Harley Benton MS-60 VW Vintage Series

It showed up in 9 days. A new record, I hadn't even bothered to track it yet.

Arrived unscathed. The only other HB guitar I was really jones-ing for the HB35 was still out of stock and I had 30 Euro credit that was set to expire. I had emailed Thomann about the possibility of an offset style guitar in left handed showing up soon and they said no. (of course, the day after I placed my order the hard tail Jazzmaster showed up on the site...I think they get customer service tips from Mr. Z)

Right off the bat, I pulled off the strings to make it a lefty. Lucky for me, the nut was not glued in place, so all I had to do was put a drop of Elmers on it and reseat it.

The bridge I tried to flip the saddles, but no dice they wouldn't come out so I just set it as close to intonated as possible. The only string I am having trouble with is the E, so I might Mick Jagger this and rip off the E.

It is a chunky little guy, does not feel like a toy at all despite the short scale and small body. It definitely doesn't neck dive...

Tuners are nice and smooth, no play or slop and they hold tune as long as you don't use the whammy.

The bridge is the downfall on this guy, it rocks enough to keep it in tune if you are really gentle with the whammy, but it will not return to pitch it you push it too hard. I am going to get a Wilkinson roller and while I am at it I will fill the current bridge holes and convert it to a lefty for real and angle the bridge correctly.

Pickups sound nice, not really like a Mustang, but they are very good. I especially like the neck pup. It is pretty muscular sounding. The bridge pup is pretty weak sounding, but in a good way. They really complement one another well with both engaged.

Neck is the highlight on this thing. It is a very nice quasi-vintage tint with a satin feel. Frets are vintage sized (pre-06 Fender size). They really fit the vibe of the guitar.

Headstock is rather small, but very tasteful, I especially like the "Fine Quality Sound" in fine print at the end of the headstock.

Finish is almost mint green as opposed to vintage white, but I like it. I think it would look sweet with a red tort pick guard and a chrome Mustang control plate.

How does it play? excellent, no issues playing up to the 17th fret (really good for a righty flipped to lefty) and the controls are out of the way, a right angle cord is all that is really needed. IT is even comfortable to use the trem. I am going to move the strap button to a neck screw and it should be good to go.

The bad? The pickguard is pretty dorky looking. I wish they spent a few more dollars and put a proper control plate on it. The bridge should have been a roller or at least barrel saddles. The Pickups aren't installed the same way (the staggered "B" string pole is on the A string on the neck pickup)

This was my first Harley Benton and i was very dissapointed with the setup, there was major fret buzz nearly everywhere on the frets. It took me about 3 hours to set it up correctly so their QC really needs to be checked. Tuners are decent but they do need replacing as they kept slipping even after 4 days of use.

Anyway enough of the bad here is the good sort of.

Once it was setup it is a great guitar for the money. It really looks vintage too with the ivory colour. The sound has a 70's vibe to it which i love. It feels very easy to play not the best but good.

Overall a great value guitar. All though you need to spend a bit more getting a decent setup and better tuners. but for the price it can't be beat. I will be buying another HB for sure.

I have read many reviews. Of course there are many pluses, I will focus on the minuses.
1. Why doesn't anyone talk about the horribly painted fingerboard? And why paint the fingerboard at all?I thought the level of HB was higher than that... Because of this, all the strings and fingers get dirty in black. It took a very long time to process the neck with alcohol and then lemon oil to get rid of this supposedly "luxury" dark neck.
2. There was a Whammy lever in the kit, which does not fit in diameter. The Thomann are already solving this problem, I hope they will solve it.
3. Something is rattling terribly inside the deck. I can't ignore it. It will be necessary to disassemble and find what.

The guitar arrived from Germany in 9-10 days. The ONLY reason I didn't give this guitar a full Five Star Review is because the Tremelo arm falls out easily. It's a push in type, so I have to push hard to keep it in. Other than that, Fit, Finish, Sound, and Playability are ALL Top shelf. Just a slight truss rod and height adjustment to the bridge was all that was necessary to get it to play like a Champ, which is great considering how many different zones it traveled through to get here. After letting it settle in for a few days I made minor adjustments to the intonation. It's a superb Instrument

This was an instant buy for me, being a massive fan of the look of the mustang style and with a price tag like this i went for it. When it arrived i was quite impressed with the weight, quality and general feel of the guitar, however the pickups aren't quite what i'd want for this guitar as they don't thicken up under any amp setting. Though a change of bridge, heavier strings and strong set of pups with decent low end response and this is a good as any squier mustang for considerably less. One thing to be said is that the switches in this bad boy are probably the only weak point as they feel cheap but it'd not a big deal they've consistently worked for me. Basically if this is a first/practice/project guitar it's a brilliant deal, just don't expect it to play and sound like a mustang out the box.