Canadian Maple Body & Neck gives the guitar its weight, It resonates beautifully without being plugged in. The finish is Great, no cracks or dents, The Paintwork and bindings are really good and what I would expect of a much more expensive model.
Tuners feel quite sturdy and the set up straight out of the box was fairly good, Intonations slightly out in places but nothing major. However probably the lowest, worst point is the floating bridge. Its not a great fit to the body, I can actually see daylight underneath it. also, Its very flimsy. This could be caused by the fact that the bigsby based tremolo is the incorrect type for this type guitar. The string break angle is very acute causing the bridge to bow forward when any pressure is put on the tremolo. Set up with 12`s, there is a lot of pressure over the string rollers. However, having given the guitar a good test, I found the bridge did stay I place and tune. This all prior to plugging it in. Once plugged into my amp, wow. Fantastic. The volume and tone pots are very responsive and work even when turned to almost off, (Very Rare With Cheap Guitars) I found all the electrics to be very good. The Scratchplate is not the prettiest but not a major problem for me. overall, As a owner of an original Hagstrom Jimmy, The Harley Benton is fantastic value for money and I will be using mine live with my band once I have sorted a few minor set up issues relevant to me. Very Impressed.