Harley Benton DIY kits

[EssexBuccaneer]

Has anyone built one of these? 
 

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_bassguitar_kit_pstyle.htm

 

I’m contemplating buying one, and installing decent pups and pots (assuming the kit ones are naff). Am a bit concerned about the finish though - painting isn’t my strong suit, so maybe a nice varnish/stain.

[Guest]

Our rhythm guitarist built one. It turned out OK.

 

That said, as he himself pointed out, he could have built a ready built HB of the same model for much the same price and finished far better than he as an amateur was able to manage.

[Baloney Balderdash]

6 minutes ago, Bassfinger said:

That said, as he himself pointed out, he could have built a ready built HB of the same model for much the same price and finished far better than he as an amateur was able to manage.

I might be daft, and not trying to be snarky, but I fail to make any sense of this whatsoever, seems to me that the sentence kind of contradicts itself.

 

What does this mean?

 

Edited April 7, 2024 by Baloney Balderdash

[ezbass]

25 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

I might be daft, and not trying to be snarky, but I fail to make any sense of this whatsoever, seems to me that the sentence kind of contradicts itself.

 

What does this mean?

 

It's a typo, replace built with bought.

[Guest]

you'll forgive my typing, which is dreadful at the best of times on account of not having feeling in all my fingers.  Ezbass adroitly observed the error.

 

In short, unless you want to build one for the joy of building it, you'll get better results spending a few quid more on a ready made one.

[neepheid]

3 hours ago, EssexBuccaneer said:

Has anyone built one of these? 
 

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_bassguitar_kit_pstyle.htm

 

I’m contemplating buying one, and installing decent pups and pots (assuming the kit ones are naff). Am a bit concerned about the finish though - painting isn’t my strong suit, so maybe a nice varnish/stain.

 

If you're doing it for the experience, to say you assembled it yourself, as a springboard to getting better at maintaining your other basses, or as a leap off point to doing more adventurous building/restoring then sure, go for it.  It'll be like Lego - which is fun.

 

Will it be cost effective vis-a-vis buying an already assembled HB bass?  Time is money, so... no.  Will it be as objectively "good"?  If this is your first time then, sorry, but probably not.  Even cheap basses are assembled by a squad of specialists doing one particular aspect of it repeatedly.