NZGuitars.com

Anybody tried them? Are they as good for the price as the rumours say?

No personal experience, but a few people on here say nice things:

viewtopic.php?t=38828#p896743

A mate of mine has a Harley Benton Tele. To be honest it didnt even slightly resemble a musical instrument, more like a hunk of lumber from behind the shed. Heavy and non resonant as fuck. Simply horrible,

Disclaimer: I am an obnoxious fussy prick who's taste in guitars is way above his ability to play or afford them.

vinylguy wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 8:20 am A mate of mine has a Harley Benton Tele. To be honest it didnt even slightly resemble a musical instrument, more like a hunk of lumber from behind the shed. Heavy and non resonant as fuck. Simply horrible,

Disclaimer: I am an obnoxious fussy prick who's taste in guitars is way above his ability to play or afford them.

Are HB and Artist the same things with different labels?

I found the Jazzmaster model (Grungemaster) surprisingly good. Really loved the neck on it and then I put a chigsby on it and gifted it to a mate who loves it to bits. And the P90s on it sound more than acceptable.

Never bought a guitar but three of their tweed cases over the years. Not quite TKL or CG ( the makers of Gibson and Fender CS cases ) quality but perfectly adequate for the task, considerably cheaper and readily available when you need one.

If the F-holes were in the right place on the 335 copies, and they came in a natural finish, I’d probably give one a go.

I've had one of their parlour acoustics, great solid top guitar for not much money!

I've bought a Harley Benton HB35+ though and its extremely good, the only thing I'm changing is the tuners for locking ones, the pickups and other hardware are great, as is the finish and build quality, had Alan Farrow set it up for me and apart from getting the action to my liking and fixing the intonation he didn't have to do anything else to it! Amazing.

I might be in need of a cheap guitar soon and I've been wondering about those Grungemasters. The demo Brett Kingman does sounds pretty good.

Anyone tried their teles or strats?

I imagine it could become one of those traps where you eventually end up spending 2-3 times the original price of the guitar on upgrades.

Miza wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 1:11 pm I might be in need of a cheap guitar soon and I've been wondering about those Grungemasters. The demo Brett Kingman does sounds pretty good.

Anyone tried their teles or strats?

I imagine it could become one of those traps where you eventually end up spending 2-3 times the original price of the guitar on upgrades.

Yeah, gotta be wary of that, the Gotoh tuners for my Harley Benton I ordered cost $200, the guitar shipped was only about $600 but its definitely a keeper, and the pickups and everything else about it are excellent.

smallface wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 9:16 am I found the Jazzmaster model (Grungemaster) surprisingly good. Really loved the neck on it and then I put a chigsby on it and gifted it to a mate who loves it to bits. And the P90s on it sound more than acceptable.

Grungemaster.jpg

I'm thinking there might be a grungemaster in exactly that finish in my near future

I’ve bought a few things from Artist Guitars on TM and rather annoyingly every single time whatever I’ve bought has been sent to the wrong address. It ends up being sorted after a few phone calls, but even adding a note or sending them an email doesn’t seem to prevent my orders going off to some random address that is nothing to do with me

That aside, would I try one of their guitars? Yeah probably. If it plays and sounds good I’m not going to get hung up on what it says on the headstock. I had a cheap Haze Les Paul once, paid $300 for it and it was bloody great

Sweetwater sent something to me addressed: Conway Paton, Flat 2, Auckland, New Zealand.

I received it fine.

I've bought one of their hard cases before, returned it cause it was garbage... they were very good tho', free shipping to return and full refund!

Conway wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 7:14 pm Sweetwater sent something to me addressed: Conway Paton, Flat 2, Auckland, New Zealand.

I received it fine.

Wow. Maybe you have so much gear coming in they just remember where to send it