Need to admit, this was an impulse buy, mainly because of the looks of the instrument. Arrived in perfect condition and I could not find any imperfections. Fretwork nicely done, perfect paintjob, Grover tuners work smoothly, pots seem to work and respond very well. And the finish is awesome!
Plugged the instrument in my Helix and sounded pretty good, although the difference with some other guitars is noticeable. Seems the pickups are of lower output compared to my other guitars. Don’t get me wrong, the sound is different, not better or worse and I could probably dial in new tones that sound great with little effort.
Some minor issues:
- neck needed a bit of adjustment yet the truss rod was very stiff to turn. In the end I managed, but I was a bit scared I could not get it to move at all or perhaps even damage the guitar.
- action needed to be lowered
- increased the height of the stopbar (or tailpiece, nit sure what it is called) because the strings were touching the saddles as well as the backside of the bridge (this is a common issue with these kind of systems; my Epiphone Les Paul has the same issue).
- intonation of E and A strings was off and needed adjustment
All but the trussed adjustment is pretty standard stuff that probably needs to be done (to some extent at least) on any guitar regardless of the price.
Now that the guitar is setup to my liking it feels and plays great!
And for 299 ... not a lot can go wrong :-)
Nice bonus are the strap locks which appear fully compatible with the more expensive S-Lock straps from Schaller !! All my guitars have these and this is the first guitar that doesn't require me to change the strap-pins. Nice work Harley Benton !
