Harley Benton JA-Baritone P90 BK

This was a bit of a punt as I wanted to try a baritone but didn't want to spend big money. The guitar was back ordered and I nearly forgot about it until it arrived and, all in all, I was pleasantly surprised. Fit and finish is outstanding for a sub £200 guitar, no sharp fret ends, no dodgy paint and the neck is beautifully finished. Machine heads look cheap and cheerful but this thing just stays in tune regardless. Action is a little high but perfectly playable. Pickups are a bit raspy but otherwise sound OK and are not unpleasant (the middle position is rather nice). The guitar is very light but there is no neck dive whatsoever. Being a full scale baritone you can get some pretty good hybrid bass/six string vibes and it really makes you play in a very different way. I am really happy with this guitar and I literally cannot put it down, I'll change the strings for some Ernie Balls and may think about upgrading the pickups at some point but, for the money, this is a great guitar if you are looking at adding a baritone to your armoury without spending big bucks.

For a $200 guitar the experience of this has been unreal. I have wanted to get something from Harley Benton for the last couple years and I finally pulled the trigger. However, there are some things you should know if you're looking at purchasing your own that I wish someone would have told me or I would have read somewhere.

If you're purchasing your first Baritone guitar ( I was ) or even just your first guitar in general there is going to be a significant playing curve especially if you have smaller hands. I didn't realize how much my playing would be affected by the 30in length of the neck and though I'm beginning to get used to it, I still think this is a difficult instrument to play though it can be rewarding in the long run.

I also want to note that I paid around 80$ for shipping fees, and another 80$ just to import the guitar which brings my standing total for this guitar after taxes just under $400

When the guitar first arrived I thought it had deep scratches in the pickguard (which I was extremely disappointed with) until I took it into a shop and the shop lady and I discovered that the plastic cover was literally just so seamless you couldn't even tell it was there, we took it off and much to my relief the scratches disappeared.

It arrived with significant fret buzz all around the neck and the luthier told that there were many uneven frets and the curve radius was off on the A string but I had already expected this when buying the guitar. I also bought a new set of locking tuners for 40$ on amazon as the plastic tuners didn't FEEL terrible but will not hold a tune for longer than 30 to 40 minutes of me recording.

With the factory strings playing this thing above Drop B is almost impossible as the string tension is immense and there is almost 0 string bend and even with this thing being as sturdy as it is I thought the neck was going to snap in half when I tuned up to drop C just to see if it could be done.

200$ Guitar
160$ for Shipping and import
40$ Tuners
20$ For Custom Gauge Strings
130$ for a full setup by a luthier
= 550$

Pros: Great Tone (The "P90s" sound fantastic especially on clean channels, The Glossy neck doesn't feel sticky even after long periods of playing, The Aesthetic is 10/10. The frets were all completely rounded and beautifully polished, 0 cuts here

Cons: Import Fees coupled with shipping costs, Extreme Fret buzz due to the uneven frets and possibly the nut, also just to note an annoyance, even though the frets were rounded and polished 1 or two of the frets were cut VERY short and aren't symmetrical to the other frets on the board.

Influenced by YouTube, I bought myself this guitar as a gift. And what a gift!

If you want a super tight B standard guitar, it does it out of the box. I dropped it to a Low E Standard and it chugs! I find myself lowering the gain as it doesn't require a lot to cut through the mix and chug. It does however require you to work with your tone knob to get a humbucker-ish gain sound, but you get used to it.
The tuners are a bit meh, and fretboard had some filler, but what can you expect at this price range?
Middle and neck are great for clean, I was surprised how well the p90s sound.

Tip for using - make sure that when you buy strings, they are long enough to fit a 30 inch scale guitar. Not all 8 string sets work, baritones do.

I ordered this guitar to experiment a bit with low tunings, but I was between this or a 7 string. The guitar came in good condition and the set up was decent. Probably a bit too high the strings and perhaps it needed a bit more neck relief and probably intonation.

About the quality: I would say not great but not bad. I would say the weakest parts of the guitar are the nut and the fretboard. The nut came too deep for the second string which caused buzz when playing it open without any fret, and it seem pretty cheap. I would have probably exchanged the nut. The fretboard came super dry and the fretwork was not great but not terrible.

In terms of sound was pretty good, surprisingly good for high gain tones, although I would recommend a noise gate or use the middle position, since P-90 are very noisy similar to single coils.

The guitar came very detuned, but I believe this one comes on B standard by default, although I would say the strings are pretty tight on that tuning so probably it can be tuned down to G# or A standard at least.

Overall, a decent instrument with some quality issues that can be fixed relatively easy, so if you are fine with that possibility then probably won't be disappointed.

Short version: this thing is really cool for the price point and looks and sounds as good as you can possibly expect for a budget baritone guitar. That’s no insult, this thing really sounds and plays great! There were a few very minor cosmetic blemishes on the body and neck which are to be expected for an internationally shipped budget axe. Nothing was broken, all was functioning great and looking nice.

(Mild) complaints: the plastic that is there to protect the pick guard and pickups was super hard to remove. Not a big deal, just an observation. The tuners work as they should but they feel cheap and if I end up making any upgrades that will likely be the first change I’ll make. The pickups sound good overall but the neck pickup (in typical baritone fashion) is pretty muddy and it took some serious fiddling with amp tones and EQ to get a good sound there.

The looks and performance overall are excellent and truly better than I expected for the price.

Pros - good value and a good starter to upgrade. Good clean sounds with a percussive attack as expected from a p90 pickup.

Frets and finish is good. Has a decent setup.

Cons - A string was broken down the core, horrible sounds coming from 1 string. Replaced them with light gauge baritone strings as I only wanted to tune down to C.

Plastic tuners.

Bridge pickup can do a good caveman chug but a good modern metal tone will require a humbucker which will involve a bit of modding.

The guitar has potential but as it is new, it feels like similar quality to my daughter's 3/4 size squier jazzmaster. My son's 3/4 Ibanez Gio feels like much higher quality.

String trees on the headstock look misplaced because of size.

Will be a decent instrument after a few hardware upgrades.

So this guitar, as I'm sure most people know, has a grounding issue that will cause a noticeable hum. This can be repaired, but you're going to either need a luthier you like, or be handy with tools yourself. Without getting into it, the ground wire needs some adjusting.

That said, it plays well and it set up nicely. For $300 dollars, you should be expecting to have to give it some love on arrival. I will still absolutely recommend this guitar to bedroom warriors and for stage alike. Despite the mentioned issue, I am absolutely shocked at how nice this guitar is for the money. The plastic tuners seem to hold tune quite well, after a few weeks of owning.

Just pull the trigger if you're still reading! :-D

Fortunately I have some luthier skills and tools. When the product arrived the action was bit high. I changed the runners with locking and the nut and I used thicker strings immediately and when I tried to lower the action then started the problems. I needed fret levelling and to put lighter strings because I hat buzz and couldn’t intonate the 2 lower strings. I even removed the springs of the saddles and wasn’t enough. So fro .80 I went to .64 to .13 and I am borderline drop F.
I changed after few months the bridge pu for power and articulation for high gain
Pros
Solid build
Stable neck and exceptional tuning stability
Nice pickups for clean and ambience and moderate gain
CONS
Very Bad fretjob needed fret levelling and polishing
Slight fret sprout
Very soft and sensitive switch
The neck needed 2.5 degrees shim
The fretboard has a dry look
For high gain the pickups are muddy
OVERALL
If you know setup and you have few extra money to invest Is an excellent mod platform.
For the money I think it is very good mod base
As it came it was terrible