Harley Benton Custom Line CLA-15M

Ok, first off I love this guitar.
In the early 90's I went into Andy's guitar shop, London, and tried a Martin 150th anniversary all mahogany 000-15 (or 00) and a '68 Gibson hummingbird. Both gorgeous guitars, the Martin was the 2nd best acoustic I've played (the best being a 60's Martin 00/000 made with Brazilian rosewood and spruce or cedar top). I loved it but it was £950, which I didn't have back then - to put that into context the '68 hummingbird was £100 cheaper. Fast forward to now and Martin had reissued the all mahogany 000-15s a few years ago, which I didn't realise - at a bargaintastic £1200. Post Brexit vote however and they are now £1500 or more, due to our devalued currency and exchange rate. So while I'm waiting for Sterling to improve, I got this Harley Benton version.
Straight out of the box, this guitar was in tune and immediately playable. I mean seriously playable. I immediately recognised the tone from that old Martin I tried. It doesn't have all the complex timbre of the Martin, or quite the sweetness of the notes - but It was instantly in that tonal family. I recognised the tone; not just that, it has warmth but also a surprising punch to it - out of the box it blew me away.

Set up, out of the box, is excellent. This is the first of my Harley Bentons to actually come with a set up card. It's really easy to play, excellent action. The strings sing out clearly and evenly (the Martin is probably a bit clearer) - it's really well balanced like that across the whole guitar, nothing jumping at you or hiding away. The intonation is pretty much spot on, across the fret board, straight out of the box. Impressively precise. Construction is simple and clean. No extra heavy bracing added by accountants worried about warranty periods (like certain acoustics have had). This is a really light guitar. The bracing is scalloped to reduce weight and allow the guitar to vibrate and resonate. And boy does it do that. A lovely warm, rich tone with it's own complexities and resonances and timbre - and plenty of punch if you drive it. This is so much lighter than my other acoustics (which are worth a good bit more). I can't remember playing a lighter one.

The one thing that surprised me a little was that mine is a little headstock heavy - no more so than my other acoustics but a lot of HB's a very well balanced this way - the old Martin sat perfectly balanced on my leg. To be fair - it's so light it would need a very light weight set of tuners to counterbalance that lovely resonant body. Also, I suspect the nut was cut for strings a gauge lighter - as this is strung with 12's and only needs 11's to drive it. A couple of the strings catch on it - but it's no biggy, a bit of graphite will probably fix it - the nut is well cut for the string heights - the tuners do their job well. The strings had also been bedded in properly - no tugging on them required.

Did I mention how good this guitar sounds, feels and plays?
I was hoping for a good guitar but was taken aback by it and by the set-up and the simple quality and precision of the construction (ok, the nut wasn't cut for this gauge of strings but I really don't care, the strings sound great on it and are surprisingly easy to play).
Mine looked pretty much like the pictures on the site - I thought it might have a closer grain but it sounds great (and looks great) and it will only get better. It already sounds like it's opened up so how good will it be when it does.

This will suit a variety of styles from quiet, introspective fingerstyle to punchy strumming and anything in between. I'm sure this will be a good recording guitar. (I'll be recording with it)
I have it in an open D tuning at the moment - it loves lower tunings.
Forget all the stuff about this being a good guitar for the money - this is a good guitar.
And an absolute bargain.
Get one - while they still can do them in mahogany.
(Makes me feel unfaithful but - my new go to acoustic)

I bought this guitar as I wanted a cheapish acoustic I could have lying around (out of a case). And I have to say it has exceeded my expectations. The neck is absolutely fantastic in terms of action, feel and playability. It has a fairly flat radius (maybe 12 inch) and plays beautifully. I haven't adjusted the action or intonation at all - it was spot on.

The sounds is great, with a nice punchy sound. The finish is really clean and seems to be quite hard-wearing. I have knocked it a few times and it hasn't made a mark. The stock strings are good - I haven't even changed them after 15 months, although they probably need it now. The neck has worn nicely and is now really smooth (it always was smooth but now has a nice polished feel).

I do have one complaint though - the fret markers. Having the double markers on the 9th fret is confusing. My brain thinks it's the 12th. The markers on the side of the neck are fine, with a double dot at the 12th. Fortunately I don't look at the fretboard that much but it can be confusing if I'm trying to learn something new.

For context I've been playing guitar (on and off) since the early 90s and have played many guitars in that time. While this guitar doesn't feel super high end it also doesn't feel cheap. It just feels right and well balanced. I don't worry about damaging it and I don't wish it was better - I just play it.

The dreadnought version wasn't available at the time (which is a shame, since I'm a dreadnought kind of person - but seems like it's back in stock again!), so I decided to order the auditorium counterpart, and, I actually placed two separate orders for two of them, since I'm skeptical about guitars from this brand.

Turns out...

Both guitars sound better than what I was expecting, well, at least for an auditorium. We all know that this design will give you a much thinner sound, but on this particular one, it's rather balanced, not too dark, not too bright, which is what I like. The bone nut and the bone saddle do have a significant contribution to the sound amplification: it's clear, natural, and even loud (including harmonics). The only difference is, that the second one seems to have a better setup than the first one, both out of the box and after minor adjustments. Other than that, great smell (I'm not even kidding), great design (I can tell the guitar's heavily inspired by the Martin 000-15M, but hey, this is more like saying "when you want an expensive guitar but your budget is too tight so you ended up getting an inspiration instead, and it's very, very good, no exaggerations."). No sharp fret ends, smooth fretboard and bridge (even the bridge feels smooth!), decent tuners (at least for now, though I'll swap the tuners in the near future).

Yeah, I already returned the first one on the day I received the second one, which I'm happy with. Highly recommended, but always inspect your new guitar before actually playing.

Now, should I get the CLD-15M too?