This Harley Benton Guitar really let me down 

Ayyy I bought this guitar off of Kyle and it now has bare knuckles and hipshot hardware. It fucking rips

a comment for kyle

Always like to see guitar upgrade videos, I'm just getting into it myself. Swapped my first pick up recently. I am very bad at soldering XD but I got it done.

I've been watching this channel for some time now and never left a comment...but I wanna say, how does Kyle not have more subs...he's so much more likable than most guitar based RU-vidrs...keep it up man, I'd prefer to watch your videos than most others

Love the looks of this guitar.

12:56 The hot mod works in the 3 channel?? What position is it installed, and standard or reverse wire? Thank you

I have the strat version with the same pickups and have found that they are especially dirty if you have the volume at 10. I found that somewhere around 8-8.5 that it cleans up and is less muddy.

You should review the Fusion iii EMG and or Fusion T EMG models. I had first bought the JA baritone out of curiosity and the 30” scale is not for me but after a new nut and tuners I felt that it was a very decent guitar for the money. So I sold it and bought a Fusion iii EMG and this thing rips dudes. Needs a proper setup right away but mine at a least was playable enough out of box to get rid of some of the anticipation. I like it so much I’m considering buying the Fusion T EMG to match.

Yooo Kyle what song is that riff you play towards the end of the video from? Sounds so familiar

I've been kinda wanting this guitar. I was just wondering if they ever fixed the pickup problem?

Great review and samples! The title made me think I was only going to hear the bad side of the guitar. Which is fine, of course. I've been considering getting a Harley Benton, and I want honest reviews. I'm definitely inching towards getting one. Just need the funds. I can't splurge on guitars, even if they're in the price range that these come in. That goes for mods like better pickups and tuners, as well. So, when I finally get a new guitar, it has to be something where the pros vastly outweigh the cons.

You gona piss off Glenn with your pickup statement hahaha I have moded all my guitars ... even my strandberg and folking happy about in and I dont regret it. I remember in one of your vids the thing that you said "pickups my make or brake my guitar" and I am so related to this because it is not only the sound. As you said as well is the response and the feel you get while you play. And beside the tone for some the clarity and note definition matters as well... I would enjoy to see mods in cheep guitars.... love your style and content keep up. Greetings from Greece

Upgrade videos are awesome!

I had the Strat type version of this guitar. I felt the same about the guitar as you feel about this one. Pickups and tuners (and nut) sucked. Fret ends were a bit sharp. But overall a pretty nice guitar. Felt good to play. I was surprised. Good mod platform for sure.

Idk how much it cost in the US to import Harley Benton, but in Europe HB is amazing for having cheap gear. I played a few of their guitars, they need a good setup and a few tweaks but are overall great. Tuners on my Fusion T are really great, they stay in tune for weeks, but as you said on lower end model they are trash. On my fusion T and regular telecaster the pickups are really great for cleans and medium gain. I tried some of their pedals and they do the job for 3x less money than the competition. For some stuff it’s better to go the expensive way, but for a lot of things this brand is great. I recently bought a power amp for 4x less money than the Seymour Duncan counterpart to play plugin trough a cab at home and it’s awesome

Once you add in tuners, pickups and a setup to fix the fret work it's not really a good deal anymore to me. I'd personally take that money and buy something better used. Just my opinion.

I have the HB Fusion satin black with EMG Retro 70's. Best $400ish guitar ive ever played. Rossted maple neck, locking tuners, graph-tech nut, EMG's, stainless frets.

The old Active HB guitars with black hardware had huge grounding problems. Has that been solved in this production batch?

I appreciate this review especially (amps and also the pickup comparison - really suave, not at all poopoo brain nugget at work). I am going to get it, and at least know I will replace the bridge pup; not sure about the neck at this point (total price point). I notice the guitar did not seem to have the shielding issue, or did I miss it? If not, then that's more money for a pickup and not a new bridge.

Surprised to see you using the 900 Dual Reverb, Kyle! Great amp imo

Tbf it sounds pretty bangers when you play it Kyle! It's a really good and cheap guitar to slap on some upgrades tho.

I got a Harley Benton mr modern a few weeks ago. Fret ends were atrocious, although the guy i got it off of claimed he waa a luthier and "already set it up". I spent two hours making it playable. Not bad for 200 bones.

Great videos! Your humor keeps me rolling! 😅

I’ll be changing the tuners, pickups, bridge and pots as well as the output jack.

Cool review - I think the guitar sounds great. I recently purchased a Harley Benton 25th Anniversary Fusion III and I love it. It sounds great and plays great. I have much more expensive guitars and the Harley compares favorably to them.

Yep. Better pickups, better tuners, and a setup gets you a badass guitar . If you can do the work yourself it's worth it. If not...probably not worth it. I bought the bottom level strat and the upgrades were definitely worth it. About 250 for a hss strat with a coil split.

I love cheap guitars... I love expensive guitars... I guess I just love guitars. I have 3 Harley Bentons and 2 were perfect out of the box, one needed some minor fret work.

An upgrade vid would be cool!

Like fireflies, I bet it's a great mod platform and it's fun to work on and dial in.

I'm in a band with a guy that has one of these, it needed a good bit of fret work. After that and a pickup swap it's pretty nice. I got the Rickenbacker style bass and it's really decent but has a high fret. Personally I'd stay away from them and buy something used. 2 of 2 needing fret work isn't a good sign.

Probably picking one up when I get to Germany later this year. Planning on putting a pair of SD Blackouts in it!!!

Roseacre is roasted and dyed maple. “Thermally treated” they state. And I was this many years old when I found out about Roseacre, I want to try it, it looks cool.

i hope maverick is doing a ok. i dont play as heavy but love the sound of it. keep up the goodness.

I like the thing. Sounds like a fun mod project

The pickups sound good. Just change the volume pot for a brighter range

I had the charvel knockoff Harley Benton and I have to say it was pretty impressive the only thing was fret sprout pretty bad so sanding those down and while it had a dinky body, the neck was more of a musicman neck and was a little too big for my taste but overall that guitar was pretty damn good for what it was

That 900 sounds really good 🔥

How viable is it to upgrade a budget guitar and turn around a break-even deal with it? I would imagine it's hard to sell a $299 guitar for more even if you put in premium hardware into it. However, I've never tried it so would be curious to hear if it's something you just lose a little cash in the love of the game, or if it's something that is possible to break even.

Yes, more reviews please.

I just bought one of these... Love your channel bro, but gotta disagree with you on the pickups. I compared these HBZs with my epiphone matt heafy origins with his fluences and there was not much difference. I did roll the volume back to around 7 though for more clarity

Sick!

I have 3 guitars from harley benton that i've bought from thomann. They all came played and scratched although i payed the price for the brand new not b-stock

I have been eyeing this guitar.. I personally am the kind of person who hates anything but a speed neck/wizard neck.. I saw online that it says modern c and that is disappointing.. especially for most of the people who like the aesthetics. I'm just wondering if it's actually a c shape or if it's closer to a Jackson/Ibanez/ESP neck.

This may be, the best video you've ever done believe it or not. Very funny, very entertaining to watch.

6:33 Man, that bit killed me! ''Feel free to unsubscribe'' made laugh out loud! hahaha

Pickups actually didn’t sound that bad. Like he said, it’s all preference.

That guitar would be sick with an evertune and some FF

All my HBs are brilliant

For an intro or young player, maybe, as an older person and an experienced player, to me it's a boat paddle

Roseacer is heat treated and tinted maple

Kyle, you can borrow my Carvin V3 if you wanna pay for shipping?

I don't hate the pickups as much as you do in all honesty. I feel like they were still in the same ballpark during the comparison segment. Can they be better? Absolutely, I'd still pick either of the pickups in those Ibanez models over them. A needed long term upgrade, but they are unoffensive sounding considering price point.

Fishmans have the most clarity but even the h.b. don't sound terrible through a good amp setup

That Mark of the Squealer riff tho 😁

Restless leg suuuuucks! That’s a good looking rig. If the guitars neck and body are good, some EMGs would fix those grounding issues lots had

what's disappointing ? the pickups and the tuners ?

FF Modern + 6505 is honk central.

I like black satin

I’ve seen a lot of Harley Benton guitars here on RU-vid, but none in “the wild” here in the states. The reviews are mixed, and makes me averse to taking a chance on one. I know they’re cheap, but nothing else is these-days.

I'd totally love to see mods of inexpensive guitars. I have a Harley Benton that I want to upgrade with better pickups and tuners.

Ok Kyle, again I agree with you on everything about that guitar. (For those who don't know, we don't always agree, but we're respectful about that and no caca-poo-poo head doo doo faces about it) Anyway, yeah the tones on that guitar just sound a bit dead-ish. Your chops are there but I think it needs some upgrades. It would be an awesome starting point for a beginner and they could upgrade the guitar as they learn. Also it sounds like a good starting point for a mod project. Good job yo! 🤘🤘

I would sooner use cheap passive pickups like Guitar Fetish, and pair with an active preamp, either from them or Seymour Duncan, or else just use GFS RedActives, Seymour Duncan Blackouts, or EMG Open Core, pick your favorite set of Fishman's, etc. I would do the same thing if I bought one of those Leo Jaymez Tempest guitars, tbh.

I have a couple of my guitar students that play Harley Benton's. Kyle hit the nail on the head when he said if it's got good bones it's worth upgrading one of my students even gigs with his Harley Benton.

Put some Tone Ninja locking tuners on it

after listening to your video: the pickups are pretty much genre-dependent. it sounds like ass for some genres, but fits others quite nicely!

There used to be a hardcore band from PA back in the late 90’s early 00’s called Belligerent. Anyone ever heard of them?

E-II do the flip out battery packs

"Feel free to unsubscribe" 😂😂😂💀💀💀

Have this guitar. The HBZs are terrible. Super high noise floor in those preamps. The tuners were so bad I tossed them in the trash! Put in Jim Root EMGs and hipshot tuners! The bridge hardware and 3-way switch are solid on the guitar. Roseacer is just heat treated maple. They leave it unfinished.

The Harley Benton pickups sounded better and more clear than all of the others, at least in the way you showed them. I'd suspect that has something to do with the low end just not being there on the Harley Bentons vs not having rolled off any low end on the others.

Harley Bentons make great mod platforms, I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a better base for modding for the price of a Harley Benton.

Seems like an honest review. I remember when I watched the Glenn Fricker video on how "pickups don't matter" I couldn't believe how bad the Harley Benton active pickups sounded. They sounded like hot moldy dog diarrhea and to see him sit there and be like "see? no difference" when anyone with ears could hear how muddy and muffled they sound even through shitty headphones, well let's just say I don't really take any of his opinions on guitars seriously anymore (his opinions on mic placement and IRs are still worth listening to though) I'm glad I'm not the only one. My issue with Harley Benton is that I just don't like ordering guitars site unseen, and the fact that they are so blatant about copyright infringement of other designs to the point where they will an exact model released by another company in that same year and just bite it, kind of a red flag. I'd like to know how well these guitars fare after 10 years of playing, but again as mod platforms I'm sure they are fine. I'd much rather just walk into a guitar center and get a cheap Ibanez. They have nice necks and are great mod platforms.

Dude. I've had RLS since high school

They should call this range the Rim Joot Collection...

lot fair to compare barley Benton pick ups to eng or others. Eng pick ups can cost more than the whole HB guitar.

Let's see some serious mods. A 400 series Viper or Revstar Element like I did up. Both make great cheap mod platforms. Stock HB guitars aren't for me. Actually, no HB guitars are for me, so far. Peace!

I bought a headless and it was the biggest piece of crap ever . Wonky frets and a weird sitar buzz from the bridge. I bought several tools. Different fret files, to level and clean up. Nut files , and ended up buying this other Chinese bridge too fix the sound . Got a Duncan distortion set used from ebay. Regular pots and switch. I enjoyed getting the tools and learning to work on all the stuff but no telling how much I spent lol. Could have just got something better.

But, why would you compare Fishman Fluence pickups that cost what, 200-300 $USD a pair, with a whole guitar that costs half the price if not less? Makes no sense.

this guitar is sikk!

When he asked if people were going to leave it alone and play it "as god intended," I almost lost it. That's one of the funniest things I've heard in a long time.

I honestly don’t hear any issues with the stock pickups… but that’s just me

Usually when you buy a $200 budget guitar it needs some work ....as long as the neck is not warped and the tension rod functions properly.....it can be molded into a killer....just like marines ohhhhraaaaa...aint that right princess

Jim Root new signature.

🤘🏽🤘🏽

You have to sleep less my dude, the jokes ware good 🤘🤘🤘

😊

I'm OCD with things I buy especially guitars. I don't care if it cost $100 or $10,000 if it's new it should be in working order and in good condition.

Bit it chugs in your hand.

hb for kb 🤘

Most guitars you get off the shelf at GC or another guitar store, they are not new. They are played, scratched, and sometimes not set up very well. This is not an advertisement for Sweetwater, but they seem to set it up, and you actually get a new guitar that isn't all scratched up and pre-played. Another reason why I won't buy anything from GC.

Tone (mud) knobs exist to make me sad when I accidentally move them off of 10.

I actually have restless leg syndrome, I did a sleep study when was 17. Welcome to the club though, smoke a bowl and pass out

Barely Hinton Bumhucker pickups

Kyle, you are a beautiful diva princess and f*uck the haters.

So when can we expect the “Poo Poo Doo Doo Butt Nuggets” merch? 🤔

Just found my next band name. The PooPoo DooDoo Nugget Brains.

POOPOODOODOO NUGGET BRAINS GOT ME

Poo poo doo doo nugget brains is my favorite limp bizkit album.

I like seeing mod shit, all day, everyday

Poo Poo Doo Doo Butt Nugget 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🥲