Harley Benton 549486 Electric Guitar Kit User Manual
- June 12, 2024
- Harley Benton
Table of Contents
**Harley Benton 549486 Electric Guitar Kit User Manual
**
Safety instructions
DANGER!
Danger for children
Ensure that plastic bags, packaging, etc. are properly disposed of and are not
in the reach of babies and young children. Choking hazard! Ensure that
children do not detach any small parts (e.g. knobs or the like) from the
product. They could swallow the pieces and choke!
Never let children play unattended with the product.
CAUTION!
Risk of injury to the hands
When assembling and screwing the individual parts, pay attention to sharp
edges on tools, screws and components.
Scope of delivery
Thank you for buying this electric guitar kit. All wooden parts, hardware and electrical components are contained in this package.
The following figure shows the individual components of the delivery.
Assembly instructions
Useful tools and materials
Provide the following tools and materials for the assembly of the guitar:
- Phillips screwdriver
- Rubber mallet
- Ring wrench
- Pliers
- Varnish and accessories
- Sandpaper
! It is essential that the body and neck are painted before assembly. You must wear a dust mask when applying spray lacquer or paint.
Painting the body and neck
Painting the body
The solid wood of the guitar body is sealed and prepared for various types of lacquer coating. A wide variety of finishes can be procured from DIY, timber and automotive outlets in aerosol cans making finishing straightforward without requiring specialist skills.
The first step is to check the fit of the body to neck joint. These parts are machined from high-grade tone woods to ensure optimum alignment. However, wood is a nat‐ ural material that changes its shape slightly over time. If the neck is too tight in the cutout on the body, you can rework the fit with a sharp chisel or sandpaper. Please keep in mind that the coating of lacquer will make the neck fit a little more tightly into the cutout.
Before coating the body, ensure that all surfaces are clean and free of dirt and dust. Carry out all painting work in a well-ventilated, dust-free environment. Considered and careful working is the key factor for ensuring a satisfactory result. It is highly rec‐ ommended that you first try out the colour and technique on a different piece of wood.
Paint the body edges first and let them dry. If the edges are dry, continue with the front and back. By layered, successive application you can achieve a uniform coating structure. If you notice surface irregularities, wait until the paint has dried completely and correct them with fine sandpaper (e.g. 800+) before proceeding to paint. Apply three or more layers for full coverage.
Wait another two to three days to dry until the paint is fully cured. Polish or burnish the body until it meets your expectations. Take care not to buff too vigorously as this may remove the finish.
Painting the nec
The guitar neck is sealed with a thin layer of matt lacquer before delivery and is ready to use. If you still want to treat the neck with coloured or clear lacquer, proceed as described below.
Carefully mask off the fingerboard and all frets before painting. Make sure that all sur‐ faces are free of dust and dirt. Carry out all painting work in a well-ventilated, dustfree environment.
For the neck, use a clear or slightly tinted wood paint of good quality. Start on thefront and at the edges of the headstock. Apply a thin layer evenly, let it dry and repeat the process two or three times. If you notice surface irregularities, wait until the paint has dried completely and correct them with fine sandpaper (e.g. 800+) before proceeding to paint.
Once the headstock has dried, place the neck on the fingerboard and paint the back of the neck as described.
Wait another two to three days to dry until the paint is fully cured. Polish or burnish the neck until it meets your expectations. Take care not to buff too vigorously as this may remove the finish.
Mounting the machine heads
Insert the four machine heads from the rear side of the headstock into the bores. Align the machine heads so that the tuning pegs are perpendicular to the top of the headstock.
Fix the machine heads as shown in the figure in this position hand-tight with the sup‐ plied screws.
Turn the neck over and fix all machine heads hand-tight with the supplied washers and nuts on the front of the headstock.
Tighten the nuts on the front with a suitable wrench, and then tighten the screws to secure the machine heads on the rear side.
Mounting the guitar neck
Place the body on a suitable work surface. Use a soft pad to avoid damaging the sur‐ face. Fit the neck into the neck cutout. If necessary, use a sharp chisel or sandpaper for reworking. Be very careful when removing material. The neck should be tight and never have too much clearance in the cutout!
Turn the guitar over. First put on the rubber plate, then position the neck plate over the four screw holes on the back of the body. Then screw the four long wood screws provided through the holes in the neck plate, body and neck until everything fits tightly.
Preparing for mounting the tailpiece and bridge
Thread the string-earthing cable (stripped, without connectors) through the channel from the back hole into the tailpiece mounting hole.
Lead the cable out of the hole so that sufficient contact with the metal surface can be achieved when fitting the tailpiece. String earthing reduces noise (buzzing)
Use a rubber mallet to drive the bolt fasteners for the tailpiece and bridge into the body as shown. Make sure there is sufficient contact between the stripped end of the grounding cable and the tailpiece bolt.
Screw in the inserts and screws for the bridges and tailpiece as shown in the figure.
Wiring pots, pick-ups and switch
The pick-ups, potentiometer and jacks are connected to a cable harness with click-on plugs. Prepare the neck pick-up (yellow cable) and the bridge pick-up for installation by routing the cables through the recesses and then screwing in the pick-ups as shown in the photo
Plug the cable harness into the “F hole” and connect the click-on plugs to the poten‐ tiometers as shown in the figure. Usually the upper tone and volume potentiometers are connected to the neck pick-up, and the lower tone and volume potentiometers to the bridge pick-up. Then insert the potentiometer into the prepared holes on the rear panel as shown in the following figure.
Insert the output jack into the hole provided on the edge of the body. Insert the holder for the output jack and check the projection of the jack. This must protrude so far over the bracket to the outside that it can be sufficiently tightened with the sup‐ plied nut and then protrudes only slightly. As shown in the following figure.
Insert the pick-up switch from the inside of the guitar body as shown in the figure (use a piece of rigid steel wire to position it). Insert the washer and secure the switch with the nut. The cable of the pick-up switch is routed through the cable ducts in the central block of the guitar body. The neck pickup is generally activated with the switch in the upper position, and the bridge pickup in the lower position. This config‐ uration can be changed at any time by simply swapping the two connections.
Mounting the tailpiece, bridge, strings, pickguard, belt pins and pot knobs
Mounting the tailpiece, bridge and strings
Place the tailpiece and the bridge on the fastening bolts. The strings are threaded on the tailpiece and routed over the bridge and the saddle. As shown in the figures. Both components are still loose and are only fixed when stringing the guitar. Thread the strings into the holes of the machine heads, wrap the end of the string a few times around the peg, and then hand-tighten each string. Make sure that the indi‐ vidual strings are in the correct nut position.
Tuning the strings
Then tune all the strings in sequence to the correct pitch. You can use a tuner or a pitch pipe as a reference. Note that the string tension will drop a little and the guitar needs to be retuned several times until the strings settle.
Mounting the pickguard
Screw the pickguard onto the body using the screws provided as shown in the pic‐ tures below.
Mounting the strap pins
Screw the strap pins into the pre-drilled holes in the body as shown.
Mounting the pot knobs
Push the pot knobs onto the shafts of the individual potentiometers.
Neck relief and string action
Adjusting the neck relief
The neck is equipped with a steel truss rod, with which the neck relief can be adjusted individually to the playing habits.
After tuning the strings, check the neck relief by pressing the low E string on the first and twelfth fret. The closer the string is to the fingerboard at the sixth fret, the more noise (buzzing) will be heard when playing the guitar.
Adjust the neck relief with a suitable Allen key as follows:
- Turn the truss rod clockwise to increase the tension. The neck becomes straighter, in extreme cases convex. The string is closer to the fingerboard, easier to grip but causes more background noise when playing.
- Turn the truss rod counter-clockwise to decrease the tension in the neck. The neck yields more to the string tension and accordingly curves concave. The string moves away from the fingerboard, is a bit harder to grip, but causes less to no background noise when playing.
Adjust the truss rod by about a quarter turn per setting, tune all strings to the correct pitch after each adjustment, and check the neck relief again after some time. Repeat the process until the desired neck relief is achieved.
Screw the truss rod cover onto the headstock. **
**
Adjusting the string action
Once the neck has the desired relief, you can use the screws to the right and left of the bridge to adjust the string position to suit your taste. Again, the lower the string action, the easier the strings are to grip, but cause slight background noise when playing the guitar.
After setting the string action, you can check the octave intonation of the guitar and readjust if necessary. Tune all strings to the correct pitch, touch the first string just above the twelfth fret, and hit it. The resulting overtone (harmonic in the 12th fret) must have the same pitch as the string in the 12th fret. If the pitch of the two notes is different, move the bridge piece forward for this string (tone too low) or back (tone too high). Listen to the pitch of the two notes and make incremental changes until the two notes match. Alternatively, you can also adjust the octave clarity with an instrument tuner. The pitch of the note in the 12th fret must be the same as the open string, but one octave higher.
Protecting the environment
Disposal of the packaging material
For the transport and protective packaging, environmentally friendly materials have been chosen that can be supplied to normal recycling.
Ensure that plastic bags, packaging, etc. are properly disposed of.
Do not just dispose of these materials with your normal household waste, but make sure that they are collected for recycling. Please follow the notes and markings on the packaging
Disposal of your old device
This product is subject to the European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) in its currently valid version. Do not dispose with your normal household waste.
Dispose of this device through an approved waste disposal firm or through your local waste facility. When discarding the device, comply with the rules and regulations that apply in your country. If in doubt, consult your local waste disposal facility
References
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