Harley Benton GS-Travel-E Mahogany Reviews

Mindblowing

I already had a Harley Benton Telecaster, which I am very happy with. Then I bought this. Perfect intonation right out of the box, no fret-ends, no adjustements, great playability and sound and looks amazing. Even better that the Youtube videos

Amazing bang for the buck!

The sound is just amazing considering the price and the size.

Great deal!

Sounds very nice, dynamic and balanced for a small sized guitar. I am happier than my expectations.

I wish I could give six stars!

Absolutely brilliant value, cannot believe how cheap it is, and how well- made. Yes, I know it’s only (only!) mahogany veneer and not solid, but how could anyone tell the difference? My only question is how to use the “phase” function on the control panel. My new guitar now sits right by my armchair (disability means I’m stuck indoors a lot) to grab when ever I get the urge to pluck and twangle.

It's okay

My guitar came in with rusty strings, action as high as snoop dog, and fretboard and body drier than the Sahara, not sure if I will keep it, I assume is a hit and miss with the affordable guitars from Harley Benton, overall you get what you pay for. I'm surprised it made it out of QC, the bridge and insides were insanely dirty, in the back lots of scratches, tuners don't stay in tune, from far it looks beautiful, from close not so much, the neck makes a cringing noise when attempting to tune. The gig bag and accessories are perfect.

It's a good size, light, not very loud, it really fits the purpose I got it for since I wanted a small guitar to keep for moving around to silent practice, just wished I had a premium version of it.

Very good guitar

Very good guitar, very easy to play, very clear sound. Of course you can feel the quality of the meterials that is not the best, but the price of this guitar is like a gift. Thank you Harley Benton!

Beautiful instrument

I love this guitar...is smaller than a dreadnought and it sounds great. You cand but something better at this price. And it has a beautiful gigbag with no further cost.

I bought two cheep guitars to leave at my sisters so I could teach her

Wow I bought this and an HBO 850 after reading reviews and couldn’t decide between them. I wanted chhep guitars to leave at my sisters as she wanted to learn. I received two great value guitars maybe as good as the Taylor GS and ovation I left at home. You cannot be disappointed at this price if all are as good as I got

My couch guitar

I bought this a few months back, out of the box it was very nice, however I changed the strings to Elixir's, swapped the saddle to a bone saddle and lowered the action. It's a beautiful guitar to play. I had the opportunity to play a few Taylor's recently and in my honest opinion I wouldn't swap my HB. For such a small guitar it has a beautiful warm tone and a really nice, focused response.

Ultimate Travel Guitar!

Straight from the moment I unpackaged this, I was in love with it. I was coming from a full size roundback acoustic, but looking to downsize to something smaller without compromising on features or sound. For such a small package, this guitar far exceeded every expectation I had. I don't know how Harley Benton does it, but they deliver insane quality products for a fraction of the cost competitors price simillar products at. This guitar easily outplays guitars several hundred dollars more than it. The sound is so rich and full for such a small package. Intonation out of the box was perfect, but I did find the action a tad high for my liking. All I need to do is sand the bridge a bit to drop the action height to my taste. The finish was near perfect and the frets were totally smooth and without sharp edge! I am beyond happy with this guitar and look to expand my collection exclusively with Harley Benton at this point. Unmatched value and quality at more than justifiable prices!

It sounds great and the price is astoundingly good!

I got this to take with me on my travels and it sounds way better than i expected.

I recommend this to anyone who is looking for a mahogany travel guitar and it holds up to the bigger name competitors with higher price tags very well.

An exceptional little guitar for the money (albeit with a couple of faults) Every home should have one

May I begin by saying I have quite a few Harley Benton guitars. All are great value and the more expensive (pro) ones are very good indeed.

So this is a little guitar at a lower price point than I would normally be drawn to. But at the price I thought it was worth a look. Taking into account that this guitar is not aimed at a pro, I’m still going to give my findings and honest opinion.

Straight out of the box it sounded full and clear for a guitar with a smaller body and scale length. The finish was flawless, however the frets were a little rough and the action a little high. Lowering the action exposed one slightly high fret over the body causing one accessible fret to choke out. Not a problem if you don’t play up that end or if you know how to fix it. (which I did) Other than that, all the other frets played perfectly and only needed a little polish to take away any roughness. The full V shaped neck is comfortable even if you find the fingerboard radius a little flat.

Electrically, the pickup and preamp sounded surprisingly good (and the preamp even has a tuner and phase switch), HOWEVER … there was a problem with the low E string volume. It just wasn’t being picked up at all. One should really do a return with something like this, but because I’d had issues with the DHL delivery of this item, and have had experience with the temperamental properties of PIZZO under bridge pickups, I decided to investigate myself. The pickup worked fine and was completely straight. The bridge saddle was totally flat on it’s underside (when I adjust the action on acoustics I ALWAYS file down the top of the saddle and reshape it because I know how problematic these pickups can be when the saddle isn’t totally flat). On further investigation, it appeared that the bottom of the slot where the saddle and pickup sit, was NOT flat. There were a couple of metal pins/screws showing and someone (in the factory presumably) had tried to machine them flush and slightly overdone it making a slight recess onto which the pickup could not make contact with the body. I managed to resolve this using slithers of paper to fill the indents. NOW it all works fine. … and it sounds good.

I am aware, this is aimed at maybe, buskers, backpackers and suchlike who might not care about the electrics, and I know I’m being very pernickety but I like to know all my guitars work properly. When an instrument is built so well, especially at this price point, it would be nice to know that I just got the exception to the rule and I was lucky to have the knowledge to fix it. For £109 this is an exceptional little guitar. If you get a good one, why pay 6x the price for the other brand that it’s a tribute to?

Love the sound and Preamp. Hate the Neck profile

Excellent Tuners once tightened, nice preamp with more info on the tuner than Fishman. Ok sound -bright treble and less base due to dimensions. Couldn't get used to the V neck profile. Makes my hand hurt if prolonged bar-cords used. I will have to sand this myself. HB PLEASE make this guitar with a normal "C" neck profile

Nice little guitar

These have been really good your quality checks have been pretty good on these

Better than expected - and I expected a lot!

Motivation: I wanted a guitar for the living room.

Background: I've bought and sold dozens of guitars over the years, including PRS Customs. And if I haven't owned it, I've probably borrowed it. I've had many acoustics, my main one is an old Takamine EN10 that I purchased new in '91, I've gigged it 2,500+ times and refretted 6x times. Not the best I've played, but above average and fits like a glove. Plus my daughter loves it so I can never sell it!

Now to the Harley Benton GS-Travel-E Mahogany. I'd read dozens of positive reviews & watched a bunch of YouTube videos before pulling the trigger, so I was expecting something pretty decent.

Over the years I've passed several guitars because their necks were just too "bendy" for my heavy-handedness. Not this one. This neck is stable and I wouldn't have known it was a "V" if I hadn't read the specs, it feels fine, smallish overall though not exactly slim, and nothing as pronounced as the V neck Clapton Strat I once borrowed and disliked. It seems to holds tune pretty good, I've seen reviewers complain that the tuner gear ratio is a tad high & I'd concur, but it's not deal breaker for me. It comes strung with 12s but I suspect I'll prefer 11s on this & I intend swapping them out soon. I happen to love the elegant looking headstock and overall, the guitar easily exceeds my cosmetic expectations. I haven't plugged it in yet, nor will I be able to for a while, so I'm commenting on the acoustic output only here. It's louder, more balanced and more pleasant than I'd expected. The darkish mahogany tone seems to suit this body size well, and perhaps makes up for the lack of bottom end that a small body-size like this is capable of generating. The tone isn't as complex as higher-end guitars, but it is so well balanced that I quickly forget about any perceived lack of sweetness as I enjoy the nice note bloom, something that reminds me of an old Gibson LP Junior that I once played. Not every guitar - even expensive ones - bloom like this and it's a nice surprize that is hard to express in words.

So overall, it's a very enjoyable guitar to play & plenty loud for my requirements. It doesn't feel out of place between my '79 Strat and '91 Takamine EN10 - which says a lot for a €129 guitar! I don't know how they do it for the money.

6 month update; with decent 11 gauge strings this thing really jangles, it really is a fantastic guitar - buy one!

Buy this guitar!

This is a quality instrument. The sound is beautiful both with an amp or not. The battery compartment is cleverly designed - easy to access. In all aspects this guitar is way superior than others similar.

Travel guitar that takes you anywhere!

Great little guitar, easy to play, ideal for beginners or the intermediate guitarist. Looks great too. I definitely recommend.

Harley Benton GS travel vs Taylor GS mini rosewood

To all of you out there wondering about the GS travel, I will share my own experience. I wanted a small guitar with a pick up and bought the Taylor GS Mini. The action was a little high (3.2mm) but there was nothing left to reduce on the bridge saddle. The neck was out of line with the bridge and would have needed to be re-shimmed, which Taylor could do, but in turn would make the action worse. The fretting was poor with some frets being 1mm higher than others so the guitar was returned.

I then decided to buy the cheeper option, Harley Benton GS Travel and I must say I am very impressed. No sharp fret ends, action 2.5mm on the low E, good loud acoustic sound for a travel guitar and a plugged in sound as good as any Fishman equipped guitar (to my ears). All in all, a very good package for around a sixth of the price of the Taylor GS Mini.

Yes, the tuners have plastic buttons, it has plastic saddle and nut, but so what? If you are the type of person that likes a brand name and is happy to pay for it, maybe the Taylor is for you. If like me - and probably the audience - you feel that the song is more important than the brand on the headstock, this guitar is great! I would gig with it and it is perfect for most amateur / semi-pro musicians.

You could spend forever splitting hairs over the sound of the Harley Benton versus the Taylor. You could talk about the fantastic case that comes with the Taylor, but from my experience, the Taylor went back due to quality control issues. The Harley Benton I am keeping and the saved £500.00 plus will come in handy. Maybe I was unlucky with the Taylor and have been lucky with the Harley Benton but that was my experience

Buy the Harley Benton GS Travel, play it, have fun and don't worry about it. A replacement is "only" £110.00

Problems With Electronics

I bought the guitar with the pickup system installed. I love the actual guitar, it plays and sounds excellent, especially for the price. I gave it 2 stars for features and quality because the pickup system didn't work from the beginning. In fact, you can hear the electronics inside rattling around. Obviously, no one tested this instrument and just tossed it in the case as is. Since I bought this from the US, I didn't want to spend the next year returning it for a new one that worked (it took about 2 or 3 months to ship it here). However, I am very disappointed that I spent the extra money for the pickups and it never worked plugged in. If you buy this guitar, save your money and install the pickups yourself.

A Steal!

For the price, it's an unexpectedly good quality guitar. The sounds not bad, it's a smaller size guitar, so it doesn't put out a huge amount of sound but "hits above it's weight class". In hindsight, I think I'd get the model without the electronics and mic it instead, but to be honest, a more thorough evaluation of that bit is needed. Even at that higher price, I'm satisfied with the purchase.