Harley Benton TE-LH KIT

I will start with the good things:
- I liked working on okoume. It is a beautiful wood, and with some boiled linseed oil and shellac, I managed to get a satisfying result.
- The maple neck came with amazing natural features. Its profile is comfortable, and the paddle headstock allowed for some creative shaping.
- The electronics were surprisingly good. The plugging system makes it easy for beginners to set it up. The ceramic pickups sounded warm, as expected, which is something I personally enjoy.

Now regarding the points for improvement:
- The body is a four-piece one. I have never seen anything like this before on any cheap import guitar. Each of the four pieces had a different colour, which was to be expected since the product description did mention varying colours. But the pictures show a two- or three-piece body. This would have been fine if there was no issue with the glue between those pieces. They were not completely sealed, so I have to do it myself.
- The plating on the hardware is very thin, any small scratch will show the brass beneath. It is also poorly plated, the bridge had an extra piece of dry plating sticking from it like a spike. I noticed it and cut it off and lightly sanded, but had I not noticed it, the body would have been damaged.
- The cavities in the body were poorly carved. The wood inside was broken, with dangerously sharp pieces sticking out inside the cavities.
- On the headstock, the screw holes for the tuners were not perfectly aligned. It was quite obvious once you would set up the tuners. I have to fix this myself.
- Finally, on the most inconvenient thing: the fret job. Those frets had a lot of issues. They were not hammered correctly inside the fretboard, so you can see a gap between a lot of frets and the fretboard. Without advanced lutherie work to plane and crown them, it is unplayable, because the string would just always buzz. They were also very sharp on the edges.

All in all, this is an ok kit. But considering all the tribulations you have to go through to make it decent, you will end up spending a lot, especially for the fret tools, so that its "cheap" price might not make it a cheap project.

So glad they do these kits in left handed - I’ve been using them to experiment with modifying the bodies with tummy carves, PRS style cutaways, and bevels. The fretwork and neck pocket fit tolerances are way above expectations. The pickups aren’t going to set your world on fire but are serviceable, and the hardware is good enough quality to hold tune and feel solid.

The routes on this were very clean compared to previous kits I’ve had so not sure if a new CNC process is being used.