This one was actually a challenge, here’s an old Harley Benton Kit what can you do with it?

This was our first time looking at a kit guitar and the first thing we did was to strip it down into its component parts. Once it was stiped and laid out on the table, I can say in all honesty you get what you pay for, and £75 gets you a 5 piece unknown wood body, cheap Chinese pickups, electrics and hardware.

The body was covered in a thin layer of preservative which was sanded off before it was stained a cherry red and given a lovely oil finish, which really brought out the woods natural beauty and luster. The neck was the next thing to get attention, and when I say that, it was completely replaced. The new one is a one piece mahogany neck with a maple fret board and black resin trapezoid inlays

A set of custom brass plates were commissioned with the customers own artwork along with a full set of new nickel hardware, a Duesnberg LesTrem and a set of hot 59 alnico 5 Humbuckers.

Electrics were thrown out and a set of Bourns potentiometers were installed, the volume pots are push pulls, that coil split the corresponding humbucker and tone is provided from a pair of vintage tropical fish capacitors. This gives the guitar so many tonal possibilities and its suited to multiple musical genres.

So the long and short is that the only thing that made it through was the body and strap buttons, so this isn’t really the same guitar, but what we do have is something truly unique, amazing to play and stunning to look at!