Hi Gang,
Wondering how many of you have this guitar? I vaguely remember a ngd post not long ago. Really gassing for a Guthrie Govan style.
Curious what kind of style neck and overall thoughts on quality.
Harley Benton Fusion reviews?
-
BrianSkeezer
- Reactions:
- Posts: 202
- Joined: Wed May 27, 2020 4:36 pm
- Location: Maryland
I have a Fusion-II and a Fusion-T, both with maple necks and ebony boards. I like them both a lot.
The Fusion-II is a great guitar. I was first turned onto this guitar by Henning Pauly’s reviews on his YouTube channel. It took forever for this to come into stock, but now I understand why. It looks great, it plays great, and it sounds good. Upon arrival, like every guitar, it needed to be set up. The relief was perfect. I decked the trem and had to shim the neck to lower the action to where I like it, but the nut needed nothing. It immediately played great after lowering the action. The pickups needed adjustment, and they sound good, not great, but good. All of the electronics work as they should. The locking tuners, though not branded with a name, are good (keep in mind they aren’t a high ratio) and work perfectly. The features that got me were the locking tuners, ebony fretboard, stainless steel frets, spoke wheel truss rod adjustment, Wilkinson trem, and a coil split, all on an under $300 guitar. The flame maple veneers have little depth, but they still look great. The neck has a satin finish on it and feels great, a nice modern C shape with a little chunk, not too much though. If I could change anything about this guitar, it would be to move the volume knob down a bit further away from the strings.
The Fusion-T is an excellent guitar! I wanted this after seeing Hunter’s (Agufish) reviews. I wasn’t disappointed. My first thought after opening the box and picking this up was “Wow, this is lighter than I expected!” I now have a few Teles, and this is by far the lightest. This one also needed a shim under the neck to get the action lower. After that and the intonation, the guitar was perfect. The ebony fretboard on this one is really nice, and has some nice streaking to it. The neck profile is exactly the same as the Fusion-II. It also has the locking tuners and stainless frets, but I opted for the hardtail bridge on this one. The Roswell pickups on this are pretty good, and I was originally thinking I'd change them out for a set that of Giovanni GVH-2's, but I think these are going to stay, at least for now. It’s a fairly simple guitar, I mean, it is a Tele. I was also drawn to this guitar for the locking tuners, stainless steel frets, an ebony fretboard, and a spoke wheel truss rod adjustment for under $300.00.
The Fusion-II is a great guitar. I was first turned onto this guitar by Henning Pauly’s reviews on his YouTube channel. It took forever for this to come into stock, but now I understand why. It looks great, it plays great, and it sounds good. Upon arrival, like every guitar, it needed to be set up. The relief was perfect. I decked the trem and had to shim the neck to lower the action to where I like it, but the nut needed nothing. It immediately played great after lowering the action. The pickups needed adjustment, and they sound good, not great, but good. All of the electronics work as they should. The locking tuners, though not branded with a name, are good (keep in mind they aren’t a high ratio) and work perfectly. The features that got me were the locking tuners, ebony fretboard, stainless steel frets, spoke wheel truss rod adjustment, Wilkinson trem, and a coil split, all on an under $300 guitar. The flame maple veneers have little depth, but they still look great. The neck has a satin finish on it and feels great, a nice modern C shape with a little chunk, not too much though. If I could change anything about this guitar, it would be to move the volume knob down a bit further away from the strings.