If you’re wondering if Harley Benton JA electric guitar kit is worth it or not, don’t worry – you’ve come to the right place! In today’s in-depth review, I’m going to take a very close look on that inexpensive DIY guitar kit. It’s very popular and affordable, but is it actually good?
The truth is that building the Harley Benton JA guitar from scratch is an extremely fun project for any lover of guitars. It’s easy to assemble and it sounds surprisingly good, considering the fact that it’s really cheap.
Let’s dive deeper with research to find out more about the Harley Benton DIY Jazzmaster guitar kit. Firstly, we’ll start with a quick overview of that kit and we’ll investigate its biggest pros and cons. Of course, there will also be a few sound demos of the fully assembled DIY JA guitars!
Overview – Specs & Pricing
Harley Benton JA DIY electric guitar kit is one of the most popular offset guitar kits that you can currently find on the market. It’s affordable and it allows you to build your own JA-style guitar from scratch.
What’s important, once you finish the whole process, you’ll get a really good sounding and highly functional electric guitar. It has a solid body made of Rengas wood, a comfortable maple neck and an Amaranth fingerboard which is easy on the fingers. What’s important, the fretwork is surprisingly good.
The manufacturer also two P90 single-coil pickups which offer a lot of versatility when it comes to tone. They’re not amazing, but they sound really good, so there’s a high chance that you won’t have to change them right away.
When it comes to pricing, it’s actually really cheap. Finding a better and more affordable DIY guitar kit will be impossible, so this kit is definitely worth every cent.
Overall, this fantastic guitar kit exceeds all the expectations. And that’s why I highly encourage you to check it out!
Who Is It For?
This guitar kit is perfect for both amateur and more advanced guitar players who want to build their own guitar.
You don’t need any professional skills to be able to assemble it. A certain degree of craftsmanship may be helpful, but even if you don’t know much about it, you should be able to figure it out in a few hours or days.
It is also worth mentioning that the assembled guitar offers a really nice and versatile tone thank to the P90 pickups. Surely, the overall sound and feel of that axe will be a pleasant surprise to a lot of guitar players.
Using the DIY kit to build your own axe is also a great way for musicians to understand how electric guitars are built. That will explain you a lot if you don’t really know how it all works.
Overall, I’m positive that the vast majority of guitarists will really enjoy assembling their own electric guitar from scratch. This is a really fun project to do and it’s amazing to see that you can turn a piece of wood into a functional and great sounding instrument!
Pros & Cons
Just like any other similar guitar kit, Harley Benton JA DIY kit has its own advantages and disadvantages. That’s totally understandable! In the end, the price of that kit is pretty cheap, so it’s still a budget guitar.
Pros
- Cheap Price
- Surprisingly Good Tone
- Fun To Assemble
- The Neck Feels Great
- Perfect For Mods
Cons
- Basic Pickups & Strings
- Minor Quality Issues
- Instructions Could Be More Detailed
- No Gig Bag Included
As you can see, getting the JA DIY kit has a lot of great advantages. It will definitely help you understand more about how electric guitars are built. Additionally, it will be a really fun and rewarding project for you, because you’ll be able to build your own electric guitar. On top of that, this guitar looks and feels great after the assembly!
On the other hand, since it’s a pretty cheap guitar kit, some of the parts of that axe are pretty basic. Upgrading the pickups and strings may be a really good idea, but it’s not necessary.
Additionally, the instructions aren’t that detailed either, so absolute beginners may experience some problems while building it from scratch. But in the end, it’s all about learning, so I’m sure that you’ll figure it out! There are also a lot of tutorials on YouTube on how to do it.
Overall, I’m positive that the advantages of that kit outweigh its disadvantages. There’s just not too much to complain, especially when you consider how affordable it all actually is. That’s why I highly recommend checking it out!
Unboxing & Sound Demo
Getting your own Harley Benton JA guitar kit can be really exciting, so if you want to learn more about how it all looks and sounds, feel free to check out the video below.
This quick review will show you what you can expect after unboxing this kit and it will also show you how good this guitar can actually sound.
Harley Benton JA Kit Assembly
As I mentioned before, building the DIY Harley Benton guitar from scratch is not that complicated, but it requires a little bit of effort. The instructions are included with the kit, but some of the things could be explain a little bit better.
Here’s a really good video that shows you the whole process of assembling that JA-style electric guitar. Hopefully, it will help you understand how that whole process looks like.
Too Challenging? Try Harley Benton JA-60
If you have a feeling that building your own Harley Benton guitar will be too difficult for you, that’s not a problem! Perhaps choosing a ready-built Jazzmaster copy will be a much more optimal option for you.
Getting the Harley Benton JA-60 will save you a lot of time. But on the other hand, you won’t be able to experience the whole process of building it from scratch!
Additionally, the JA-60 model has a bit different pickups than the ones used in the guitar kit reviewed in today’s article. If you want to read more about Harley Benton JA-60, check out my in-depth article about it.
The decision is up to you. If you want to learn more about electric guitars and how they’re built, choose the DIY kit. But if you want to save some time and get an inexpensive and great sounding offset guitar, the JA-60 will be just fine.
No Gig Bag Included? No Problem
As you’re already aware, Harley Benton DIY JA guitar kit is usually sold without a gig bag. This is not a huge issue, but finding the right case for an offset guitar like this JA-style model isn’t actually that easy.
However, if you’re looking for a high quality case for the guitar that you’ll build with that kit, I highly encourage you to check out Fender FEJ-610. This case is specifically designed for Jaguars and Jazzmasters.
I’m using this particular soft case on a daily basis and I can definitely recommend it to all guitarists who play on JA-style guitars. It offers a really good quality and in fact, it’s not overly expensive.
Want to find out more about Harley Benton?
If you want to learn more about Harley Benton guitars, make sure to check out their official website.
Summary
As you can see, building your own Harley Benton JA electric guitar by yourself is an extremely fun thing to do. You don’t need to be an experienced luthier in order to assemble that guitar – it’s all pretty easy and beginner-friendly. Considering how cheap this guitar kit is, it’s definitely worth the money!
What do you think of that guitar kit? Would you get it for yourself? Leave a comment down below and let me know what you think, I’m really interested to hear your thoughts!
Thanks for checking out today’s review, hopefully it was helpful and you found what you were looking for. If you’re searching for more gear recommendations, you may also like:
