Harley Benton Fusion-III HH FR Roasted FPU

I have already American Strat with stainless frets, I was looking guitar for hard rock playing with good floating bridge. I considered about 10 guitar, but at the end i chosed HB – and it was great decision. This guitar is amazing itself, but given price is totally bang for the buck. Specification is high-end (1000-2000$), overall impressiones are totally positive. We have minor issues (below), but all of them you could resolve on your own.


Pros:

- really good initial setup - guitar is ready to play from the box.
- you can set low action without fret-buzzing (below 1,5mm on high E, below 2mm on low E)
- original floyd rose bridge! (no special or licensed versions)
- stainless 24 frets, well shaped
- low weight (it’s huge different comparing to my Strat)
- comfortable neck (C-shape like in my Strat), not thin, but quite beefy - still you could shred. My left hand is satissfied
- humbuckers are quite good - they have low output (like in my Strat), but i like it. If you want to play metal music, you will propably change them
- really good looking, like in really high-end guitars

Cons:
- minor imperfections paint finish in pickups bays
- switch after few days began to crackle (it need be replaced immediately)
- non locking tuners (more time to change strings)
- push-pull in tone pot is hard to use (you will definitely change the tone settings)
- frets need polishing (tip: you can use nails polisher with high grade)

This guitar is excellent base for modifations. I changed strings to 9-42, polished frets and now it awesome shred machine. In future I will rewire electric and install dynamix10 from Ibanez.

The guitar already has unique specs for its price range. It's simply unmatched.

Does it need a setup? No it doesn't. Just tune it that's all. No fret buzz. But to adjust string action you must set the truss rod in motion and play with the bridge.

The bridge doesn't go back so you can only do lower pitched tremolo (whammy)

You will need to shim the neck on the bolt on side to make the bridge go floating. That's the only way to make it double way trem. or you will have to carve the bridge cavity further like the devil's claw..

Amazing quality. The finger board is glued on the neck its not a 1 piece neck. The neck is very slightly thicker than my 61' cream gender strat which has a thin neck profile.

However due its arch Harley Benton Fusion-III HH FR FPU has a very flatter jumbo fretted neck. The frets are big and and in good shape. It won't cut your hands on the edges like Jem Jr does..

It's very easy to play fast. Scale is nice very large fret distance.

It's not as heavy as a fender strat (which is a very heavy guitar imho) but also not as light as a schecter c6 pro for instance. Having played both i can say this guitar is my choice. my mim strat weighs 4kg and this HB scaled as 3.5kg. 500gr isnt big but its actually feeling very light and comfy!

I use ergo loks to lock and secure my strap. this guitar has amazing sustain. maybe because of the fat neck profile.

I disliked 2 things about the guitar and guessing them even before ordering :

The color of the body is not good. Who wants a pink/purple guitar. Don't worry it is not as vibrant as it looks on the pictures. But veneer looks cheap and low resolution like it's printed from 640x800 pixel image. Hard to describe it. You have to see it in real life. tho its my first flamed body type guitar so maybe thats how all looks.

I would be okay having a natural finish like brown or solid color. Really... But it's okay.

The other thing : pickups.. I want a shred guitar. Sure it's a fusion named model. Don't expect something like Crunch lab, nazgul or evolution, emg etc. So i will replace pickups which will cost like half of the guitar. I wish one day harley benton goes into pickup business and really put a nice competition too. Pickups are too expensive.

There is not a single thing you need upgrading in this guitar. FR is amazing stays in tune. maybe pickups and electronics but im not sure.


Guitar was well intonated out of the box!
However in shipping they could have used plastic air bags. I'm glad my guitar arrived without a dent or scratch.

This is a fast guitar. Has 2 alan wrenches and 1 truss rod bar to adjust it. A small organe harley benton tag. That's all.

Has amazing tones out of the box.

I already use 0.10 0.46 stings so it's okay for me no need to readjust the FR. but i did adjust it anyways.

My luthier is going to shim the neck to make the bridge float real Nice. The only reason i bought this guitar is : HH + good FR.

edit: he shimmed the neck to raise it with the bridge. now the whammy can go backwards to produce high pitch noises lol.

Jem jr has a bad bridge killing sustain. And at this price you don't have much alternatives.

I have a ceiling lighting with a reostar controller. I made electrician to remove it and my amp noise is issue is solved mostly. Then i got a 2.5awg wall plug multipler to power my amp now there is no more noise left.

I had a huge problematic, very high pitched high volume noise issue. Not your average hum. And this guitars pickups despite being humbuckers, got it too.so if you are getting this or other fusion guitars for gigging please consider getting some electrical work on it or change the whole electronics/pick ups. Because this will catch noise in a gig...

Other than that amazing guitar. The specs are crazy my local luthier asks 1800 usd to compete with this guitar (fully hand made with gotoh/FR Bridge system etc)
I'm sure custom will always be better but why pay that much when you have harley benton? Just buy new pickups that's all.

Thanks thomann for their work ethics. I wish we had an option for a different body finish color on this EXACT model. My friend ordered 2 harley benton after seeing how pleased i was.

My review is of first impressions! I'll probably update/edit my review later on.

Staying in tune 5/5: Came basically perfectly tuned out of the box... I bent, and played with the Floyd Rose, tuning stayed perfect.

Sound 5/5: I owned a Gibson, currently I own a Mexican Fender Tele HH, and I must say, these pickups have a really solid sound. If I didn't wanna make this into a heavier guitar (i'm gonna change them pickups to SD invaders), I totally would not mind having the original pups, they actually sound great. I'm running them through a Marshall Origin 20 and yeah, they sound really good.

Neck 3/5: My rating here is of personal preference. For me, it is SURPRISINGLY thick. Both my Gibson LP Future Tribute with the Asymmetric and the Fender Tele Standard HH have thinner necks.

Build Quality 4/5: It's totally okay. The frets have a lot of noise when vibrato though, and the edges are not as smooth as my Fender's. (The fender was about the same price category, but has fewer features). The body looks good, the neck is actually a super nice piece.
The "Flame" is super underwhelming though. Looks nice from the distance but from close-up, it's like a low-quality, low-resolution print of a picture.

Floyd Rose 5/5: It's a Floyd Rose. Stays in tune, works, both ways.