Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit HB35-Style

This is an absolute beast of a guitar. I was always looking out for a Gibson 335 but could never afford the real thing. A few years ago I bought the Harley Benton Les Paul kit and found myself a great guitar and had lots of fun putting it together.

When I saw this at 180 euro I jumped at the chance. The Humbucker pickups sound wonderful. I was skeptical about the bolt on neck but the inner step has it feeling super sturdy.

The tuning heads could do with replacing and I found getting the wires in place absolutely infuriating as it has to be done through the f-holes but other than that it is an incredible guitar for an amazing price that I will be using as my main guitar going forward.

This is the second Harley Benton kit I've built. It was a journey.
Read the instructions out of the box; noted warnings related to stain due to use of grain fill in factory process.
Fired ahead anyway: sanded the guitar body back, 220 - 600 grit. The set about applying water based dye burst. The dye took well and soaked into the wood except for some remaining spots close to the binding (I was reluctant to sand enough to change the contours of the body). It was a a little patchy but I was happy enough. Carried on with a thick epoxy resin coat which I wet sanded right back to 3000 grit and polished to high gloss. After cutting to shape, the face of the headstock got the same epoxy coat and polish.
I oiled the neck and the back and sides of the headstock with Danish oil.
Aftre all this, I finally assembled it. The wiring was tricky and made me profane but in the end, I managed it (look out for missing step in instrictions about harness wiring for pickup selector switch routing through the bridge pickup cavity).
Plays nice, plugged in or not.
Enjoyed the project and love the guitar.
It is a beautiful thing.

It took me almost 7 months to finish this build but mainly because I waited for winter to be over so I have higher air temperatures for lacquer finishing. First i sanded down all the sealling that was on wood and stained it black/turquoise contrast finish but wasn't very happy how it turned out. Sanded it back down to bare wood and started from scratch. Now it's deep high gloss red and it looks and soinds like million dollars. This was my first ever guitar built and it has some tricky moments but in the end it is so much fun and seeing and hearing your guitar in the end is a truly wow moment. For assemble, you really have to be really really careful not to scratch the finish, but with some good tools and a piece of thin wire for pulling electronics thru guitar body, you can assembe it in one afternoon. I'm ordering my next kit soon, that's for sure!