Harley Benton Custom Line CLA-15MCE Reviews

Rings Like A Gem

I was completely sold by all the reviews until I broke the guitar in fully.

The finish is immaculate, the sound rings like a bigger guitar (this guitar body is quite thin), the fret board is lovely but the frets themselves could be a bit thinner.

All in all a great guitar for the price and after a string change and potentially filing the frets down.

Other than the above the finish is extremely nice.

Sound is 10/10

Quality is 8/10 for the frets

Features are 10/10 for the price

Incredible value

Guitar plays very well. I love the thinner neck. Solid guitar!

Great instrument for the money!

I needed a busking instrument on travel, well, this one exceeded my expectations :-)

Don't listen with your eyes

This guitar plays and sounds better than instruments over €1000. I've had this for 1.5 years and am yet to find an acoustic guitar that sits this well with me. I regularly play more expensive guitars during my visits to a local music store but there's nothing I've seen that justifies their ludicrous prices. This Harley Benton looks beautiful, sounds great and most importantly, FEELS beautiful to play. It absolutely does not feel like a cheap instrument. I'd recommend this to anyone in a heartbeat.

Best buy price/quality wise

She looks like a beauty, Elixir strings make her sound about average, playing comfort is great, pick-up system is a life-saver when playing 'live' with an honest sound.

Great Guitar whatever the money

I bought one of these as all my guitars are in storage and I thought I would get a 'budget' guitar so I can keep going. Once my guitars are out of storage I shall be selling my epiphone and keeping this one. It arrived and was playable out of the box. The neck for me is great (I don't have large hands) - it feels a bit like an electric Fender style. I was worried that the sound might be a bit muddy having never played a mahogany guitar before - it's not muddy more deep and has a lovely sustain. I play it acoustically so can't comment on plugged in. Setup out the box was good - if I wanted to I could probably lower the bridge a mm or two don't feel I need to at the moment. Only slight grip the tuners can feel slightly loose but only slightly - I might upgrade them in the future but I don't have any real need to. It's a lovely guitar whatever the money.

A delight to play

Looking around for a mahogany auditorium style guitar and was impressed by the reviews. I already own a very nice Crafter and a good old Fender Dreadnought, and I wanted a different sound.

Have messed about on some friends’ new Gibson and Taylor as well as a Martin travel, but I didn’t want to spend a fortune.

Absolutely delighted with the guitar. Lovely action although I may lower it a touch. Playable straight from the box. The sound is more mellow than my Sitka topped Crafter, and it lends itself to blues.

Comparing it to the top end guitars is somewhat unfair as they are solid wood and a much more delicates instrument, but they are over a thousand pounds more expensive. However, I can honestly say there is not a 10x difference in how they handle or sound.

My only gripe is the strap button. Such a lovely guitar, and it comes with a cheap plastic button which looks like a repurposed bridge pin. Absolutely useless. Small flimsy and won’t hold the strap. Can’t even fit a strap lock washer either. Looks like it is glued in. Will be changing this

A perfect budget guitar for beginners and advanced players

I played with this one now for about 2 years!

I really didn't expect this much from a small guitar like this one!

This is a perfect guitar with a slim neck & body,

good setup Straight out of the Box

Regardless the size it has It can deliver good Sound overall and it gives A very comfortable sound from the lows and the midst when finger picking.

I did enjoy it very much to play with this amazing guitar as a beginner it did not just end up On the wall. had a lot of fun with It.

I recommend this Harley Benton guitar To get creative And explore New soundsNew sounds.

Don’t hesitate, this tone monster sounds great!

I’m not going to say the often repeated phrase; “I’ve played all the ‘NAME’ brands”, I have, …but for the life of me I can’t understand why that’s important to serious players. Bottom line about this wonderful instrument is that it sounds f-ing perfect. The tone is beautifully full and pleasing to the listener and player. I plugged it into my acoustic amp and it sounded great. Just for fun I plugged it into my Twin Reverb and the Fishman assisted tone rocked my socks off! On top of that it plays well intonated and stays in tune. The star inlays on the fretboard top off the gorgeous mahogany woodwork. Don’t hesitate, this tone monster sounds great!

Well done

I've had this instrument for 2 years now and it still does the job for me. Biggest issue that I have is that there's only one strap button at the bottom portion of the guitar. This means that I'd have to use an alternative option if I want to play standing. The sating finish is very thin so be very careful of accidentally bumping your guitar on corners or the floor.

Great Acoustic but needs work.

Guitar looks great, however desperately needed oil and string change as the strings were rusty even, quite disappointing. however when set up and with new strings, it plays great.

Amazing, especially for its price

Pros:

* Build very nicely, looks gorgeous on the front;

* Nice components: solid wood top deck, tuners, Fishman pickup, bone nut;

* Super comfortable to play. Came in perfectly set up: low action, no fret buzz, no fret sprout. I just tuned the guitar up and instantly began enjoying myself playing it. Could use a bit of fret polish though, but it's just me being nit-picky;

Cons:

* Strings behind the nut ring out very nastily, but this problem is easily countered by a soft welcro wrapped around the strings ring behind the nut without any negative impact on the sound;

* The looks are a bit negatively affected by a couple of very obviously visible places where the pieces of wood are glued together (on the back of the neck). The joint is done perfectly and smoothly, but is just visible. Not a problem at all and can be expected at this price range, as using single large pieces of wood would be much too expensive;

* Protective film on the pickguard was a bit hard to remove;

* Only one strap button.

Overall, the guitar is amazing and in many respects punches well above it's price point. The components, build quality and setup are great. The pickup works fine with my Audient iD4 interface, sounds clean, the in-built tuner is easy to use and seems to be accurate. The guitar seems to be as good as a Crafter GA-7 I previously owned, that Crafter though had no pickup and was almost twice the price of this Harley Benton. Highly recommend this guitar!

גיטרה מעולה

Great sound. Beautiful and comfortable. She needs a set up to lower the strings. And you should switch to 0-10 strings

Lightweight and beautiful

This sound and feel of this guitar is really good! My Martin Special D does not come close.

A little Beauty

This guitar is a little Beaut! Finished to a high quality standard, lovely detail and a Fishman pick up system to seal the deal! What an absolute bargain..the reviews on this guitar speak for themselves!

Outstanding for the price. Needed some setup.

I'm primarily an electric guitar player so this was my first acoustic. Hence I'm not absolutely qualified to judge it. I have 3 other HB electrics, I'm very happy with them and I have a lot of love for the brand.

The Good

- packaging was good and undamaged.

- The guitar looks really nice in a dark, understated way. This is a budget guitar and in my opinion, the flashier the budget guitar, the cheaper it looks. I paired it with the cheap, leather HB strap, which is also chocolate brown and looks great. The HB logo looks cool and minimalist on the headstock, better than the full name logo. I don't really like the name, but I love the guitars.

- The guitar sounds great to me. Really loud, vibrant and clear. The body vibrates like crazy and really lives.

- The tuners are really nice and this surprised me as it's often a weakness of HB's cheaper guitars. They're solid, chunky and kidney bean shaped, like the Grovers on my Epi SG. They're really smooth and precise, and the guitar is easy to tune. They feel much higher quality than the price.

- the guitar stays in tune really well, much better than my other guitars, which are generally more expensive. I don't know if this is a peculiarity of acoustics vs electrics.

- The nut is bone and perfectly cut. The guitar arrived very clean - no fretboard gunk, over-glue or wood shavings in the cavity. The bridge is also bone and compensated. The guitar intonates near perfectly.

- the Fishman Presys II works well and sounds great through the acoustic channel of my Boss Katana. I'm no expert, but I'm happy with it.

- the supplied strings seem reasonable quality, but I got rid of them immediately as, being an electric guitar pussy, I hated the relatively heavy gauge, but this is a personal thing.

The (not very) Bad if I'm being really picky...

- The fret ends are very crudely finished and not rounded at all. Fortunately there's no fret sprout at all so this doesn't really bother me. They were also quite scratchy so I gave them a polish.

- Frets 3 and 6 are a little high in places, but only noticeable with a fret rocker. There's no perception when playing.

- The action was very high at 3mm+ on the low E at the 12th. There was a QC ticket with the guitar which was very comprehensive and gave the height at 2.5mm. but I didn't believe this. I lowered the bridge which was really no hassle and took some relief out of the neck.

- there is only one strap button on the bottom of the guitar. It's plastic and I think glued in. The guitar is very light so it's not too much of a worry. I installed a metal strap button on the heel of the neck.

- The battery cover despite being branded Fishmann, is very cheap looking and feeling, but it's hidden at least.

The Neutral

- There was slightly excessive neck relief, but again it was no hassle to tighten the truss rod with the tool provided. The truss nut is a bit tucked away so the tool is indispensable.

- I changed the strings for 10s. Apparently this is detrimental to the tone on acoustics, but it still sounds fine to me. Ok, maybe there's some depth and resonance lost, but it still sounds better than my not being able to play the 12s supplied.

In conclusion...

- a great guitar for the price. It needed some setup, which I was ok with, but beginners might prefer to add 50 bucks to the price to get a pro set up.

I'd give it 4.9 out of 5, but this rating system doesn't cater for pedants like me.

Incredible quality for the money

I got this this mainly because the price tag was unbelievable for what the guitar seems to pack: solid mahogany throughout, a decent pickup, and a 3-year warranty. I wasn't disappointed! The sound is great for the size of the guitar and especially for the price. The default setup is okay. Action came just a tiny bit high and the frets can be better with just a little oiling, but those are simple adjustments to make. This blew me away overall and it's a good addition to my Martin dreadnought :)

My best acoustic!

I really love the tone of this guitar! It has full range of low and sparkling high frequences, perfect tune and well ballanced. Really great sound in home recording right through the pickup with adding some acoustic guitar impulse responces. So I'm happy like no one on this earth! :D

The best money I have ever spent.

Had some cheap classical guitar before and wanted an upgrade. At 1st i wanted a Martin cos i tought it was good value but damn was i wrong. Plays just like a martin for a fraction of a price. I terms of sound its not quite the same but i wouldnt say its worse. Just a bit lower on the volume.

Amazing for its price (and more)

Beautiful sounding guitar. The best sounding guitar I have ever tried in this price range.