Harley Benton Custom Line Nashville-Steel Reviews

Exceeds expectations...

I was rather biasly negative about this guitar when it first came out seeing it on the site and based on some other reviews, I didn't give this guitar very high regard beforehand. Since receiving my instrument, I can tell you, I am pleasantly surprised at how good this guitar feels in the hand. Not the cheap, clumsily built, sharp fretted instrument I had feared, but actually a rather premium feeling and sounding instrument that, especially when taking into account the price tag makes it way better than I had feared. A very pleasant surprise, given my presumed expectation. Great intonation, smooth on the hand, rather thin radius on the neck, not to chunky, all which combined, make or a very comfortable and encouraging playing experience, per my opinion. Tone wise, I will not compare to it's more expensive counterparts as that of course is not the point. But the tone it produces, both as piezo and magnetic pickup delivers as it should and is what you'd expect and no less, not disappointing in anyway in my experience, in my opinion and based on my expectations of the instrument. Many thanks for this good and affordable instrument.

the guitar I play the most

2 people want it, sssooooo comfortable to play, acoustic piezo/lipstick blend and 3way equalizer

Well constructed hybrid guitar for both acoustic and electric use

Hello, this was purchased as the look first caught my eye and the idea of a slimline acoustic electric appealed to me.

This was the case when first unboxed from the well wrapped and prompt delivery of the item. On first look the build quality was without fault. The frets were smooth to the touch and the neck felt good and easy to play.

I use it mostly acoustically, but when required it also makes some serious noise. All in all a very well made instrument that has been played many times and continues to provide pleasure and fun.

LOVE LOVE LOVE

Ever since I saw a Taylor t5z, I wanted one. Is this it? No, but for someone on my budget, it works really well.

Considering I am still very new to guitar, take my review with a grain of salt.

The unplugged sound is perfect for me. I live in an apartment with kids, upstairs neighbors, and side neighbors who just had a baby. It is just loud and acoustic enough for me, and I honestly love it.

Plugged in, the electric pick up alone lacks in volume compared to the piezo, but its manageable since you can blend them. I do get a bit of hum on the lipstick alone if I am too close to my amp, but again, manageable.

The piezo pick up is nice. It actually handle mild distortion well, is very clear on cleans, and just overall fits the sound of this guitar.

During my lessons, I have been working on blues types of riffs, scales, and songs like Layla and Cocaine. It works very well for this genre.

The neck fits me perfectly. I have sent so many guitars back to amazon, and spent hours trying out different guitars at guitar center. This neck was it. I am coming from starting on acoustic guitar. This neck is the perfect in between for me. It's not as chunky as my acoustic, but its got a little more meat to it than say a 9.5 squire.

Thats all I can really say, I don't have any qualms. It came in tune, the intonation was already set, and strings seemed to be new. I haven't had an issue with them.

Great guitar great experience

Ordered night 5/17 got it 2pm 5/19 not a mark on packaging guitar is beautiful fit and finish A+ 100% plays Like a dream worth way more than 350.00 w/shipping I,ve been playing 50 years have recorded in Nashville ,been around these guitars punch way above their weight don,t wait grab one i,msure glad

I did

Phenomenal Value

The fit and finish rival anything I have seen on the "High End" wall. The action is nice and the neck is perfect. The sound is good for quiet practice un-amped and the plugged in tone is exactly what I wanted. Only one quibble-the controls are small and need a painted index mark. Easily done with a paint pen. "From my cold, dead hands" comes to mind. This is an 11.

Almost suoerb

Let’s get the bad out of the way first. The flame top is bad, really bad. It’s almost invisible unless in direct sunlight. I wish it was just a normal top. Next, the blend pot is backwards. When pointing at the neck pickup it voiced the piezo and vice versa. Finally, the “lipstick” pickup is clearly a Tele neck pickup in a tube.

The good is that it plays superbly, is well fitted and finished and sounds completely unique. It really is a voice not much else can offer. I like the mix about 70/30 in favour of the piezo through a Fender Twin model on a Helix with bit of reverb. Really lovely and addictive!

Big sound in a small body

Light weight, neck size is perfect, not too big and not too small. Plays and sound l wonderful. My second Harley Benton but not my last. I'm sold on your guitars.

Great Jazz Box

This guitar is a very good, very warm, very articulate sounded electric guitar. As an acoustic guitar and it’s not ideal, but it sure sounds fine as long as you have the right type of strings. I put nicool pure nickel strings in it in order to get the best electric tone, while sacrificing some of the acoustic. I decide to do this because it’s mostly an electric design and more fitted for it that acoustic.

Awesome for going from acoustic to electric

Action was too high but easily fixed. this is a great little guitar for acoustic sounds and I use it a lot as a practice guitar when I am traveling.

Not so nice looking as in photos

The sound output when unplugged was poor and the flame maple was virtually non existantvery disappointed with the guitar looked stunning in photos but not in real life could do with a proper sound board no resinance when unplugged

Great guitar for the money

Sounds & plays great . I’ve had 2 shoulder surgeries and my acoustic started to bother me with its thickness . Took a chance in this . So glad I did … THSNK YOU !!!

Great for the price

Bought this and the electric pickup didn't work but I opened it up and the plug came out during shipping. They gave be $30 back. I had it setup by my luthier and it plays and sounds amazing! This guitar was a real Bargain! I highly recommend this guitar!

Great all around guitar

I own 20 guitars and I keep this one beside my computer for quick practice and song ideas. Take up less space then an acoustic and I can quickly plug it into a little Fender amp under my desk. I was surprised how solid this guitar was. Now that we are playing live again I will probably bring this to some gigs. Based on this guitar I now own 3 Harley Benson guitars with another one on the way. I may have to try their semi hallow's next.

Great little guitar

I have really enjoyed playing this guitar - it has a lovely tone and is really comfortable to play. Well worth the money.

Harley Benton Custom Line Nashville-Steel

This guitar looks and feels Great

Wonderful All rounder

I am very happy with my Nashville Steel. The finish and general QA are excellent. I can find no faults. Intonation is spot on, and it holds tune better than any of my other guitars. Love the light weight but It is still able to drive my amp hard. Highly recommended.

Nice thin acoustic

Very nice guitar, the only complaint I would have is that the action is set very high and I'll have to pay to get it adjusted.

A good player with a pros and cons to work with.

This guitar is a good little player, but certainly has a few shortcomings with components and build quality.

The battery and output jack plate don't quite fit right. It's simply a matter of the plate being a different radius than the body so it sticks out on the sides. Functionally it's fine, aesthetically it's not good.

The bridge suffers the same problem. They've glued a flat bridge to an arched body. The corners of the bridge are just barely hanging on and will probably fail overtime.

There are a few areas where the binding has some flaws or could simply use more clean up. In the price range you can forgive some finish work, but there are places where the binding simply isn't set quite right or has a noticeable gap.

On the electronics side there's not a lot wrong functionally, but they're just not very good. The piezo pickup is pretty harsh sounding to my ear. This harshness takes over when the blend function is used and is easy to hear when blending even the slightest amount of signal from the piezo. The onboard tuner is a really nice feature, but it jumps around a lot. It'll get the job done, but sometimes takes just a little longer than it should.

It's not all bad things though, like I said it's been a good player for me.

Construction wise the neck is pretty good. It's comfortable, the frets aren't sharp, and it's tuners are smooth. The body looks great overall. With the exception of the few issues mentioned above it's put together pretty well.

For sounds it's pretty easy to get some great warm jazzy sounds from the lipstick pickup. It wakes up with an overdrive and gives you terrific blues tones. If you really go high gain you can get great rock sounds too. This is where it really shines. It won't give you a bunch of sparkle or twang. There are other guitars for that anyway. When I pick this up I always end up playing sounds that make me think dirt, wet, warm... and that's just fine.

I've enjoyed playing this guitar and will continue to do so.

About me: I've been playing guitar for almost 20 years. I am no pro, I play for myself in the comfort of my own home. I play this guitar through a small tube amp with a variety of pedals. I play with a pick and finger style depending on my mood.

Nice, but could be better.

It's a nice looking guitar, and for the price it sounds ok. The pickups are good and the preamp offers quite a lot of options; piezo, magnetic, mix, phase reverse and some tone controls. It's possible to play it even with high gain/ distortion. Not the best option, it has some feedback, but it's on the manageable size.

Flame top looks very nice.

My main problem is with the bridge. The guitar body is arched, but the bridge is made for flat tops, leaving some areas where the bridge is not touching the guitar. Isn't that the point where string vibrations are transferred to the body?

There are also some minor quality flaws (glue spots under the lacquer, sharp frets), but from distance are not noticeable.