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Who actually believes the spiele? According to GFS they bought a factory and are trying to get rid of these, I feel like having a punt on a new guitar. Cherry Red ES-33x style guitar for 159.

I'm nervous but excited! Worst that could happen is that it's not that great and then I have a project guitar to work on.

Meh, it's the same goofily placed f-holes as the Harley Benton.

Would much rather have one of those P90 Casino types with the centre bock. Cheaper too.

It looks identical to the Harley Benton



Since I don't think HB is out of business the story is more likely that they bought a bunch of them at wholesale, sprayed the headstocks and are selling them at the same MAP price.

Yeah tuners and everything by the looks of it! Ok well would be nice if I got the extras too, I wonder if I can know for certain when I get it?

Any Harley Benton's I've played have been excellent. Not just for the price, but generally good guitars.

I think this is a much better idea than the Fano.

Or, if you wanted something in between, Ibanez do a great line in this sort of thing and they're not hard to find second hand.

Definitely already more fun the Fano!

I've only every bought a new posh guitar once, Gibson LP and it was the worst.

Been on the watchlists for something neat and old or some cheap underdog guitar I can grow with. My thinking is that I've been able to do most guitar work now for years, as long as the next shoots straight I've got a 150 buck (+30 ground shipping to SF, mind) platform for something cool.

Might get some GFS goldfoils or toasters for it, go full 70s.

Serious-shaped Epiphone

I keep forgetting that they moved distribution to FL (Sarasota I think) so I could order one of these and have it in like a day. Very tempted but hollow bodies don’t really gel with me

paul_ wrote:Serious-shaped Epiphone

lol, so good

Guitar shaped Epiphone
Traditional bodied Epiphone

kingkiller wrote:I keep forgetting that they moved distribution to FL (Sarasota I think) so I could order one of these and have it in like a day. Very tempted but hollow bodies don’t really gel with me

We'd have to pay sales tax, and I'm not in the mood to give an extra cent to DeSantis.

mkt3000 wrote:

kingkiller wrote:I keep forgetting that they moved distribution to FL (Sarasota I think) so I could order one of these and have it in like a day. Very tempted but hollow bodies don’t really gel with me

We'd have to pay sales tax, and I'm not in the mood to give an extra cent to DeSantis.

That’s a whole different kettle of fish

I think these same guitars are sold on Amazon under the brand Firefly. The 60 cycle hum dude did a review of one of these. Also there is like a killer $150 copy of Gibson ES125 under the brand Grote

under $250 w/ a tweed case? it's tempting...

sunshiner wrote:I think these same guitars are sold on Amazon under the brand Firefly. The 60 cycle hum dude did a review of one of these. Also there is like a killer $150 copy of Gibson ES125 under the brand Grote

I don’t think it’s a firefly, 60 cycle hum did a shootout between HB and Firefly, neither guitar looks like this one (pickguard shape gives it away if nothing else) but it is identical to the HB I posted. The new HB seems to have sharper horns and a more LP style pickguard. It’s possible they changed designs and sold remaining stock of the old model to GFS.

Pic of the supposed Harley Benton from earlier in the thread is actually branded "best choice products" and available on Amazon with the other stuff in the pic for $160, there's a sunburst one too.

Darn I somehow missed that, it was the first image that came up when I searched Harley Benton Semi Hollow but you’re right it’s a “Best Choice�.

Curious how this turns out.

dots wrote:under $250 w/ a tweed case? it's tempting...

For real. I didn't go for the case at 10 bucks off, I figure if the guitar is shit it'll be in a soft or just out on a stand a lot.



It shipped! Shipped faster than the air purifier I ordered from the Best Buy down the road too. Spent a little while this evening figuring out how to do a decent demo of it instead of the usual atari ass shite I do, so looking forward to giving that a shot - hopefully I can answer some questions when it gets here this week.

Rhysyrhys wrote:

dots wrote:under $250 w/ a tweed case? it's tempting...

when it gets here this week.

September 8th now, apparently

Wow guys. It's really fucking nice. It's a real looker in the flesh too.

My immediate impression is that the finish is gorgeous, the fret work is frighteningly good - there's not a sharp edge or dodgy feeling bit of the 'board anywhere and the action is really, really nice, low and no string buzz.

I cut it out of the box with my toolkit open ready to adjust the action and anything so I could give myself a better first impression out of the box. Not necessary for the first play at all, I could demo it like it is now and be happy that I demo'd it in a decent and very playable light.

Downsides on first impression are:

1) Tuners are a mixed bag, big E is looser than the rest. Guitar holds tune but they will be swapped out on this guitar for definite.
2) TOM just looks and feels a bit shit, the saddles look sharp, it feels very light compared to the other TOMs I have in my kit boxes and so that'll be getting a swap too.
3) Nut looks absolutely garbage also. In spite of both bridge and nut feeling a iffy, still plays great. So this is me being quite picky I think..
3) Swarf. I had to clean mixed wood/metal swarf off the guitar's headstock, back and pickguard. Never seen that on a straight from the factory model but the whole guitar needed a bit of a clean and there are some paint artifacts left on the back of the headstock.
4) Few small nicks and dings, big enough for me to denote if I was selling it here or evilbay.
5) I haven't plugged it in yet but it's pretty obvious by just looking into the F-hole that the wiring is all over the fucking shop and I won't be happy with it until I've got in there and tidied it up some.


All in all I'm fuckkking stoked, man. Not a waste of money at all, I reckon about 100 more bucks for some good parts and this is a absolute beast.