Harley Benton DC-Junior TV Yellow

This guitar is, overall, a well made instrument. However, Thomann's customer service is letting them down.

Three of the polepieces on the Roswell pickup are stripped, so I can't raise them. When I contacted Thomann about this Customer Support replied "please note that in this design of P90s there are no threads inside and the screws are only held in position by the wax." When I pointed out that this means any of these that is adjusted multiple times will likely have the same problem and offered to replace it myself if they gave me a small ($20) discount they said "Since this is by design we cannot justify a discount and we are sorry for this. You may though return the guitar for a full refund if you wish."

Shipping from Germany to the US already cost me $75 so I'm not about to pay to ship it back, and even if Thomann paid for the return shipping that would still cost them more than just crediting me $20. This is just lousy business sense.

Just know this before going in if you plan on adjusting the individual polepieces. You WILL have to raise the overall height of the pickup if you don't adjust the poles, as it is pretty far from the strings and you lose a fair amount of gain with the stock height. You can buy shims online or just us a couple of washers under each end of the pickup like I did.

Caveat Emptor.

Pros - Credit where it’s due this is probably the only guitar I have had where intonation out the box is spot on. The neck and tuners feel good I have no issue with those either. It is a nice looking guitar with a nice weight to it. The neck is a nice all rounder I would say not to thick or thin, it should appeal to most.

Cons - There are some finishing issues on mine I’m not sure how it was missed by Quality control but there are streaky bubbley paint marks on the top and side of the guitar which is very noticeable. Also the pick up can not be adjusted which I think is it’s biggest flaw and one of my main reasons for returning. Also one of the nobs is flush to the body making it hard to turn and it scraps on the guitar :(

I think for the guitar to say it’s been through Quality control can’t be true as you can see the 2 issues on mine very clearly right away. Also a friend of mine has one of these and the frets have dulled extremely fast so all in all for £169 I think it has to be returned as I have had other brands in this price point with no issues.

Thomann have been great as usual and maybe I have just been unlucky with mine as a lot of reviews are positive. The pick up not being adjustable as even with the bridge being low there is a lot of dead space between the strings and the pick up so if you want more or less output that’s not an option

just a short review whit pros and cons.

pros:

overall finish is good

setup on delivery close to perfect.
low overal action 1.5mm E, 1mm e --> no fret buss.
fret ends rounded.
fret's where polished.
very little fret unevenness.
action a the first fret correct.
no string binding in the nut.
intonation was spot on.
truss rod adjustment is smooth --> neck relief was correct.
tuners are wilkinson's and work correctly.
stays in tune very well.
alpha pots --> all soldering correct.--> good sensitivity
shielding paint in both cavities (see cons) --> pots and pickup.
neck has the exact same chunkiness as my TE52.
has a low weight at 3.05kg


cons:

is mostly related to on issue, the standard pickup adjustment.

as the pick up is of the dog ear type it has the basic flaw that its mounted directly to the body with no direct adjustment possible.
so it sits to low, which results in very low sustain and poor sound.
most noticeable on the low E with sounds muffled.
the pole pieces had been screwed out to compensate for this,
but you can't compensate this distance.
the pick up as mounted standard has the pole pieces(screwed out) sit about 7mm from the strings.
raised the pick up with shim's (+- 3,5mm), which immediately solved the above problems.
this is still with the pole pieces screwed out as was done by the factory.
as it is now it's a great improvement to the standard set up, but pick up height/pole pieces will need a fine tune.
which is a fiddly thing to do, due to the reason as mentioned in the above.
shielding paint can use a second coat.
the fret board is a stain finish on top, which makes it look weird when viewed from the side.
should have left it unstained, now it looks like its laminated.
or the side should have been stained all so.

the bridge does what it is supposed to do, but on looks alone is an abomination on this type of guitar.
the saddles are sharp, not sharp enough to actually cut you but sharp enough to be annoying/hurt.
will change the bridge in the future.

if you can look/work beyond the cons, the feel and playability is very good.
the only standard limiting factor is the pickup height.

and last of all be aware that the COLLOR IS NOT TV YELLOW at all BUT ACTUALLY MUSTARD YELLOW.

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had to take several stars of, as i found that the stud at the E string side is not drilled at the correcte distance.

with a wrap around bridge this stud should be about 4.25 mm further away form the neck than the e-string stud.
this to ensure that the bridge intonate's at a correct angle.

on this guitar the 2 studs are drilled in line, meaning that your stuck with the more expensive bridges if you want to upgrade the original one.
a prs style wrap around bridge will fit but its barely resting on the stud.

or alternately you fill up the original bushing hole, re drill at the correct spot and refinish the top.

in both cases its a expensive mod, ones better of in spending a little more on other brands where you halve from the start a better guitar for in the end less money.