Harley Benton CLA-15CE Koa Exotic Reviews

Amazing tone and well balanced

I bought this guitar solely from reviews and YouTube demos. I can safely say after owning over 30 acoustic guitars, it’s a great value for both the casual player or gigging musician. I will definitely use this for live and studio work. The only downside, which is minimal, is that there’s only one strap knob located on the back. Not a big deal so I purchased a set of strap locks and installed one at the heel of the neck as that’s where I’m used to setting my strap. Not a deal breaker by any means.

Amazing tone

Solid Koa top with mahogany back & sides produces a very warm tone and sustain although lacks the overall volume you would get from a solid Spruce top. I am glad I found this guitar for its beautiful tone! It is unmatched for double or triple this price.

Really pleased with this.

My guitar is darker in colour to the photo. I’m in the U.K. and so had the additional fees to pay to the U.K. govt via the courier. Don’t underestimate these extra fees folks.

On opening the box I find a beautiful guitar. Really nice finish. No issues with rough frets etc. Really nice. Took a few minutes to tune in using the on board kit.

Sounds lovely, good tone. Feels like a really good guitar.

One useful thing is that changing the battery for the tuning, pre-amp etc is dead easy, it’s behind a small lid at the rear of the guitar. Good thinking.

All in all I’m chuffed with this. Just watch the extra U.K. charges if you are in the U.K. Thanks to those who voted Brexit….. which I didn’t.

Love this guitar!

Slightly darker in real life than the photos, but for me, this just makes it look even better. It sounds warm and is lovely to play straight from the box and the intonation is perfect.

The built in tuner works fine and in my humble opinion, the overall quality is equal to an equivalent spec (more expensive) Tanglewood.

There are no shoddy quality issues such as sharp fret ends, but I have deducted a star for the machine heads. They are clunky, not very responsive and as a result, feel really cheap and nasty.

My guitar has benefited greatly by having a set of inexpensive black Vanson's fitted (they are only £20 from Amazon, are 100% better and totally do the job).

Don't let this put you off buying one though...

Nice guitar, disappointing setup/finish

I have a HB CLD15M, and was expecting this to be a step up (even though its a different body shape) considering the price difference. Unfortunately it seems that they are basically the same level and you pay the extra money for the solid koa top which wasnt really that nice looking as the example in the picture. I got one that was mostly plain looking with a very slight flame to it.

Overall the sound was nice - similar level as my CLD but of course different response but the setup was disappointing. The QC card said it was supposed to be 2.5mm for the 6th string on the 14th fret but I measured it to be about 4.5 or 5mm. And this was not because of a bowed neck.

Not just did this not come close to the out of the box setup I had on the CLD, but it also isnt expected for a €300+ guitar and is even worse because the QC seems to have been a lie since the numbers dont match the guitar at all.

If you got a piece that was checked properly i would recommend it, but definitely not the one i got.