0:00 Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. [music]
0:46 >> [music] [music] >> What's up everyone? Andrew Bainy here and I look kind of naked on this camera. It's too hot here in Canada. I'm wearing shorts. We're going to roll with it. Anyways, today we're checking out one of the newest guitars from Harley-Davidson. This is the Fusion 4. And the version of this guitar that I have here in particular is the one with active EMG pickups and a reverse headstock made for metal. So, if you've never seen one of my demo videos before, what I like to do
1:32 is show you what this guitar sounds like in a full demo mix, which you have already heard. A big thank you to my friend Johnny Tardulo for helping me write that song and then talk about the specs and features, give you a few solo tone clips, and last but not least, give you my thoughts and opinions on this instrument. So, before we get on to the specs and features, I do have to mention this guitar was sent to me by Harley Benson, and this video is sponsored by them. However, of course, all thoughts and opinions remain my own. And as you can tell in the title of this video, there is a problem with this guitar, which I have since fixed, but we're going to talk about it anyways near the end of this video. For now, let's just give you the facts as they are. So, we are looking at a Super Strat style guitar which has a Niato body as well as two retroactive EMG pickups. This is also a custom set with black pole pieces
2:17 which looks really, really nice with the rest of this guitar with all the black on black details. We also have a volume and a tone knob as well as a three-way pickup selector right there for electronics. This one in particular also features a fixed bridge from Bavix. And this is the Z series FCH bridge. This is a pretty unique looking bridge that I've never tried before. Um, I actually like it quite a lot. Flipping over the guitar, you can see that it is a string through guitar with a uh battery pack right there, cavity cover, and it of course is bolt-on. Moving on to the neck, we have an absolutely beautiful Canadian flame maple neck. We also have stainless steel frets. And continuing with that Canadian flame maple fretboard, which looks ridiculously nice. It also features these circular
3:02 inlays, which you can kind of see on this. It's a little hard to get on camera, but you can see one of them right there. We also have glow-in-the-dark side dots on this guitar. And then last, but not least, we have a reverse headstock with staggered locking tuners. We also have the truss rod access point at the base of the neck right here, which is of course the optimal position for it to be. And last but not least, this one also features the Graphtec Tusk XL nut. This guitar also comes stock with DR strings, which are the dragon skin coated strings, but I have already replaced those to get this down to drop C because I don't play an E standard. And I'm very glad that I replaced the strings because that is where I found the issue of this guitar, which again we will talk about in just a minute. So those are the facts, those
3:47 are the specs of this guitar. Next up, I'm going to show you a few solo tone clips and then finally tell you my thoughts and opinions. So, let's hear how it sounds. [music] Heat.
4:42 >> [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] >> Okay, so now you know everything you need to know about this Harley Benon guitar and it is finally time for my thoughts and opinions on this
5:28 instrument. Now, first and foremost, I have worked with Harley Benton for a long time. I'm always very grateful to them for sponsoring this channel, sending me gear. They are awesome to work with, and I genuinely really appreciate them. Unfortunately, in this guitar's case, there was a pretty big issue that I found when I rerung the guitar for the first time. So, it turns out that the locking tuners on this are staggered, like I mentioned earlier, but they were installed the incorrect way from factory. So, what that basically means is that the tallest uh tuner was over here, and the shortest one was over there. Basically, they were reversed. So, what I think probably happened is whoever set this up installed them as if this was a lefty neck rather than a reversed righty neck. So, pretty big mistake unfortunately because it made putting thicker strings in this guitar
6:14 actually impossible until I took all of the tuning pegs off and flipped them which luckily fixed the issue and it works absolutely fine and it sounds and plays amazing now that I have done that fix. So, I'm trying to rering this guitar to be in drop C because that's the best six string tuning. And we've realized that the strings don't fit through these. So, I was like, what is going on? Right. So, every time you put the string in, it goes halfway in and then I don't know if you can see that, but it gets stuck on the I guess washer or whatever this is called. So, what I've realized is they've actually installed the staggered tuners the wrong way. So, the tallest one is supposed to be here. This one's supposed to be here. I guess this one stays as is and so on and so forth. So, basically now I need
6:59 to take a wrench and undo all of these and swap them to be the opposite way and hope that that fixes it. I guess now we have to take all of these off one by one and uh redo that. So, let's see. So, my theory is that this is a left-handed neck on a right-handed guitar. >> Maybe >> it would only make sense for those to be the height. Like, you can see it starting from the high E. >> Okay, so I swapped the tuners around. So, now you can see they're going from tallest to shortest the opposite way. Hopefully, this is correct. I guess we'll find out. Mission accomplished. All the strings fit as they should. Yeah. However, with that being said, of
7:44 course, it is a pretty big bummer that that had to be fixed right out of the box by myself. Um, of course, if you're not as knowledgeable with how to do those things and fix these things yourself, you could also send it back to Toomen and Harley Benton. They do have a very good return policy. So, you know, bear that in mind. They would take care of you if this happened to you as well. I'm really hoping that this was a one-off issue that only happened on my guitar. If you have a Fusion 4, please let me know in the comments below if you've also experienced this issue. I've also forwarded the videos that you saw of me replacing the tuners to Harley Benton and told them about the issue. So hopefully if this is a bigger problem, they have already fixed it by now. Let this also go to show you. I know there are a lot of people that think that YouTubers get sent the perfect specimens of guitars because we're reviewing them and they're going to be perfect because the factory puts more time and effort
8:30 into them. And we always tell you that's not the case. We just get whatever they happen to have in the factory at the time. And this is a great example of that. So, like I said, that issue is definitely a pretty big bummer and pretty disappointing to see. And it really sucks because if that hadn't have happened, this guitar is absolutely amazing. It plays so good, feels so good, and everything else about it is basically perfect. It's also one of the lightest guitars that I've ever played in my life. So, bear that in mind. If you prefer a heavier guitar, this one might not be for you. But, if you like light guitars, which I do, it's awesome. The satin black finish also feels and looks absolutely sick. This bridge I was very unsure of when I first unboxed it because it is a lot more bulky than any other fixed bridge that I've ever tried before. I thought that the saddle pieces might get in the way when palm muting
9:16 it, but it's actually extremely comfortable. It feels a little bit weird when you first play it because it feels like your palm is resting like higher up on the string than it normally would, but it actually still sounds great and feels completely fine and you forget about it after like 30 seconds of playing it. So, I'm happy about that because I was very curious about this bridge and it actually sounds great and feels great, too. Once the locking tuners were in the correct position, they also feel great and tuned just as well as you would expect them to. Obviously, the Tusk XL nut is always great. Stainless steel frets are always a nice addition as well. It should help these frets last a lot longer before needing a refresh. And I mean, again, honestly, just the aesthetic of this guitar is so sick with just the satin black, but Canadian maple everything else looks absolutely stunning. So again, I really, really like this guitar. I just really hope that this was
10:01 a one-off issue and that this does not happen on anyone else's guitar. I will also mention the Fusion 4 line is massive, and this is the only one with a reverse headstock. Every other iteration of the Fusion 4 model does not have a reverse headstock. So, I'm going to go ahead and assume and hope that you would never experience this issue if you didn't get this one. But if you do get this one, bear that in mind and check that when you get yours. And I hope that you have better luck than me. Again, I'm not saying any of this to dunk on Harley Benon. I love Harley Benon. I love working with them and I want to give them a thank you for sponsoring this video again. But of course, it is my duty to tell you the facts and tell you what's going on with every guitar that comes through my studio. So, with all that being said, if you are still interested in buying this guitar or anything else from Harley Benson, there is an affiliate link to Toman. Go check it out in the link in the description and the pinned comment below to get one
10:47 for yourself or anything else over at Toomen. It directly helps support my channel and let me keep making videos just like this. So, that's pretty much all I have to say for this video. Again, a big thank you to Harley-Davidson for sending this guitar over to me. I do have another one from them up on the docket. Next, I have the JA Baritone HH, which is that 30-in scale Jazzm thing, but with active or sorry, not active, but humbucker pickups. So, that should be pretty cool and coming up sometime near the end of this month or early August. So, stay tuned for that. And last but not least, a massive thank you to all my Patreon members whose names are on the screen at this point in time. If you want guitar tabs, audio downloads, stems, or a shout out on the screen like these people here, you can find all that over on my Patreon page, which is linked below. And one more time, a massive thank you to Johnny Chargula for helping me write the intro song that you heard on this guitar. Johnny is an absolute beast songwriter. So, if you need ghostwriting help or
11:33 just co-writing help, be sure to hit him up as well. He is the goat. Thank you all for watching. I hope you enjoyed this video and I'll see you
