NGD x 2 - Harley Benton Fusion Pro & Dynamic

LaCathedrale_UK

I wish the quilt tops were more vibrant - it looks like they're half done.

WildWayz

I asked them if drilling the pickup mount screw hole would invalidate the warranty... They sent me an RMA return label...

rossi

Just played a 300 quid Ibanez Talmam which I like  a lot but it had terrible fret sprout  so these quality troubles are everywhere .Those HB's are not my cup of tea but they sure look good

baldy

I joined the Thomann & Harley Benton support group FB page yesterday to see what the feedback was like on their Fusion guitars.
There are a couple of complaints about the quilt not matching the advertising pictures (both regarding the Aqua colour iirc) & one person didn"t like the sound of the pups, no other complaints that I saw.
Oh forgot the neck bar isn"t liked.
General consensus, the above complaints apart, is that they are very good for the money with nice necks, frets, hardware etc.
I can understand someone not being happy that the "finish" didn"t match the pictures, although these guitars being around £300 I don"t think that you can expect a quilt of the quality of an expensive guitar, & pup sound is a very personal thing & at around £300 a pup change is not the end of the world IMO.
You can"t get this level of hardware for this sort of money from any other manufacturer that I am aware of ?
I think that I will leave it a while to see more feedback, as these guitars have only just come out, then may well buy one.

RedRabbit

After spending a couple of days nursing a migraine I've actually had chance to spend a bit more time with these.

At the moment the dynamic is being left alone while I decide whether to send it back or try and fix the issue with the tremolo installation myself.  The guitar itself is good enough and cheap enough that I'm erring towards fixing it.  The fact that Thomann are still messing me about over the missing tremolo arm has swayed my decisions as well.  I'm at the point now where I just want to draw a line under it and add them to my "shops to be avoided" list.

To give Thomann some credit, the fusion pro needed very little tweaking to get it playing very nicely.  Once i'd taken the extra relief out of the neck the action was more or less spot on as was the intonation.  It seems likely that it left the factory/Thomann pretty well set up and the neck had moved slightly while in transit.

I've got the Fusion with me today for rehearsals - it'll be the first time it's been plugged in for more than just checking the electrics work so I'll report back once I know how it handles being used in anger.

carlos

Hi @RedRabbit how are you liking them so far?

dhaywood67

I'm glad someone else has asked that too. I was starting to consider one of the floyd rose variants but wanted to ask how things were now the honeymoon period is over.

WildWayz

I love my Fusion Pro (Roasted Maple one) - really impressed with it. May change the pickups later, but it is an awesome player. No issues since I removed the retainer bar and installed staggered tuners.

From what I gather, Thomann are re-designing the next batch (think the one due at the end of November) to improve on the issues seen. 

carlos

Thanks @WildWayz did they ever explain why they put the bar on the guitars without the locking nut? Sounds pretty silly and a sure way to add extra friction to a non-locking trem. Perhaps because they only do one neck so it's one size fits all?

WildWayz

Nope - anyone who complained about it, they issued a return label. Originally, they were meant to have string t's - but changed it last minute for the bar - even Cory couldn't find out why!

Either way, love the guitar - the trem stays in tune beautifully; much better than my Ibanez RG6PCMLTD which has a doouble-locking system!

carlos

Cheers.

Well this

Looks a lot like this


But costs about 1/20th!

mbe

carlos said:

Cheers.

Well this

Looks a lot like this


But costs about 1/20th!

But is this not dissimilar to the concept of Avon and Columbus Les Paul copies of the 70s?

carlos

mbe said:

But is this not dissimilar to the concept of Avon and Columbus Les Paul copies of the 70s?

Sure, but a cheap guitar of the 2010's is miles ahead of a cheap guitar of the 70's.

sweepy

Those old Avon and Columbus Guitars were horrendous, would never hold tune and had single coils in humbucking covers . Donning my old Git cap, kids have never had it so good these days as regards affordable and workable gear, the rest is totally fucked I’m afraid but at least you can play SCOM reasonably in tune

WildWayz

I had a Columbus Les Paul knock off - man, that thing could NOT have it's intonation set properly...