The dreaded Harley Benton 7-string (56k: take a short nap)

[jarrydn]

You've heard the lore surrounding it. You're preeeetty sure it exists, but up until now, it could have been an unsubstantiated myth.

Well, folks, you can stop dreaming, because here it is, in all it's craptastically routed glory

A little scratched from leaving her in the shed for a year :

Incase you're wondering, the bridge wouldn't intonate correctly :

Better than Ibanez!:

I seriously don't know what's going on here :S:

Protip: Don't operate machinery whilst intoxicated:

And here she is, 95% sanded. Just need to finish off the sides. Note, the wood doesn't actually look too bad, and if it wasn't for the horrible routing, I'd be tempted to keep it natural :

Honestly, it doesn't even deserve me giving it the time of day, let alone taking care while sanding it back. I know the job looks gungy right now, but once it's been blocked, puttied, and sprayed with that wonderous rock texture, it will look a little less lame

I'm expecting to get the bulk of the work done by Sunday.

 

[Eric]

Wow... looking at that makes me totally not want to do my 7620 project I was going to start this morning...

 

[Makelele]

I have a friend who sanded the finish from her Harley Benton strat. Turned out it was made from plywood. That guitar sure sounded really bad too.

 

[RgAscendant]

I think that looks pretty cool with the sides unsanded. Of course, I'd dye the rest of the sanded stuff .

 

[Seedawakener]

It actually looks good when sanded! How big is the difference from that one and the RG shape really?

 

[jarrydn]

I somewhat half-heartedly considered leaving the sides un-sanded and staining the top and bottom...but then reality struck me and I decided against it.

I'm going for the most horrible bright puke green I can find. I was originally leaning towards a darker, sparkly green...but I dunno...I want this guitar to make people vomit up their breakfast.

 

[Alpo]

A guy I know has one of those RG ripoffs, but it has a fixed bridge. I haven't played it but it sure looks like a piece of crap...

 

[jarrydn]

I really really want to modify the headstock to make it look less like an ibanez rip-off.

I was considering cutting it to look like a black-machine headstock, but I don't want to risk ruining the (no doubtedly already horrible) structural integrity.

 

[Alpo]

I don't think it's possible for one of these to look much more like an Ibanez-ripoff:

 

[jarrydn]

Sorry, I meant less

 

[Alpo]

Oh, that makes sense.

 

[canuck brian]

The routing looks like it was done freehand by an epileptic in the middle of a seizure.

 

[darren]

Good lord... have those people never heard of "routing templates"?

 

[b3n]

Maybe they're just using a really bad template

Puke green sounds goo, can't wait to see the finished pics

 

[InTheRavensName]

...or "guitars"?

 

[Roundhouse_Kick]

HARLEY
BENTONNNNNN!!!!


I nearly bought a harley benton 4x12 because I was broke and it had vintage 30's. But then I remembered its a harley benton

Good luck with the project!

 

[technomancer]

The routing looks like it was done freehand by an epileptic in the middle of a seizure.

I was more thinking chimpanzee with a hammer and screwdriver myself...

 

[jarrydn]

It definitely looks like a screwdriver job

Here's what my current vision for it is:

Still not 100% on the headstock. I might have to look into reinforcing it if I want to do a gnarly cut-away.

 

[Invader]

I have a hardtail version of that. It's crap. It's crap in it's purest form. If the dictionary would have the word crap in it, there would be just a picture of this craptacular Harley Benton there. The specs are ok, in theory it shouldn't be too bad, but it is. I refinished mine in bronze. I also had to move the bridge a little so that it would intonate properly. The neck pocket was routed so that the neck was crooked when sat in the pocket. I had to shim it pretty hard.

 

[jarrydn]

They make a hardtail version? D:

Yeah, the neck on mine certainly isn't what you'd call snug, and I will definitely be shimming it. It's basically just going to be a beater until I accquire myself a proper 7 string.