Harley Benton has announced a dramatic expansion of its Pro Series with the launch of 41 Fusion-IV S-style guitars.
The scale of this launch is a little bamboozling, but when you get down to it, these Harley Benton guitars are gathered in five core models, offering a variation in fit and finish across each, and a lot of spec options, too.
These Pro Series Fusion-IV models all generally retail under the $600. There are a few things you can take for granted.
Article continues belowOne, they all come with roasted figured maple necks, bolted to the body in the time-honoured fashion of the OG S-style.
Two, the bodies are nyatoh, with neck profiles a mainstream C profile measuring 21mm thick at the 1st fret, 23mm at the 12th.
Three, they are built for performance. We’ve got stainless steel frets, the 12” to 16” compound radius fingerboards.
And look at the the hardware, such as the Harley Benton-branded Jinho JN-07 staggered locking tuners, and the Babicz FCH 2-Point Special Z-Series tremolo that is available on the HH, HSH and HSS models, or the Floyd Rose 1000 Series double-locking vibrato on the Fusion–IV HH FR. We get Graph Tech XL nuts as standard, and there are heel-mounted truss rod adjustment wheels.
The specs are pretty impressive indeed – there’s even a dual-humbucker model with a pair of EMG Custom Retro Active Hot 70 humbuckers. That model comes with a tidy no-fuss six-saddle hardtail.
And the little details, such as the glow-in-the-dark side dot markers, the sculpting on the back of the body, and the natural wood binding that ties it all together, all add up to an impressive instrument.
If the core inspiration was once upon a time the Stratocaster, these make us think of “affordable boutique”; and okay, that reads totally oxymoronic, but just look at the prices on these, and then the design influence behind the specs and the finishes. It is more Suhr (and Charvel) than anything Jimi Hendrix played back in the day.
There’s even an Ibanez influence. Look at those Fusion-IV models with the Tesla electric guitar pickups; they have an Alter Switch that allows you to run the HSS model’s single-coils in series, or to activate Harley Benton’s hum-free ‘Ghost Coil’ voicing on the dual-humbucker model. The HSH model’s Active Switch gives us split-coil modes. So many options…
And there are too many models to run through here. Life is too short. But Harley Benton has made a handy online tool for choosing specs and making sense of all these models and their myriad finish options.
Head over to Harley Benton for a closer look – where you will find lots of left-handed options – and pop over to Thomann where these Pro Series Fusion-IV models are now available, priced from £435/$530(approx).
