Semi HNGD

Knox in Box

Rustbelt refugee.
My in laws came over today for my birthday and brought me presents that they got me. He explained that he has a co-worker that was a musician and has Rheumatism now so bad that he has been forced to give it up, so he bought some things from him on the cheap. First thing was a 4 channel PA combo from thomanns house brand that I don't need, but who knows, if I have a PA I might have to start a band...

The next thing I saw was a black no name classical guitar that did nothing for me at all. After that I saw a hardshell case from SKB Orange, CA off to the side and thought "Hola". Opened it up and saw this:

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String was attached at the time. My heart sort of sank because I never would have picked this guitar. Never played an Ovation or copy (this is a Harley Benton no less) that I've liked. Not for feel or tone. As I took it out I saw two things, the strings we old as hell and the top was cracked in three places the way only older finishes seem to crack. Tapped on the top and realized that it was a nice lovely tone to it. I played a few chords and was actually shocked to find that it sounded pleasant other than the dead strings.

After they left I broke down and took off the strings and found that the first four frets are dented as hell and there are actually dents in the fingerboard from play. This guy really played the hell out of this thing, I can see why though. Plugged in it sounds full and stage type nice, my Yamaha sounds really natural on recordings but this sounds like it's meant to sound good in a stage mix. It has a three band EQ with extra presence control so I can probably make it record well also.

I just don't know about the frets, the action is high enough that it doesn't buzz for now, but I don't know if it would be worth it to pay to replace them. My son really like this guitar, so I guess I'll see how well it fits in before investing into it.
 
How deep are the frets dented? Is there enough fret to level them? If it sounds that good a fret level is worth the investment...
Deep enough that I wouldn't attempt it by myself. I'll see if I still like it this much after the honeymoon. I may just keep the action high and string it with 10's.
 
I have 11-52 on it now and it's liveable. Might even be okay with a trust adjustment, but it has an odd sized truss nut. Another sign that this is a very early model HB. I'll have to go find an Allen wrenches that fits it.
 
Shaved down the saddle a bit and it was an improvement. Further improvement is now on hold indefinitely because I tuned it to open G and realise this thing sounds awesome with a slide. The smaller freq range lends itself perfectly to this as compared to my dreadnaught.
 
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