Budget guitars

[dave robinson]

As many members here know, I'm always looking at cheaper ways to achieve our goals of replicating the sounds of The Shadows, rather than accepting that it has to be a rich man's hobby.
In the past I've road tested some really good modestly priced amplifiers and echo devices and got very acceptable tones from them for very little money, largely due to my owning a lot of the real gear that weighs a ton and costs a fortune, but allows A-B comparisons which are very useful.
Satisfied with much of the kit I've checked out, I turned my attention to guitars that are sensibly priced and have tested a good few of those, including Squiers, Encore, Vintage and now my interest has been aroused by the Harley Benton offerings. Before I dip my toe into that pond, I'd be interested to hear if anyone here has had experience with these or any other budget guitars, having seen and heard some impressive reviews on YouTube ?

[nivramarvin]

I own three Harley Benton guitars (a Telecaster copy, a Strat copy and a PRS copy). I've enjoyed playing the latter two at live gigs for years. My reviews (Google translated) can be found in the appendix. I gave my 35 kg Mesa Boogie to my son and instead use a modified Harley-Benton Tube15 amplifier that weighs only 11.5 kg.

[stratman999]

As many members here know, I'm always looking at cheaper ways to achieve our goals of replicating the sounds of The Shadows, rather than accepting that it has to be a rich man's hobby.
In the past I've road tested some really good modestly priced amplifiers and echo devices and got very acceptable tones from them for very little money, largely due to my owning a lot of the real gear that weighs a ton and costs a fortune, but allows A-B comparisons which are very useful.
Satisfied with much of the kit I've checked out, I turned my attention to guitars that are sensibly priced and have tested a good few of those, including Squiers, Encore, Vintage and now my interest has been aroused by the Harley Benton offerings. Before I dip my toe into that pond, I'd be interested to hear if anyone here has had experience with these or any other budget guitars, having seen and heard some impressive reviews on YouTube ?

II purchased the hank one a few years ago after seeing amazing reviews, I used to repair/set up guitars for a music shop in Lincoln and as you say there are some brilliant cheap guitars, this wasn't one of them, it was poor in everyway and I sent it straight back. It could be quality control and I got a bad one, but it was enough not to get another one.

[dave robinson]

Thank you for your input guys, I have ordered a Telecaster in black with binding and two humbuckers, I'll give it a blast and see how it goes. It's a 'B' Stock one @ £101 so not a lot to lose.
That said, I then found a 62 Custom in Candy Apple Red with body binding for £135, so that's on it's way too.

[stratman999]

Thank you for your input guys, I have ordered a Telecaster in black with binding and two humbuckers, I'll give it a blast and see how it goes. It's a 'B' Stock one @ £101 so not a lot to lose.
That said, I then found a 62 Custom in Candy Apple Red with body binding for £135, so that's on it's way too.

I'll watch with interest Dave, I was surprised by how poor it was. But it puzzled me how many great reviews were on the website, I nearly sent for another one, but saw a Fender Mexican Strat at a great price on gumtree, so got that.
I bought a Wilkinson Vintage Les Paul gold top for my son last year, set it up and it plays like a dream, the P90's sound good. I paid £120 for it second hand and he loves it, very well made. I think it was after you had bought some Wilkinson Vintage Strat's, you were spot on with their quality. There really are bargains out there at low prices.

[dave robinson]

I have to agree about the Vintage guitars being good value, I have several, including two Strats and a Telecaster and they stand up well against my Fender guitars of the same type. I've had two or three Les Paul types and currently own the Mick Ronson variant which is superb. I can also highly recommend the Vintage Gordon Giltrap and Paul Brett acoustic electrics, which are that good I moved my Martin out as the Gordon Giltrap outplayed it in every way. The Paul Brett is a 12 string and sounds immense for such a small bodied guitar and the electrics are superb on both. I use the Giltrap for Guitar Tango in our show and it delivers a perfect lead guitar sound for that style of instrumental. I've had a Gibson J-200 as well as J-160e and neither succeeded in satisfying a live performance the way the Vintage does, so it is what it is and I love the thing to bits. Granted, it's the top of the rang model at close to £800 new, but I paid £350 as a 'B' stock damaged item from Gear4Music and a slight repair to the strap button area where the damage was, made for a quick fix. There are bargains to be had if you look.

[Ian Miller]

Hi All,

I would like to recommend to consider Jet guitars. I purchased a JS300 last year and found it to be of exceptional quality.
Excellent fingerboard with a nice action out of the box, very nice sounding well balanced pickups and the trem is excellent with a push-in arm and heavy block. It only required adjustment to the tremolo to suit my requirements. The current price for this instrument is £159 and IMO is excellent value. A friend of mine was so impressed with mine, he went and bought two!

https://www.gak.co.uk/en/jet-guitars?st ... 38&max=569

Incidentally, I have in the past bought two Harley Benton guitars, and both had to be returned with faults!

Ian

[dave robinson]

Well I'm impressed with the reviews on these models, the TE-62 DB in red and blue, yes I bought two. If there are problems then of course they will be returned, but fingers crossed they will be OK as expected.
I recently picked up a black Vintage V6 for £120 and it is excellent and when I went to collect, the guy selling it produced an Encore Strat in light blue, offering it to me for a tenner so I bought it. I can tell you that after a few moments of my time setting it up, it sounds and plays as good as any Strat I ever owned and changed my perspective of budget guitars for ever. For a tenner, I could easily make a living with that instrument and that's what it's about, if the guitar plays well and sounds right, it is right.

[Didier]

This one might be of interest : https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton ... ribute.htm

Didier

[Ian Miller]

This is one of the guitars I mentioned in my previous post that I had to return! It was not good, badly assembled and totally out of alignment! They look pretty, but that’s all!

Ian