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I was in the guitar shop last week and was going try a couple of acoustics, but there was another guy in, playing and he was excellent, so i just couldn't do it.

Matthew 7:24 points out that guitarists cranking up their Marshall stack to 'eleven' and banging out a bit of Zeppelin: 'Will be like a wise man who has built his house on the rock'

Nicely done. The paint job looks great - like a 'closet classic' relic.

my christmas pressy hasn't come yet, hopefully soon though and I'll post a picture when it does (it's Brian May related, not that I'm a fan boi or anything, I just love his guitars)

Was originally an HB TE52, but I added a neck PAF: https://i.imgur.com/nOhln0N.jpg

Go for it... GET IT, you know you want it

Welcome aboard! Feel welcome to make your own gear thread, if you haven't done that already. Update: I've been playing around with this stuff for nearly a couple of months now. I really like the triaxis. It has nearly all the sounds I want to hear and it has plenty of midrange attack. By comparison, I'm finding the Studio Pre is a little looser, a little more old school and it seems more sensitive to pickup output. I am probably going to list it for sale soon. The Marshall is great. It's got those classic sounds that we know well from records. I can also get the triaxis to sound like it if I boost lots of treble and select the british voice. But yeah, it's going to stay with me for a while. The Carvin Quad X is a really interesting beast. First impressions was it's very hifi - lots and lots of presence. It's a bit of a swiss army knife in the sense that there are loops for each of the four MIDI selectable channels and a master effects loop as well as inbuilt spring reverb. If anything, it's a little excessive. The gain channels (3+4) sound very tight and crisp, the tonal curve is a little flatter than the triaxis which suggests that putting some kind of filtering in the channel effects loops may be worth while. Either eq pedals or perhaps amp sim pedals like the Joyo American Sound. But as they stand, the eq isn't quite as ear-friendly as the triaxis. This is a shame given it's potential versatility but it's not a lost cause by any means. The Fender Princeton Reverb II is just lovely. I've been playing around with preamp valves and at the moment it has a set of TAD 12AX7's with an EHX in v2. I had the opportunity to compare the EHX to a Mullad, a Mazda, the TAD and a JJ Tesla Ruby. The EHX and Mullard were very close to each other tonally - lots of warmth and slight compression without losing attack. Very nice to listen to at higher volumes. A full set of TADs was a little modern sounding and hifi. The Mazda was half way between the TADs and the Mullard. The Ruby was a little harsher than the Mazda but not quite in TAD territory. So the TADs are doing the heavy lifting with something in v2 for shaping tonal character.

I'm loving this all. For years I've wanted something very much like that for plugging in headphones or hooking up to the PC at home. I've not bought anything as yet because I'm not really interested in most of the potential they have - years ago, I bought a Vox Valvetronix (still got it). The original, blue cloth one, size of an AC30, 2x12. Thing is I only ever used one amp model, and I don't bother with the built in effects. Something like this, though, I might be more inclined towards as at that price, as long as the sound I want is good, it doesn't matter so much more of it is "wasted"....

Ordered a B-stock HB35 in cherry red today. Not played their guitars but got a 51 style P bass and that was well worth the pennies I paid for it. I’ll post on here when it arrives.

It's a very long time since I played out anywhere, so can't comment on direct experience. I suspect were I to be a gigger, the average punter wouldn't notice. It'd be interesting to get an impression from players who do but don't know the brand before... Online, views seem to be split between those who've played them and think they're very decent for the money, putting them up against Vintage (by JHS), Squier CV, Fender player Series... directly, and as "upgradeable" to hold their own against much more - and on the other hand. those rubbishing them because 'Made in China + racist idiot', or a refusal to believe anything cheap could be good. I've yet to see anyone from the latter group who'd actually played one... FWIW, though, while I can't comment directly on experience with HB, I tend to find musicians who actually play out for a living are vastly more open minded about instruments, and themselves vastly more likely to be playing "budget" gear. The gearsnobs I've encountered have almost exclusively been comfortably-off hobby players, or sometimes guys in originals bands who sneer at anyone who plays covers, and are bitter that "wedding bands" can make a living while nobody wants to hear their obscure prog originals.... :D

Fantastic. Good job.

That's a good point really. At those costs, you can upgrade all the hardware and electronics if you want to, and get some good experience at the same time. I have looked at the HB but don't have one myself. Do you get people turn their noses up when you bring one out or are people a bit more accepting during our times of austerity?

I've recently bought a HB PB50 bass. I rolled the fingerboard edges and gigged it last week. £105. unbelievable

Yeah, was just saying this to a guy on the Facebook HB owners' group page. He's done all sorts of mods to his TEs - basically treated them as buying a neck and a body pre-attached. Even if that's all you use from the original, it compares very well to the likes of Warmoth imo, and you can probably put some very nice guts in it without spending more than the difference. I think last I looked the necks I was interested in on Warmoth were alone well over the cost of a TE52 or the likes.

For what it's worth, I did make my own Harley Benton in the past, with a kit like this: https://thmn.to/thoprod/115992?offid=1&affid=1771 It's really cool to make and I gotta say you learn a lot by building your own guitar. And tbh the quality of HBs now are insane for the price... I'd recommend that to anyone who wants to start or needs a cheap guitar on the side (travel etc). It's not Fender quality of course, but it's still pretty, pretty good

And here it is!!! Set up is lovely, and it was practically in tune (I will have to get used to the locking tuners). Frets feel like a tiny polish on top needed, but playing in will deal with that. Neck is gorgeous, and I love the firemist colour. Either a very, very almost imperceptibly tiny ding on the headstock, or a miniscule imperfection on the headstock finish, but that's the sort of thing it'd get in a few days' use with me, so.... Overall, a stunning piece. The gig bag is surprising good, much higher quality than I expected, and the 25th logo inside it is a nice touch. Highly recommended. I still hope they do 5his soec in the CC colours going forward, as a DLX model.