New DIY Guitar Kits From Harley Benton: Explorer-style Extreme ’76 & ’84 and Victory V

I’ve been looking into trying out one of all the DIY guitar kits available these days and considering the quality I’ve experienced from Harley Benton‘s regular guitars I’m pleased to see they offer a few kits as well (including a solid, rectangular block one if you want to REALLY do it all yourself). One nice little feature is that it seems like all their models come with a solderless pickup system with quick connects, even removing the need for soldering if you want to keep the original hardware.

The three new models are the Explorer styled Extreme ’76 and Extreme ’84: the former with a white pick guard and passive pickups and the latter without a pick guard but active pickups (including a battery cavity on the back). The third one is the V-shaped Victory, and I actually got one of those (but factory-made) at home which turned into a real fun beast after upgrading it to a golden EMG kit, might have to post something on that project some day. These guitars also come with pre-sealed wood, so you can use them as is or spray them with lacquer but they need to be re-sanded if you want to use a wood-stain, for instance. Considering the low price on these I bet you could get a fantastic instrument by just upgrading some of the hardware, while also getting to customise the look and feel of the guitar as you want.

• The Extreme ’84 kit: Okoume body and bolt-on neck
• 22 fret Roseacer fingerboard with dot inlays
• Active HBZ humbucker pickup at the bridge, Active HBX humbucker at the neck
• Tune-O-Matic bridge
• Die-cast tuners
• Black hardware
• Available on Thomann (€156 or £134)

• The Extreme ’76 kit: Okoume body and bolt-on neck
• White pick guard (routing underneath so you need it on)
• 22 fret Roseacer fingerboard with dot inlays
• Passive humbucker pickups in bridge and neck position
• Tune-O-Matic bridge
• Die-cast tuners
• Chrome hardware
• Available on Thomann (€127 or £109)

• The Victory kit: Basswood body with bolt-on maple neck
• 22 fret roseacer fingerboard with dot inlays
• Chrome hardware
• Passive humbucker pickups in bridge and neck position
• String-through design
• Available on Thomann (€127 or £109)