i have had a JS-400 for 3 months now, best addition to my guitar stable yet, that neck is sublime, i love it! 🥰 i have 11 electric guitars, my 2 most expensive are my Fender limited edition player strat and my Gretsch 5230T..as a working man with not a lot of money to spend, these 2 guitars are at present my holy grail guitars and are in bought extra hard cases..the js-400 due to the price is not in any way inferior to them..think i need to buy another hard case for my jet baby 😁
Man, just bought this guitar yesterday! Surf green, just beautiful 😍 and it does not feel like a budget guitar at all. I was hopping you had this video before I went to the store, but the choice was right ! I'm happy
Can’t beat a Jet, I own 2 Jet Js300’s because they’re just that good 🙌🏻 I’ve had various HB’s over the years, and I wouldn’t buy another after finding Jet. The quality and craftsmanship and specs are just on another level for the price.
I love my Jets, the 400 is my favorite! Just levelled the frets on my JS-800 and now it's a screaming monster🥰 My Fender Deluxe Roadhouse Strat is gently weeping....🎸🤘🎸 Edit: My 400 stays in tune really well despite tremolo use! I did put locking tuners on all of them and polished the bone nut and slots to a mirror finish....😁
one thing I learned over the years and what I haven't heard youtube reviewers mention even once: one of the biggest problems with budget guitars is how the neck morphs over the first one, two years. Guitars like the Harley Bentons can play brilliantly right out of the box but develop a twist or fret sprout later on - because on cheap guitars the wood is grown quick and used even quicker, so it has not much time to dry out after being cut and so contain a higher percentage of moisture - a thing that is a huge cost driver on higher end guitars is to store them for months and even years to properly dry them out. That can lead to a guitar becoming unplayable since the whole fret-crowning can be ruined by the wood literally pushing the frets up and out of the slots or the neck developing a twist that makes it un-intonable. Happened to my bandmate with a Harley Benton he otherwise loved. After two years he had the options to pay a luthier for a refret job costing more than the original guitar - or throwing away the whole thing. So the roasted maple necks actually make a ton of sense on these budget guitars because - in theory - the "roasting" should get rid of extra moisture and make the neck more stable in the long run.
This isn’t just a problem for budget guitars, my 1200$ Charvel is the same. Most big companies are dealing with much newer wood than in the past. These trees don’t even know they’ve been chopped down yet. My tech says these ensuing problems seem to be even more prevalent in guitars that would be considered expensive guitars. This will unfortunately be an ongoing issue.
I have HB's, Gretsch, Fender, Jet, Eastcoast, Donner and an IYV custom shop..most over 4 years old and never experienced anything like that in the UK..really sorry you had problems 😧 mine are only stored in the bedroom to the annoyance of the wife...but are kept at room temperature (18c-20c) from new in gig bags or hard cases
I have 4 JS-400’s. No issues at all. Love the 1 volume 1 tone knob configuration. Don’t have to constantly worry about hitting the volume knob. The trems on mine actually work great. Can’t say that for all of my Fenders. Neck is great. Turners do the job. Can’t recommend enough.
i got 4 of them ... my js 400 got really dark roasted maple neck ... dont need tremolo so stay in tune just fine ... plays like a dream ... also got couple of teles ...what can i say i like them
Your wife has an excellent choice in hats. I have a JS400. Lubricated the nut and balanced the trem. Changed the strings for Slinky 9.5's. Intonated, then stretched the strings out over 3 days and the "trem" worked well. Sometimes all it needs is a little patience. I also have a Sire S3. Required less work, better sound, better neck. Same result. Cannot get the same from any of my "Fender" strats. Although my ten years+ old ML1 is still leaps ahead of everything.
Happy birthday Henning! The hat absolutely completes the outfit... It's a statement by itself! 😆😉 Nice of you wearing it to please the Mrs! I really liked the noodling in the intro. 🤤
I have that Guitar in Cream White. It came from Musikhaus Korn setup totally perfectly. And even Stock 'till now it is my Guitar that holds tuning absolutely best, even i've got many Floyd Rose Guitars here. In the meanwhile i've put some DiMarzio and Wilkinson Pickups inside, only to put back in the original ones. Although the electric is renewed meanwhile. And i put an Wilkinson 2Point Trem inside that i had lying around anyway, but totally not necessary. What i did nevertheless: i've installed some cheap Locking Tuners by FAME (inHouse Brand by Musicstore Cologne, Germany). So for little money this is a great guitar! Oh, and a Roasted Maple Neck to die for!
I have several Bentons and now two Jet-guitars, so I can compare both brands pretty well. Not even the Fusion from HB comes close to the quality of the Jet guitars and they are twice as expensive
Reviewed the very same Guitar - it's my current no.1! 😃👍 Fender US strat is gathering dust! Jets comes stock with 10's btw - I changed them to 9's 😉 I've also just threw another £300ish of mods into it. Wish Harley Benton did 9.5" radius too.
This review is something constructive and complete. Thanks for sharing it. Just a small thing I see there is that when you tune down a string to get the note you're looking for, that string will get out of tune sooner or later, whether the guitar has a term or fixed bridge unless you stretch the string (or unless you do a massive bending with your left hand, not less than 2 tones) and make it settle. Other than that, it really helped me to get closer to this brand and I think I'm going to get one of this beauties. Thanks again.
What you’re getting here is really a $200 guitar that plays great for beginners or a $400 guitar after modifications for a player that wants a budget custom super Strat. I think as far as the jet line goes, I wouldn’t want to buy any of the more expensive models because it just doesn’t make sense anymore. but at $200 as a starting point it’s incredible
I uk £189 free delivery in that colour today. Holy moly huge value. 2 years ago I built myself a lake placid blue hss roasted maple Strat as is seen one at thousands. I'm impressed.
I think Jet has a brand advantage - that of not being Harley Benton. It sounds shallow, but being on stage with a HB guitar, you know that every other musician in the room will assume you're a Kaufhausgitarrist. In 25 years, HB have invested a lot into making good guitars, but next to nothing in building a quality brand. The name alone sounds artificial and nonsensical - is that supposed to be a guy from some Benton family? Or a Mr Harley and a Mr Benton? The logo design looks cheap, and so does the website. And everybody knows that HB is not even a real "thing" - the real thing is Thomann. As opposed to that, there are brands in that bracket that cost the same but feel "real". Like Vintage guitars. for example (I happily own one), Slick, or Jet. Not to mention the Squier range.
I agree. Harley Benton can be a victim of their own success as the yare perceived of being a value brand offering good guitars for good value due to their buying power & the "house brand" label. I could see in the future Thomann offering more guitars made for their company with different names to shake off that "value brand" moniker. They actually could develop into a guitar & musical instrument company & could even buy up the names including companies like Jet Guitars. This is what usually happens of course with corporations.
I wanted to buy a Tele and a Strat but I got Jet because I wasn't going to buy those from HB with a 12" fretboard radius. I don't mind Harley Benton. I bought a 2 by 12 cab of theirs once and it rocked. I might buy a guitar off them someday, but so far I haven't found anything I wanted.
Say what you want but my Harley Benton Fusion Pro isnso good it gets played along side my Suhr, Anderson, EBMM & Schecter Custom shop all the time. A good guitar is always a good guitar if you care too much about brand perception then you are just another snob
A lot comes down to personal taste and perception. I prefer the Harley Benton headstock logo over the Jet logo but I prefer the Jet headstock shape over that of the Harley Benton Fusion’s. That said, all 3 of my Fusion’s are Harley Benton’s own version of Suhr models so I did what Harley Benton can’t do and re-shaped the headstocks to reflect the Suhr models they based them on and changed the headstock logo’s too. My Fusion 3 HH has upgraded electronics, two Suhr Thornbucker 2 humbuckers and a Wilkinson WVS 130 trem. Essentially it has the same spec and looks, sounds, and plays like a Suhr Pete Thorn signature Standard model. This is the advantage of Thomann keeping Harley Benton as a ‘budget brand’ and not developing the HB brand to something more expensive. We as customers (give or take some occasional QC issues) get to buy great Harley Benton guitars inexpensively, that with a bit of time modding and upgrading can look, feel, and play like boutique and custom shop guitars that retail for 15 times their cost. My HB Fusion 3 cost a total of £800 after being upgraded to the spec of the Suhr Pete Thorn signature Standard which retails for around £4000. The figuring and flame of the roasted maple neck on my Fusion 2 is way better than that on the roasted maple neck of my Suhr Classic S, which according to Suhr is AAA grade. As long as HB retain their status as a great budget brand we as customers get to buy ‘the bones’ of great guitars from HB that are not only great for beginners they can be easily modded to professional level guitars and I wouldn’t want to see that change. If you build a guitar from scratch the cost of buying a good quality body, neck, pickups, and hardware for your build will push you over £1000, what a fantastic time it is when we have Harley Benton, Jet, Eart, Fazley, Michael Kelly etc retailing guitars at 20% of this cost.😁
In one passage Mr Henning was probably talking about Soundsation guitars and their Rider series with locking tuners and I add the Eko Aire Standard (no locking tuners) by the great Massimo Varini and the announced at Namm this year but not on sale yet Donner Dst-600 and Dst-700 and Hush headless. Plus some "amazonian" brand like Musi or Eart. If I'd have the money to pay Mr Henning work and the logistic to gather all this lesser known but apparently performing gears I'd like to really know if there is substance under the claims or really just smoke and mirrors. Love your channel, your work and knowledge and the fact that you always spit the truth or very well just as close as possible Mr Henning 🎸way way way to go!
Briefly had the minty js400. 10-46 elixirs. stayed in tune fabulously and I played EVH stuff on it abusing that trem. Zero issues. So don't assume the trem and tuners are bad on all of them.
Bought one of these from the first batch about 18 months ago, no issues, I have expensive guitars costing 10+ times as much, this really is a good guitar, neck is very good, changed the single coils to IronGear, for personal preference, but humbucker ok for now, tuning is fine, only gripe was the trem springs, which went after a few months of gigging use, cheap fix, quite a few examples of this being played live on my channel, but dont judge by my playing lol, its the pale yellow Strat, this is the kind of instrument you can upgrade and not feel cheated that you should have bought a more expensive guitar, mine ready to Gig out the box, except for the strings, which were sh*te, action on mine was fine, tuners, been ok, I can pick up an epiphone in Andertons, bend some strings and it it needs a retune, so I can be a heavy player and I do use the trem, like in Demons Eye on my channels, as you say a great modding platform, I like that Blue, when I bought mine most were sold out, so only the baby sick yellow was still available.
On your testing protocol about the tested item being the weak link in the chain, I 100% agree. For these more entry level guitars, think it would be nice to consider changing out one of the high-end amp selection for a brief section with a free amp sim, and/or a roughly cost-appropriate amp like Friedman BE-Mini that's on the desk.
i got the pink version of this and i gotta be honest.. compared to the fusion-III of harley benton, the neck on the jet is just so incredibly more comfortable for me so i see myself picking the jet up all the time over any of my other guitars
Thanks to your report about Jet Guitars I now own a JS-400 and I must say, that is the first single-coil guitar that actually speaks to me. I just love the neck and I find the sounds I am looking in the pick-ups. Never happened with my Yamaha or Ibanez guitars. I love how they focus on the things that count: a close-to perfect neck, a good nut and a working trem. (Works for me, at least) I will see if I can address the noise issues with some copper foil when I change strings, but, hey, that's what humbuckers were invented for and for that price, there is no reason why you could not add a HB DC-Custom to the setup. And I might want to replace the tuners, just as you said. BTW: the frets on mine were fine, the intonation spot on but the action quite high but perfectly playable. So, thanks for the report, I did not know at all about the brand and now I'm a happy owner.
I put Iron Gear single coils in mine, the stock were more than ok, for a guitar 500 bucks, Humbucker has been fine, I know the sounds I like from single coils, so quite discerning, most of my guitars are Humbuckers or P90's for that reason, tuners on mine have been fine, but at this price, not unreasonable to swap to good locking tuners, the neck is worth the price of the guitar alone.
I got the Arctic white model (slightly greenish hue depending on light). Had my usual luthier block the trem (worked fine but I don't use it), fit an IronGear Rolling Mill, and give it a setup. He said the electrics were fine and didn't feel it was necessary to upgrade anything else. I fitted locking tuners myself and I'm over the moon. My Highway One is "resting" as proof...
I love everything on my one except for the pickups. Somehow they sound thin and muddy at the same time. But the neck justifies the guitar for me so I’ll swap the pickups out for something decent. Anyone else experience this with the pickups?
That's a mighty pretty strat right there. A tiny touch more green in the blue would be nice. There's a perfect colour of strat, I've seen it before, its very rare and elusive
My Experience with Harley Benton B Stock: First one that came was catastrophic! So many issues..Broken tuner, Dead spots all over,nut completely loose, etc.. Send it back and in 2 days another Fusion B stock arrived.. Totally different ! Unplugged it sounds totally different! Really like a different guitar! Way More alive and no Dead Spots at all! Amazing flame all over neck and fretboard! Really stunning.. There is still one problem with the nut..the slots are cut in to deep..obviously other way around it would be way better and easier to fix but hey i guess there must be made some compromise if you buy a top specs loaded guitar for 210euro...
Hello there Really like the looks of this. One suggestion On budget guitars could you do 5 mins with some of the Friedman/ bogner heads? The soldano and that are great references but more realistic through an amp in a similar price bracket?
I have 2 of these, there is nothing wrong with the trem systems. they are certainly "setup-able" and the thing stays in tune like a champ. did put some locking tuners on it though.
Harley Benton St62cc has a roasted neck and I think its only £140, it has alnico 5 roswell pickups, which sound good. And the tuners are upgraded from the cheaper £90 models. And I havent had had issues with the trem bridges. This is a nice looking guitar but value for money and quality the harley benton still is a better option.
@MrLoompi I mean,HB Has better pickups and tuners.. I'm sure the neck and body are of equal quality. But harley benton is cheaper due to the volume of guitars they make so they can bring costs down without having to compromise components as much as others.
I haven't played either one, but it's not a 1:1 comparison. The JS-400 has a contoured heel joint, easy access horn carve, and two-point tremolo. The St-62CC you mentioned is square heel, no easy access carve, and 6-point vintage trem. It's a "vintage" spec Strat, whereas the JS-400 is a modernized Strat. The ST-62 might have better hardware, but the JS-400 has a better design/construction. Personally, I buy cheap guitars as project guitars, so I'd rather take the Jet and throw my own hardware into it.
This is something I have been wondering about for some time. Basswood was the "think" in the 80'es (and early 90'es as well), and it's a good wood. It looks a bit boring, but it sounds good. So why do people use mahogany, alder or maple on guitars that are solid painted? You don't get to see the wood grain, and you still have to pay more money for it. Basswood is good!
great review, thanks! by the way, in your background (left side) you've got a blue relic guitar with black knobs that in most of the shots looks a bit blue/ greenish but from another angle appears more blue. What guitar is that?
The advantage of Harley Benton over its competitors is that you can return and get a full refund. I returned the two Harley Bentons I recently purchased because of this. It allows you to test and try out and form an opinion before deciding whether to keep or not.
Happy B'day! 😂 just ordered one after your Vido. Maybe I will mod it to a Tom Delonge, theres s high probability that it turns out better than his new 7ender mex signature strat😂
I moded to Tom Delonge, with Guykers locking tuners and Oripure pickupp from Ali Express. Cheap guitar, cheap mod. I realy like it and recommend. It is much better than any Squier I played in shop.
I'm thinking about their Tele in the 350 series (not butterscotch, that one doesn't have locking tuners), they've got a belly cut! More comfortable than the slab of wood Tele.
Why don't you do a couple to 4 tuggs up and that is how I keep my squire strats in tune. Also they all chug including my squire Tele by cranking the tone tone nob all the way down!!! Happy trails everyone!!! Love you all and have a blessed day!! I told Ryan a few months back and I guess he forgot!!!
HB st62 is cheaper with Alnico pickups. This one has ceramics and they are noisier. But the neck on jets is really comfy. I’d say they are a bit pricy for their range.
Put the bridge on the deck and lose das wiggle sticken altogether. That or again lose das sticken and use a wood block to secure the bridge from floating.
@EytschPi42 I was wondering if Jet guitars payed you just for this review? Can we expect some more reviews of other models? I already own the JS-400 and might buy the JT-300 in the near future since the JT-350 is not available for leftys. Would love to see a pink shell body with rosewood fretboard guitar from Jet for left handed players.
Guitar reviewers don’t understand floating tremolos, mechanically it is just a hinge that pivots on a fulcrum. There is no magic and being made of titanium or something exotic won’t help. It is a system and depends on your usage. I can make a $35 vibrato bridge perform the same as $2000 bridge.
I was thinking about getting this guitar as a project guitar. My question is: would a better trem do the job if I wanted to do the floating trem thing with vibrato up and down?
I have a JS-400 with upgraded pickups and floating trem setup - it works just fine, not any worse than a Mexican strat for example. Keep in mind its not a floyd rose type, so its not meant for super dive bomb abuse. If you want more stability, you could use some higher end replacement, like Gotoh, Wilkinson for example.
I tried some of these guitars at my local guitar and what can I say - don't expect a miracle for cheap. All the guitars I tried had tuning stability issues, sharp frets, flimsy switches and choking electronics. Their strat types were better, single cuts were worse. I don't say that these guitars are shit, just be prepared to invest additional money after the purchase on luthier services and some parts.
I tried in Andertons, both the S3 and S7, I own 2 Sire Guitars, an Acoustic and their 335 Copy, see example on my Channel, I also own the Jet 400, I think the S7 is a beautiful instrument, and worth spending the extra on, over the S3, if you want a 3 single coil Strat, but, in saying that, it is 300 bucks more expensive than the Jet, the Jet 400 is a very versatile and well made instrument at a ridiculous price in a HSS configuration, which with a few mods, is a superb guitar, I went for the Larry Carlton 335 with P90's, it sounds beautiful and is ideal for the Indy set my Band plays, but the neck at the nut is very narrow, it plays as well as a Gibson 335's and I have played quite a few.
If I can't get reliable information from a guy with a Cookie Monster hat, I don't know where I can get them. That's right up there as far as trustworthiness goes.
I payed 50€ more for the Jet Js-400 than what I payed for my Harley Benton but....I had to change the tuners, chose the locking tuners from Harley Benton and I had to change the saddles, they where crap so I bought highwood vintage saddles. At the end I spend 80€ extra to make the Jet a reasonable good guitar. Had to tighten the truss rod, lower the action, the strings weren't even adjusted at the same hight, realy crap Setup. At the end I'm really pleased with the Jet but the Harley Benton was top notch right out of the box, didn't have to do anything or change the Setup......so what's the best budget guitar....If I would not be able to set the truss rod right, I would be f#cked with a 200€ guitar. So imo the Jet isn't a good budget guitar for beginners, the Harley Benton shure is!!
![[Re:all TREASURE] EP.6 in 방콕ㅣ🚩 쩡캠의 방콕 투어 빵 마이 와이 👍](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/uyFw-nItA_s/mqdefault.jpg)
Jet guitars appear to be killing it in the budget guitar market! Would love to see reviews of some of their higher end guitars!
i have had a JS-400 for 3 months now, best addition to my guitar stable yet, that neck is sublime, i love it! 🥰
i have 11 electric guitars, my 2 most expensive are my Fender limited edition player strat and my Gretsch 5230T..as a working man with not a lot of money to spend, these 2 guitars are at present my holy grail guitars and are in bought extra hard cases..the js-400 due to the price is not in any way inferior to them..think i need to buy another hard case for my jet baby 😁
But 7 kilo double the weight of a strat. Do ya shoulder in. What a shame
Man, just bought this guitar yesterday! Surf green, just beautiful 😍 and it does not feel like a budget guitar at all. I was hopping you had this video before I went to the store, but the choice was right ! I'm happy
Can’t beat a Jet, I own 2 Jet Js300’s because they’re just that good 🙌🏻
I’ve had various HB’s over the years, and I wouldn’t buy another after finding Jet. The quality and craftsmanship and specs are just on another level for the price.
Sire guitars are also highly appreciated it seems, although the pricing might be a little higher vs Jet.
@@andreil1234 Ah thanks for that, I’ll have to check them out. But yeah the price of jets are so good.
I love my Jets, the 400 is my favorite! Just levelled the frets on my JS-800 and now it's a screaming monster🥰 My Fender Deluxe Roadhouse Strat is gently weeping....🎸🤘🎸 Edit: My 400 stays in tune really well despite tremolo use! I did put locking tuners on all of them and polished the bone nut and slots to a mirror finish....😁
Hello, could you specify the model of the tuners/shop/etc? thank you
one thing I learned over the years and what I haven't heard youtube reviewers mention even once: one of the biggest problems with budget guitars is how the neck morphs over the first one, two years.
Guitars like the Harley Bentons can play brilliantly right out of the box but develop a twist or fret sprout later on - because on cheap guitars the wood is grown quick and used even quicker, so it has not much time to dry out after being cut and so contain a higher percentage of moisture - a thing that is a huge cost driver on higher end guitars is to store them for months and even years to properly dry them out.
That can lead to a guitar becoming unplayable since the whole fret-crowning can be ruined by the wood literally pushing the frets up and out of the slots or the neck developing a twist that makes it un-intonable. Happened to my bandmate with a Harley Benton he otherwise loved. After two years he had the options to pay a luthier for a refret job costing more than the original guitar - or throwing away the whole thing.
So the roasted maple necks actually make a ton of sense on these budget guitars because - in theory - the "roasting" should get rid of extra moisture and make the neck more stable in the long run.
This isn’t just a problem for budget guitars, my 1200$ Charvel is the same. Most big companies are dealing with much newer wood than in the past. These trees don’t even know they’ve been chopped down yet.
My tech says these ensuing problems seem to be even more prevalent in guitars that would be considered expensive guitars. This will unfortunately be an ongoing issue.
Roasted necks in Jet 👍🎸
I have HB's, Gretsch, Fender, Jet, Eastcoast, Donner and an IYV custom shop..most over 4 years old and never experienced anything like that in the UK..really sorry you had problems 😧
mine are only stored in the bedroom to the annoyance of the wife...but are kept at room temperature (18c-20c) from new in gig bags or hard cases
Had my Jet over 18 months, neck has been rock solid, necks are baked maple, so no reason why it would deform.
not just in theory, from the ancient times shepherds used to roast their crooks
Happy birthday and congrats for the hats! I am here waiting for next video to see and enjoy another one! Nice guitar BTW.
I love my jet guitar ...i can not say more i sold my g&l strat. And did not regret my choice till today
Thats a big recommendation 👏🏽👏🏽
I have 4 JS-400’s. No issues at all. Love the 1 volume 1 tone knob configuration. Don’t have to constantly worry about hitting the volume knob. The trems on mine actually work great. Can’t say that for all of my Fenders. Neck is great. Turners do the job. Can’t recommend enough.
i got 4 of them ... my js 400 got really dark roasted maple neck ... dont need tremolo so stay in tune just fine ... plays like a dream ... also got couple of teles ...what can i say i like them
Are the js 400 is stainless fret?
I love my JS300. I've put in locking tuners and Artec Alnico pickups. Brilliant neck. Really reminds me of the Japanese Strats I used to have.
Hi,is the neck thin/narrow?
Your wife has an excellent choice in hats. I have a JS400. Lubricated the nut and balanced the trem. Changed the strings for Slinky 9.5's. Intonated, then stretched the strings out over 3 days and the "trem" worked well. Sometimes all it needs is a little patience. I also have a Sire S3. Required less work, better sound, better neck. Same result. Cannot get the same from any of my "Fender" strats. Although my ten years+ old ML1 is still leaps ahead of everything.
Happy birthday Henning!
The hat absolutely completes the outfit... It's a statement by itself! 😆😉
Nice of you wearing it to please the Mrs!
I really liked the noodling in the intro. 🤤
I have that Guitar in Cream White. It came from Musikhaus Korn setup totally perfectly. And even Stock 'till now it is my Guitar that holds tuning absolutely best, even i've got many Floyd Rose Guitars here. In the meanwhile i've put some DiMarzio and Wilkinson Pickups inside, only to put back in the original ones. Although the electric is renewed meanwhile. And i put an Wilkinson 2Point Trem inside that i had lying around anyway, but totally not necessary. What i did nevertheless: i've installed some cheap Locking Tuners by FAME (inHouse Brand by Musicstore Cologne, Germany). So for little money this is a great guitar! Oh, and a Roasted Maple Neck to die for!
I have several Bentons and now two Jet-guitars, so I can compare both brands pretty well. Not even the Fusion from HB comes close to the quality of the Jet guitars and they are twice as expensive
Reviewed the very same Guitar - it's my current no.1! 😃👍 Fender US strat is gathering dust!
Jets comes stock with 10's btw - I changed them to 9's 😉
I've also just threw another £300ish of mods into it. Wish Harley Benton did 9.5" radius too.
Done the same and then gone back to 10 hoping it would help the intonation. I think I'll be back to 9 soon.
This review is something constructive and complete. Thanks for sharing it. Just a small thing I see there is that when you tune down a string to get the note you're looking for, that string will get out of tune sooner or later, whether the guitar has a term or fixed bridge unless you stretch the string (or unless you do a massive bending with your left hand, not less than 2 tones) and make it settle.
Other than that, it really helped me to get closer to this brand and I think I'm going to get one of this beauties. Thanks again.
What you’re getting here is really a $200 guitar that plays great for beginners or a $400 guitar after modifications for a player that wants a budget custom super Strat.
I think as far as the jet line goes, I wouldn’t want to buy any of the more expensive models because it just doesn’t make sense anymore. but at $200 as a starting point it’s incredible
I uk £189 free delivery in that colour today.
Holy moly huge value.
2 years ago I built myself a lake placid blue hss roasted maple Strat as is seen one at thousands. I'm impressed.
I think Jet has a brand advantage - that of not being Harley Benton. It sounds shallow, but being on stage with a HB guitar, you know that every other musician in the room will assume you're a Kaufhausgitarrist. In 25 years, HB have invested a lot into making good guitars, but next to nothing in building a quality brand. The name alone sounds artificial and nonsensical - is that supposed to be a guy from some Benton family? Or a Mr Harley and a Mr Benton? The logo design looks cheap, and so does the website. And everybody knows that HB is not even a real "thing" - the real thing is Thomann. As opposed to that, there are brands in that bracket that cost the same but feel "real". Like Vintage guitars. for example (I happily own one), Slick, or Jet. Not to mention the Squier range.
I agree. Harley Benton can be a victim of their own success as the yare perceived of being a value brand offering good guitars for good value due to their buying power & the "house brand" label. I could see in the future Thomann offering more guitars made for their company with different names to shake off that "value brand" moniker. They actually could develop into a guitar & musical instrument company & could even buy up the names including companies like Jet Guitars. This is what usually happens of course with corporations.
I wanted to buy a Tele and a Strat but I got Jet because I wasn't going to buy those from HB with a 12" fretboard radius. I don't mind Harley Benton. I bought a 2 by 12 cab of theirs once and it rocked. I might buy a guitar off them someday, but so far I haven't found anything I wanted.
Say what you want but my Harley Benton Fusion Pro isnso good it gets played along side my Suhr, Anderson, EBMM & Schecter Custom shop all the time. A good guitar is always a good guitar if you care too much about brand perception then you are just another snob
Is that Slick any good?
A lot comes down to personal taste and perception. I prefer the Harley Benton headstock logo over the Jet logo but I prefer the Jet headstock shape over that of the Harley Benton Fusion’s. That said, all 3 of my Fusion’s are Harley Benton’s own version of Suhr models so I did what Harley Benton can’t do and re-shaped the headstocks to reflect the Suhr models they based them on and changed the headstock logo’s too.
My Fusion 3 HH has upgraded electronics, two Suhr Thornbucker 2 humbuckers and a Wilkinson WVS 130 trem. Essentially it has the same spec and looks, sounds, and plays like a Suhr Pete Thorn signature Standard model. This is the advantage of Thomann keeping Harley Benton as a ‘budget brand’ and not developing the HB brand to something more expensive.
We as customers (give or take some occasional QC issues) get to buy great Harley Benton guitars inexpensively, that with a bit of time modding and upgrading can look, feel, and play like boutique and custom shop guitars that retail for 15 times their cost. My HB Fusion 3 cost a total of £800 after being upgraded to the spec of the Suhr Pete Thorn signature Standard which retails for around £4000. The figuring and flame of the roasted maple neck on my Fusion 2 is way better than that on the roasted maple neck of my Suhr Classic S, which according to Suhr is AAA grade. As long as HB retain their status as a great budget brand we as customers get to buy ‘the bones’ of great guitars from HB that are not only great for beginners they can be easily modded to professional level guitars and I wouldn’t want to see that change. If you build a guitar from scratch the cost of buying a good quality body, neck, pickups, and hardware for your build will push you over £1000, what a fantastic time it is when we have Harley Benton, Jet, Eart, Fazley, Michael Kelly etc retailing guitars at 20% of this cost.😁
I got the telecaster from them and the tuners start to behave well once the strings have been used a bit
In one passage Mr Henning was probably talking about Soundsation guitars and their Rider series with locking tuners and I add the Eko Aire Standard (no locking tuners) by the great Massimo Varini and the announced at Namm this year but not on sale yet Donner Dst-600 and Dst-700 and Hush headless. Plus some "amazonian" brand like Musi or Eart. If I'd have the money to pay Mr Henning work and the logistic to gather all this lesser known but apparently performing gears I'd like to really know if there is substance under the claims or really just smoke and mirrors. Love your channel, your work and knowledge and the fact that you always spit the truth or very well just as close as possible Mr Henning 🎸way way way to go!
Briefly had the minty js400. 10-46 elixirs. stayed in tune fabulously and I played EVH stuff on it abusing that trem. Zero issues. So don't assume the trem and tuners are bad on all of them.
Bought one of these from the first batch about 18 months ago, no issues, I have expensive guitars costing 10+ times as much, this really is a good guitar, neck is very good, changed the single coils to IronGear, for personal preference, but humbucker ok for now, tuning is fine, only gripe was the trem springs, which went after a few months of gigging use, cheap fix, quite a few examples of this being played live on my channel, but dont judge by my playing lol, its the pale yellow Strat, this is the kind of instrument you can upgrade and not feel cheated that you should have bought a more expensive guitar, mine ready to Gig out the box, except for the strings, which were sh*te, action on mine was fine, tuners, been ok, I can pick up an epiphone in Andertons, bend some strings and it it needs a retune, so I can be a heavy player and I do use the trem, like in Demons Eye on my channels, as you say a great modding platform, I like that Blue, when I bought mine most were sold out, so only the baby sick yellow was still available.
The higher gain, drop D sounds give me some Billy Talent vibes which I absolutely love. I need to get me one of these Jets ASAP!
Best guitars in the price range for sure - the new models are sooo nice.
Benton is coming out with a strat like that - saw the prototype online yesterday from the big European guitar show and a Tom Delong 182 copy also !
On your testing protocol about the tested item being the weak link in the chain, I 100% agree. For these more entry level guitars, think it would be nice to consider changing out one of the high-end amp selection for a brief section with a free amp sim, and/or a roughly cost-appropriate amp like Friedman BE-Mini that's on the desk.
i got the pink version of this and i gotta be honest.. compared to the fusion-III of harley benton, the neck on the jet is just so incredibly more comfortable for me so i see myself picking the jet up all the time over any of my other guitars
Great Video Papillon!! happy Birthday!!..I can see you had a great day!! ...you should have your own Tshirt brand!!
I have a 300 , it’s an amazing guitar. And it stays in TUNE !
Thanks to your report about Jet Guitars I now own a JS-400 and I must say, that is the first single-coil guitar that actually speaks to me.
I just love the neck and I find the sounds I am looking in the pick-ups. Never happened with my Yamaha or Ibanez guitars.
I love how they focus on the things that count: a close-to perfect neck, a good nut and a working trem. (Works for me, at least)
I will see if I can address the noise issues with some copper foil when I change strings, but, hey, that's what humbuckers were invented for and for that price, there is no reason why you could not add a HB DC-Custom to the setup. And I might want to replace the tuners, just as you said.
BTW: the frets on mine were fine, the intonation spot on but the action quite high but perfectly playable.
So, thanks for the report, I did not know at all about the brand and now I'm a happy owner.
Do you work for Jet?
@@chickenlickin3820 No.
I put Iron Gear single coils in mine, the stock were more than ok, for a guitar 500 bucks, Humbucker has been fine, I know the sounds I like from single coils, so quite discerning, most of my guitars are Humbuckers or P90's for that reason, tuners on mine have been fine, but at this price, not unreasonable to swap to good locking tuners, the neck is worth the price of the guitar alone.
I got the Arctic white model (slightly greenish hue depending on light). Had my usual luthier block the trem (worked fine but I don't use it), fit an IronGear Rolling Mill, and give it a setup. He said the electrics were fine and didn't feel it was necessary to upgrade anything else. I fitted locking tuners myself and I'm over the moon. My Highway One is "resting" as proof...
I love everything on my one except for the pickups. Somehow they sound thin and muddy at the same time. But the neck justifies the guitar for me so I’ll swap the pickups out for something decent. Anyone else experience this with the pickups?
Jet guitars melt steal beams would be my slogan to promote those
That's a mighty pretty strat right there. A tiny touch more green in the blue would be nice. There's a perfect colour of strat, I've seen it before, its very rare and elusive
My Experience with Harley Benton B Stock:
First one that came was catastrophic! So many issues..Broken tuner, Dead spots all over,nut completely loose, etc..
Send it back and in 2 days another Fusion B stock arrived..
Totally different ! Unplugged it sounds totally different! Really like a different guitar! Way More alive and no Dead Spots at all! Amazing flame all over neck and fretboard! Really stunning..
There is still one problem with the nut..the slots are cut in to deep..obviously other way around it would be way better and easier to fix but hey i guess there must be made some compromise if you buy a top specs loaded guitar for 210euro...
4:40 This hat is the best solution when you go to the forest for mushrooms. And the season has just started - so as always you are ready for anything!
The tuning problems are defo the nut slots binding! The bodies look on the thin side 40/ 42 mm not 45 mm which makes a huge tone difference for me
Just bought my second one 🙌
the 450 with a Suhr like Headstock looks nice, too.
Happy Belated Birthday Henning!!! All the best to you.
Leo huh?
Makes sense.
Nice guitar and Happy Birthday man greetings from Cayman islands 😊😁☺
Hello there
Really like the looks of this. One suggestion
On budget guitars could you do 5 mins with some of the Friedman/ bogner heads? The soldano and that are great references but more realistic through an amp in a similar price bracket?
"I ride Harley Davidson
I play Harley Benton
I eat Häagen-Dazs
I code for Hewlett-Packard"
- Humpty Dumpty
I have 2 of these, there is nothing wrong with the trem systems. they are certainly "setup-able" and the thing stays in tune like a champ. did put some locking tuners on it though.
Harley Benton St62cc has a roasted neck and I think its only £140, it has alnico 5 roswell pickups, which sound good. And the tuners are upgraded from the cheaper £90 models. And I havent had had issues with the trem bridges.
This is a nice looking guitar but value for money and quality the harley benton still is a better option.
How do you know about the quality if you never hold and played it.
@MrLoompi
I mean,HB Has better pickups and tuners..
I'm sure the neck and body are of equal quality.
But harley benton is cheaper due to the volume of guitars they make so they can bring costs down without having to compromise components as much as others.
I haven't played either one, but it's not a 1:1 comparison. The JS-400 has a contoured heel joint, easy access horn carve, and two-point tremolo. The St-62CC you mentioned is square heel, no easy access carve, and 6-point vintage trem. It's a "vintage" spec Strat, whereas the JS-400 is a modernized Strat. The ST-62 might have better hardware, but the JS-400 has a better design/construction.
Personally, I buy cheap guitars as project guitars, so I'd rather take the Jet and throw my own hardware into it.
Actually .... have a 62cc and it's caramelized rather than roasted. Looks great .... but not roasted.
Again, such mellow playing makes the single coils sound so nice ...
This is something I have been wondering about for some time. Basswood was the "think" in the 80'es (and early 90'es as well), and it's a good wood. It looks a bit boring, but it sounds good. So why do people use mahogany, alder or maple on guitars that are solid painted? You don't get to see the wood grain, and you still have to pay more money for it. Basswood is good!
Thank you for the review! Do you prefer the Yamaha Pacifica or the Jet JS-400?
It was nice of him to get your hat for your birthday..
Jet Mhmmmhm is an interesting name.
Thank you very much!
Budjet
Totally agree about going through decent amps. If you was testing a £3000 custom shop fender through a £40 amp it would sound crap.
Have you tried lubing the nut to make the trem stay in tune better?
no, but that will improve it
Many Happy Returns for yesterday.
great review, thanks! by the way, in your background (left side) you've got a blue relic guitar with black knobs that in most of the shots looks a bit blue/ greenish but from another angle appears more blue. What guitar is that?
That is my Shabat Lynx, a true masterpiece
I like jets, this one is no exception.
Love that hat, its my vocal coach! Nom nom nom nom nom🍪
Mine (floating) has absolute stable tuning after putting on locking tuners and a few tweaks.
The advantage of Harley Benton over its competitors is that you can return and get a full refund.
I returned the two Harley Bentons I recently purchased because of this.
It allows you to test and try out and form an opinion before deciding whether to keep or not.
Since I got the Jet JS-400 , I sold the Harley Benton ST-62MN BK Vintage Series, no regrets !
Happy B'day! 😂 just ordered one after your Vido. Maybe I will mod it to a Tom Delonge, theres s high probability that it turns out better than his new 7ender mex signature strat😂
I moded to Tom Delonge, with Guykers locking tuners and Oripure pickupp from Ali Express. Cheap guitar, cheap mod. I realy like it and recommend. It is much better than any Squier I played in shop.
happy birthday, Henning. I took advice from the guy without the hat, what's the difference!
Happy Birthday !!🎉🎉🎉
Hey, dann mal nachträglich alles gute zum Geburtstag! 😎
I'm thinking about their Tele in the 350 series (not butterscotch, that one doesn't have locking tuners), they've got a belly cut! More comfortable than the slab of wood Tele.
Why don't you do a couple to 4 tuggs up and that is how I keep my squire strats in tune. Also they all chug including my squire Tele by cranking the tone tone nob all the way down!!! Happy trails everyone!!! Love you all and have a blessed day!! I told Ryan a few months back and I guess he forgot!!!
it is a very detailed review of this fucking guitar i was searching for goddamnit ! Thank you, dunkin shawn !
HB st62 is cheaper with Alnico pickups. This one has ceramics and they are noisier. But the neck on jets is really comfy. I’d say they are a bit pricy for their range.
Great review! I am considering this or the Ibanez AZES40. I see you've reviewed them both. Would you choose one over the other? Thank you!
AZES for sure
Thank you
Dude happy belated birthday!
Nice review! Do you know how much it weights? Thank you!
Put the bridge on the deck and lose das wiggle sticken altogether. That or again lose das sticken and use a wood block to secure the bridge from floating.
Hey Henning,
The Jet JS-400 and the Fazley Phynica FSST720 are the same Guitars, except the Headstock..
Check that out ;)
@EytschPi42 I was wondering if Jet guitars payed you just for this review? Can we expect some more reviews of other models?
I already own the JS-400 and might buy the JT-300 in the near future since the JT-350 is not available for leftys.
Would love to see a pink shell body with rosewood fretboard guitar from Jet for left handed players.
Nothing planned so far, but so hope there‘s more coming
Es gibt doch jede Menge Harley Benton mit HSS Bestückung.... Auch im unteren Preisbereich. Also um 100 Euro
Great Jet ❤
I wish I could set up my guitar that quickly. Is it something to do with the hat?... [or the jacket, maybe?].
They also have a selection of left handed versions
I must say the logo looks way cooler than bentons, something about tjis says 90s in a interesting way
what a nice tshirt and hat
I have it in sunburst, how do you like the neck? Also, I think you meant Soundsation from Italy.
This review is great, but also so funny, because all the time, no offense, I was thinking about how British he's accent is)
Guitar reviewers don’t understand floating tremolos, mechanically it is just a hinge that pivots on a fulcrum. There is no magic and being made of titanium or something exotic won’t help. It is a system and depends on your usage. I can make a $35 vibrato bridge perform the same as $2000 bridge.
I was thinking about getting this guitar as a project guitar. My question is: would a better trem do the job if I wanted to do the floating trem thing with vibrato up and down?
I have a JS-400 with upgraded pickups and floating trem setup - it works just fine, not any worse than a Mexican strat for example. Keep in mind its not a floyd rose type, so its not meant for super dive bomb abuse. If you want more stability, you could use some higher end replacement, like Gotoh, Wilkinson for example.
could you try to remove the guitar plastic volume cap? i really want to change them to a different color but i don't know if it's possible.
You can
I tried some of these guitars at my local guitar and what can I say - don't expect a miracle for cheap. All the guitars I tried had tuning stability issues, sharp frets, flimsy switches and choking electronics. Their strat types were better, single cuts were worse. I don't say that these guitars are shit, just be prepared to invest additional money after the purchase on luthier services and some parts.
Ya got a FEVAH? You gotta have MOAR cow bell baby! \m/
I have one in pink color with rosewood fretboard 😊
Hey, I am interested jn that one. Is it actually rosewood? Are you happy with it? Thank you
should i get this or a pacifica 112
Hey...I'm wearing that hat! 🤣
What do you thing about the Sire Larry Carlton S3? Would you do a demo? Thank you.
I would do a demo if they contacted me. They look great.
@@EytschPi42 thank you very much
I tried in Andertons, both the S3 and S7, I own 2 Sire Guitars, an Acoustic and their 335 Copy, see example on my Channel, I also own the Jet 400, I think the S7 is a beautiful instrument, and worth spending the extra on, over the S3, if you want a 3 single coil Strat, but, in saying that, it is 300 bucks more expensive than the Jet, the Jet 400 is a very versatile and well made instrument at a ridiculous price in a HSS configuration, which with a few mods, is a superb guitar, I went for the Larry Carlton 335 with P90's, it sounds beautiful and is ideal for the Indy set my Band plays, but the neck at the nut is very narrow, it plays as well as a Gibson 335's and I have played quite a few.
Great guitar.🤟🎸👍🍾
Dude, pllleaaase never stop wearing this outfit!!! It makes you look like a card-carrying member of NAMBLA 🤣
He'll, just buy this guitar and put locking turners on it!
love the hat
If I can't get reliable information from a guy with a Cookie Monster hat, I don't know where I can get them. That's right up there as far as trustworthiness goes.
That’s exactly what I am thinking! Thanks!
this hat suits you like a pescador :)
Hat is great
I payed 50€ more for the Jet Js-400 than what I payed for my Harley Benton but....I had to change the tuners, chose the locking tuners from Harley Benton and I had to change the saddles, they where crap so I bought highwood vintage saddles. At the end I spend 80€ extra to make the Jet a reasonable good guitar. Had to tighten the truss rod, lower the action, the strings weren't even adjusted at the same hight, realy crap Setup. At the end I'm really pleased with the Jet but the Harley Benton was top notch right out of the box, didn't have to do anything or change the Setup......so what's the best budget guitar....If I would not be able to set the truss rod right, I would be f#cked with a 200€ guitar. So imo the Jet isn't a good budget guitar for beginners, the Harley Benton shure is!!
That's a lot of guitar for the money!
Great guitar. But ill have to pass due to the weight 7 kilo double of the strat. Do ya shoulder in. What a shame