NGD x 2 - Harley Benton Fusion Pro & Dynamic

RedRabbit

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I've taken delivery of two of the new Harley Benton models with the intention of keeping one as a "swiss army knife" guitar for rehearsals.

I'll do more of a write up when I've had a bit more time with them (I've not even played them plugged in yet) but as there has been some interest in these I thought I'd get some pictures and my initial thoughts up and follow up over then next few days with more details and possibly some sound clips from rehearsals.

First up, the fusion pro

https://i.imgur.com/SRNQHon.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/3i0gZHD.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/gPcXhSs.jpg

And the dynamic

https://i.imgur.com/TqiQUVX.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NfjlFph.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/HN0dK80.jpg

Early impressions are pretty good.  Both need a set up and some TLC.  The action is a little high out of the box and there's a little too much relief on the neck.  The frets are pretty dull for stainless steel but should come up nicely with a bit of a polish.  The fretboard is dull/dry and quite a bit lighter than I would have expected from ebony.

Fretwork seems pretty good which I'm relieved about as I know SS frets can be a pain to work with.

Neck is comfortable enough.  Actually feels similar to my Classic Player 60s strat  - maybe a touch wider and shallower.  That said I'm not particularly fussy about neck shape so others could find it completely different.

Tuners work well and feel more solid than on the other HB guitars I've got.

In short everything seems well put together and finished.  Other than one tiny dent on the back of the fusion pro's headstock, I've not got any of the finish issues that others seem to have suffered from.

Both play nicely even before being setup.  I was going to replace the 10s that came fitted with 9s but I think the 10s are probably better and that 9s would feel like rubber bands.

To address one of the issues I've seen mentioned elsewhere - the quality of the maple tops.  Even for a veneer I'd have expected a little more depth to the quilt/flame.  It doesn't bother me in the slightest as I'm not actually a fan of figured tops (it was something I was willing to tolerate for the price rather than something I actually wanted) but they look more like a photo flame than a veneer.

There are a couple of other issues worth pointing out as well.

Firstly, a fairly minor one but Thomann's response hasn't been great so far.  The trem arm is missing from the fusion pro.  I expected Thomann to just ship a spare to me but it seems as though they want to open a warranty claim and potentially have me return the guitar just for a trem arm!  Could be a miscommunication but it's already proving more problematic than I would like.

The second issue is a bigger one.  The trem springs on the dynamic rub and catch on the edge of the trem cavity resulting in the trem being very clunky in use and tuning stability is awful even after a gently wobble.  I'd be willing to overlook a lot of the finish issues that have been encountered but I don't think this is really acceptable even considering the price.  I've not mentioned this to Thomann yet as it may be going back anyway.

Just to be clear, this is not an issue on the fusion pro.

John_A

If they did the fusion pro with the same top as the dynamic I might get one for a look, on paper they look great, but I really don't like quilt tops

Winny_Pooh

They look cool. The trem issue sound like an easy fix if you like the other bits. 

Megii

Thanks for posting - they do look great and basically well put together. A bit of suitable light oil on the fretboards should help a lot. Hope you can get the issues sorted with Thomann quickly - surely common sense will prevail re the missing trem arm.

baldy

They do sound like extremely good VFM.with the hardware they have for the price.
I am considering the Fusion H/H model although I don"t know about the FR & would prefer it with the Wilkinson 2 point trem really.
I suppose that I could easily "block" off the FR so that it works like a standard trem though.
I am waiting to hear some feedback on the H/H models before pulling the trigger.

RedRabbit

Well Thomann are digging their heals in and are insisting that they need to put a claim in with the courier for the missing tremolo arm.  Seems like a lot of hassle for something I can pick up off Amazon for under £10.

andyp

That’s disappointing reading to be honest. Doesn’t make a lot of sense for them to make such an issue of this type of thing. Must be something going on in the background that’s meaning they’re going this road. (As in something at their side, like the courier loses stuff a lot or something). But surely the trem arm just wasn’t in the box when it left Thomann, I can’t see how the courier is the one to blame here.

baldy

Or there might be so little profit in the guitar that sending out a replacement trem arm at their own expense represents quite a chunk of it, hence them wanting to claim off the courier firm ?
I have always heard that Thoman"s after sales service is good ?

Megii

RedRabbit said:

Well Thomann are digging their heals in and are insisting that they need to put a claim in with the courier for the missing tremolo arm.  Seems like a lot of hassle for something I can pick up off Amazon for under £10.

Seems ridiculous - the QC issues, trivial though they may be, plus their dogmatic attitude to resolving things, I'm afraid are putting me off getting one of these guitars. A shame, because they do look basically great, and I do hope you can get things sorted.

RedRabbit

Had more of a play on the fusion protein and, other than the action being a little high, it plays very nicely.  Thomann's customer service has soured the experience a bit but I've now sent them the photos they were after so hopefully it'll all be resolved fairly quickly. Still not sure what good the photos will do but I saw little point in arguing with them about any further. 

CeeBee

baldy said:

Or there might be so little profit in the guitar that sending out a replacement trem arm at their own expense represents quite a chunk of it, hence them wanting to claim off the courier firm ?
I have always heard that Thoman"s after sales service is good ?

Thomann seem to be getting worse with customer service. A few weeks ago bought an HB tele, which arrived with a 1 inch dent in the top near the bridge.

I had to take photos and they said this was damaged in transit. Although they raised a return with UPS I was left to deal with everything else, the guitar was to be returned to UPS for inspection (not Thomann), and they would decide on any compensation.

The whole thing was too much hassle so I decided to keep it damaged, as I liked it and it was only 150 quid, relic project I suppose.

Not sure I will use them again.

baldy

Surprised to read about these problems with Thomann"s customer service as pretty much everything I had read previously about them (I have never purchased from Thomann myself) has been very positive.
Maybe I won"t purchase one of the Fusions if their CS is difficult to deal with should I have a problem.
 

vale

baldy said:

Or there might be so little profit in the guitar that sending out a replacement trem arm at their own expense represents quite a chunk of it, hence them wanting to claim off the courier firm ?
I have always heard that Thoman"s after sales service is good ?

i wonder if them usually being so good with customer service and this isolated incident might be related.

the problem may be that, since thomann gained such a widely known positive reputation for attentive customer support and always going the extra mile to make customers happy, the cynics and parasites have now moved in, realising they can milk that generosity to make a dishonest gain.

there are videos all over youtube of buyers saying 'i bought a guitar and it was damaged. i called thomann and they sent me another one the next day, no questions asked, and said i could keep the old one'.
this sort of positive story and similar variations of. quite a few highly viewed examples.

to a decent honest person, that's a reassuring story and makes you feel that in a commercial universe overrunn with spivy and theiving companies, thomann are genuinely trying to do the right thing and stand out as different.

but (here's the rub)... to the dishonest person, they watch that same video and just see it as an opportunity to buy a guitar, report it as damaged (when it isn't or barely), then get a free replacement (then they fix and sell the first, so effectively they are getting nearly-free new gear).

to be clear, i am not saying that they have picked on the OP because of any former experience with them in particular, but it could be that they are now seeing so many complaints clawing back potential profits, that it's beginning to threaten the company's bottom line. so they are having to be a bit more careful with returns and ask more questions.

that's a guess. the OPs situation may just be a random isolated thing with no real wider significance than a random isolated thing. but it may also be that the cynics and sharks have moved in to the extent that they are now screwing things up for the honest people.

for the record i have only had positive experiences with them (but have only bought little things because i'm on a small budget). they have also been good with answering questions about things. so my personal impression is they are one of the better companies out there

this is a random example of what is out there. this guy seems straight up and honest, but you can imagine someone who isn't honest rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of exploiting that high level of customer care to take advantage.

Schnozz

I'll be sticking with Cort.

OilCityPickups

The Thomann issues are not new ones ... every purchase I've made from them has had issues ... my looper came without an instruction manual and with a dogeared and squashed box, My HB Jazz Bass ... well, they sent the wrong damn bass and then I had to do the whole photography thing. I decided to keep the bass but getting a refund for the difference as it was a cheaper model was a pain in the arse. My resonator acoustic was unplayable due to the strings slapping on the cover plate ...  

Fortheloveofguitar

Sounds like Thomann are going down the toilet customer service wise 

RedRabbit

Well, off the back of the photos they've decided there's no need to put a claim in with UPS as there was no damage to the packaging.

The complaint has now been passed into their "experts" department who will advise a best course of action to resolve the issue.

If I'd been making a complaint about the guitar itself and was asking for a replacement I could understand them having to tick all the boxes on their check list but for something as small as this you'd think a bit of common sense would prevail. The time cost of all this must surely outweigh the cost of a replacement tremolo arm.

darthed1981

What's the advantage of these over the Ibanez and Jackson models in the same price range, for example, you can buy anywhere?

RedRabbit

As far as I'm aware there aren't any ibanez or Jackson's with ebony boards and stainless steel frets at this price point. Also, importantly for me, the Harley Bentons are far less pointy than the HSH ibanezs I looked at.

darthed1981

RedRabbit said:

As far as I'm aware there aren't any ibanez or Jackson's with ebony boards and stainless steel frets at this price point. Also, importantly for me, the Harley Bentons are far less pointy than the HSH ibanezs I looked at.

That's a good answer, thanks

Hope you get the result you want.

baldy

I fancy this one, £310 delivered.

SPEC:

• Ergonomically shaped mahogany body
• "Ultra Quilted" maple veneer top
• Matching headstock
• Bolted Canadian hard maple neck
• Ebony fretboard
• Neck profile: Modern C
• Clay Dot fretboard inlays
• 24 Medium jumbo stainless steel frets
• Floyd Rose clamping nut
• Nut width: 42 mm
• Scale: 648 mm
• Fretboard radius: 305 mm
• Binding made of natural wood
• Pickups: 2 Roswell HAF-B Alnico-5 humbuckers
• Volume knob and tone knob
• Pickup switch: Single coil / humbucker
• 3-Way toggle switch
• Floyd Rose 1000 tremolo
• Chrome hardware
• Grover GH305 6L machine heads
• Ex-factory stringing: D'Addario EXL110 .010 - .046
• Colour: Charcoal high gloss