Harley Benton MS-60 minor mods

[honyock]

I got this B-stock Harley Benton MS-60 a few weeks ago. I had an ulterior motive when I bought it. I wanted the short scale neck for my Fender Kurt Cobain Jaguar body since the short scale neck I had bought was incorrectly made with a fingerboard overlap of the body instead of being flush to the end of the neck as it should be. This resulted in poor intonation unless I used a Wilkinson roller bridge that you can move fore and aft ever so slightly.

I liked the neck so much that I think I am going to scrap my idea of getting a Musikraft or Warmoth neck custom made.

I will eventually upgrade the tuners since I have a set of Kluson style that are made for the large diameter holes.

I did also make one other minor tweak, which was somewhat accidental, I bought on/off switches instead of ON/ON/ON switches that I had meant to buy because I wasn't paying attention. Either way I think the white switchs look nicer and blend with the pickups better.

I had a right handed version of this same guitar that was made in China and I think the Indonesia factory cranking stuff out for Harley Benton now is a step up in all respects.

These now come with nice Korean Alpha pots, the switches are nicer and I think the vibrato feels a bit better too.

[tobijohn]

...I did also make one other minor tweak, which was somewhat accidental, I bought on/off switches instead of ON/ON/ON switches that I had meant to buy because I wasn't paying attention. Either way I think the white switches look nicer and blend with the pickups better.

I had a right handed version of this same guitar that was made in China and I think the Indonesia factory cranking stuff out for Harley Benton now is a step up in all respects.

I haven't started upgrades on my b-stock MS-60 yet but will soon enough. I know you plugged and redrilled the bridge anchor holes on your first one so you could use the correct style bridge but for the time being, I'm just going to use a Sung Il BM003 roller bridge. I think I have a set of Kluson tuners from a closeout Stew-Mac had a few years ago, I'll have to check on the hole diameter though. @Buddha Pickups hooked me up with a set of Mustang spec pickups too.

Could you tell me where you ordered your switches from? You had mentioned in a previous post that you were gong to replace the stock ones with a type that would give you more tonal options but I can't recall if you mentioned the source. Do you have a link also to the wiring diagram you were planning on using? TIA...

As for MII vs MIC HBs, I've got at least a half dozen from the former and the build quality of the Indonesian guitars is definitely better than the Chinese ones. I'd go so far as to say that most of them are equal to the higher end Agiles (which themselves almost all are equal or even better than just about every Gibson I have)

[honyock]

...I did also make one other minor tweak, which was somewhat accidental, I bought on/off switches instead of ON/ON/ON switches that I had meant to buy because I wasn't paying attention. Either way I think the white switches look nicer and blend with the pickups better.

I had a right handed version of this same guitar that was made in China and I think the Indonesia factory cranking stuff out for Harley Benton now is a step up in all respects.

I haven't started upgrades on my b-stock MS-60 yet but will soon enough. I know you plugged and redrilled the bridge anchor holes on your first one so you could use the correct style bridge but for the time being, I'm just going to use a Sung Il BM003 roller bridge. I think I have a set of Kluson tuners from a closeout Stew-Mac had a few years ago, I'll have to check on the hole diameter though. [mention]Buddha Pickups[/mention] hooked me up with a set of Mustang spec pickups too.

Could you tell me where you ordered your switches from? You had mentioned in a previous post that you were gong to replace the stock ones with a type that would give you more tonal options but I can't recall if you mentioned the source. Do you have a link also to the wiring diagram you were planning on using? TIA...

As for MII vs MIC HBs, I've got at least a half dozen from the former and the build quality of the Indonesian guitars is definitely better than the Chinese ones. I'd go so far as to say that most of them are equal to the higher end Agiles (which themselves almost all are equal or even better than just about every Gibson I have)

The ones I ended up getting are these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/True-Custom-Sh ... 632-2357-0

Not quite as cheap as the ones I bought last time, but what is?

Wiring I used last time, I had tried adding like a rhythm circuit like a Jag on the other position, but didn't have the right value cap and whatnot:

https://www.premierguitar.com/mod-garag ... er-mustang

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