Harley Benton Fusion-T HH Roasted SSP

I bought this guitar because I always wished to have a guitar with roasted maple neck.
It’s my first telecaster and I’m very impressed by the quality for a such low price guitar.
I have in my collection 2 USA PRS guitars (Tremonti and McCarthy) and USA Fender American Performer Stratocaster. So I have parameters to compare the guitars.
What can I say about Harley Benton Fusion T III ?
The guitar is well built, great woods, bridge locking tuners, stainless steel frets well placed on the neck.
The Silver Sparkle finishing is a gorgeous. Flawless.
Regards to back of the guitar body. It’s beautiful. I just found a little piece of varnish cracked on the back next to cover plate, but this is not a big issue for returning the guitar to Thomann.
The roasted maple neck is a dream to play. Very soft. The satin finishing is amazing. Neck very easy to play.
You know that feeling when you get a guitar to play and playing flows naturally. It’s that I’m telling about.
The guitar is well setup from factory with 3 springs. But I feel that the trem is not so smooth to use. In the next setup I’ll change for 2 springs.
I’m happy with guitar. The guitar has 2 humbucker with pushpull to split them making more versatile.
In the future I intend to replace the the whole wiring and pickups with Suhr Thornbucker set.

I will be honest. I would have never bought this guitar if it wasn't on sale. IMO the silver sparkle color is a complete overkill. The pictures don't really do it justice, you need to see it in low light, it looks like covered with Swarowski crystals. If Britney Spears played guitar, this one would be perfect.

The guitar has a black line which looks like a binding - it's not. It's just painted and on my guitar few small drops of black paint fell on the natural wood part. No big deal, not really noticeable. Frets were very raw - need polishing or a lot of playing. The hardware is brushed aluminium and I think chrome would have looked better on the sparkle finish. Pickups are not great but not bad either.

Now for the good stuff. The roasted neck is a dream - modern and thin, has locking tuners and spokes wheel truss rod, medium size steel frets. Easily one of the best necks I have seen on any guitar. The body has a nice natural color and maybe I got lucky but on my guitar it is made from one single piece. Amazing.

Overall, this looks and feels like a much more expensive guitar.

I have been researching Harley Benton for sometime and had even convinced a band member into ordering a TE-52. After he had recieved the guitar and I had a chance to play it I convinced to order a guitar also.
I ended ordering what I consider the creme de la creme the fusion T HH. When I received the guitar from UPS the box was in rough shape so I feared the worst, but Thomann's packaging really made sure they guitar saw no shipping damage.

The guitar plays and sounds amazing! It was also set up very well before being shipped. The only issue I had with this instrument was slight finish and binding imperfections, but when I contacted Thomann they were so helpful that I could not imagine not ordering from them again.

I’ve been playing for over 30 years, and I’ve owned at least 100 guitars in my time…from the cheapest $100 junk to ultra boutique $7000 instruments.

After hearing debates about Harley Benton guitars for several years now, I decided to purchase one. My expectations were somewhere in the middle - I thought it would be an instrument with some flaws, but a good deal overall.

I ordered this model because of the specs and finish. It’s one of the higher end Harley Bentons, but it’s still extremely affordable. I figured that getting a complicated finish like this would be a good test of the work that their factories are doing these days.

Upon receiving the guitar, I was immediately impressed with the overall fit and finish. Everting looked great, felt good, and seemed to be in order. I then did a deep inspection, specifically looking for flaws.

All that I found in terms of finish flaws were one tooling mark on the fretboard, and two tiny (almost imperceptible) black dots in the sparkle finish…So basically nothing wrong…

The neck is a comfortable C shape with a satin finish. The woods on the neck and fretboard, while not “standard” wood types, are nice examples, exhibiting good figuring. There is no neck twist, no fretwork that needs attention, and no sanding or other finish work that needs to be done. It’s just a really a nice neck. The action on the setup was a bit high for my taste, but nothing egregious or atypical. I easily corrected it to my preferences, did a slight intonation adjustment, and it’s basically perfect for me now.

I then went on to inspect the wiring and electronics. I expected a somewhat inferior job here, but I was shocked to see very clean and professional wiring and clean routing of the cavities. Yes, the guitar uses cheaper pots and a cheaper switch that it could, but it’s totally functional. The pickups aren’t the best I’ve ever heard, but they are much better than I expected, and I feel no need to replace them.

Just like a lot of other people would say, this is a great guitar for the price. But honestly, it’s just a great guitar. Again, I’ve owned a ton of instruments at all price ranges, and I’d be completely comfortable taking this to a stage or studio. Would I trade some of my high end guitars for this one? No, of course not…and this won’t be my number 1 guitar or anything. But if my example is indicative of what Harley Benton is sending out to customers, they are sending people very good products at a very reasonable prices. I would not hesitate to recommend them to fellow musicians.

So, I've known and played Harley Benton guitars for nearly 15 years now, I first learned about them from my guitar teacher who bought a lot of them, modded them and set them up to be amazing playing guitars for very little money. Since then I have had myself 5 or 6 HBs from which I had only kept my trusty SC Custom Active. Since the Fusion line came out, I wanted to buy one, but since I am picky I didn't really love a Fusion model to buy. FINALLY ABOUT THIS GUITAR, when it came out I knew it was the one for me, saved up for it and bought it. My expectations were high, as it's going to be my main guitar, but Thomann really outdid themselves with this one! What a guitar?! Gorgeous flamed maple neck and fingerboard, flawless fretwork, the best out off all of the guitars i've played, the stainless steel frets are amazing to play, the pickups are very articulate and clear and the finish is to die for. The setup was pretty good, but I did a few tweaks and set her up to my liking. Only imperfections I wound were on the black binding, but personally I don't care that much. All in all, for me personally it's the best guitar I've played, the prettiest by far and the best value for money BY FAR! Thank you Thomann for my dream guitar! <3

It is so amusing to consider that this, relatively cheap instrument, is competing for the title of the best guitar I own. Looks, playability and features are comparable with my expensive custom made super strat, and I actually prefer the sound of this instrument. :)

Let's start with three flaws I noticed:
- fretboard is super dry. I instantly fixed this with two layers of lemon oil
- neck was not perfectly aligned with the body, so first string was to close to the edge. Also an easy fix - I unscrewed the neck, slightly changed the angle and screwed it back
- volume pot broke during the first gig. I notified Thomann, and they instantly sent a replacement. Top notch service, as always.

Now, let's move to everything that is great about the guitar:
Sound: relatively low-output humbuckers, in combination with the guitar wood (whatever it is) sound punchy and rich, with clear definition and distinction between neck and bridge. They sound great with any type of setting: clean, overdrive and high gain. I don't use coil split option, but it is nice to have it.

Playability: I changed strings to 009 gauge, removed one tremolo spring, adjusted the neck a little bit and lowered the action. Guitar is super easy to play. Modern C profile is a breeze to play. Satin neck feels wonderful - this neck is worth the price alone! Steel frets are well done.

Looks: wow! This is a gorgeous guitar! Silver sparkle looks amazing. Neck and fretboard have a dark colour with visible tiger stripes on maple. Really top-class and beautiful. A detail I just love: all the hardware (tuners, pick-up covers, knobs, tremolo...) is matte. Wonderful!