Harley Benton BJO-35Pro 5 String Banjo OB Reviews

Great sound

Great sounding banjo. Enjoyable to play.

can't fault it

had this for a couple of years and it's great value for money, full sound and no issues!

Best Beginner Open Back Banjo!

For the price you just will not beat Harley Benton. I've played guitar & bass for years, I decided to try my hand at the Banjo! Arrived perfectly set up, no need to adjust action or drum tension, good set of factory strings, near perfect intonation. Lovely tone, not too loud, perfect for practice. Cannot fault it for the price & would recommend!

Best ever value and sound.

I was a bit worried that , when it arrived , it would sound " tinny " or always slightly out of tune no matter how it was adjusted. I could not have been more wrong. It has a wonderful quality to a full sound and I just can not stop playing it. A real gem .

Harley Benton BJO-35Pro 5 String Banjo OB

Jeg købte denne banjo for lidt tid siden, og den er helt perfekt.

Det eneste problem er tunerene er meget billig men de

holder tonen fint.

Good for price.

I bought this as it was cheap enough that if I don't get along playing the banjo I wouldn't be too much out of pocket.I have to say I'm very happy with it so far.What would be a good improvement would be if it came with an arm rest.Not too big a problem as I managed to get one easily and cheap enough.

Can't go wrong for the price.

You get what you pay for (Which doesn’t mean it can’t be fun!)

It won’t leave any long lasting impression. It has its flaws that comes with such an affordable instrument.

Tuners feel very cheap and are very imprecise while tuning but after that they stay in tune fine.

The pot which is made out of some very cheap wood wrapped in rather plasticky looking veneer but it’s OK to look at, it’s darker and actually nicer than photos here would let you know.

The biggest flaw is that the pot wood is so soft that hooks holding screws just keep sinking deep into the wood making it impossible to keep the head tuned tight. I had to buy metal washers from hardware store and install them under all those tiny screws heads inside the pot which, luckily, solved the issue for me.

With installing washers, armrest and putting on a heavier set of strings I’m actually having a lot of fun learning the banjo.

Would I buy it again if it got stolen? No, I’d go for something more expansive made out of a solid wood. But I’m glad I have it. For such a low price it’s a fun first banjo for learning basics of playing, setup and maintenance.

If you’re not sure whether you’ll stick with a banjo and just want something budget friendly to try it out, this is what you’re looking for.

A banjo so nice, I bought it twice

This is the perfect banjo for non-banjo players, I just wanted to get something cheap to play around with, and this one really surprised me, I had to sell mine to pay the deposit on my apartment, but now that I'm settled in, I ordered another one

Lovely open back banjo with a nice ring to it, decent strings, ok set up out of the box.

My first banjo

The banjo is a great instrument. And I always wanted to play it. Its hard to master, but this is a great start. Its a fair price for good quality, If you want to start off with learning banjo. Its a great start.

+ Good quality for price.

+ good sound

+ nice weight

Good value

It's a fine instrument for a good price

Harley Benton BJO-35Pro 5 String Banjo OB

Excellent value. Arrived when specified, well packaged and in perfect condition. Sounds great, stays in tune. Nothing at all about this product to be negative about.

Great Banjo

Setup perfectly when it arrived apart from needing the head tensioned, which is simple enough to do. It has a great sound and plays very well. Worth double the price easily.

heck of a lot of banjo, for not a lot of price.

For what it is you'd be hard pressed to find anything better.

This is my first banjo. i started out playing violin in my youth and more recently played mountain dulcimer. My goal here was to buy the least expensive instrument that still had a core of quality materials, properly assembled. My first upgrades will probably be adding an arm rest and some better tuners. Neither is urgently needed. After resolving a couple of minor set up issues it plays well right out of the box. There are other vendors advertising "beginner bundles" for about the same price that include a yard long list of features and accessories. In order to do this they shave the quality of everything in the box down to the absolute, inescapable, minimum. This manufacturer has taken a more rational approach. Good materials and build quality then keep the price low with a limited feature list. That's all i need or wish to pay for at this time.

Perfect starter banjo

I bought this in a spur of the moment purchase. I’d never played any instrument in my life, and had always wanted to learn to play banjo. I didn’t want to spend too much, yet feared a €111 banjo may end up being a waste of money. I was wrong. The sound is great, it’s been easy to pick up and start learning, and it’s brought great joy to me. One month on I see massive progress, and I’m now browsing for “Better” banjos - just don’t tell that to my wife!

Fantastic

Absolutely phenomenal for a beginner like myself. Sounds great out of the box too! Would definitely recommend for anyone who isn't sure.

Amazing value

Quite a nice banjo and very good for the money. Set up ready to play and very well packaged

Unbelievable sound for the money!

Great right out of the box, unbelievable sound, clear, loud and bell sounding but still very full sounding.

The hardware is as you'd expect, useable, but it's got the typical HB neck, very soft and quite impossible to play in tune in recording standards, but it's great as a first banjo.

It may need a bit of fine tuning and setup, but once you get it there it sounds waaaay more expensive than it is.

An ok playable banjo, however it will not in my experience permit a change to nylon strings.