Harley Benton L-500 service and review

This is the Harley Benton L-500 guitar. It's a LP-style single-cut guitar with some interesting features and it's part of the new "Vintage" series. I've bought the same guitar a few years back but then it was called the "HBL-500" model. Also, a friend of mine bought the exact same model in white. Unfortunately, the old "hbl-500" and "L-500WH" model that were not part of the new "vintage" series, were better in certain areas...  We'll discuss that in a moment. For now, you can check my article on the L-500 WH here:
http://guitar-dreamer.blogspot.gr/2013/12/the-harley-benton-l-500-wh.html

Here are the original specs of the Harley Benton L-500 BK, Vintage Series, electric guitar:
-basswood body,
-maple neck with C-shape,
-set-neck construction,
-rosewood fretboard with block inlays,
-bindings on body/neck/headstock,
-22 jumbo frets, 628 mm scale,
-43 mm nut-width,
-double-action truss rod,
-2 x vintage-style covered humbucker pickups,
-electronic 2-volume, 2-tone, 3-way switch,
-tune-o-matic bridge,
-gold hardware,
-die cast tuners,
-010-046 strings,
-color: black high gloss







http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbl500bk_egitarre.htm?partner_id=73786

This is certainly a nice lp custom copy guitar but there were a few issues that had to be taken care of. This guitar came in new in its brand new case. Nobody had fiddled with it before. The action was pretty high and it was clear that the guitar has never been set up. So I checked the guitar and noticed there was a fret buzzing issue as well. I adjusted the neck relief but it made little difference. I then removed the cheap stock strings and checked the frets for high spots with a fret-rocker plate. To my surprise this L-500 model had a few high spots that had to be leveled. My older l-500wh and hbl500 guitar didn't really have such issues.
I was a bit disappointed that this particular model was not made just like the white or the older black "500" models. Even the L-400 gold-top guitar had a better fret-work despite being a cheaper model:
http://guitar-dreamer.blogspot.gr/2014/09/the-l-400-goldtop-guitar.html

So I leveled, crowned and polished the frets to get them nice and even. Once the frets were good, I filed their sharp edges for smoother feel and oiled the fretboard. Next, I checked the electronics and put a brand new set of strings on the guitar. The action, neck relief and intonation were properly adjusted. The guitar is now very playable and the action is low. There are no dead notes any more and the finish looks awesome. It's like playing a nice high-end Epiphone model only you don't actually have to pay that much. The epiphone special II and LP-100 are closest to the L500's price range but these cheap bolt-on Epi models are to be avoided due to their bad build quality. This L500 guitar was definitely worth the effort! The stock ceramic pickups sound like a set of Gibson 490-series pickups, hot with plenty of mids. The 60's profile neck is really comfortable and the nut is a bit wide for better sustain. The bridge is also chunkier with longer saddle tracks for better intonation adjustment, just like some Gotoh units. The highly playable set-in neck has a long-tenon construction and a dual-action truss-rod. These are high end features!




-Thanos