Harley Benton GS-Travel-E Spruce

I've been lucky enough to try the GS-Mini Mahogany, GS-Mini-e Spruce and a few of the Taylor GS range (Koa and Rosewood).

I ended up keeping the GS-Mini Spruce - it has a lovely clarity and brightness without losing anything in the bass. The Mahogany version felt a bit warmer and muted. My partner didn't like the sound of the mahogany version at all. Her first reaction was "that doesn't sound like a nice guitar to me" which was enough to put me off. The GS-Mini-e spruce has a mahogany body too but that spruce top makes a huge difference.

I played the Taylors last and found that while they are finished to a very high degree, they suffer similar problems to the HB guitars - once you get to the upper registers on the fret board, a boxiness creeps into the sound, especially on the wound strings. That's the tradeoff for these smaller guitars. The Taylors have better components all around, nicer neck (I really don't understand why HB went with a soft V for their GS-Minis and it feels quirky even now) and better fretwork.

The other important point here is that the HB GS-Minis need a bit of work in the beginning, particularly frets and fretboard.

1. I took the saddle out and removed the scrap plastic they dropped under there. If you have the e-Version, the scrap is actually under the pickup. Also, check the saddle slot is clean and smooth - mine had routing errors leaving steps in the walls of the slot that needed to be smoothened out. And look for woodchips at the bottom and clean the drill holes. An easy fix. I then bought Graphtec's "Supercharger Kit" to replace saddle and pins with tusq quality components. Wow - big difference! It's a shame Thomann doesn't sell these kits but they are not hard to find, amazing value and definitely worth the investment. The one you need to get is "Graph Tech Supercharger Acoustic Kit B (9280-10)" which comes with slightly thinner bridge pins. I still had to file out the groove in the pin for the low E string as it wouldn't fit. Just mark it with a sharpie so you remember which one you filed. The other pins fit without modification and the saddle only needs slight sanding for your preferred saddle height.

2. Frets - I gave mine a full fret level, crown and polish. The GS-Minis have pretty horrible frets - both of mine were dirty/rusty and all over the place from a levelling standpoint. The levelling beam sorted that out and crowning file and sandpaper cleaned it up. This step makes a huge difference to playability.

3. Nut - the nuts on the GS-Minis weren't too bad but getting them to the right level after fret levelling is worthwhile. I used proper nut files to take out a bit of material. Only a couple of passes are required because the nut is plastic so be careful. I will probably replace this with Tusq nut soon as well.

4. Action - I thank the guitar gods that HB put truss rods in these guitars. It allows easy adjustment of the action. I also took about 2/64" off the bottom of the saddle. Both of these helped getting the action SUPER low: I've got 3/64" on bass strings and a smidge over 2/64" on high E. Only a little bit of fret sizzle but that adds flavour to these acoustics as they can be a bit sterile given their size.

5. Fretboard and bridge - dry as hell. Put some lemon oil or Ballistol on those and bring them back to life!

For those wondering about the pickups - I was genuinely surprised. They aren't as bad as you would think for an under-saddle pickup. In fact, you would struggle to hear much difference with higher-end guitars because the pickup system is the limiting factor here. My only gripe is that the pickups are active - I'm going to install passive pickups next.

The guitar bag - wow! Really solid quality soft-case guitar backpack. Decent padding and design. Probably used the same factory as Taylor's GS bags ;)

After a few hours work, the HB GS-Mini-e sounds and plays fantastically well. I currently have Ernie Ball strings on it and they are a match made in heaven. They just sound gorgeous and sweet. The Martin strings I had on a few weeks ago were amazing as well. The Fender strings I tried sounded flat so best to stick to Martins or EBs.

I probably added a few hundred dollars of value into this guitar taking into account the effort and replacement parts and other than the weird V-neck (which even Thomann's own video reviewer was struggling to comprehend), I couldn't see much difference with the higher priced Taylors.

Of course, once you get to Taylor's Koa mini, you start to see a big difference and it really stands out - the sound is very special but the cost of that guitar is hard to justify for a throwabout or couch guitar. I should add that Taylor's entry level GS series guitars do not use one-piece spruce tops - they are bookended 2 piece which some say can affect sound. The HB appears to use a solid one-piece spruce top. The bodies on both guitars are laminates of some sort.

I should add that the HB guitar doesn't look like it will last forever - the fretwire is pretty soft and discolours quickly so once you wear those down, you're going to have to get a new guitar. I can't imagine the fretboard will survive a re-fret but I would love Thomann to confirm otherwise as I would love to be able to do that on this guitar - it really ticks a ton of boxes for musicality and playability.

The only major downside I've discovered after a few weeks use are the tuners - mine wouldn't hold tune very well and had plenty of backlash and some dead spots where turning did nothing. They would be easy to upgrade and replace - most Gotoh tuners should work as they use 10mm bores.

Oh, and definitely go for the spruce top - it sounds "more like a guitar" according to "she who must be obeyed".

Blimey, this thing really rings!

I bought this as a travel guitar based on the excellent reviews. And I must admit I'm simply astonished. Build quality, hardware, setup, playability, intonation and sound are great. Sustain and balance are fine. Pickup and electronics are surprisingly good and there's even a high-quality chromatic tuner build in. The only thing I've slightly modified are the bridge and nut by lowering them approx 1mm to improve the action and playability to my taste. All in all, including a durable gigbag, this is amazing value for money. I definitely wouldn't categorize this a beginners guitar, rather intermediate almost pro level. No wonder these are topsellers.

I have posted a review of this online.
Rather than rewrite that here I will simply say excellent value for money instrument, just right as a travel guitar, maybe not in a plane, but otherwise good tone, construction and playing comfort.
This is bought as a present for someone else, although I will set it up to suit them, though not much to do.
Probably the best value for money guitar I have ever handled, not the best guitar in the world though I would say there are many much more expensive guitars that would comapre badly against this. Even if you think it a risk at this price no real risk at all.

Huge sound came out of this guitar , the finish is very good, no sharp end frets, the fretboard needs a little oil , the gigbag is dope , come on, its a 30 euros bag in a 100 euros guitar, BUY this , i?ve already bought the mahogony version of the GS travel, but it was a faulty unit so sent it back , but they only had at the time in stock the spruce one, i didnt wanted to cause the other one has a lot of reviews and this one not. but man, this Spruce top guitar is 5 time better than the other one in mahogony , it sound a lot better , more mids , its fuller. Buy this and dont regret if it breaks.

I have 5 different acoustic guitars at home, all full size, and I have 10+ experience in playing acoustic guitars.
This is a very nice guitar for the price and it's particularly nice for playing fingerpicking, on the sofa or on your bed, even at low volumes. It's decent also for strumming, even if the small size shows its limit for that. No issues in terms of playability for the size.
The finish on mine was very good, the action already low without the need of any fix.
I'd suggest this guitar to anybody who wants a small instrument to be played at home or in travel.
If you want to buy your one and only acoustic guitar is probably better to find something else, but if this is your budget and you want to be comfortable (in terms of size), than go for it. Perfect for kids learning guitar. My 9 years old daughter can easily play it.

I bought this guitar for my 13 year old step daughter for her first proper electro acoustic. Absolutely fantastic guitar, in all respects. Beautiful well rounded tone, nice neck (I was concerned the neck would feel wide, but it is slender and comfortable). The action on arrival is maybe a tiny bit higher than I imagined, but can be adjusted if you wish, in the end we just left it, it’s not crazy high action like some are straight out of the box. Built in tuner and pickup are of a good quality. The body of the guitar is small enough to make it travel-size and handy, but it is big enough to have a strong sound. Like most smaller guitars, it is more suited to fingerstyle, sound can get harsh if you play too hard with a pick, but a soft pick not played too rough and it maintains it’s great tone. If I could give this 6-stars, I would! I plan to buy one myself, to replace my Tanglewood electro travel, as the Harley Benton is quite simply better in every way.