I now have 5 Harley Bentons, and until now I have not been disappointed . Okay it’s a cheap guitar , I paid more for shipping, duty and taxes then I did for the guitar. Now normally when you pay this little for a guitar the expectations are very low and to be honest I wouldn’t even bother . However with Harley Benton I have come to just be amazed at what you get for the money, but this guitar follows the norm …not the Harley Benton norm though . First off the frets were really sharp an dirty , making the guitar almost unplayable , they were really bad , the neck was dry, and there was this blob of something on the high E string, which just ended up breaking with a 1/2 a turn of the tuner. Now I wasn’t expecting much in the way of sound due to the style , but this sounded just terrible and plays even worse. I’m hoping with a full change to some quality strings maybe to a lighter gauge 10 ‘s maybe , along with the frets filed and some neck work , it might make this a more playable guitar , otherwise it’s just going to be a wall hanger.
The finish is very nice , best thing about it unfortunately. It really is a nice looking guitar, which makes this even more disappointing . I just wish it was up to the Harley Benton quality I’ve come to love, respect and expect. O well can’t win them all.
UPDATE: After spending some time on the neck, filing , polishing and oiling then replacing the strings with Martin MA170 extra light 10-47,80/20 bronze , yes these are cheap Martin strings , but a great match with this guitar. This is now a totally different instrument , so much better and the sound is really nice, it has now gone from a wall hanger to a player.
Update 2 : pre amp quit working after about a year, almost to the day! tried new battery, nothing, even pulled it out it to see if a wire came loose, nope all good there, its just dead. Checked in with Thomann, and its just been a series of emails back and forth and then asked to send a video on the issue, I guess they need proof, okay did that. Now I wait for the outcome, stand by.
Update 3: In the spirit of being fair I have deleted previous comments and updated my review as they have shipped me a new pre amp. I now wait for it to arrive, but it took a few e mails asking for an update. In the end they stood behind the warranty which is great considering the quality of this guitar. Lets face it, in at least this case , you get what you pay for.
