Harley Benton Extreme-76 BK Classic Series

I've had this guitar for over a month now and it's very nice. The body seems to be a tiny bit smaller than the Gibby and Epi version which, to me, is even better than those higher priced blocks of wood. I like the body and headstock, the neck feels a bit thick but that was expected. Most likely layered with poly paint so it ends up thicker than it should be but not a big deal unless you absolutely need a thin neck. The frets are nicely mounted but initially the strings would grind a bit when bending. The tuners were ok, no problems noted. The pickups seem pretty good. I have no desire to change them at this time. No extraneous feedback or nasty noises and they sound good. No noticeable problems with the controls/switch other than one knob being pushed in a bit initially (probably from shipping) that I simply pulled up away from the body now it's smooth. Bridge and tailpiece are fine other than an imperfectly drilled hole for tailpiece but there's no wiggle and it's tight so I'm good with it. Nut is cut well and action is nice.

What I've done to it: Changed to locking tuners. Moved the front strap holder to the back near where the neck meets the body. Added wheel weights to the backplate/cavity cover. Got a thick leather strap. All of this helped the neck dive that it initially had and which was made worse by the added locking tuners. Now it's much more comfortable and considerably less neck heavy. I cleaned the frets to get rid of the grind. Gonna keep the pickups in it for now because I can't find a reason to change them.

Overall, a very nice guitar in factory shape or you can do your own mods to it to suit your needs. I just wish shipping prices to the USA were not so astronomical. The fees are about the same as the guitar price.

Bought a couple guitars from HB with the intention of maybe selling them on Facebook if they turned out to be a let down. I have been pleasantly surprised but not more so than this specific guitar.

The other TE style guitars were safe bets as long as they were built well. However, to see an Explorer style guitar at this price range had me curious. Most other brands it's hard to get a guitar that looks like this for under $450, with Jackson's Kelly model being relatively similar for about $100 less than that.

This blew me away. The neck is perfectly rolled and the frets are filed down to be very comfortable, if maybe a little messy from tool marks. But that is where the negative feedback ends because at it's current price of $139 I didn't even expect anything remotely close to that.

HB has impressed me greatly with all 3 instruments and how they can offer a satisfactory experience for entry level prices. In the future I am looking forward to buying a more expensive model to see what their higher end work must be like.

Okay, it's really nice guitar in general, so I will speak about issues.
1) 1mm height on the first fret?? waaaay too high
2) some broken off varnish on the bottom part of the neck near the body
3) some bad varnish on the neck's head - worn out matted corner
4) pick ups not good for really hi gain music - rock is ok, so why it's "extreme"?
5) the switch is complete crap - hovering around

To conclude: I like it and will play. Since it's not hard to fix the strings height. And all the other things are about it's look only, so the guitar is okay.

Everything is said in the title : you get what you paid for, and it is more than enough for begginer to intermediate players.
Packaging is solid, guitar wasn't damaged during shipping and overall quality is nice : only a few dents on the fretboard, and the white coat isn't 100% fixed to the body. But other than that (which is not even noticed if you don't specificaly look for it) you get exactly what's shown in the pictures.
Bridge was a little too low, so the strings would touch the frets and emit unwanted noise. Luckily, the bridge's height can be easily adjusted with a screwdriver, so it's not an issue anymore.
Switch is responsive, tone and volume controls have a nice grip, pickups are just ok-tier (what did you expect?). Tuners are a little loose but nothing too bad.
If i had to change the gear, I'd go for tuners and pickups first, the rest is more than acceptable (and good looking!) to play.
Was a little worried about the quality of the strings, but I ended keeping the factory ones.

Overall, I'm really satisfied with this guitar. It probably won't last me a lifetime, but I can always change parts or one day decide to upgrade and get a higher budget guitar.
If you're a begginer or occasional player like me, this guitar is everything you need to do some quality rock or metal.