Examining the headstock of the Harley Benton

Most focus always goes to the body, so one may easily overlook blemishes or imperfections on the headstock. That would be a mistake since the headstock is where the strings are held and brought in tune. If the headstock and/or its gear are not up to speed, the guitar will likely be no good.

I had already noticed the A string's tuner shaft protruding a little. Anything else?

So far I've been rather pleased with the body, how lucky am I with the headstock?

Cavity search on the Harley Benton

It is always worth having a look at the control cavities of any guitar because it's often very telling of how much care was taken to build the instrument. The cheaper the gear, the messier those normally invisible cavities can be. And that's also where it is the easiest to evaluate the quality of the timber used, because surfaces are generally roughly routed, not sanded, not painted or finished in any way. So here, based on the price point, I was expecting some sort of a disaster.

The volume and tone pots' cavity

The toggle switch cavity

And I have to say...

Embellishing the toggle switch of the Harley Benton

You'll recall that last time around, I cleaned up the switch tip. Well that was the easier part. What I really wanted to fix was this horribly bulky and ugly looking hex nut securing the switch, and the very inelegant, rather coarse, B&W switch plate:

On a power tool it would be okay. On a fine instrument it should look better than that.

Having said that, note that...

Cleaning up the plastics of the Harley Benton

Probably one of the most obvious telltale signs of cheapness is poorly sanded plastic moldings with flash around them. They look bad, they feel bad, but luckily in most cases they're very easy to clean up, and the results can be rewarding, both in terms of comfort and in terms of looks. So that's an easy place to start. Let's take for instance this bridge pickup ring here:

Flash on both sides.

Of course...

First quick fixes on the Harley Benton

Let's pick this up where we left off, and let's take that loose bottom strap pin down from the guitar attic to the workbench in the basement.

That pin knocked an ugly dent into the finish.

The rather thin and short screw came loose in no time, revealing that...