“If you’re looking for deep, low-end growling in a sleek, no-nonsense design…”: Harley Benton expands Agufish series with two high-performance single-cuts and a 28” scale baritone for monster riffs
Harley Benton teams up with the YouTube star for the Standard lineup, featuring weight-relieved bodies, humbuckers with coil splits, roasted maple necks and locking tuners
If it feels like it was only just a week or so ago that Harley Benton launched a pair of signature guitars for Agufish, aka Hunter Engel, that’s because it was, with the budget gear titan one electric guitar and a baritone, both in Purple Blast finish, for the YouTube star.
Well, along comes another three, with Harley Benton expanding the Agufish signature range with the Agufish Standard models, and they comprises another 28”-scale baritone bruiser and a pair of 25”-scale single-cut electrics in Black and Seafoam Green satin finishes.
As with the Purple Blast Custom models, this new trio nails the 21st-century single-cut vibe – and they retail a little cheaper than the ash-topped Custom models.
Besides the AAA ash top and the finishes, the Custom and Standard models are nigh-on identical. The Standard models have a weight-relieved nyatoh body, topped with a carved maple top. Necks are roasted Canadian maple, shaped into a “Smooth U” neck profile, and glued to the body, with a heel that’s shaped to enhance access to all 22 frets.
These Agufish signature models are towards the higher end of the Harley Benton guitar lineup and so you can expect a lot of spec for the price. Those frets are extra-jumbo stainless steel. These guitars should have a nice and easy slinky feel.
The Macassar ebony fingerboard has rolled edges and glow-in-the-dark side dot markers (it’s radius is a Gibson-esque 12”Locking tuners come as standard, with Jinho HB JN-03L machine heads on all three instruments.
There is a Rosewell “Seraphim” Alnico V humbucker at the bridge, and an “Alnico Ceramic Flanker” humbucker at the neck. These electric guitar pickups are controlled by a pair of volume controls and a pair of tone knobs that have a push/pull coil-splitting function so you can get a bit of single-coil snap on command.
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Elsewhere there is a fully adjustable WSC TOM-style bridge, a Graph Tech Tusq XL nut. You get some signature graphic detail on the front and back of the headstocks, with the peg head painted to match the body.
You will find chrome hardware on the baritone model, nickel satin on the black Standard six-string, and black hardware on the Seafoam Green.
The black models have multi-ply black-and-white binding on the top of the body, while the Seafoam Green is more vintage-modern with its single-ply black binding on the body’s top.
The Agufish Standard models are available now, exclusively through Thomann and Harley Benton’s US-based Reverb Shop, and they are priced £422/$547.
See Harley Benton for more details.
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Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars and guitar culture since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitar World. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.
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