Harley Benton Slider II Vintage Series

I got this as an alternative to using a slide on a normal guitar for studio work. I'm not really a steel guitar player, just a regular guitar player that does a fair bit of slide work and wanted to expand my options with a lap steel.

Pros:

Well, mostly the price to be honest. It's certainly decent value for the money and can be upgraded without too much hassle. Apart from the tuners the build quality seems pretty decent and it sounds ok. The finish is good. If the poor quality strings are replaced it can absolutely be used stock if you spend some time setting it up properly. Pots feel reasonably smooth, no crackling.

So definitely useable but in my opinion it needs a few upgrades (which will easily double/triple the cost) for any serious work. It's great that a gig bag is included, even if it's not the best quality.

Cons:

-The included accessories are mostly poor quality. The slide just felt wrong to me so I got a Shubb SP2 instead and it's a lot better. And I really mean a LOT better! Also, the slide came in a small "fake wood" box with a lid and it literally fell apart the first time I opened it. Unbelievably poor quality, I don't understand why they even bothered including it. Just more garbage for the environment. The guitar cable... well, it works but probably not for long. It's the absolutely cheapest quality imaginable. Went straight into the bin. The gig bag is by far the best and most useful of the accessories but it's still of the cheapest quality.

-The tuners are absolute rubbish. I haven't had the time to change them yet but they will have to go. For the time being I just rubbed some graphite onto the nut slots and that helped a lot with otherwise poor tuning.

-The pickup is a cheap ceramic type and it sounds like a cheap ceramic type. To be fair it's not the absolutely worst I've heard but still very thin and harsh sounding. I replaced it with a Strat-sized P90 from Pete Biltoft and it's a HUGE improvement. The standard Strat size of the pickup means there's a lot of upgrades available, which is a big plus.

-The bridge... I probably won't bother changing it but it isn't very good to be honest.

-The strings... Wow, where do they find rubbish like this! They are just unbelievably poor. I think they may be the worst guitar strings I've ever had the misfortune of testing. Not a big deal to me, I'm using open E and the stock strings were much too thin gauge for this anyway. Before I tossed them I tested them briefly with C6 and they were still rubbish.

-There was some plastic junk around the screws on the pickguard. It looked a bit like the thin plastic film that new pickguards usually come with. It looked like someone had made a poor attempt at removing it, leaving stuff around the screws. Very messy, didn't look good but at least it wasn't too hard to get rid of. Not a big deal but it says a lot about the quality control (or lack thereof).

The verdict:

Obviously the price is the main attraction of this instrument. The absolute minimum investment to make it usable is to buy some better strings and spend some time setting it up properly. Personally I've changed the pickup, pots, tone cap and all wiring too. I will probably also change the tuners. With these modifications I will have a pretty nice instrument for a fair price. But the total cost including all mods will be almost triple the cost of the stock instrument.

Still good value I think and recommended for anyone with the basic skills necessary for the upgrades. If you're not into modding I would recommend moving up to something better.

Edit: I forgot to mention that when replacing the pots with better quality ones I had to drill larger holes in the metal pickguard (a 10mm drill bit was perfect for this). The stock pots are cheap quality miniature ones and the holes are too small for quality pots (the hole for the jack input was already 10mm though).

I also forgot to mention that the bridge was so unbelievably poorly set up that the instrument is close to useless without MAJOR adjustments. The intonation was so bad that any attempt at chord playing above the 3rd fret was hopelessly out of tune. Intonating a lap steel is far more difficult than a standard guitar. I spent more than 3 hours before I was satisfied. You MUST know how to do this to make this instrument even remotely playable. The height of the bridge was also extremely poorly set up. The saddle for the 4th string was set so much lower than the others than the slide missed it completely! And some of the saddles only rested on one leg, causing lots of rattle. Out of the box it sounded more like a sitar-guitar than a lapsteel!!! I think it's safe to say that the instrument was never properly adjusted at the factory. The bridge must have just been slapped on and sent on it's way.

In total I spent about 10 hours of work and 80 euros to make it ok (not including new tuners that I will also probably install at some point).

At this price do not hesitate. If you want to get started with a lap steel this is the one or two to get. Why two? Well then you can have multiple open tunings to play with.
As this is now my second Harley Benton lap steel, I immediately changed the electronics, bridge saddles and tuners.
Below the items I upgraded:
1) Tuners: I selected a set from MGP - Magic Guitar Parts (Germany) which are the Der Jung DJ103BN with the EB28 shafts option. High quality tuners, gear ratio 18:1 and a perfect fit. Day and night difference!
2) Pickup: After some research I selected the Bare Knuckle Boot Camp True Grit ST NB (neck - black) from the Thomann site as for the price you get a hand wound pickup of great quality and the sound is simply full and very warm. This pickup is simply outstanding.
3) Electronics: I selected two of the Fender 250K Control Solid Shaft potentiometers and an Allparts Switchcraft 1/4" Mono Jack. All these items I got from the Thomann site.
4) Knobs: I selected the "Fender Potiknob Set Jazz Bass" for the knobs where I use the large one for Volume and the small one for Tone.
5) Bridge saddles: I was unable to find a replacement bridge which would fit in terms of size, so I opted to just changed the saddles. From the Thomann site I selected the Highwood Guitar Parts HG-10,50 Vintage Saddles. They are certainly an improvement in terms of sound and avoids rattle.
I now love this lap steel as I am sure it can compete with the best.

Ordered with a gift card i received from a labelmate as thanks for some help with bass tracking. The build quality is impressive for this price, potentiometers are quite frictiony and the tuners jump around a little but the body itself is solid as a rock.

The lone single-coil sounds a bit dinky at first but once you get your pedals/amp dialed in to add some beef it sounds really nice, not microphonic at all and gets some lovely twang when you compress it a bit! Shockingly little hum as well.

This is my first dedicated lap steel but i've had quite a few guitars in my day and i can definitely say that most people will definitely get quite a bit of use out of this thing. I'll likely be upgrading the pickup and tuners at some point but it's definitely a very competent instrument as is.

Have always loved the sound of lap/pedal steel but, for whatever reason, never even thought to get one despite mimicking the sound on guitar for decades.

Having built an ambient setup recently, and being more than pleased with an HB CST24 P90 purchase, the penny dropped to just get a low-cost HB offering and give it a try. It fits perfectly for creating soundscapes and pads. Having originally set it up to an Open D tuning and getting my head around where the note relationships are have been having a ball going over YouTube videos for further insight and ideas. After that, raising the tuning a whole-step and flattening the 3rd string (so I can switch between Major/Minor behind the bar) makes more sense at the moment but will probably tweak it further as the learning progresses.

Coupled with a volume pedal and various effects-chains being a beginner again is great fun. The instrument does the job intended with the pickup being adequate and even to my ears after raising it a little on the treble side. The tuners don't seem to have a very good ratio but after giving the strings a good stretching over a few hours of playing seem to hold pitch okay so will do for now. It appears to intonate okay as well. I'll invest in a better tone-bar at some point, and probably some tuners, but the one provided will do at this point of the journey.

No complaints at this price and delivered to the UK within a week.

This is great value for money and it sounds fine. I've played guitar for decades so this is a great starting point for me. A few cons: The strings that come with it are terrible. They're so light that I could tune it to open A, and by that I might like barring an A chord on the fifth fret of a guitar. Very high, so new strings are a must, especially if you want to use C6 tuning, the included strings will not do that. The tuning pegs are a bit strange, I swear they're hollow inside so you can lose the end of the string in there which is odd. That said it stays in tune perfectly and that's the main thing. I would say upgrade the nut but if you don't use a lot of open strings who cares?

I bought this as an introduction to slide guitar. I've always been curious and didn't have much money to spend on an experiment. This got solid reviews so I thought I'd give it a try. Without having any other experience with slide guitars, I can't really compare this to others. But it has worked well for me. The hardware and electronics all seem to work fine. (One small exception is that there is sometimes a slight buzzing on the 2nd string near the nut, but since I haven't changed strings yet, maybe this is something that will go away when I do. Anyway, when it's plugged in and I'm playing it, it doesn't seem to be a big problem.) There is some hum from the single coil pickup, which is to be expected. If I ever get proficient enough to justify it, I'll probably upgrade the single coil to a single coil-sized double coil pickup to solve the hum problem. But besides the hum, the pickup sounds good enough for me. All in all, for the price, and if you're a beginner just wanting to dabble in slide, I think this is an easy choice. (And it comes with all the accessories you need to get started, which is a nice bonus.)

This was my first purchase from Thomann after colleagues had recommended them. I am in Scotland and wanted a Lap Steel for a project. It took three working days to arrive - no bad for €10 delivery. Communication with Thomann is excellent, knowledgeable and friendly. The Harley Benton Lap a Steel is excellent value at €65, comes with tools, a cable, an d a gig bag. I am a very happy and satisfied customer and will certainly order any musical equipment I need from Thomann as excellent quality, value and service with cheaper delivery than UK dealers make Thomann the only logical choice in Europe. Thanks

i highly recommend this product its a great little steel guitar , which had very fast delivery and came with a lead and a tonebar (in a really nice lilte box ) a gig bag with back staps and a pocket to fit a lead tonebar notepad and your fingerpicks or anything else you needvery handy. Im going to use it for country and westrn swing recordings so i have used C6 tuning o nit and it plays well. has a single coil pup which works very well and although t the steel is very basic it is very good. it is better than any other steel guitar at the price and beats llots of more expensive models . just begace its Cheap doesnt mean its nasty its not a cheap unplayable instrument its a great value instrument for players of all abilitys