Harley Benton Custom Line Manhattan-Standard

I've always wanted a guitar with this vibe, this does not disappoint.

I've been playing guitar for 30+ years and had a few guitars from the era this guitar emulates. Those always have baseball bat necks and while the vibe is there, are so difficult to play. The guitar I received has some finish issues as to be expected from a guitar in this price point, but the pickup sounds great, the body is nice and thin and the feel of the neck is amazing, it's a joy to play for any style. I recut the nut and set mine up as a baritone and play mostly blues and jazz, but however you do it, I recommend to anybody.

I am pleased

I was mildly impressed with this guitar. I have often wanted a hollowbody guitar of this style, but did not want to spend a lot of money, only to discover that I didn't like it.

This guitar is surprisingly well built, but acoustically... the tone was very thin. I upgraded the bridge to a ResoMax (by GrapgTech) bridge and the "sound" improved 100%.

The pickup that comes with guitar is 'spot-on' and the tuners are sufficient, they do not need replacing, but I upgraded to locking tuners.

Overall, I am very pleased with this guitar!

Great quality and open sound.

I particularly enjoyed the satin finish on the guitar and the feel it gives on the back on the neck when moving up and down the finger board. A very resonant sound and feeling from the large body.

Jazz Box

It's not perfect but the price is! For jazz I've found switching to a heavier gauge flat wound strings has really developed the sound, also the action is at the truss rod & bridge needs to be reset higher to 1. get a more pronounced projection 2. To get rid of most of the fret buzz. These are minor adjustments that can be done yourself or by a competent guitar shop. There is 100% no need to change the solitary bridge pickup on this model, it's perhaps one of the best parts of the guitar. I've not been disappointed with the purchase of this guitar and use it regularly for playing jazz events.

Really comfortable Manhattan

I really enjoyed the time with Manhattan. Things I enjoyed the most were the neck and the acoustic sound. Half of the times I didn’t even plucked myself to amp because I lost myself noodling acoustically.

Pros are the two things I already mentioned but two another pros are that it is really lighweight and bridge height is easily adjustable. And it's visually darn beautiful (mahagony stars really out from it)

For me there were only one con - I really hoped that pickup would be jazzy and little bit less trebly. Of course you can adjust treble with tone knob, but I really wanted it to be originally smokier and with less treble. Three words - too much treble in pickup.

Speaking in past tense because I switched from Manhattan back to stratocaster. I just realised that I’m a strat guy. If I could afford another guitar not for exchange then I would’ve kept that lovely Manhattan.

Tone pot and bridge fell to pieces after a few days

Fell for the look, ended up with a nice guitar.

For the price this guitar is pretty good. I changed to my favourite strings and it feels and plays great.

Amazing guitar for the price.

Acoustically it's quite good, and the pickups certainly arent bad either.

It plays really well after a good setup, but i think the 6th fret is a little high; my friend got one too and he's got a couple of deadspots on the neck, so keep that in mind.

The tuners and/or nut aren't the best, and you will have to carve out the string spacing on the bridge yourself.

The paint job is decently consistent, the one i got was much brighter than the one pictured, but my friend's one was basically akin to the pictures, so maybe they fixed this after i bought mine, but i'd keep that in mind.

All in all: i love this guitar and bring it everywhere, i would reccomend it to both those who want a cheap archtop, and ones (like me) who will add and modify various aftermarket parts.

One problem

The only thing on the guitar that Im not satifyed with is the freting, some buzz on 11th fret. But its a super guitar for the money

....very good instrument for its league!!

Archtop guitars in my view are the top league to compete. There are excellent instruments out there and their field is upper level to meet key standards. Well, this guitar has to be compared on price standards.

And there is really good !! Is the lowest cost archtop I ever played with. It stands good against its peers (...always in the tail but never out of it). In addition it has a very special sound unplugged which I use in some recordings. I liked it! Also the look is great.