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What is it?
There is only one show in town if you want a hot-rodded T-style guitar with active EMGs, a satin-smooth neck carved from caramelized flame maple, 24 stainless steel frets and contemporary ergonomics visited upon body and fingerboard alike – and you want all of this and some change from 500 bucks.
You know it. We know it. Harley Benton knows it. This is the German budget gear brand’s USP, doing more, charging less, and that is great. But can its guitars excite us in the same way as, say, a Charvel?
Charvel’s Standard Series San Dimas Style 2 postmodern Supertele is both a clear rival to the Fusion T-II, and it has mojo behind its build – the pop-cultural cachet that comes with being at the epicenter of the high-performance electric guitar revolution in the late ‘70s, early ‘80s.
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Harley Benton does not have that but what its newly refreshed Fusion-T II series does have is options and plenty of them. It overwhelms us with numbers, with 18 new models released this year alone in a cornucopia of solid-color, metallic and translucent finishes.
Have yours with the choice of a six-saddle Babicz Z Series hardtail bridge or a Babicz 2-point tremolo. Locking tuners come as standard.
We think of the T-style as a blue-collar tool, the quintessential workhorse, and yet some of these Fusion-T II models present themselves as bona fide peacocks, such as the Quilt Raspberry Burst model with its bougie maple veneer giving it the rarified airs of a boutique build.
It looks just as ostentatious in Quilt Dusk Glow, a model that really speaks to the LA hotrod inspiration at play with a mismatched pair of Tesla Opus humbuckers, one covered, one uncovered with zebra bobbins. It’s as though you put it in the shop and asked them to swap the bridge humbucker out. Oh, and while you were there you got some coil-taps too.
We don’t have any of this fancy pants stuff here. The Fusion-T II EMG MN HT SBK is the made-for-metal option – and was evidently named by a cat walking across the Harley Benton keyboard.
Resplendent in Satin Black with black hardware and loaded with a pair of EMG Custom Retroactive Hot 70 humbuckers at the neck and bridge, and a Babicz hardtail, plus it comes with a reverse headstock that is kinda metal but really makes us think of something Joe Perry would play.
Specs
- Launch price: $479 | £429 | €499
- Made: Indonesia
- Type: Six-string electric guitar
- Body: Nyatoh
- Neck: Roasted Canadian flamed maple / Modern C profile (21mm thickness at 12th fret: 23mm at 12th
- Fingerboard: Roasted Canadian flamed maple, 12″ to 16″ compound radius
- Scale length: 25.5”/648mm
- Nut/width: Graphtech TUSQ XL / 42mm
- Frets: 24, Blacksmith stainless steel medium jumbo frets
- Hardware: Harley Benton-branded Jinho JN-07 locking tuners, Babicz Z-Series FCH-Fixed 6 hardtail bridge
- String spacing at bridge: 52.5mm
- Electrics: 2x EMG Custom Retroactive Hot 70 humbuckers (neck and bridge), 3-way pickup selector, volume, tone
- Weight: 7.15lb/3.25kg
- Options: The Fusion T-II series includes 18 models, with other options fitted with Tesla Opus-1 humbuckers at the neck and bridge and the choice of the Babicz Z-Series FCH-Fixed 6 hardtail or Babicz FCH 2-Point Special Z-Series C Full Contact Tremolo
- Left-handed options: Yes, Satin Black
- Finishes: Satin Black
- Cases: No
- Contact: Harley Benton / Thomann
Build quality
Build quality rating: ★★★★☆
It’s funny when we talk about T-styles and S-styles and all that jazz (topical, too, but let’s not go there). But no, it’s funny/weird because the shape tells us very little about the guitar itself.
I have this Harley Benton sitting alongside my Fender Classic Player Baja Telecaster, which is very much in the style of the original Butterscotch blackguard… It’s just a big ol’ slab o’ ash. The Harley Benton looks like it has more in common with a B-2 stealth bomber. They feel completely different. They sit differently in your lap.
Everything on this guitar is tidy, the fingerboard with its circle dot inlays on a figured piece of maple makes us think of high-end Ernie Ball Music Man designs such as the Sabre
Like the rest of the Fusion-T II series, this has a solid nyatoh body with heavy contouring in the cutaway and a generous amount of sculpting on the heel. All of which is not only a concession to player comfort but helps keep the weight down. This is a lightweight instrument at just over 7lbs.
The caramelized maple is nicely figured and well-fired to a deep reddish walnut. The neck joins the body with a four-bolt joint and a separate piece of roasted figured maple forms the fingerboard. It looks like a veneer on the headstock just to finish it off nicely.
Everything on this guitar is tidy, the fingerboard with its circle dot inlays on a figured piece of maple makes us think of high-end Ernie Ball Music Man designs such as the Sabre. The glow-in-the-dark fretmarkers along the side of the fingerboard is a welcome sight too.
The frets are smooth, their tangs disappearing into the fingerboard edges which has been left unbound. As per the fashion of high-performance electrics, the truss rod adjustment wheel is found at the top of the fingerboard.
The volume and tone controls are knurled metal and sit in recesses on the body’s top. The absence of a pickguard just adds to the minimalism. The Babicz bridge is a really tidy piece of kit. This and the quality tuners keeps things nice and steady. Tuning this up took no time at all – and it held its tune. What did take forever was trying to open the battery compartment on the back of the instrument. It’s either a footery contraption or I’m getting old. Both are probably true.
The only thing, however, to catch the eye is the misalignment of the pickup pole pieces and strings. They align on the neck pickup, but it is especially noticeable that the low E, A and D strings do not at the bridge. Would Harley Benton have been better to go for the Hot 70 with the wider Floyd/Fender spacing of 52mm?
Maybe. But the plot thickens. These are Custom Hot 70s, where all the pole-pieces are black and fixed (a regular Hot 70 humbucker has one slug with plain pole pieces, one with adjustable screw pole pieces). Sonically, they are the same pickup but are evidently made to Harley Benton specs, perhaps to support mass production.
The body is routed for a regular-sized humbucker – it’s doubtful whether a Trembucker sizing would fit better. Now, this does not make any appreciable difference to the tone in this instance, but it does look strange.
Playability
Playability rating: ★★★★★
The best compliment I can pay this neck is that it reminds me a little of the Fender American Ultra II Tele, although that is a D profile with a bit more wood on the shoulders
I’m no stickler for a guitar’s weight but at the same time you will get no complaints from me at a 7lb guitar, especially one that’s built for zippy playing styles.
Upper fret access is superlative on this instrument. It’s strange how this sits on the lap. The Fusion-T II feels as though the 12th fret within easier reach than my Tele. This could be an illusion, or it could be subliminal design cues to encourage players to tear up the fingerboard.
With all of the Fender-owned shred, rock and metal brands (EVH Gear, Charvel and Jackson) all widely using the 12” to 16” compound radius fingerboard, we can probably call this the industry standard, and it’s hard not to like as the fingerboard flattens towards the summit of the neck. Many a player will find these fingerboard dimensions the Platonic ideal.
The best compliment I can pay this neck – heck, this guitar – is that it at times it reminded me a little of the Fender American Ultra II Tele, although that has a D profile neck with a bit more wood on the shoulders.
Maybe a buttery smooth satin finished neck with a crowd-pleasing shape and stainless steel frets is all your need for that hyper-luxurious sports guitar vibe.
Also, don’t worry about this neck being one of those obscenely thin profiles where it’s a bit like running in carbon-plated shoes and you start cramping up after three songs. There’s comfort baked into the menu.
Finally, kudos to Babicz for designing a bridge with no scratchy grub screws to catch your hand when palm muting. Epicurus was right all along; it’s the little things…
Sounds
Sounds rating: ★★★★½
The thing with Harley Benton is that it sometimes all feels like it is all too good to be true. The prices, the specs, all that.
And so, as a skeptic, it is almost disappointing to test out the controls and find that they do their job, that the tone knob does indeed roll back some of that bridge pickup top-end, making those clean tones more palatable when playing solo – more Les Paul-esque than anything else. What were we saying about the shape of the guitar telling us very little? Yeah, that x100.
The middle position, both humbuckers in play, is a superb voicing for hot and crunchy, kinda woolly ‘70s rock sounds, with the active EMG pairing invoking the decade that gave them their name.
And here’s the thing. I must make a confession. The Fusion-T II’s 21st-century design, the matte black finish and athletic ergonomics, the prospect of being sonically steamrollered by the merciless power of active EMGs, was not overwhelmingly enticing – it’s like you’d need to be guitar’s very own Chuck Yaeger to fully test this instrument’s capabilities. But five minutes was all it took to change my mind.
There’s something pre-mastered about the Hot 70 humbucker tone, that gives you that trademark EMG bloom and clarity when played clean. Those of us introduced to EMG by Metallica et al will be relieved to know that the neck humbucker with a Boss Waza Craft CE-2W Chorus and a short delay gives you those Hetfield-esque clean tones – thick, splashy, box-office stuff.
Those a little bored of that sound might then be genuinely excited that this guitar is way more than that. Okay, they’re too beefy to be properly skronky but there’s a nice trebly scratch to that bridge humbucker that’s fit for CCR chord work.
You can access much of the Dazed & Confused tone universe, the talky throatiness of Aerosmith and Foghat, by pumping up the gain and rolling back on the volume. Playing around with the tone pot will even unearth some pseudo-cocked wah sounds.
You can be extreme on this. You can be a little more tucked in. You can absolutely nail early ‘80s metal tones without too much effort
And then, say, when Friday night arrives, you can look forward to playing on 10 and working with all the harmonic volatility that a great high-output pickup gives you.
Personally, I can take or leave active pickups. A passionate yearning for them as a teenager has given way to this feeling that I’d rather someone put a battery in me, not my guitar. But the low-noise, high-output performance makes me happy to have them here.
You can be extreme on this. You can be a little more tucked in. You can absolutely nail that early ‘80s metal tone without too much effort. Even on this old Blackstar tube amp combo with a little chorus and Catalinbread tape echo emulation, it’s all there. Vivian Campbell, Eddie Van Halen, George Lynch eat yer heart out.
Verdict
We musicians can be a snobbish about brand recognition. We want to play what our heroes play. But a little time spent with a guitar like this changes the calculus
That misalignment of polepieces and strings caused a minor existentialist panic that there was something fundamentally wrong with this picture. But there wasn’t. And there was, in truth, nothing really wrong with this picture at all; that an electric guitar under $500 can play and sound as this does – it’s remarkable.
We musicians can be a snobbish about brand recognition. We want to play what our heroes play. But a little time spent with a guitar like this changes the calculus, especially in an inflationary economic environment.
No matter how competitive the market for guitar gear has become, it is not exactly saturated with T-styles at this price point with top-tier pickups from a market-leading brand, with guitars that combine an ambitious spec with an effective execution. There’s no question that the closure of the Harley Benton Reverb store is a kick in the backside for players in the US but, even so, this EMG-equipped Fusion-T II could still present great value.
It’s not without drawbacks. There is only one finish option. You have to stick a battery in it. You’ll have to buy a gig bag or a case separately and the visual of that pickup alignment is hard to get by. But that’s like going on holiday for two weeks and complaining about a day of rain. Did you have fun? Yes. Would you go back? Also yes.
Guitar World verdict: Harley Benton beefs up the T-style but avoids the pitfall of muscle above all else, with an active pickup that balances power with dynamics. And it puts the ball in the court of more established brands, challenging them to follow suit and officially make roasted figured maple, stainless steel frets and EMGs, y’know, a thing on guitars at this price.
|
Test |
Results |
Score |
|---|---|---|
|
Build quality |
Tidy build and factory setup, and generous spec – impressive even if that pickup alignment looks a bit weird. |
★★★★☆ |
|
Playability |
It will put a smile on your face and for any player looking to upgrade their first guitar this would be a superb platform for self-improvement. |
★★★★★ |
|
Sounds |
Great high-gain tones but also super punchy and clear clean tones that give it hidden depths |
★★★★½ |
|
Overall |
It does not feel like a budget guitar, it does not sound like it, and it shows how Harley Benton’s Pro Series might widen the brand’s appeal beyond the beginner market. |
★★★★½ |
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