Birthday soon, so Mrs T has got me a Harley Benton JA-60LH, a hard-tail jag style guitar.
It was a return to Thomanns, so the price dropped, which is always a good thing.
Ever try finding a left-handed hard tail offset??
It arrived really out of tune, but that was easy to sort.
There was also an earth issue, which I think is sorted now - I removed the screws to take off the plastic protective covering as it was under everything including the pot nuts, and after tightening everything back up the issue appears (hopefully!) to have lessened to what I would expect from a non-humbucker system.
Looking forward to seeing how it helps my shoulder and neck.
Happy NGD, I’ve got one of those as well and funnily enough mine was also a B stock!
It’s a great guitar with some pretty raunchy sounds cranked up, the only things that I’ve done to mine are to replace the nut with a graphtec one, tuners, and changed to a roller string tree and polished the V slots in the bridge. It’s as good now as you could buy for x4 the price if not better!
To paraphrase the good book: "Unless I feel the frets on the board and turn the tuners with my fingers, and put my hand on the curve of its side, I will not believe.”
Well, ok, a pic will do
isn’t it Jazzmaster based? (25.5" scale)
a Jag is 24"
Good choice, from what I hear; a lot of bang for your buck!
Did you get the sunburst or olympic white one?
It looks good with block inlays and bound necks.
I liked its clean tone a lot when heard it online.
online reviewers seem to be impressed by how much it overdelivers.
This one needs some work.
The nut is pretty dire and the trees definitely need replacing. Tuners will be improved at some point as well.
Just waiting for some fret rubbers from Crimson Guitars to give everything a good polishing - the frets aren’t bad, just not super-smooth.
As you say, it would be tough to match this for it’s price, or anywhere near the price.
It certainly appears to be easier to play than the LP style I have, with reduced shoulder pain, and the fact that it weighs at least 1.5KG less also helps!
Yeah, the tuning stability is much better, especially when doing 3 fret bends!
The Kluson tuners are a lot more positive as well, the old ones had a bit of slop.
Just checked again, and though the scale length is indeed 25.5 inch, the style is listed as ‘Jaguar’
Maybe a subtle difference in body shape?
Certainly doesn’t have the bells and whistles of the Jazzmaster tone controls, which I think would have made me dizzy . I had searched for a Jag as they were the first ones I saw with a hard-tail in an offset design.
I really didn’t want a trem system - I have enough issues playing the strings in tune, without something there to deliberately make them go out of tune (I am very adept at that ) The other reason for not wanting a trem is that at the price range I could look at, there was no way a trem was going to be stable enough.
I am (as noted above) going to change the nut and string trees, as these are not up to par, but at this price, sheesh, it’s a no-brainer. Only issue I did have was trying to source a left-handed Graphtec nut (found one now).
Now back to the learning and practicing.
Just found Justin’s Smoke On The Water tutorial.
Come on! I had to play that one eventually
Starting with the opening riff, so I can teach Mrs T. as well.
OK it is pretty enough, I guess, but the thing is, it has to sit next to my guitar . Now Joe is quite particular about his friends and who gets close, (this new guy doesn’t even have a name yet ) Happy Birthday anyway, I won’t mention how many of those there have been btw xxx
Hi Andy,
So, today is the day… congratulations … and you too Kathy… and I say it again… I hope you are not sitting next to each other on the couch because that would being freaky
Greetings,Rogier
. I had searched for a Jag as they were the first ones I saw with a hard-tail in an offset design.
) The other reason for not wanting a trem is that at the price range I could look at, there was no way a trem was going to be stable enough.
. Now Joe is quite particular about his friends and who gets close, (this new guy doesn’t even have a name yet 
) Happy Birthday anyway, I won’t mention how many of those there have been btw xxx
… and you too Kathy… and I say it again… I hope you are not sitting next to each other on the couch because that would being freaky 