Learn how to record INCREDIBLE guitar sounds at Spectre Academy! Cyber Monday sale is on NOW! spectreacademy.net/courses/guitar-tone-mastery/?aff=Spectre+Glenn
Yes! You just plug it in and let it do its thing. You don't even have to do anything and you have 90's Black Metal sound? This is what I call true innovation! Kudos Thomann! I'm gonna buy one and set it on fire while recording to get that really Trve Kvlt Black Metal sound. Gonna be CRISPY sounding for sure.
@@TenFalconsMusic i imagine they QC check using some tiny clean practice amp to check if there is a signal at all. probably in this setting there isn't nearly as audible hiss like running it into a high gain ENGL. Thats how they do it at Gibson, on the silly little fotos they include in the guitars on the QC desk you can actually see the tiny amps (of the belt clip on variety) standing on the desk.
One of the biggest QC issues with any manufacturers is the amount of guitars that the QC staff has to process. Often times, it's a pallet of 100 or so guitars. So, quick unbox, paint looks good, neck straight, plug in and strum. Signal? OK it passes. Often times, these people don't even play, the just follow a tech sheet, and often rubber stamp a guitar to keep their numbers up, and keep the bosses off their back.
@@bigbo1764 It's not a qc or a r&d problem. It's a chinese "I don't give a shit and you get what you pay for problem". (issues are magazines and newspapers)... I've worked with many chinese manufacturers and the way they work is, money. The cheaper westerners want a product, the more they will have to tolerate one less step in the production line. In this case, the guy who files frets is removed from the production line. "Oh, you want cheaper? ok". We remove guy who sands off black finish on bottom of bridge from production line. "but now the pickups are noisey", "sorry, we cannot do for $138 buck". If Thomann gave them 15 or 20 dollars/euros more for each guitar, you'd probably have smooth frets, and properly grounded pickups.
Hey Glenn. I am really happy to hear you are going to work on those guitars to make them playable. I bought my first guitar just a few month ago. It's just a cheap Squier but it's an absolutely amazing product in my yet not so musical hands after I worked on it. I worked for years in machine production where wood and also metal processing is daily work. Because of that I have a really good eye for bad manufactured products and their usabillity. Since I knew cheap stuff is made cheap first thing I did was looking up how to make cheap guitars better. I found a ton of info on that and ran into almost all the problems I found online. Intonation, sharp frets, adjusting the tremolo, string height, pick up height, jack socket. I needed to do just everything. Since I worked in machinery I know how to do it and know all the physical aspects. So I had an absolute blast doing it and also got to learn tons of new cool stuff how guitars work. Now it's MY guitar that I set up on my own and I am proud as heck about it. Unfortunately I am not the average beginner with that background but I wish more people would develop the courage to do something with their instruments to make it better instead of keeping it how it is and trash talk it or even lose interest. I guess most people just want to play and don't want to know how it works. Damn I am fortunate when it comes to that. Love your work.
Love this. I’ve been playing for nearly 10 years I’m still not great. But I only just started modding my guitar. Recently bought a Squier mustang the pickups are great in my opinion but found some nice p90s can’t wait to make it my own. Good luck on your guitar journey
"... So it doesn't scream like an angry Karen when you plug it in!" You nailed it! Crazy stuff cause EVERYONE of these HB active series that went out are faulty. Thomman needs to do a mass recall. This is big bad news. Thanks for catching it!
I'm glad you're doing the right thing and trying reasonable measures to get these guitars up to spec. Agreed, you shouldn't have to. But people who buy at these price points know they're going to have to file some fret ends from time to time. I still have lots to learn, but I believe the more you can DIY your axe, the better.
I never could figure out why people don't learn to do their own setups. It's not difficult and it's kinda fun (to me, anyway), and why waste money paying someone else to do something you can learn to do yourself in about an hour?
@@michaelhendricks9462having to completely file down the enamel on a bridge to properly ground is NOT a basic setup. Nor is it even something you should ever have to do even on a cheap guitar. Look, they spent time and money coating these bridges, which costs us more money, something they should have never done. For the sake of proper grounding and for the sake of budget, it just doesn’t make any sense to do that.
I think what makes this even worse is, a lot of people have to buy this online because they don’t live in Germany so returning it for some people just isn’t an option. And I just have to thank you personally. I was literally about to buy one of these but looked around for reviews and found yours. I would have been absolutely heartbroken to hear this shitbuzz.
I don't know how thomann works in the US, but in Europe it doesn't matter if you live in Germany, if you want to send it back they'll arrange it, you don't have to pay to return it back or anything, pretty smooth process actually. Edit: I've just checked, they have the same 30 days money back thing in the US, you can return it no problem too
Thank you for the last two reviews. I was looking at this series from them after your other reviews of their better guitars. Was hours away from hitting the purchase button and then watched and heard that v. Thank you for Saving my wallet. Picked up an Epiphone sg p90 in a gorgeous worn Inverness green instead, and it slays.
@@DarrenWaters75 thanks! I imagine it’s because they don’t have to keep the exact “legacy” design spec that ensures bad tuning stability that Gibson uses. I honestly don’t know and it’s something I’ve wondered for years with other companies Les Paul copies. Like the headstock angle the Gibsons have is just ridiculous. Thanks again!
Great that you identified the problem! I have purchased a Multiscale 7 a month ago, black hardware, and the passive pickups were fairly quiet (although I threw in a couple of Fluence Abasi, as, well, speakers do most of the sound indeed, but pickups do bring clarity, precision and warmth), so I guess they did the grounding correctly on my Multiscale 7
I have the exact same guitar which also had the ground hum issue and I solved it: I had a look under the hardtail bridge, and I saw that there is a spot, where is no paint to make the connection to the ground cable. The only problem is that the ground cable was not attached to this non painted spot. I attached the cable there, fastened the bridge…and the hum was gone! I do think, that Thomann knows about the paint, which is nonconductive and that’s why there is this spot without paint at the bottom of the bridge. The only problem is probably that in the factory the ground cables of all guitars didn’t get attached to that spot.
They still look a great modding platform, also a great way of learning how to maintane an instrument. Hope you have some luck with it, great vid as always sir.
True ! It's a shame though cuz the whole point is to get a good, functional instrument for a bargain price 🙁 New pickups would probably cost more than the entire guitar LOL
@@ReizokoRyu Now that people know about it, if they look at the purchase as a mod platform from the start and know what they're doing, I'd say its a great place to start from for a tinkerer...
@@FloridaManRacer also a good point ! I definitely agree. I'm just running on a low budget right now haha, so I'd hope to get something decent to start with for now
@@ReizokoRyu I got a HB Multiscale 7 for $250 just to try a fanned fret guitar(no real guitar stores within 90 mins of me to demo one) and without eating most of a paycheck and it honestly only needed new tuners and a setup. Pickups aren’t the best but with an eq/boost pedal to clean up the mud before the amp i have no complaints. Does not at all feel or sound as cheap as any ltd Jackson or Ibanez you’ll find for that price
I remember seeing a Dullahan video where the bridge was not grounded properly because of the black paint. The youtuber in that video sanded down the contact point of the ground and it worked well for them. When I took my Dullahan apart, it was already sanded down and had no grounding issues, so someone either dropped the ball, or actually listened (just didn't apply the knowledge to the rest of the guitars offered).
Great job on identifying the issue with these guitars! I've been looking for a guitar with active pickups, and now I can avoid these!!! Thanks Glenn!!!
As I've suggested to take a look at the HB JA-20HH last week, looks like you've already shot that video! A comparison to the Squier Contemporary Active Jazzmaster would be in order! The Squirt is a genuine good guitar! ;)
I have a Fender MB-5 bass from the '90s, one of their cheaper models that I think got relegated to being Squire before they disconinued it, and I love it. I've seen mixed reviews, everything from "amazing" to "this thing sucks," I always figured the guy who made mine at the factory was having a really good day. I've never been a guy who uses pedals or effects, I just plug into a good amp and go. If I want some growl I use a preamp and overdrive it. So what I get is the sound of the BASS, not a bunch of electronic effects, and I've always been pleased with the sound of this thing and it fits well into live mixes. I used to play through an Eden, a very clean, non-coloring amp, and for the fun of it I've tried other people's WAY more expensive basses (mine was $350) through the same amp, and while they may sound DIFFERENT they never really sounded BETTER... which made me happy because I never felt the need to "upgrade" to some $3,000 instrument and instead spent that money on, y'know, weed and tattoos (I am a bassist, after all). It is well-known that it doesn't really carry the B string very well, probably because it's a shorter scale than most 5-strings, but that doesn't affect me because I tune it up to C instead of down to B. The only thing I've considered upgrading on this bass is the bridge, because the original one looks cheap and crappy and a beefier one would both look better and give me more sustain. It's incredibly playable, comfortable, and lighter than a Jazz or P bass because it doesn't have that baseball-bat neck and there's way less wood in the body than those basses. Oh, and I WAS considering changing the pickups after all these years, but thanks to Glenn I took those off my wish-list, which would have cost me more than the bass, itself, and... you guessed it... instead of pickups I'm gonna get a tattoo of some weed. I'm still not gonna practice, though.
genuine good guitars, not surprising because Squier Contemporary series aren't beginner instruments, they're top level Squiers pretty much in the same category quality-wise as MIM Fenders, I remember their price, they've been going for 400$ used vs this guitar's 160$ brand new. They have features you can't even find on 800$ MIMs, like roasted maple necks.
All would have been fine had they simply used a conductive paint on the bridge parts. I'd start with some acetone on the parts that need conductivity such as the saddles and such while leaving as much paint on the bridge as possible for aesthetics.
@@Leo_ofRedKeep Probably saved 2 cents per 1000 units, but hey, the cost of the recalls are taken from another department's budget, so it's not their problem.
@@psykoklown874 Or someone is selling them normal paint for the price of conductive paint and pocketing the difference. All we really know is that customers find out because such a noise test is not part of the systematic factory QC.
This really makes me look forward to the pickup comparison testing you keep hinting at. Also, how about doing a tremolo shoot out? (Floyd Rose's, Vega-Trem, Wilkinson, Kaher)
I’m still going to buy the V. Yeah the issues are inexcusable, but at least for someone like me, I can mod it to hell and back. I’m planning on doing something stupid like installing a fuzz circuit or a distortion circuit in it. If I ever do end up doing that project I might make a video on it, just to see the before and after on it. I still think a guitar like this has its purpose though. It’s not impossible to save, and i think it’s better to show musicians that. You should learn how to do your own maintenance on your instrument. I know it’s easier to just pay someone to do it, but there are too many players in my experience who discredit a whole guitar over some easily fixed issues (not these ones, but other epi’s and squires I worked on back when I worked on guitars.)
Ironically, i have a self-built, fully blacked out guitar, with a black, low profile bridge, and a single active EMG, 0 ground issues. the black hardware SHOULD NOT be an issue if done correctly
You should get a fret rocker and check to see how level the frets are on the guitars you review that would be interesting to see how much attention they pay to the frets
Why do that when you could check a guitar after setup to see if you have fret buzz? You don’t need the tool unless you really need it. Or like getting stuffed by Stew Mac…
GLENNNNN! I think it would be great for you to review Ibanez Gio guitars. I always hear mixed opinions on them and I just want honest opinions rather than paid sponsors telling a lie or two.
I love that you follow up with multiple HB guitars that don’t have the same issue as the Active series. Really highlights the issues with their Active pickups.
Ha! I had exactly the same issue on both of the HB PB-SBK basses that I own. Great basses once you sand off the paint on the back of the bridge but as you rightly point out, this should NOT be allowed to go out of the factory in that condition. Do they not even plug them in and test them? Obviously not.
Got their p bass too and sanded off the coating, sounds nice now. It's hilarious that they not only didn't fix the issue for years but they introduce new product lines with it. It's not a bug, it's a feature.
Fascinating. I have a Harley Benton SBK 5 PB which I run through a high gain amp and a fuzz pedal, and it is completely fine. Wonder whether I am the exception or whether the fuckups are the odd ones out. When did you buy yours?
Think it was June this year. Was researching it heavily on UA-cam beforehand so I knew what I have to do, there are at least three tutorial videos about grounding issue in pb20 sbk 4 string model. Did it in about 20 minutes without taking strings off, just let them loose a bit. It wasn't nearly as bad as shown here though, maybe active pickup and guitar frequences make it way worse?
@@MrPlastyfikator No idea if a guitar really goes that much higher than a bass when you include overtones. I bought mine around the same time and play the high strings like a guitar. Guess it really comes down to luck or QC?
@@MrPlastyfikator it doesn't help that the amp in this video is a noisy valve amp which only makes any grounding issues worse. It's an easy fix, simply sanding the underside of the bridge fixes this.
I would love to have that thing, I love doing projects, and fixing stuff, especially because my favorite pickups are a cheap, 20 dollar china special set, and I know how to solder and do fun modifications, so this thing (assuming I wouldn't have to pay too much for it) would be a dream.
For a test, you can just use a piece copper wire. Plug the guitar in using a instrument cable with bare metal connector(important), take the copper wire and wrap one end on that metal connector then use the other end to touch all the strings. That will ground all your strings directly to the instrument cable. If that cuts down most of the noise then you do have a ground problem.
Great rant, and well done for the extra effort to seek out and try solutions. Looking forward to the follow-up videos. As it is, these guitars are only useful as a stress test for the C***Blocker.
I do feel vindicated it is the coating, it was my theory from the get go. You know, sometimes it feels nice to know exactly what's wrong with a product, unlike the whole company that makes the bloody thing.
Hey! Could someone explain to me, how did Glenn do the tests in the V video without noise, if it's so noisy with amps? Was it an amp plugin? Or the other way around? How are the two different in terms of noise? Thanks
The noiseless test he did at the beginning was running the guitar through the audio interface into a plugin so it didn't pick up any noise like that. I don't recall if he had a noise gate in the plugin though.
It's interesting that they fucked this up so late into their line. I have a current Harley Benton bass in the same colour scheme, black hardware, with a single coil pickup. (That's a noise-intense one, for non-bassists.) Noise is completely normal, I'd even say low for single coils. So they basically unlearnt something they have gotten right so far. Maybe a change in factory or something.
@@reghunt2487 I am confused, Glenn is talking about pickup noise and grounding, and that the bridges paint stops the grounding from working. What do you mean by grounding the strings?
@@grayfox9000 He WAS talking about pickup noise, but he's now looking at making sure the strings are grounded. Normally electric guitar strings are connected to ground by a wire running from the bridge to the output jack, otherwise the strings act like antennas for all sorts of noise. (if you pop open your control cover, you should see a random looking wire going into a hole in the body) Trivia: some makers think grounded strings are a hazard, and do not ground them. But in this case I think it was a mistake, not a design choice.
@@reghunt2487 Oh I misunderstood what you meant then, my bad. I know pickups have a grounding wire that goes to the bridge, but I admit I never knew where it went to the bridge it also did the strings. Is this why when you aren't touching the strings there is some noise, but when you touch them the noise gets a lot more quiet?
@@grayfox9000 Well, the pickups will be grounded to the other electronics, not to the bridge. The bridge will usually be grounded to the electronics too (the back of a pot), which then grounds to the output jack. And yes, if you have noise that disappears when you touch the strings, either the strings aren't grounded, or the guitar is badly grounded (possibly an amp or power issue). Passive pickups have a ground wire. It's to provide shielding for the pickup wires going to the electronics, and if the pup has a metal cover, the ground wire connects to that too. For active pups, the circuitry will take care of the grounding for the system, but will still ultimately connect to the jack ground.
Hi Glenn, i'm a hobbyist luthier and those guitars bring up some questions... Active Pickups actually do not need to be grounded to the strings, even though it doesn't hurt. From this point of view the insulating paint would be half as bad, but still a pretty serious design oversight in case the parts are used in another guitar with passive pickups. To find the problem, I would proceed in the following order: 1. Check the battery. Is it fresh? Is there any kind of insulating tape for the transport? 2. Check if the strings are connected to each other. Check if you have continuity between all the strings. If thats not the case, you need to remove the insulating paint in the saddle slots. 3. Check if the ground wire is installed correctly. First measure the continuity between the pot and the bridge itself. If there is no connection, check the ground wire and if necessary use a bit of sandpaper on the backside of the bridge to sand of the paint. I just wonder, that you have the same problem with the V. This guitar has a tune-o-matic bridge with metal posts inserted into the body. That post should not be painted and attached to this is the ground wire. It might be possible that the paint is also insulating to the strings, but at that point i'd just deepen the string grooves in the saddle just to remove some of the paint. However, i'm really curious what's the matter with those two guitars and i would be happy to see a follow-up video. Best Regards Max
I just had to sand the bottom of the bridge to bare metal to get it to ground. i didn’t need to mess with sanding anything on the top like the saddles etc. I think you just need to make sure the ground wire touches bare metal on the bottom. Took me about 3 minutes with 400 Grit sandpaper.
We almost have Glenn at 500k! If you like this show, this content, the live mix reviews, demos, and recording tips, SUBSCRIBE!! Let’s get him over the 400k hump!!
That's not enough. What very likely happened is that non conductive paint found its way into the chain without development or anyone else being consulted. Maybe some sourcing guy thought he'd save 2 cents, maybe a supplier even lied on the product.
@@Leo_ofRedKeep Quite possible. But for guitars, especially sub 200€ ones, a proper pre-production run is a big ask. If they received product that isn't to spec, there may be recourse...
@@luisnunes3863 Thomann has a habit of outsourcing quality control to its customers. Never trust a new model. They often come with "childhood diseases", bad designs that get sorted out in later batches. And the regular models often change in small ways, unannounced. They hide it all behind a "free return policy without questions" (within the EU). Harley Benton is a gateway drug, the bait to get people to want a guitar but they make more money by selling you a Fender.
Not trying to defend Harley Benton here, but sometimes those cheaper active pickups get really noisy around led studio lighting. Especially if you point the pickup directly into the light. Have you tried playing it with normal room light instead of led/studio softbox? Also, there are gotoh and other hardware that is painted black, and still does induce electric signal, so it may not be the source of the problem. There is a video on one of the older "high end" 7 string fanfret Harley Benton with the same hbz pickups and the guy reviewing it basically said- those pickups are not designed for led lights.
Ok so today I found out that paint actually does effect noise floor. That's what these videos are good for, you always learn something new. I had no clue.
This is the funniest UA-cam channel I’ve seen in a while. You’re absolutely killing it with the jokes and the humor and the anger. Enjoy the videos keep up the great work.
Lol your energy is so cool, I was having a pretty shite day until I clicked on this video & you had me laughing from the go.... Thanks man....if for nothing else at least I want you to know that I appreciate you for that, you've completely flipped my mood for the better Cheers
About upcoming pick up comparison. I have always been able to hear a difference between ceramic vs alnico.. so conformation or proof of my bias. Would be great. To me ceramic just sounds like all the mids are scooped out.
I build guitars with black hardware all the time. I Dremel the paint off of a spot on the bottom of the bridge so the ground wire connects, then also where the ball of each string touches the bridge (if you're careful, you'll never see the ground away places).
Glen, Open up the control cavities on the Quiet vs Noisy Harley Benton models you have. I suspect all the noisy ones use two wires to the jack (same as Fender) but should be using shielded cable to the jack (like even the old Epiphone 'clipped-ear' bolt on $80 LP Juniors shipped with shielded cable to the jack). I have found that for most guitars the unshielded pair to the jack are at least 50% of the idle noise floor. That offset HB jack to volume pot is a long run, as are most Vs. Traditional Fender JMs have their jack in the shielded control cavity so they can kind of get by.
I love that you're always so hilariously fair. God forbid if this was a Gibson. All guitar makers have quality control holes to fill, lol. EDIT: Just from the sound, I've been here before with pawn shop guitars I know I could fix this with only a soldering iron, which doesn't excuse the quality control.
Hey Glenn Freicker, I don't know if you've heard this yet, but Thomann has opened a new warehouse and distribution center in the state of Maryland in the US. I'm going to be ordering from them at that location to speed up the ordering, shipping time and saving shipping cost.
If the ground wire IS making a connection, the next thing to check is if the jack is wired backwards. I’ve had to correct that on several guitars a friend rewired because of the amount of noise it caused, now he just gets me to wire them in the first place lol.
So not one but two guitars with the same issue using those pickups. I hope you can get them sorted, I am thinking of getting a Harley Benton but I will stay away from the ones that use these active pickups.
Dremel tool with a sanding wheel just use gently and you should have no issue getting the paint off the back of that bridge. sheet of 80 to 100 grit sand paper folded in half should fit nicely in the saddle grooves use a little elbow grease and the paint should strip out
Yeah you could say "shit happens", but Harley Benton had the same painting/grounding issues with the Dullahans shortly before. I will gladly defend Thomann anytime because my experience with them has been outstanding, but there is no excuse to putting out ungrounded guitars *after sending out ungrounded guitars the year before*
The blackout look is fine Glen. As long as the guitar is firmly grounded. I'm amazed that they continue to send you stuff, given your stark honesty. But I say good on them for doing so. These would be great starter guitars, if they were simply built correctly. Good on you for telling the fucking truth Glen. Maybe your relationship with them will lead to better quality in Harley Benton's lower tier products.
Speaking of Thomann, I bought a Jackson Randy Rhoads and hard case from Thomann earlier this year. Delighted with my instrument. I ordered a classical guitar from them a few weeks ago and filmed the unboxing when it arrived on Thursday. I wasn't happy with what I got and sent it back for a replacement on Friday. I still put the unboxing up on youtube. The bridge was broken when I opened the box and when I was repacking I saw the nut on the floor. It had fallen off the guitar. So I can sort of relate to your feelings here.
I have several Harley Bentons. Most of them are almost perfect but I had a few complaints too. But I have to point out their customer service is top notch. I had a problem with the black paisley Telecaster. The neck angle want right. When I put the guitar with the back in the ground the neck would point slightly up. And it wasn't because of the neck plate in the underside. The wrong angle was even visible when looking at the joint between neck and body. Received a replacement but same problem. Found one on the used market which didn't have this problem. Seems they received a faulty batch. The overall quality of the guitars is really impressive but they really need to improve QC. Seems someone on the router station isn't doing his work. Neck pockets are one of the most important things to get right.
awesome video bud. Was wondering if you would ever make any videos to show us Bass players how to maintain our instruments. I guess you can do guitars and drums as well. Maybe even going into higher details where you take your instruments or gear you get apart and go into the electronics. keep making these videos buddy fucking eh!
When I worked in a deadbeat factory some odd years ago as a drill press operator, part of my job was using a drill with a bit to remove paint around a bolt hole to have the mounting arm ground with the housing when they were bolted together. I’ve seen paint processes with covers to specifically prevent paint from reaching critical areas that grounding is very necessary. The suits may have an issue here but not having the manufacturing process adapt either incompetence, communication breakdown, or just a simple overdraft of funds from the fuck bank account to look and solve possible issues that can be fixed cheaply is just mediocre. Do we know what’s really going on there? Probably not concrete, and we may never know 100% sure what the hell is going on behind closed doors, but an issue that can be fixed with less than a second of drilling or sanding is just depressing.
GLENNNNNNNNNN! LOL. If it is a grounding issue involving the tailpiece, sanding just the bottom may not work, because your saddles are still resting on paint, so the ground won't make it to the strings. I've had luck just sanding the bottom before, but cheap hardware uses paint instead of an oxide coating, so you may have to remove the paint from under the saddles as well. I had the same problem putting a cheap Musiclily or Metallor tailpiece on an Ibanez and sanding the paint off of the bottom didn't t work because, like I said, the saddles are still resting on paint. My solution was instead of removing the paint from under the saddles too, I threw out the bridge and bought an actual used Ibanez tailpiece and presto! I had ground. I also tested this with my multimeter and found it to be the case. Idk if that's what's wrong with these HB guitars, but if it is, you might have to do some additional sanding... or buy a new tailpiece. :) I have a feeling it might be those pickups though...
might be able to clean some paint off from the backside of the bridge where the strings ends catch. Very interested to see if this is the fix. I've got a few guitars with black hardware but all super quiet. I'm always suspicious of the 9v circuits
My Harley Benton turned up on Friday with a SNAPPED NECK. The box was in perfect condition and the packaging was grade A and hadn’t taken any bumps. I’m certain it was sent in that condition. Absolute Dogger.
I WAS MOSTLY RIGHT! I KNEW I HEARD A GROUNDING ISSUE! DIDN'T know they painted them so much they wouldn't even connect with a wire to ground!!! They can keep the black, just put a tab over the area to connect and pull it off after painted before assembly. Such an easy fix but a pain in the ass. I WOULD KILL FOR THAT JAGUAR WITH A FLOYD!!!
I just picked up the Donner DMT-100 off of Amazon during the Black Friday sale (side note....$159 on Amazon, $258 on Donner's own site....both Black Friday prices...WTF?) Anyway, besides having passive pickups, it's the same vein, blacked out everything, including the bridge. These are the Hipshot style hard tail type. I've used the hipshot ones on many builds, and absolutely love them. The bridge on the Donner is nearly an exact replica of the Hipshot, and NO GROUNDING ISSUE!!!! I've bought many cheap aftermarket bridges that had the same issue you're having....it's a major pain in the ass....you'd almost be better off just getting the Hipshot and replacing it, than having to file the bottom, and each saddle in the hopes that you've achieved ground.
Thank you so much for this! The price makes this a very appealing project guitar and it does look cool but yeah bridge work sounds a bit bigger than what I was hoping for. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it though.
That V had a grounding issue Glenn. Most of my guitars have had a grounding issue at some point but I never threw my hands up and said "THESE PICKUPS SUCK!" Dude!, take a breathe.
You`re probably right, but the main issue is that its not ok to expect the consumer to fix a newly bought product. Stuff like this should, as Glenn said, never leave the factory. If I buy something I expect it to work and thats simply not the case with those guitars.
@@larsausa3453 Agreed! Its just not good enough. I just like to get on Glenn about making knee jerk sweeping statements like these pickups suck and tonewood does nothing for anyone ever. I love and respect Glenn hes an expert in his field.....but not a guitar expert!
My guess is they test it in some clean amp where the noise would be slightly less pronounced and they just went “hmmm a noise gate could clean this up, ship it out”
My personal guitar tech has this habit of plugging into a clean amp whenever he works on my guitars. Don't get me wrong I love his work, but once I try to "metal" I start hearing all the little issues he didn't notice through the clean amp setup. I have a feeling no one ever plugged these guitars into the dirty channel of their amp when doing QC.
I purchased a HB singlecut guitar 2 years ago with the intent to immediately swap out the HBZ actives with some EMGs and add some Hipshot locking tuners. The HBZ were super noisy. The EMGs kick ass. I love the guitar and was not disappointed as I purchased it as a mod project.
Hey Glenn, you can actually order a Hipshot bridge, in black and it’s a drop in replacement for about $80. The brass is exposed on the back so no matter what color hardware you prefer, it will ground. And work properly!
Try just sanding the bottom of the bridge with some 220 grit. If you find you need to remove the finish from the saddles, try just using the sharp edge of a square or triangle needle file and LIGHTLY file the string path.
Thanks Glen, almost pulled the trigger on one of these because they are super cheap and look great. Look forward to seeing what happens when properly grounded.
Damn Glenn, you ripped them a new one! Well-deserved for putting a product out with such a defect that could have been easily fixed before it was a real issue. Not even a real defect, just people not paying attention to proper design. The ground wire is an absolute MUST!
Played guitar since '72 (i'm 65 now). Closest i ever got to 'active' was an '80s Cort Arrow with a built in preamp. I paid $150 for this in '96. Last battery change hurt this circuit but the guitar still works great. Offset, Sq Jagmaster, gift from my Wife. I love it.
I'm really happy to see that you're going to take the extra steps to fix the small issues on the V in order to make it better playing and sounding than out of the box. Most inexpensive guitars suffer from the lack of attention to detail on the fretwork and setup. I took my girlfriend's Ibanez GIO and did some fret filling, swapped the pickups for decent ones, and put in new tuners and a bridge and it plays like a much more expensive guitar. It actually sounds pretty damn good! I think the viewers might like to see the process of cleaning up the frets and other small detail work you can do to an inexpensive guitar without dumping hundreds of dollars into it at a luthier. All you need are the right tools and a little bit of research on UA-cam and you can learn some pretty valuable skills in luthierie. I learned a lot (pre internet) by tinkering with cheap used guitars. Now I know my way around an RG like the back of my hand.
I was hoping Harley Benton would be better, but alas my hopes were dashed. Thomann needs to work hard on improving their quality. I was thinking of getting a Harley Benton but now I'm thinking I'll stick with fender/Jackson
Learn how to record INCREDIBLE guitar sounds at Spectre Academy! Cyber Monday sale is on NOW! spectreacademy.net/courses/guitar-tone-mastery/?aff=Spectre+Glenn
can I have that guitar?
holy crap so the paint DOES affect the tone after all 😄
Tone Paint is real ... wood only if the bridge is made out of it. ;-)
Ha ha, made my day!
Yes Paint, Finger tone and most importantly Tubes!
Wake up people!!!
First I read it. Then I finished the video. I understand better
Don't.....just don't.
They've been carefully designed for Black Metal
Underrated comment. 🤘
How are you supposed to tremelo like a Demon with that knob in the way of your picking hand? Danelectro or telecaster is a real black metal guitar
Yes! You just plug it in and let it do its thing. You don't even have to do anything and you have 90's Black Metal sound? This is what I call true innovation! Kudos Thomann! I'm gonna buy one and set it on fire while recording to get that really Trve Kvlt Black Metal sound. Gonna be CRISPY sounding for sure.
It’s literally almost the same as nergals new guitar 😵
@@thanumgamingwhy do all the top comments have a dude saying "underrated comment" hahaha
This isnt a qc issue, this is a basic design issue and it baffles me how nobody in r&d even considered for a second that it might cause a problem
I'd say it's a mix of both. QC should have noticed this, and yeah, r&d should've seen it coming. Yuck.
I guess the QC inspectors at Thomann don't bother plugging stuff in to make sure it actually works.
@@TenFalconsMusic or they didn't think to plug into anything high gain. But even then it should've been obvious, with THIS amount of noise.
@@TenFalconsMusic i imagine they QC check using some tiny clean practice amp to check if there is a signal at all. probably in this setting there isn't nearly as audible hiss like running it into a high gain ENGL. Thats how they do it at Gibson, on the silly little fotos they include in the guitars on the QC desk you can actually see the tiny amps (of the belt clip on variety) standing on the desk.
Then you need to pay double the money. THEY ARE CHEAP FOR A REASON
i'm 102% sure the noise comes from the fact that it's not made of tonewood, and it doesn't have Gibson on the headstock.
That’s too funny
Obviously…
If it had gibson on the headstock it would be broken
I’m sure if it was made in the USA, all of these problems would disappear
Stuntman
One of the biggest QC issues with any manufacturers is the amount of guitars that the QC staff has to process. Often times, it's a pallet of 100 or so guitars. So, quick unbox, paint looks good, neck straight, plug in and strum. Signal? OK it passes. Often times, these people don't even play, the just follow a tech sheet, and often rubber stamp a guitar to keep their numbers up, and keep the bosses off their back.
It’s not a qc issue, it’s an r&d issue, they just made noisy ass active pickups and shamelessly put them in the market.
Much like any form of manufacturing... As long as the boss is happy, so is the customer... NOT
@@bigbo1764 It's not a qc or a r&d problem. It's a chinese "I don't give a shit and you get what you pay for problem". (issues are magazines and newspapers)... I've worked with many chinese manufacturers and the way they work is, money. The cheaper westerners want a product, the more they will have to tolerate one less step in the production line. In this case, the guy who files frets is removed from the production line. "Oh, you want cheaper? ok". We remove guy who sands off black finish on bottom of bridge from production line. "but now the pickups are noisey", "sorry, we cannot do for $138 buck". If Thomann gave them 15 or 20 dollars/euros more for each guitar, you'd probably have smooth frets, and properly grounded pickups.
Given that Glen used to work on a line, I'd think he'd have some insight on the pressure QC is under.
@@CaptainRon1913 having worked in China for several years I can vouch for what you’re saying 100%
Hey Glenn. I am really happy to hear you are going to work on those guitars to make them playable. I bought my first guitar just a few month ago. It's just a cheap Squier but it's an absolutely amazing product in my yet not so musical hands after I worked on it. I worked for years in machine production where wood and also metal processing is daily work. Because of that I have a really good eye for bad manufactured products and their usabillity. Since I knew cheap stuff is made cheap first thing I did was looking up how to make cheap guitars better. I found a ton of info on that and ran into almost all the problems I found online. Intonation, sharp frets, adjusting the tremolo, string height, pick up height, jack socket. I needed to do just everything. Since I worked in machinery I know how to do it and know all the physical aspects. So I had an absolute blast doing it and also got to learn tons of new cool stuff how guitars work. Now it's MY guitar that I set up on my own and I am proud as heck about it. Unfortunately I am not the average beginner with that background but I wish more people would develop the courage to do something with their instruments to make it better instead of keeping it how it is and trash talk it or even lose interest. I guess most people just want to play and don't want to know how it works. Damn I am fortunate when it comes to that. Love your work.
Love this. I’ve been playing for nearly 10 years I’m still not great. But I only just started modding my guitar. Recently bought a Squier mustang the pickups are great in my opinion but found some nice p90s can’t wait to make it my own. Good luck on your guitar journey
"... So it doesn't scream like an angry Karen when you plug it in!" You nailed it! Crazy stuff cause EVERYONE of these HB active series that went out are faulty. Thomman needs to do a mass recall. This is big bad news. Thanks for catching it!
I'm glad you're doing the right thing and trying reasonable measures to get these guitars up to spec. Agreed, you shouldn't have to. But people who buy at these price points know they're going to have to file some fret ends from time to time. I still have lots to learn, but I believe the more you can DIY your axe, the better.
If it was good enough for Eddie, it's damn sure good enough for me lol.
I never could figure out why people don't learn to do their own setups. It's not difficult and it's kinda fun (to me, anyway), and why waste money paying someone else to do something you can learn to do yourself in about an hour?
@@michaelhendricks9462having to completely file down the enamel on a bridge to properly ground is NOT a basic setup. Nor is it even something you should ever have to do even on a cheap guitar. Look, they spent time and money coating these bridges, which costs us more money, something they should have never done. For the sake of proper grounding and for the sake of budget, it just doesn’t make any sense to do that.
I think what makes this even worse is, a lot of people have to buy this online because they don’t live in Germany so returning it for some people just isn’t an option. And I just have to thank you personally. I was literally about to buy one of these but looked around for reviews and found yours. I would have been absolutely heartbroken to hear this shitbuzz.
As someone in the US who just received mine earlier this hits different lol
I don't know how thomann works in the US, but in Europe it doesn't matter if you live in Germany, if you want to send it back they'll arrange it, you don't have to pay to return it back or anything, pretty smooth process actually. Edit: I've just checked, they have the same 30 days money back thing in the US, you can return it no problem too
Harley Benton has a store on reverb in the US now.
Thank you for the last two reviews. I was looking at this series from them after your other reviews of their better guitars. Was hours away from hitting the purchase button and then watched and heard that v. Thank you for Saving my wallet. Picked up an Epiphone sg p90 in a gorgeous worn Inverness green instead, and it slays.
Does it keep I tune okay? I’m looking at one myself.
@@michaelsnydermusic they keep tune better than a Gibson Les Paul... 😂 Seriously though they are great.
@@DarrenWaters75 thanks! I imagine it’s because they don’t have to keep the exact “legacy” design spec that ensures bad tuning stability that Gibson uses. I honestly don’t know and it’s something I’ve wondered for years with other companies Les Paul copies. Like the headstock angle the Gibsons have is just ridiculous. Thanks again!
Great that you identified the problem! I have purchased a Multiscale 7 a month ago, black hardware, and the passive pickups were fairly quiet (although I threw in a couple of Fluence Abasi, as, well, speakers do most of the sound indeed, but pickups do bring clarity, precision and warmth), so I guess they did the grounding correctly on my Multiscale 7
I guess they put more effort into these because my multiscale 7 also has no grounding issues
the multiscale 7 is very nice although i think the bridge pickup kinda sucks
@@untelmorveux I agree, the pickups are...ok...just ok. this is why I changed them for a pair of Fluence Abasi ;)
Is the bridge chrome or black?
@@SleepingLionsProductions black.
Lemme guess.. it'll have the same problems of the v one.
amazing videos Glenn, it's exactly these types of videos that everybody need.
I have the exact same guitar which also had the ground hum issue and I solved it:
I had a look under the hardtail bridge, and I saw that there is a spot, where is no paint to make the connection to the ground cable. The only problem is that the ground cable was not attached to this non painted spot. I attached the cable there, fastened the bridge…and the hum was gone!
I do think, that Thomann knows about the paint, which is nonconductive and that’s why there is this spot without paint at the bottom of the bridge. The only problem is probably that in the factory the ground cables of all guitars didn’t get attached to that spot.
They still look a great modding platform, also a great way of learning how to maintane an instrument. Hope you have some luck with it, great vid as always sir.
True ! It's a shame though cuz the whole point is to get a good, functional instrument for a bargain price 🙁 New pickups would probably cost more than the entire guitar LOL
@@ReizokoRyu Now that people know about it, if they look at the purchase as a mod platform from the start and know what they're doing, I'd say its a great place to start from for a tinkerer...
@@FloridaManRacer also a good point ! I definitely agree. I'm just running on a low budget right now haha, so I'd hope to get something decent to start with for now
@@ReizokoRyu I got a HB Multiscale 7 for $250 just to try a fanned fret guitar(no real guitar stores within 90 mins of me to demo one) and without eating most of a paycheck and it honestly only needed new tuners and a setup. Pickups aren’t the best but with an eq/boost pedal to clean up the mud before the amp i have no complaints. Does not at all feel or sound as cheap as any ltd Jackson or Ibanez you’ll find for that price
@@lannyfce4786 awesome! I'm having a look now and it's quite nice 🤟
I remember seeing a Dullahan video where the bridge was not grounded properly because of the black paint. The youtuber in that video sanded down the contact point of the ground and it worked well for them. When I took my Dullahan apart, it was already sanded down and had no grounding issues, so someone either dropped the ball, or actually listened (just didn't apply the knowledge to the rest of the guitars offered).
Great job on identifying the issue with these guitars! I've been looking for a guitar with active pickups, and now I can avoid these!!! Thanks Glenn!!!
As I've suggested to take a look at the HB JA-20HH last week, looks like you've already shot that video!
A comparison to the Squier Contemporary Active Jazzmaster would be in order! The Squirt is a genuine good guitar! ;)
I have a Fender MB-5 bass from the '90s, one of their cheaper models that I think got relegated to being Squire before they disconinued it, and I love it. I've seen mixed reviews, everything from "amazing" to "this thing sucks," I always figured the guy who made mine at the factory was having a really good day.
I've never been a guy who uses pedals or effects, I just plug into a good amp and go. If I want some growl I use a preamp and overdrive it. So what I get is the sound of the BASS, not a bunch of electronic effects, and I've always been pleased with the sound of this thing and it fits well into live mixes. I used to play through an Eden, a very clean, non-coloring amp, and for the fun of it I've tried other people's WAY more expensive basses (mine was $350) through the same amp, and while they may sound DIFFERENT they never really sounded BETTER... which made me happy because I never felt the need to "upgrade" to some $3,000 instrument and instead spent that money on, y'know, weed and tattoos (I am a bassist, after all).
It is well-known that it doesn't really carry the B string very well, probably because it's a shorter scale than most 5-strings, but that doesn't affect me because I tune it up to C instead of down to B. The only thing I've considered upgrading on this bass is the bridge, because the original one looks cheap and crappy and a beefier one would both look better and give me more sustain. It's incredibly playable, comfortable, and lighter than a Jazz or P bass because it doesn't have that baseball-bat neck and there's way less wood in the body than those basses.
Oh, and I WAS considering changing the pickups after all these years, but thanks to Glenn I took those off my wish-list, which would have cost me more than the bass, itself, and... you guessed it... instead of pickups I'm gonna get a tattoo of some weed.
I'm still not gonna practice, though.
genuine good guitars, not surprising because Squier Contemporary series aren't beginner instruments, they're top level Squiers pretty much in the same category quality-wise as MIM Fenders, I remember their price, they've been going for 400$ used vs this guitar's 160$ brand new. They have features you can't even find on 800$ MIMs, like roasted maple necks.
All would have been fine had they simply used a conductive paint on the bridge parts.
I'd start with some acetone on the parts that need conductivity such as the saddles and such while leaving as much paint on the bridge as possible for aesthetics.
Let's guess: that's exactly what was supposed to happen but someone somewhere decided to save 2 cents with another paint…
@@Leo_ofRedKeep Probably saved 2 cents per 1000 units, but hey, the cost of the recalls are taken from another department's budget, so it's not their problem.
@@psykoklown874 Or someone is selling them normal paint for the price of conductive paint and pocketing the difference. All we really know is that customers find out because such a noise test is not part of the systematic factory QC.
This really makes me look forward to the pickup comparison testing you keep hinting at. Also, how about doing a tremolo shoot out? (Floyd Rose's, Vega-Trem, Wilkinson, Kaher)
Hmm...that might be interesting.
I’m still going to buy the V. Yeah the issues are inexcusable, but at least for someone like me, I can mod it to hell and back. I’m planning on doing something stupid like installing a fuzz circuit or a distortion circuit in it. If I ever do end up doing that project I might make a video on it, just to see the before and after on it.
I still think a guitar like this has its purpose though. It’s not impossible to save, and i think it’s better to show musicians that. You should learn how to do your own maintenance on your instrument. I know it’s easier to just pay someone to do it, but there are too many players in my experience who discredit a whole guitar over some easily fixed issues (not these ones, but other epi’s and squires I worked on back when I worked on guitars.)
Ironically, i have a self-built, fully blacked out guitar, with a black, low profile bridge, and a single active EMG, 0 ground issues. the black hardware SHOULD NOT be an issue if done correctly
Someone, somewhere is selling normal paint as conductive paint…
You should get a fret rocker and check to see how level the frets are on the guitars you review that would be interesting to see how much attention they pay to the frets
Way too smart a thing for a guitar player to do. Their idea of fretwork quality is when it doesn't hurt their wanking paw.
Why do that when you could check a guitar after setup to see if you have fret buzz?
You don’t need the tool unless you really need it. Or like getting stuffed by Stew Mac…
It be cool to see how good you can make the V after a proper setup and fixing the noise issue
GLENNNNN! I think it would be great for you to review Ibanez Gio guitars. I always hear mixed opinions on them and I just want honest opinions rather than paid sponsors telling a lie or two.
I love that you follow up with multiple HB guitars that don’t have the same issue as the Active series. Really highlights the issues with their Active pickups.
Ha! I had exactly the same issue on both of the HB PB-SBK basses that I own. Great basses once you sand off the paint on the back of the bridge but as you rightly point out, this should NOT be allowed to go out of the factory in that condition. Do they not even plug them in and test them? Obviously not.
Got their p bass too and sanded off the coating, sounds nice now.
It's hilarious that they not only didn't fix the issue for years but they introduce new product lines with it.
It's not a bug, it's a feature.
Fascinating. I have a Harley Benton SBK 5 PB which I run through a high gain amp and a fuzz pedal, and it is completely fine. Wonder whether I am the exception or whether the fuckups are the odd ones out. When did you buy yours?
Think it was June this year. Was researching it heavily on UA-cam beforehand so I knew what I have to do, there are at least three tutorial videos about grounding issue in pb20 sbk 4 string model. Did it in about 20 minutes without taking strings off, just let them loose a bit.
It wasn't nearly as bad as shown here though, maybe active pickup and guitar frequences make it way worse?
@@MrPlastyfikator No idea if a guitar really goes that much higher than a bass when you include overtones. I bought mine around the same time and play the high strings like a guitar. Guess it really comes down to luck or QC?
@@MrPlastyfikator it doesn't help that the amp in this video is a noisy valve amp which only makes any grounding issues worse. It's an easy fix, simply sanding the underside of the bridge fixes this.
I would love to have that thing, I love doing projects, and fixing stuff, especially because my favorite pickups are a cheap, 20 dollar china special set, and I know how to solder and do fun modifications, so this thing (assuming I wouldn't have to pay too much for it) would be a dream.
For a test, you can just use a piece copper wire. Plug the guitar in using a instrument cable with bare metal connector(important), take the copper wire and wrap one end on that metal connector then use the other end to touch all the strings. That will ground all your strings directly to the instrument cable. If that cuts down most of the noise then you do have a ground problem.
Great rant, and well done for the extra effort to seek out and try solutions. Looking forward to the follow-up videos. As it is, these guitars are only useful as a stress test for the C***Blocker.
I do feel vindicated it is the coating, it was my theory from the get go. You know, sometimes it feels nice to know exactly what's wrong with a product, unlike the whole company that makes the bloody thing.
Hey! Could someone explain to me, how did Glenn do the tests in the V video without noise, if it's so noisy with amps? Was it an amp plugin? Or the other way around? How are the two different in terms of noise? Thanks
The noiseless test he did at the beginning was running the guitar through the audio interface into a plugin so it didn't pick up any noise like that. I don't recall if he had a noise gate in the plugin though.
@@luigigetsu From what I remember, he said there was a noise gate in the amp sim.
1:33 give the sound guy a raise, that took a lot of effort and commitment, lol
Good to see you on Bearings channel! Time to see him read some VC's again ;D
It's interesting that they fucked this up so late into their line. I have a current Harley Benton bass in the same colour scheme, black hardware, with a single coil pickup. (That's a noise-intense one, for non-bassists.) Noise is completely normal, I'd even say low for single coils. So they basically unlearnt something they have gotten right so far. Maybe a change in factory or something.
Hey Glenn just a heads up, according to the EMG tutorial video active pickups aren't and shouldn't be grounded.
He's talking about grounding the strings. Thru the bridge.
@@reghunt2487 I am confused, Glenn is talking about pickup noise and grounding, and that the bridges paint stops the grounding from working. What do you mean by grounding the strings?
@@grayfox9000 He WAS talking about pickup noise, but he's now looking at making sure the strings are grounded. Normally electric guitar strings are connected to ground by a wire running from the bridge to the output jack, otherwise the strings act like antennas for all sorts of noise.
(if you pop open your control cover, you should see a random looking wire going into a hole in the body)
Trivia: some makers think grounded strings are a hazard, and do not ground them. But in this case I think it was a mistake, not a design choice.
@@reghunt2487 Oh I misunderstood what you meant then, my bad.
I know pickups have a grounding wire that goes to the bridge, but I admit I never knew where it went to the bridge it also did the strings.
Is this why when you aren't touching the strings there is some noise, but when you touch them the noise gets a lot more quiet?
@@grayfox9000 Well, the pickups will be grounded to the other electronics, not to the bridge. The bridge will usually be grounded to the electronics too (the back of a pot), which then grounds to the output jack.
And yes, if you have noise that disappears when you touch the strings, either the strings aren't grounded, or the guitar is badly grounded (possibly an amp or power issue).
Passive pickups have a ground wire. It's to provide shielding for the pickup wires going to the electronics, and if the pup has a metal cover, the ground wire connects to that too.
For active pups, the circuitry will take care of the grounding for the system, but will still ultimately connect to the jack ground.
Hi Glenn,
i'm a hobbyist luthier and those guitars bring up some questions... Active Pickups actually do not need to be grounded to the strings, even though it doesn't hurt. From this point of view the insulating paint would be half as bad, but still a pretty serious design oversight in case the parts are used in another guitar with passive pickups.
To find the problem, I would proceed in the following order:
1. Check the battery. Is it fresh? Is there any kind of insulating tape for the transport?
2. Check if the strings are connected to each other. Check if you have continuity between all the strings. If thats not the case, you need to remove the insulating paint in the saddle slots.
3. Check if the ground wire is installed correctly. First measure the continuity between the pot and the bridge itself. If there is no connection, check the ground wire and if necessary use a bit of sandpaper on the backside of the bridge to sand of the paint.
I just wonder, that you have the same problem with the V. This guitar has a tune-o-matic bridge with metal posts inserted into the body. That post should not be painted and attached to this is the ground wire. It might be possible that the paint is also insulating to the strings, but at that point i'd just deepen the string grooves in the saddle just to remove some of the paint.
However, i'm really curious what's the matter with those two guitars and i would be happy to see a follow-up video.
Best Regards
Max
I just had to sand the bottom of the bridge to bare metal to get it to ground. i didn’t need to mess with sanding anything on the top like the saddles etc. I think you just need to make sure the ground wire touches bare metal on the bottom. Took me about 3 minutes with 400 Grit sandpaper.
Yeah this is the exact solution I suggested for the V as well, Glenn should try it and let us know what happens.
We almost have Glenn at 500k! If you like this show, this content, the live mix reviews, demos, and recording tips, SUBSCRIBE!! Let’s get him over the 400k hump!!
For whoever does Thoman's product development: ALWAYS TEST A PROTOTYPE, FFS! 🤡🤡
It's not hard, doesn't take a big brain, it's the basics.
But it takes time and money :P
That's not enough. What very likely happened is that non conductive paint found its way into the chain without development or anyone else being consulted. Maybe some sourcing guy thought he'd save 2 cents, maybe a supplier even lied on the product.
@@Leo_ofRedKeep Quite possible. But for guitars, especially sub 200€ ones, a proper pre-production run is a big ask.
If they received product that isn't to spec, there may be recourse...
@@luisnunes3863 Thomann has a habit of outsourcing quality control to its customers. Never trust a new model. They often come with "childhood diseases", bad designs that get sorted out in later batches.
And the regular models often change in small ways, unannounced. They hide it all behind a "free return policy without questions" (within the EU).
Harley Benton is a gateway drug, the bait to get people to want a guitar but they make more money by selling you a Fender.
Not trying to defend Harley Benton here, but sometimes those cheaper active pickups get really noisy around led studio lighting. Especially if you point the pickup directly into the light. Have you tried playing it with normal room light instead of led/studio softbox?
Also, there are gotoh and other hardware that is painted black, and still does induce electric signal, so it may not be the source of the problem.
There is a video on one of the older "high end" 7 string fanfret Harley Benton with the same hbz pickups and the guy reviewing it basically said- those pickups are not designed for led lights.
Ok so today I found out that paint actually does effect noise floor. That's what these videos are good for, you always learn something new. I had no clue.
Absolutely love this sense of humor! Cheers!
This is the funniest UA-cam channel I’ve seen in a while. You’re absolutely killing it with the jokes and the humor and the anger. Enjoy the videos keep up the great work.
Thanks, Jack! I’m glad you’re enjoying it!
Lol your energy is so cool, I was having a pretty shite day until I clicked on this video & you had me laughing from the go....
Thanks man....if for nothing else at least I want you to know that I appreciate you for that, you've completely flipped my mood for the better
Cheers
Blaze Pickups won me over!! The clarity is impeccable!!
In 6 months - "Hello and welcome back to Glenn's Guitar Garage, where we fix shitty guitars. I didn't start out as a luthier, but I am one now!"
The sound effects inserted in post on this video were hilarious, definitely get down with this type of production more, Glenn.
LOVE that new editing! Glenn, you never cease to entertain!
About upcoming pick up comparison. I have always been able to hear a difference between ceramic vs alnico.. so conformation or proof of my bias. Would be great. To me ceramic just sounds like all the mids are scooped out.
I build guitars with black hardware all the time. I Dremel the paint off of a spot on the bottom of the bridge so the ground wire connects, then also where the ball of each string touches the bridge (if you're careful, you'll never see the ground away places).
Glen, Open up the control cavities on the Quiet vs Noisy Harley Benton models you have. I suspect all the noisy ones use two wires to the jack (same as Fender) but should be using shielded cable to the jack (like even the old Epiphone 'clipped-ear' bolt on $80 LP Juniors shipped with shielded cable to the jack). I have found that for most guitars the unshielded pair to the jack are at least 50% of the idle noise floor. That offset HB jack to volume pot is a long run, as are most Vs. Traditional Fender JMs have their jack in the shielded control cavity so they can kind of get by.
honestly i respect this review for getting straight to the point. big respect
I love that you're always so hilariously fair. God forbid if this was a Gibson. All guitar makers have quality control holes to fill, lol. EDIT: Just from the sound, I've been here before with pawn shop guitars I know I could fix this with only a soldering iron, which doesn't excuse the quality control.
Hey Glenn Freicker, I don't know if you've heard this yet, but Thomann has opened a new warehouse and distribution center in the state of Maryland in the US. I'm going to be ordering from them at that location to speed up the ordering, shipping time and saving shipping cost.
i dont care if i win the lottery, i'd still consider a harley benton when shopping for a new axe
Great video Glen, this is why i just ordered a Schecter Omen from Thomann.
If the ground wire IS making a connection, the next thing to check is if the jack is wired backwards. I’ve had to correct that on several guitars a friend rewired because of the amount of noise it caused, now he just gets me to wire them in the first place lol.
Glenn, you are incredible. Please never change 🙏 🖤
The fall from grace has been spectacular, I must say.
So not one but two guitars with the same issue using those pickups. I hope you can get them sorted, I am thinking of getting a Harley Benton but I will stay away from the ones that use these active pickups.
Dremel tool with a sanding wheel just use gently and you should have no issue getting the paint off the back of that bridge. sheet of 80 to 100 grit sand paper folded in half should fit nicely in the saddle grooves use a little elbow grease and the paint should strip out
Yeah you could say "shit happens", but Harley Benton had the same painting/grounding issues with the Dullahans shortly before.
I will gladly defend Thomann anytime because my experience with them has been outstanding, but there is no excuse to putting out ungrounded guitars *after sending out ungrounded guitars the year before*
1:36 lmao i was listening while working and that made me burst. You nailed that tone of voice.
I hope that Thomann are listening and do something before their excellent reputation goes down the toilet.
... I have a similar problem with the "Stingray" version ... very informative. Thanks.
love the honesty on this channel bro keep it up money is tight quality gets the sale
Aha, it was a grounding issue!
I had the suspicion that it was because of that
I like the way you threw the top of that box on the smashed up Gibsons laying on the floor...
The blackout look is fine Glen. As long as the guitar is firmly grounded. I'm amazed that they continue to send you stuff, given your stark honesty. But I say good on them for doing so. These would be great starter guitars, if they were simply built correctly. Good on you for telling the fucking truth Glen. Maybe your relationship with them will lead to better quality in Harley Benton's lower tier products.
It would be great if you documented what happens when you attempt to warranty a guitar bought from Thomann.
Speaking of Thomann, I bought a Jackson Randy Rhoads and hard case from Thomann earlier this year. Delighted with my instrument. I ordered a classical guitar from them a few weeks ago and filmed the unboxing when it arrived on Thursday. I wasn't happy with what I got and sent it back for a replacement on Friday. I still put the unboxing up on youtube. The bridge was broken when I opened the box and when I was repacking I saw the nut on the floor. It had fallen off the guitar. So I can sort of relate to your feelings here.
I have several Harley Bentons. Most of them are almost perfect but I had a few complaints too. But I have to point out their customer service is top notch. I had a problem with the black paisley Telecaster. The neck angle want right. When I put the guitar with the back in the ground the neck would point slightly up. And it wasn't because of the neck plate in the underside. The wrong angle was even visible when looking at the joint between neck and body. Received a replacement but same problem. Found one on the used market which didn't have this problem. Seems they received a faulty batch. The overall quality of the guitars is really impressive but they really need to improve QC. Seems someone on the router station isn't doing his work. Neck pockets are one of the most important things to get right.
@@EbonyPope that's true about their customer service.
awesome video bud. Was wondering if you would ever make any videos to show us Bass players how to maintain our instruments. I guess you can do guitars and drums as well. Maybe even going into higher details where you take your instruments or gear you get apart and go into the electronics. keep making these videos buddy fucking eh!
When I worked in a deadbeat factory some odd years ago as a drill press operator, part of my job was using a drill with a bit to remove paint around a bolt hole to have the mounting arm ground with the housing when they were bolted together. I’ve seen paint processes with covers to specifically prevent paint from reaching critical areas that grounding is very necessary. The suits may have an issue here but not having the manufacturing process adapt either incompetence, communication breakdown, or just a simple overdraft of funds from the fuck bank account to look and solve possible issues that can be fixed cheaply is just mediocre.
Do we know what’s really going on there? Probably not concrete, and we may never know 100% sure what the hell is going on behind closed doors, but an issue that can be fixed with less than a second of drilling or sanding is just depressing.
genuinely thought you had snapped the head off when threw it on the floor for a second there ha!
Holy shit my paint comment was right!
Imagine if he'd gotten an epiphone with this problem like I did! I feel like he would have been even more livid
GLENNNNNNNNNN! LOL. If it is a grounding issue involving the tailpiece, sanding just the bottom may not work, because your saddles are still resting on paint, so the ground won't make it to the strings. I've had luck just sanding the bottom before, but cheap hardware uses paint instead of an oxide coating, so you may have to remove the paint from under the saddles as well. I had the same problem putting a cheap Musiclily or Metallor tailpiece on an Ibanez and sanding the paint off of the bottom didn't t work because, like I said, the saddles are still resting on paint. My solution was instead of removing the paint from under the saddles too, I threw out the bridge and bought an actual used Ibanez tailpiece and presto! I had ground. I also tested this with my multimeter and found it to be the case. Idk if that's what's wrong with these HB guitars, but if it is, you might have to do some additional sanding... or buy a new tailpiece. :) I have a feeling it might be those pickups though...
might be able to clean some paint off from the backside of the bridge where the strings ends catch.
Very interested to see if this is the fix. I've got a few guitars with black hardware but all super quiet.
I'm always suspicious of the 9v circuits
My Harley Benton turned up on Friday with a SNAPPED NECK. The box was in perfect condition and the packaging was grade A and hadn’t taken any bumps. I’m certain it was sent in that condition. Absolute Dogger.
I sent harley benton this video knowing my excitement turned into being bummed, and how I really trust and respect your opinions
I WAS MOSTLY RIGHT! I KNEW I HEARD A GROUNDING ISSUE! DIDN'T know they painted them so much they wouldn't even connect with a wire to ground!!! They can keep the black, just put a tab over the area to connect and pull it off after painted before assembly. Such an easy fix but a pain in the ass. I WOULD KILL FOR THAT JAGUAR WITH A FLOYD!!!
I just picked up the Donner DMT-100 off of Amazon during the Black Friday sale (side note....$159 on Amazon, $258 on Donner's own site....both Black Friday prices...WTF?)
Anyway, besides having passive pickups, it's the same vein, blacked out everything, including the bridge. These are the Hipshot style hard tail type. I've used the hipshot ones on many builds, and absolutely love them. The bridge on the Donner is nearly an exact replica of the Hipshot, and NO GROUNDING ISSUE!!!! I've bought many cheap aftermarket bridges that had the same issue you're having....it's a major pain in the ass....you'd almost be better off just getting the Hipshot and replacing it, than having to file the bottom, and each saddle in the hopes that you've achieved ground.
Thank you so much for this! The price makes this a very appealing project guitar and it does look cool but yeah bridge work sounds a bit bigger than what I was hoping for. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it though.
That V had a grounding issue Glenn. Most of my guitars have had a grounding issue at some point but I never threw my hands up and said "THESE PICKUPS SUCK!"
Dude!, take a breathe.
You`re probably right, but the main issue is that its not ok to expect the consumer to fix a newly bought product. Stuff like this should, as Glenn said, never leave the factory. If I buy something I expect it to work and thats simply not the case with those guitars.
@@larsausa3453 Agreed! Its just not good enough. I just like to get on Glenn about making knee jerk sweeping statements like these pickups suck and tonewood does nothing for anyone ever. I love and respect Glenn hes an expert in his field.....but not a guitar expert!
I've never tried the Harley Benton Guitars, but I've tried a couple of the basses and they're insanely good for the money.
Love the used car salesman slapback delay with reverb! Vintage vocal tone! 😆🤣
My guess is they test it in some clean amp where the noise would be slightly less pronounced and they just went “hmmm a noise gate could clean this up, ship it out”
My personal guitar tech has this habit of plugging into a clean amp whenever he works on my guitars. Don't get me wrong I love his work, but once I try to "metal" I start hearing all the little issues he didn't notice through the clean amp setup. I have a feeling no one ever plugged these guitars into the dirty channel of their amp when doing QC.
True dat', however if they work on a "heavy" guitar, they should test with high gain as well.
I purchased a HB singlecut guitar 2 years ago with the intent to immediately swap out the HBZ actives with some EMGs and add some Hipshot locking tuners. The HBZ were super noisy. The EMGs kick ass. I love the guitar and was not disappointed as I purchased it as a mod project.
Hey Glenn, you can actually order a Hipshot bridge, in black and it’s a drop in replacement for about $80. The brass is exposed on the back so no matter what color hardware you prefer, it will ground. And work properly!
Try just sanding the bottom of the bridge with some 220 grit. If you find you need to remove the finish from the saddles, try just using the sharp edge of a square or triangle needle file and LIGHTLY file the string path.
Thanks Glen, almost pulled the trigger on one of these because they are super cheap and look great. Look forward to seeing what happens when properly grounded.
I was considering getting the V when I saw it in the news. Glenn, thank you for saving me money and time.
Damn Glenn, you ripped them a new one! Well-deserved for putting a product out with such a defect that could have been easily fixed before it was a real issue. Not even a real defect, just people not paying attention to proper design. The ground wire is an absolute MUST!
Played guitar since '72 (i'm 65 now).
Closest i ever got to 'active' was an '80s Cort Arrow with a built in preamp.
I paid $150 for this in '96.
Last battery change hurt this circuit but the guitar still works great.
Offset, Sq Jagmaster, gift from my Wife. I love it.
I'm really happy to see that you're going to take the extra steps to fix the small issues on the V in order to make it better playing and sounding than out of the box.
Most inexpensive guitars suffer from the lack of attention to detail on the fretwork and setup. I took my girlfriend's Ibanez GIO and did some fret filling, swapped the pickups for decent ones, and put in new tuners and a bridge and it plays like a much more expensive guitar. It actually sounds pretty damn good!
I think the viewers might like to see the process of cleaning up the frets and other small detail work you can do to an inexpensive guitar without dumping hundreds of dollars into it at a luthier. All you need are the right tools and a little bit of research on UA-cam and you can learn some pretty valuable skills in luthierie. I learned a lot (pre internet) by tinkering with cheap used guitars. Now I know my way around an RG like the back of my hand.
Black hardware doesn't automatically mean it's going to have a ground issue. Also the issues with the guitars are fairly easy to fix.
I would love to see some series, where Glenn modifies guitars... could be very interesting
I was hoping Harley Benton would be better, but alas my hopes were dashed. Thomann needs to work hard on improving their quality. I was thinking of getting a Harley Benton but now I'm thinking I'll stick with fender/Jackson
They do work hard on improving their quality, but you know, you need to make mistakes to improve and they had plenty of those :D