first guitar cost £160 from a retail shop. That was a Westfield Strat. Now, compared to that, this is amazing. Twice as cheap, thrice as good. // 8
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