LP jr type
Came very Quick then sat in Customs I think.


Light as fk'
all mahogany, set neck, beautiful axe
might have to change everything

Very nice!  I like the satin finish.

Agreed the satin finish is a very classy look.
I do like the looks of this guitar.

Neat.

the plastic is still on the pickguard in the pics,
I think the plastic nut has to go, maybe the pickup and wiring/pots, tuners seem okay.
fit and finish is very good.

Noice..
Love the slab specials and jrs

I've got 3, so far. Two teles (a madcat/Prince clone, and one of their deluxe models), and a PRS style. They're superb guitars considering the price. Fit/finish was flawless on all mine. The ONLY issues I've had are the nuts were not cut to my satisfaction on the teles, but this is very easily addressed, and my PRS had some fret sprout that required a bit of fuss, but it was very minor.

I consider that a nothing burger, when I compared them to pretty much anything else in their price range and how little it took to get them in what I consider first rate playing shape. I REALLY like the stock pickups in all of them, which is a huge surprise, and the component quality was very good too.

Its amazing what import guitars have great pickups. HB has been pretty consistent with their Roswell pickups as long as I can remember.  That Madcat HB has been calling my name for a while... I noticed it has really unique pickups, the sound samples i've heard are interesting.

Attached File


Here are my two HBs. Great guitars!

Not sure about now, but at the time I bought it you only had the fender style or a stop bar/PRS style to choose from. Mine was a second, I would have preferred the stop bar but meh, I blocked mine off and it's all good for my tastes.

Bought this in January. Fine instrument. I think they barely skated by some Ric copyrights. Plays great.

I wish they'd do a 330 or 360 style body, I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

My understanding is that the Rickenbacker people are prone to aggressively pursuing non-licensed copies or clones. That's why you only rarely see the Fernandes RG80 or the Aria Pro II version of the (John Lennon) 325. I'm betting that this Harley Benton is as close as a company can get without having it snatched. I know that Fishbone Guitars makes some similar clone-ish Rickenbackeresque stylings.

Other than the overall look of the pickguard and controls on this HB 12 string, I found it interesting that the bridge mechanism was very similar to the Rickenbacker style but they then used tune-o-matic style saddles. The pickups are mini humbuckers which have a Gretsch filtertron styling. I do not know the output but I don't find them hot at all - which is a good thing. I'm convinced that lower output PUPs are the key to vintage-y tone whether you are looking for 60s vibe (Beatles, Byrds, Paul Revere, etc.-Mostly Rics) or 70s style (Pete Townshend/The Who - Won't Get Fooled - Gretsch Country Gentleman).

I'm pretty much a low-end theory guy so getting this nice playing, nice sounding electric 12-string for around $300 was a steal. I would never dole out 10x that much for a real Ric.

They are. Bentley made some good clones in the 80's and got hammered.

I have a 360 and I love it, but one thing I despise about Rickenbacker are the frets...they're small and butter soft, and I've tried to avoid beating mine to death. I would love a workable clone I could refit with good pickups and use it like it was meant to be used.

I suppose when it's said and done a refret with medium jumbo stainless would be a smart idea, but I'd still like to have one. There's some Chinese copies that are pretty good looking, but I hate rolling the dice on Alibaba grade stuff, unless it's parts caster fodder.

Agile had that "Harm" model and I was intrigued, but I got my hands on one at a local music store (trade in) and I wasn't crazy about it. Looked cool, just something not "rick" enough for what I wanted it for.

I really like my Harley Benton, I got the 335 copy. Pit locking tuners and a tusq nut like I do to every guitar, then added a bigsby to it.

Before and after pics

The pickups are mediocre so this will get replaced at some point but it plays great