GS-Travel-E Mahogany : Great ...but here was problem,,

Wow, it's all been said before..fantastic guitar and equal to those at £500 to £600 elsewhere...The finish and sound on mine was spot on ..no complaints here, However there was problem despite a quality control checked sticker and label!

The battery is housed in a supple plastic housing inside the body between the heel and sound hole. It's accessible only by removing the strings, not great for a beginner but ok for me. This is not the problem I encountered.

The lead from the pick up is clipped inside the body to the upper face and should be long enough to reach the battery compartment. Mine wasn't by a good 15cm. A mirror on a stick and torch revealed the problem inside the body. The wire had been wound around several times placed in a fixed clip and left much too short. A real problem if you have large hands and after removing the strings and working by feel alone, after about 30 mins I established the clip glued to the body holding the wire had been bent over several times holding the wire much too short, which was impossible to see by any means but a bit of luck catching my fingernail under it gave it away. Had it not been for my partners small hands and perseverance I would have had to return the guitar, but we eventually managed to free the wire and re clip it....Absolute hassle that should not have been!!

As the guitar was so good in all other aspects I wanted to persevere with it just in case a replacement was not as good. As the owner of 7 Harley Bentons I rate them very Highly but someone in the factory had taken their eye off the ball !!!!

This would have been very disappointing for a novice. Just not good enough guys.

PS...By the way nowhere in the guitar packaging was any instructions on where the battery was housed or how to access and open the compartment. Pretty sure a novice would not have wanted to be taking the strings off and try and work out where the battery went.

For all intents and purposes it could look like the battery is just left clunking around in the body on the end of its wire,,,Small point but very relevant