Harley Benton DC-Junior FAT - Upgrades and Thoughts

Описание: I love single pickup guitars. The fewer the knobs and choices the better. Sublime simplicity.

I have done a few videos on Harley Benton guitars. I love to play around with them and especially mod them. The price point that you pay for this takes away any guilt you feel for modifying an original guitar.

For the sake of presenting entertainment in this video I take it overboard on modifications. This too be honest is a guitar from Harley Benton that really does not need all that much to make it pretty much a workhorse.

A note for my viewers who will inevitably tell me in the comments to just save up for a Gibson and stop buying stuff like this…I have Gibsons. I can afford them and do not need to save up for them. I purchase guitars like this for one reason – they are f’ing fun. Period. I have a blast playing with them.

There are a lot of folks that cannot afford to save up for a Gibson. This is a great alternative and not a damn thing wrong with owning one and playing it. If it makes you smile and keeps you playing – do it.


For $225 here is what you get –

Harley Benton DC-Junior FAT Pelham Blue
body: mahogany
neck: mahogany
fingerboard: ebony
neck mount: set
neck shape: fat ´59
22 medium jumbo frets
nut: graphite
nut width: 1,69"
scale: 24,72";
fingerboard radius: 12";
pickups: Roswell P90D stack STK4P alnico-5 dog ear humbucker (bridge)
bridge: wsc wrap around
hardware finish: chrome;
tuners: Wilkinson vintage style with 15:1 gear ratio;

I decided I was going to do an end to end mod project.

I picked up a set of Kluson Deluxe Tuners
A Tusq XL Nut
A Gibson P90 pickup
My own circuit
And a Musiclily Pro 52.5mm (2-1/16 inch) Pigtail
Style Tune-O-Matic Adjustable Wraparound
Bridge Tailpiece for Epiphone Les Paul SG Style
Electric Guitar, Chrome

Basically if you replace the tuners and the bridge you are good to go with the guitar.

I ended up pulling the Gibson P90 off of the guitar and putting the HB p90 shaped Humbucker back on and it sounded 100 times better.

It turns out the nut that comes on the guitar is not the usual PVC. When I get one of these budget guitars, I go into this normal mode of a list of things I need to change. In the case it turns out the original nut is made from Graphite.

Also, the Tuners are Wilkinson brand Vintage Tuners, but I did not like them and found the Kluson tuners I installed to be superior.

Here is what I like about the guitar stock – I like the weight. It comes in at 6 lbs 1 oz. What is not to like?

A Mahogany body and neck that is set and an ebony fretboard. Crazy, crazy, crazy at this price point.

The electronics are above average for a guitar this inexpensive. I replaced them because I was replacing a Humbucker with a P90. The P90 could not use the push pull functionality of the out of the factory circuit.

The original bridge in everything I read that folks said online was crap and should be replaced. What amazed me was the bridge they all pointed to being a drop in replacement that was excellent was less than $30 on Amazon.

This guitar is just unadulterated fun. I am going to give this one to a young friend of mine who is in a couple of bands and gigging regularly and can use the gear. I will order another for me probably in the yellow color and just replace the bridge and tuners.