Harley Benton HB-35Plus Metallic Blue

The guitar is visually stunning, the amount of features you get at this price point is incredible. Set in neck, push/pull coil splitting for both neck & bridge pickups, palermo fretboard & maple neck/body. My fretboard was a lot darker than the one pictured, but no matter!

It has a perfect jazz sound at a fraction of the cost of other hollow bodies, pickups are warm, mellow & full sounding. Like other HB's I own, it required a full set up on arrival, but that's also the case with far more expensive guitars I own.

The nut was perfectly cut, I've noticed a few dead spots on the tuners, but they hold tuning without issue. There's a tiny bit of fret buzz in the 13th fret of the B string, I suspect the fret is slightly lower than the rest, but it's hardly noticeable through the amp. They're the only flaws I had regarding playability, and honestly it's extremely minimal.

There's a few minor visual blemishes on the binding & fret ends where it looks like it was scuffed by a fretting tool, as well as a small mark on the fretboard. There's also some small blemishes on the paintwork & the gold plating has rubbed off on the tune-o-matic bridge where my hand is positioned while playing. Again, absolutely none of that effects playability & the overall look is stunning.

At this price I can absolutely forgive a couple of blemishes, because most importantly, it plays & sounds gorgeous!

Let's get the first thing out of the way: I purchased this guitar entirely because of the modern look and how the colours were used. It looked magnificent, and in person, I'd say more so. If you want something that stands out, this is it.

I own "a few" semi-hollow and hollow body guitars. I generally prefer the smaller "39" sized models in this shape, and the much larger acoustic style archtops. Right now, I have a single 35 type to compare to in terms of size and shape.

Shape, construction, colour and attention to detail is good to very good. Frets a much better then I expected, though will need minor touch up and polish. Fretboard colour is pleasing in this overall combination and post cleaning looks very good.

Room for improvement:
1) As shipped, the bridge is set higher then any semi-hollow I own. I will need to see if I can coax it lower. The neck's break angle is pretty large, reminding me of 175 hollowbody territory, so this might be necessary.
2) The tone pots are very heavy and hard to rotate
3) The tone/volume knobs are slick and offer little grip
4) The push-pull volume pots are smooth in rotation, but with the shape/grip of the knobs, it mean you require to "three finger claw" to pop them up
5) The pickup/control cables aren't tidy, would have been nice to have an anchor point in the cross beam between the upper volume and tone pots to drag it in

As for tone, I think this might be a place for your ears, needs and budget to decide. They'll do if this is meant to be a platform to mod with x35 wire kit and new pickups, but the jazzy folks might also be served as-is. I would have enjoyed a more Gretschy or Hot Rodded option personally, especially given the stand-out looks.

My sample size of one weighs : 3.45kg/7.60 lbs

I think this will remain in the collection, but I will likely replace the tuners (because 95% of the time I do) and replace the pickups. I like how the tone/volume knobs look (colour/shape), but I will need to replace them even before considering upgrading the pots, as they impede smooth control.

Unfortunately, not everything went as planned in this guitar. First, I’ll go through the negative points.
1) The edging is not even everywhere, in some places it was completely erased
2) On the back side, glue is smeared over the heel of the neck and the back of the guitar body, which spoils the look a lot.
3) For some reason, the bridge was already machined to such an extent that it was impossible to adjust the scale or play without bouncing this very bridge, I had to change it to GOTOH

If we talk about positive things, there are more of them.
1) The sound of humbuckers is extremely deep and at the same time sharp, with the tone knob you can achieve the desired sound both in the amplifier and in the audio card
2) The tuning pegs are very strong, sturdy and detailed
3) The nut is made very high quality
4) The cutoffs work great, the bridge single makes the sound of a stratocaster
5) Very robust pickup toggle switch