Harley Benton BigTone Trem White Reviews

Great instrument - affordable beauty !!

I use this piece already for some years now and it is great! Again, there are so many much better archtop performers out there but the wallet cries a thousand tears.... Hence, for its league is one of the best you could get.

- sounds good, looks good, tremolo responds nicely and you make a difference on stage (if that's another element to chose).

I strongly recommend it

nice for the price

It came in the mail in 5 days in two boxes.Boxes didnt have any dents or tears so that was nice.There are very few flaws in the paint work I only noticed them under magnified glasses. It is pretty smooth and nice to the touch all the frets filed down , nothing sharp sticking out. So far it plays nice and seems to keep tune. IT is a really beautiful guitar at any price . I got it for under 300 bucks and its worth every penny

HB Bog Tone Trem

When the guitar arrived the box had some damage and I was nervous that the guitar may be damaged but when opened the guitar was inside a second box that was not damaged, so I was happy to see that the guitar was perfect. This guitar does not disappoint with its looks, with all gold hardware it equals much more expensive guitars of a similar design. I was surprised that the guitar is quite heavy, also giving a feeling of quality, The guitar came fully tuned and could be played out of the box. After a week of playing the strings seem settled in and it holds tune after trem use. I have seen stories of leaning bridges due to the steep attack angle of the strings from the trem to the bridge, but my bridge is level even after a reasonable time of playing, maybe the problem has been addressed. I have checked the frets and find a few high frets mainly at their outer ends, causing some string buzzing on the Low E string, and a damped high E string at the 14th fret, I have ordered a set of flat wound strings to try , and will do the frets when I change the strings. I also ordered the recommended hard case for this guitar that has no problems. I can highly recommend this guitar to anyone who like me just love hollow body guitars, for its price it is a steal. Next step will be a better amp, already added to my wish list.

Good for the price

It has some tiny manufacturing mistakes but it sounds awesome! Worth the price if you would like a cool jazz guitar in your collection to experiment. But I would not suggest this guitar to a beginner player.

Blown away by the "new Hohner", Harley Benton

I have never felt such a healing effect on me as when I hung this guitar around my neck and played an A-chord; unemplified. This piece of art to my opinion sets a new era for music making: the brand Harley Benton, in guitars, might well be the rolls royce of tomorrow.

Best, Robin.

big tone

this guitar was more than i expected ...its awesome

Ready to rock

Just unpacked my BigTone.

In perfect condition. They packed it and the case I bought in one box with plenty of packing material.

Thrilled with the product.

Great guitar for the price

The look of the guitar is really amazing and there are no imperfections in the finish. The fretboard is really comfortable and the neck is not too thick (like in some guitars of this type). The Trem system works well and the pots are solid and not noisy when turned. The sound of the pickups is pretty good(considered the price) both on the clean and the distorted sound. The only bad thing is that the pickups have an annoying background buzz when they are not played. In conclusion a really great guitar for the price and with a change of pickups I think it can be at the level of other really famous and expensive guitars

Harley Benton BigTone Trem White

Sound is fantastic, beautiful build and great sound quality. You can not get this in a Gretch or Gibson for the money, not even half their cost.

Surpisingly good!

The quality of this guitar is so good for the price, I honestly didn't expect it to be such a nice finish. Sounds as it should, looks stunning. Had to make some small tweaks to the intonation and lowered the action a little to my tastes but apart from that its perfect.

Very good guitar for low price

Sounds great, looks great.

Doesn't feel like a cheap guitar.

I highly recommend.

A LOT of guitar for the price

I've had this guitar in and out of my basket a few times over the last couple of years. I was attracted by the price and the look of it, but was always concerned about the quality. Despite some cracking reviews I wouldn't commit because of some apparent issues with the floating bridge etc.

I found a solution for the bridge problem online, but still had my doubts.

I wanted to use this guitar for recording and the occasional gig, so the questions in my mind were "is this really usable live"? and

"do I take a chance on this or spend 4 x more on a Gretsch"?

Budget issues forced my hand and I finally hit the 'Order' button.

3 days later, it landed on my doorstep in the UK and I have to say that the photos don't do it justice.

This is a beautiful looking guitar apart from the rather cheap looking pick guard, but did it play well?

Well...there is no denying that it had a couple of minor issues.

The supplied strings, which I am guessing are 12's, are horrible and the master volume control was grinding on the top of the body when turned. There was also a horrible looking strip of white cloth under the floating bridge that looked like a fraying off-cut from someones handkerchief....why?

Within the first 20 mins the stings were changed to 9's, the cloth was removed and replaced with a strip of thin felt and the master volume control was adjusted...All problems solved. Somewhere along the line Harley Benton had listened and cured the bridge issue, so nothing else to be done there.

Pick-guard sprayed white (on the reverse) and gold edging added, so even that looks good now. Sound beautiful through my Fender Mustang amps so I am absolutely delighted. Keep your Gretsch...I could have the orange version of this as well and still have change... If you are looking at this as a potential addition to your collection, you won't regret it. Amazing guitar for the money (I don't understand how Harley Benton do it). Get yours now before they go out of stock again!

Unbelievably good.

I cannot believe how Harley Benton can produce such quality instruments for such a low price. I already have a total of four 4 Harley Benton guitars and all of them are very high quality. It just goes to show that you don't have to spend a large amount of money to buy quality instruments.

The pickups on this instrument have a very jazzy sound. Just by playing about with the knobs you can easily achieve a Wes Montgomery sound among many others.

Nice guitar for a price

I was tempted for some time, to get archtop guitar. I'm playing for 40 years now, I own several acoustic and electric guitars and also one hollow body LP shape. But I never really had archtop and the jazzy sound of it. I wasn't prepare to spend a lot, since I'm no pro and music is my hobby, not living. So I decided, after reading several reviews, to go and get this guitar. For me at that price, THE most important thing is quality of body and neck, all the rest can be easily replaced if needed. 200? is a gamble, I was willing to take blind.

When I received this guitar, i was pleasantly surprised. Just what I wanted (well, stil can not compare to Ibanez George Benson that I had oportunity to play) and expected. I have read in advance of all the bigsby problems, bridge problems, so I immediately unscrew top part of bigsby, put some wood under it and flattened the angle to bridge - the design is kind of silly, but managable. The only thing really annoying is the pickups, that buzz in their seats, so I guess I'll have to take the out, see the spring coil and adapt.

Neck is great, straight, in tune - if not, brige is adjustable, bigsby does it's job, not the greatest, but I have never used it before and have no technique so it's all right for me.

Without amp this guitar sounds nice and jazzy, just like I expected. It's very solid built and quite heavy.

With amp, (I use Fender Mustang) and with proper amp sound set, i prefer to use clean Fender Twin that sound great with this guitar, from jazz to rockabilly.

Pickups are nice sounding low output. tuners are ok., doing their job and keeping intonation.

All in all, I'm a happy camper.

After owning it half a year, I still like this guitar a lot. Adjusted some height of pickups to my liking, the rest is good.

Harley Benton Big Tone White......Fantastic

Canadian Maple Body & Neck gives the guitar its weight, It resonates beautifully without being plugged in. The finish is Great, no cracks or dents, The Paintwork and bindings are really good and what I would expect of a much more expensive model.

Tuners feel quite sturdy and the set up straight out of the box was fairly good, Intonations slightly out in places but nothing major. However probably the lowest, worst point is the floating bridge. Its not a great fit to the body, I can actually see daylight underneath it. also, Its very flimsy. This could be caused by the fact that the bigsby based tremolo is the incorrect type for this type guitar. The string break angle is very acute causing the bridge to bow forward when any pressure is put on the tremolo. Set up with 12`s, there is a lot of pressure over the string rollers. However, having given the guitar a good test, I found the bridge did stay I place and tune. This all prior to plugging it in. Once plugged into my amp, wow. Fantastic. The volume and tone pots are very responsive and work even when turned to almost off, (Very Rare With Cheap Guitars) I found all the electrics to be very good. The Scratchplate is not the prettiest but not a major problem for me. overall, As a owner of an original Hagstrom Jimmy, The Harley Benton is fantastic value for money and I will be using mine live with my band once I have sorted a few minor set up issues relevant to me. Very Impressed.

7/10

I have been waiting for this guitar like a kid.

Really, I was so anxious about this beauty.

The quality is Okay for the price, it's a really nice instrument.

Impressive by it's size, and the fine details.

Great sound on it's on even when unplugged.

The bigsby (whammy bar thing) is a lot of fun.

Guitar gets out of tune quite often, the bigsby is not aligned perfectly and... ***The bridge, is not drilled into the body, at all.. I mean if you replace strings, the bridge will fall off, and it doesn't stands againts the tension bar, the whole is placed awkardly getting pulled by the tesion of the strings.

The white color is a true eye candy, lots of compliments.

Overall, the guitar is really well built (Except hardware), I recommend on it because I would say for the price, it is really coo.

The humbuckers on that guitar are surprisingly good

Beautiful tuners heads.

The golded parts loses their color a bit after 3-4 months

BUY IT

A fun toy

This has all the hallmarks of the classic archtop, including a Bigsby style Trem.

When mine arrived the action was spot on. Setting the intonation needed to be done, which is an interesting process with a floating bridge. Luckily the bridge is a tune-o-matic, so once you're close you can fine tune with that.

The neck, like all the recent Harley Bentons is a treat.

If you're looking for a hollow body like this and wish to save yourself a few thousand Euro, then this is a very nice alternative.

Hardware & electronics are all more than adequate, but there is the possibility to upgrade these at a future date, should you wish to.

I've played a lot worse, including those ten times the price of this. Grab yourself a bargain.

fantastic value

This is a great guitar for the price. it looks great with the tremolo and roller bridge. It is big if you are small framed it may feel a little too big but big is fine by me.

I was very impressed by the quality. I wasn't expecting much from this guitar but it played great out of the box even intonation almost bang on. action pretty good too. I was even more impressed by the sound plugged in it sounded awesome. plenty of tonal choice with the electronics, you can get sounds from jazz to rock within a few tweaks. there is a little string rattle but not noticeable through the amp. there are imperfections with the finish but you will always get that with this price range.

overall I would recommend this guitar to intermediate players or beginners that gave someone to do setup work if needed.

after 3 months

I bought this just for the look of it and when it arrived yes it looked great, then I started playing it, which was a pleasant surprise - even with my heavy handed style it stayed in tune and the more i played the more i enjoyed it i gave the tremelo a good rattling and still in tune

compared with a friends very similar looking but two grand more machine it was better.. It sounded a little different but a small tweak of the amp settings and it was "there"

three months on and it continues to thrill, no real concerns, no breakdowns unlike my mates falcon which needs surgery after every gig.

Only thing is I am looking fror a wider bridge but this is because i do batter the hall out of it.

see me - well chuffed

Most fun guitar I have ever bought and it costs so little.