Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit Extreme-84

Arrived in a few days, well packed. The assembly instructions was in german (but you can download the english one)
The wood pattern is very beautiful on mine so I've deicided not try to paint it.
Assembled in a couple of hours without difficulties, was a lot of fun. Setup also went smoothly. Equipped 10-46 Elixirs instead of the bundled strings.
1st impression: Wow, that's a decent guitar. Neck is comfortable, the body is light (but doesn't feel cheap), the neck dive doesn't annoy me.
Sound is decent, a bit more noisy on high gain compared to a ZW set (81/85). I'm using with a PC (2i2 gen4 -> AmpKnob or other VSTs).
1-2 weeks after:
- I've got grounding issues. Apparently filing the paint from the string holder the solved it. Still a bit more noisy in hi-gain than a 81-85, but still rocks
- Although I take good care of it, the horns seem fragile, maybe the wood is too soft. Maybe it should be varnished
- Still happy with the guitar :)

It arrived very well packaged and i sanded off the finish from the front of the guitar body and stained it a very nice red color, I chose to leave the sides and back unpainted because the wood color is very nice, assembly took about an hour and a half and the wires were not marked like the photos, the manual was in German so i had to use a translated one on my phone, had a lot of buzzing problems and adjustment but finally it sound great. Beautiful guitar nice sound, a lot of noise when using high gain. Quality is 3 stars just because of the wires not being marked and the manual being horrible, otherwise this is a nice project and a nice final product.

I've always loved Explorer guitars but they are so expensive. The Harley Benton Ex-84 series looked cool and I almost bought the white one but then decided to get the kit instead.

Everything went together smoothly and didn't need any extra sanding, drilling, or cutting.

It came ready to paint and I tried to paint mine to look like a Viking shield, which was fun to do. Now I have a unique looking Explorer for the fraction of the cost of a real one.

I don't know anything about electronics, so that part of the project was most daunting. Luckily you don't have to solder and only snap together things. With a little trial and error I got it working quickly.

As for the guitar itself it sounds and plays great. This is my first guitar with active pickups and it is great for metal but also fine for other genres too. Then isn't super thin but isn't super chunky either.

There were a few slightly sharp fret edges, but that is not uncommon for budget guitars and is an easy fix.

Overall, I'm super happy with this. I'm glad I went with the kit instead of getting the white one since now I get a one of a kind guitar. It was a fun project and easy to do.

I was looking for a new guitar that I could use as a "workhorse" and this does not fall short by any means. for the price, the tones you get from the original pickups is perfectly adequate and it gives you the freedom to really make the instrument your own.

at first its like blank canvas but once I got going with some sanding and staining + sealing it became a labour of love haha and my guitar came out brilliantly with a natural dark wood grain. I since then have upgraded it with EMG JR pickups and proper shielding also HB strap locks and I plan on adding a bone nut. To add, assembly is as straight forward as it gets and the action can be tweaked to suit any player really so I would definitely recommend this to any guitarist who can't sit still to learn theory haha.

Spent a lot of time researching this before I decided to pull the trigger, watched videos and read reviews. I already own a Harley Benton 52 telecaster that I have been extremely happy with so figured this kit would be the same quality. When it arrived I was impressed with the packaging and that nothing was damaged. Wood quality of body had nice grain and no dents or imperfections. Neck is a little cheap, but with some work it is acceptable. Where Harley Benton drops the ball is the electronic guts. This guitar comes with two Humbucker active pickups, the pots they include for this kit are smaller then a dime and are flimsy. While everything comes with snap connections the pots are unfortunately hard wired so replacing them requires re-soldering new ones in; I have ordered some CST's and will be doing exactly that. The tuning pegs are also low quality as well and not locking, not a big deal and at this price point is to be expected. I think for the over all price of kit its pretty decent, but for a few dollars more Harley Benton could upgrade the electronics and tuners and it would be a better kit and still a great deal.

This kit is ok, the main issue is the wood does seem quite lightweight and soft - it will easily get marked/dented. No matter what upgrades you make to the hardware the guitar will always be limited by it's cheap core materials.
The finishing however is excellent, i can't find any problems with the one i received.
I have sanded the standard finish and used wood stain for my desired colour, this has worked well and given it a very nice finish that makes it look much more premium.
I will be swapping the pickups and electronics to EMG's, so cannot comment on those supplied with the kit - but they do look quite low quality.. the other hardware components are ok and what you would expect in this price range.
Overall i would recommend this guitar, it's a really nice way to learn more about guitar construction without costing too much.. and the finished item will give you a sense of accomplishment that you can actually play. i might buy another one of these in a different shape in the future..

I’d never considered doing anything like this before but this kit was an absolute joy to put together. It doesn’t take forever and isn’t too scary, but the sense of achievement and end result were excellent.
It also gives you a great guitar to experiment with. I put Hipshot locking tuners on mine, as I’d never had locking tuners before (also I felt the supplied ones were slipping a bit) and put Kirk Hammett EMGs in it, so didn’t test the supplied ones.
My only issue is that the fret ends were a bit sharp, but that was easily solved.
A brilliant idea, brilliantly executed, by a brand I’ve grown to really trust.