Harley Benton Custom Line CLD-41S WN 5-stars Reviews

I love this guitar!

The headline says it all

PRICE = PERFOMANCE ... How do they do it?

To be frank, I bought this guitar for all purposes, studio recording and live performances. And to my surprise I was absolutely blown by the outcome - even out of the box.

You have to take in mind this is not a Martin guitar for thousands of euros. It's a 300 euro piece of wood put together into a real fine guitar. It sounds big, tastefully open, lows are really well balanced. Highs are nicely polished and not at all annoying. The way it sits in the mixes is also surprisingly good.

Feeling it the hands is also absolutely superb. The aesthetics of the guitar is amazing but then when you play the neck it is a really good feeling - fast and smooth. For me, action was too high straight from the box but it's a minor thing - just filed it down a bit and changed the strings. Otherwise, built quality is quite spot on and she does stay in tune.

I think it's not necessary to make a disertation out of this matter.. it's just, buy it and send it back if you won't like it. But I guarantee you that you will fall in love with this guitar!

Good job Harley Benton!

Superb Guitar

I was not expecting such quality and professional workmanship in a guitar within this price range. Plus the sound is incredible (long, beautiful sustained notes). It came with an excellent choice of strings and was fully set up. Playing it is shear joy. My guitar buddies are all Jealous!

Amazing guitar!

Wow, just wow. Received the guitar, first impression: what a beauty! I tuned it, left it in the room for a few hours, retuned and played with it. What an awesome sound! It definitely feels and sounds better than other guitars I played before, around the same price. The sustain is beautiful, the sound is deep and clear, it gets super loud as well. Loving it so far and I am sure that it will keep me company for the years to come :)

Bargain acoustic

Excellent quality...looks stunning

Sounds great

stunning in every way.

ordered on mon 22nd delivered fri 26 to the uk

perfect in every way, looks, tone & playability.

even if you don't play it is worth buying just to look at.

incredible guitar for £244.

also very well packaged ( double boxed )

Amazing for the price

I gifted my brother one of these, when it arrived and i tried it i was blow away by this guitar. Compared to my top level Martin it holds its own when you consider the price. Ofcourse this isnt a 5000++ euro acoustic, but try finding something that sounds and plays this good for under 500e, you probably cant.

Brilliant guitar

Wow. Everything about this guitar is a 10 out of 10. It could be a lucky one. You buy a cheap guitar that should by, at best, average. But it's special. I've been a musician since I was 5 years old. (Just a gift I inherited from my dad) I'm now 69 years old. I've parted with more instruments that didn't reach my standard, than most people have had not dinners. So to say I'm choosy is right. There's not a mark of blemish or fault on this instrument. It's set up perfectly. After tuning , I let it aclimatise and settle all day. Then retune. Wow. I can honestly say, it's gorgiouse. NOT just for the price. Sound, playability, volume, looks, built quality, action, frets, tuners, ease of play, and very lightly built. But solid. And new Elixir strings on order will only improve it. This is my third HB guitar, all great, but this 41 is a dream.

Fantastic guitar

Received the guitar a few days ago and I'm really blown away by the quality and sound! I will upgrade the tuners to Gotoh for "smoother" tuners.

What a great surprise!

Every review of it said it would be the best guitar i could get in this price range and they were right! Even as a begginer who tried some other models around the same price i could notice how better this guitar felt as soon as i picked it up!

Even tho the daddarios sounded pretty good i got some elixirs phosphor bronze and it became even better.

The neck is extremely confortable and the overall looks are amazing and extremely well finished with only minor details that are expected for this price range.

Even this week i took it for a good setup from a luthier and he was crazy about how good it felt and sounded specially for the price!

New CLD-41S WN

Guitar took 4 weeks to arrive but I was kept upto date the whole time.At first sight the wait was worth while.The guitar looks amazing and on first tune up it sounds pretty good.Can’t wait to play it properly.

Lovely guitar for the price

Sounds mellow and plays like a dream. The intonation was perfect from the box, the action is low and the strings are playable, but I will use a lighter gauge when they break. Can't fault this guitar in any way really... the inlays shine in the daylight and the mother of pearl binding gives the guitar real class.

Incredible Guitar.

This guitar looks and sounds fantastic. I own numerous Harley Benton acoustic guitars. They are top quality professional instruments.

nice guitar

nice guitar at this price point. Deep and rich sound.

Very well made guitar, very good value

Plays and looks excellent. Great value for a really good playing guitar

A Really Great Acoustic Guitar

I already own a Harley Benton HB Custom Line King-CE NT and have always been very happy and impressed with it, but I wanted an acoustic guitar with a spruce top that was a little brighter sounding. After some research I settled on the Custom Line CLD-41S WN. I have now owned the guitar for over 3 months and have grown to like it more and more and play it for at least a 2-3 hours every day.

It arrived about 3 days after placing my order in the usual double transit box. My first impression was that, although understated in looks, it was was very impressive and an attractive guitar. Its' Satin finish was flawless and, the white binding to the body, neck and head-stock, really gave it a quality look. It also has a lovely fresh Spruce wood smell coming from the sound-hole.

On the Quality Control tag it was shown the high E was 0.5mm on the first fret and 2.00mm on the 14th fret, and the low E was 0.6 on the first fret and 2.5mm on the 14th fret. I checked the measurements and they were exactly as stated, so full marks for the quality control! However, the strings were a bit too high for me but the saddle had plenty of material to take off to reduce the height of the strings. After sanding down the saddle to give me a lower action, it is 1.5mm on the 12th fret on the high E, and 2.00mm on the low E on the 12th fret. I didn't need to adjust the nut as it seems perfectly cut and its' height was spot-on.

The truss rod had been perfectly adjusted and the guitar does not have any buzzing on any of the frets. The fret ends were fine as well, with no sharp edges. The intonation was perfect when I first received the guitar and still is, even after the saddle adjustment.

The tuners are of good quality and holds the tuning for ages. The Abalone fret markers were nice and flat on the fretboard so they are not noticed when playing. It has a nice comfortable neck which I would call a shallow 'C' profile. I find the sound projects well and is well balanced, with neither the bass or the treble being dominant.

After changing the strings to 10's, (as I like to occasionally bend the strings as I'm primarily an electric guitar player), to me it sounds and plays perfectly.

I know the Custom Line CLD-41S WN is supposed to be a Martin D-41 replica. It certainly isn't a Martin, and I wouldn't expect it to be for the price, but you should really take it on it's own merits as it is a fantastic acoustic guitar in its' own right. It is excellent value for the comparitively low cost. This is my 7th Harley Benton guitar and it will not be my last.

It's perfect!

Not only for the amount of money paid for that guitar, but considering this instrument as whole - it's just a piece of art. The satin finish, the feel of the wood, the playability are just astonishing. It makes you happy just to think about playing it in the autumn evening.

The materials and finish are great. The sound is very loud and clean. This guitar roars! Even the fretboard wasn't that dry when It arrived. The action is bit high but I assume that's just because they leave you a way to personalize it. Guys at my local guitar clinic were astonished with how well was that instrument built. Of course there are some imperfections with frets and the saddle, but nothing too big. As they said - almost always even the highest-end guitars for $10000 can have couple of those problems. The CLD-41S truly has a great, great, great potential and with a little additional money and time it could be made into really extraordinary instrument.

Shimmering sounds, beautiful depths

Tested her voice (blinde test!) with my partner. Obviously, this is our subjective opinion, like the tastes are ..

In short: on the basis of our three to four-week test, in this price range is quite winner. I can not comment on the durability, because I have opened it out now. I'm not disappointed, this is a very good guitar :) If you do not want to sell it, just buy it! There are also a couple of tests available on the net, before you check it out.

Superb and More Than That

This is my 8th Harley Benton acoustic guitar and amongst those there were 2 worth mentioning; the CLD-15M and the CLA-16S. Fantastic guitars for the money but not entirelly my cup of tea as I wanted lots of clarity and sustain. I went on to search for my perfect guitar in guitar shops and played all sorts of stuff from expensive Martin and Gibson to Epi, Yamaha etc ... One guitar ticked all my boxes and that was a Yamaha LL16 but it was over my budget. Been told by some that this CLD-41S is a crazy good guitar not just for the money but a "crazy good guitar" for any money, so I went ahead and bought it!

Everything from the nut to the bridge is spot on and needed no adjustemtn of any kind expect me oiling the fretbaord! Tuners perfect, no blemishes in the finish fine comfortable action, fresh D'addario strings that zing well. No fret buzz. All 5 Starts!

The most important aspect for me was that sustain on low E and A strings above the 12th fret which usually on most acoustic guitars sounds as a dead "thump" sound without sustain! This guitar has no such issues! It rings and rings! Sustain for ages!

The over all tone when you strum the guitar hard is awesome! Its as if I have used a slight compression and a slight sweet Overdrive, yet still very satin like clean tone! When strummed gentle it still projects the sound well and very clear, very pronanunced! Also when strumming close to theneck the tone does not go muddy just warmer and of course when strumming close to the bridge the treble is more pronaunced but that is never much of an issue on any acoustic guitar. Its mostly that warm tone when strummed close to the neck that I was after, that stays clear but warm, no muddiness here folks!

This guitar can growl and is very loud outdoors! It also responds well to quiet finger picking, not loosing much volume as it resonates well! No boomy/boxy tones here!

Just a great buy! Well done Harley Benton for offering such an instruments for such price so even the poor can afford it!