Harley Benton GS-Travel-E Mahogany Reviews

Sounds great, projects well

I bought this for my daughter as a standard size is too large for her. It arrived quickly- 3 days to the USA. and in goid condition. No visible flaws. It is beautiful. I like the black hardware, and the binding is beautiful. The neck feels really good, and the onboard electronics sound really good. She will appreciate having the tuner built in...or maybe I will.😁 She tunes by ear- she's a violinist (sax player, flutist, ukulele). We have a yama*a 3/4 but it sounds boxy. This sounds so much better, for less money. The mini jumbo shape and rounded back make a noticeable difference. It is deeper, fuller sounding and louder.

I just ordered a harley parlor, but think I might get another one of these to take with me on the road. Highly recommend this one!

Buy it - you won’t regret it!

First of all, let’s get it out of the way. I’ve been playing for over 20 years, own 14 guitars so I’ve seen my fair share of rubbish! Obviously sometimes you get a dodgy one, and QC sometimes have shockers, so I will review this based on my guitar I’ve received.

I read all the reviews, everyone saying it’s amazing for the money. I’ve fallen for that trick before with Squiers and Epiphones, but THIS little travel guitar is absolutely stunning.

The quality of build is amazing. It’s flawless. The finish, the fretboard, everything… it’s beautiful. The tuners are really good, solid and keeps it in tune. The sound is amazing, so loud and full of mids and bass. You’d think it would be tinny, like them Ed Sheeran-esque travel guitars, but nope this sounds like a full-size acoustic.

The pick up sounds good, and has a built in tuner with a display on so you can find your notes to tune it however you like.

All in all, if you paid £500 for this guitar and it said a more expensive name on the headstock you would not be complaining. I am actually confused how this high quality instrument is so cheap. It is much better than my £400 epiphone acoustic. I cannot put it down.

I took the scratch plate off as I prefer it without. There was 3 sharp fret ends, not to worry - filed them down and now it’s all good. Action was nice out of the box.

Just buy it - it’s the best £100 you’ll ever spend on a guitar. Harley Benton are the future!!!!

Amazing Mini GS Guitar

So, yes it has a plastic nut, bridge and saddle... but honestly they do not detract at all from the incredible sound you can get from this superb little guitar! I've been coveting a Taylor GS Mini e-Koa Plus for quite a while, but at 9 x the price of this HB one I thought I'd take a punt. And what a punt! This plays and feels very (very!) close to the Taylor (which I tried in Guitar Guitar in Camden). The colour is superb, the neck and frets were perfect (I'd pre ordered some files to sort out the action and edges, but actually not needed) What I did do was remove the pick guard (not necessary imo and looks so much better without) plus added a strap button around the body end of the neck (which actually balances the guitar really well!)

This is a superb mini GS style acoustic, if you're reading this then my advice is buy it - it's ace.

I Live this little guitar it is beautiful and sounds amazing, only problem is the cheap tuners that splin and don’t tighten, I w

I think replacing the tuners is a necessity, I haven’t seen any you tube videos showing off this nice tuner and preamp that sounds great

Beauty

Wanted a smaller guitar that wasnt crazy expensive, sounded good and looks great

Was very hopeful from what i seen in the pictures

This guitar did not disappoint i absolutely love it and would highly recommend

Good value for money

Really good value for money guitar. Ideal for practice and travelling :-)

Save money

Had a Taylor GS Mini and went through hell travelling with it in Europe. Miraculously, I got it back in one piece. I paid $599 for that guitar and decided it was just too expensive to risk anymore.

I saw the HB travel guitar and thought I'd give it a try. I bought a B stock for under $100 and it is every bit as nice as the Taylor. So I sold the Taylor for $400. Consider this a win.

Sounds ridiculously good

The other reviews stating that this guitar sounds much larger than it is are 100% TRUE. This thing is a solid instrument, sounds awesome, is fun to play, and is worth 2-3x the actual price. The fret edges need filing, but that’s really the only fault I find - and again, for the price, quality, and big sound… you’re not going to beat this. I’m pretty certain most people wouldn’t be able to tell this from much more expensive models in a blind listen test. Oh - and a free gig bag!!!!!

Amazing for the price

I got this guitar as a beginner instrument, but its now the main instrument i end up playing. Love sound and feel to it. Simple to plug in and play too.

Excellent Guitar

These are the best value Travel size guitars around ,Incredible sound and quality ,I already have one for approx 2 years with no issues only great fun playing ,I bought this second one for my daughter to stop her taking mine !!! she loves it and its even better now with the on board tuner ,,

Absolute bargain

I bought this as my first guitar to test the waters and see if it was something that stuck. This guitar has been absolutely superb. The sound is amazing and I've used it almost every day. It's been beaten and bashed and has had zero issues.

I've used it for just over a year and the only gripe I had with it is that the sound, when plugged in, is pretty tinny. There's no way I'd record with it or play using it live so I decided to gut the electronics from it. If you're just learning I'd suggest going for the non-electronic version. If you need to record, use a mic on it.

It's a solid guitar, looks great, sounds awesome. Better yet, it's an absolute bargain at this price.

Good quality for the value

I'd bought GS-Travel-E as a change for Yamaha GL1. Good sound. Good playability. But my guitar just from the box had two issues. At first, deep scratch near a bridge. And, at second, the battery box is not closable when it contains a battery. I had used matches to fix it. It seems like as B-Stock guitar, but I paid full price. (( The next time I will never buy the cheapest guitar with electronic parts. And advice people who look a small guitar for traveling - don't pay for this and wait for GS-Travel

Great instrument

Sounds fantastic. Great Playability. Very well put together.

Lacks way to controlls on the guitar.

GS - Travel Mahogany

I already had a Taylor GS Mini, but when someone banged it off my coffee table I decided to buy this as a “beater”. The GS-Travel arrived and it was so nice, especially with electronics built in, ie tuner and pickup/eq and with a very serviceable gig bag, I decided I did not want anyone banging this up either! I did do some mods to it. I had a full set of Gold Taylor tuners laying around. The guitar need the action lowered, so I brought it to my luthier. He lowered the action, oiled the fretboard, and installed a new bridge and the gold tuners for $75. The guitar now rivals the Taylor in every way. I love it. Finally someone was selling a GS Mini gig bag on FB Marketplace for $30, which I jumped on so now the Taylor has nothing over the Harley Benton. Buy this guitar now!

PS: the Taylor comes with no pickup. When you add the pickup you have no EQ or volume controls or built-in tuner.

Awesome Guitar!

A great little guitar with a huge sound. Great craftsmanship!

GS-Travel-E Mahogany

AMAZING sound, price for quality is a dope.

small body, easy neck, great overall

Smashing little guitar for the money

This is a great little guitar for the price. I was very pleasantly surprised by this guitar. I play an 1972 Guild D40 and while of course the sound doesn't equal this guitar as the Guild has aged beautifully the Harley Benton has its own lovely sound which I like and I will be buying another one for my daughter

ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE !

This guitar has been so amazing and i've never played something so well, feels and plays just like the Taylor Gs-Mini. absolutely incredible!

Amazing value

Don't let the cheap price put you off. This is better quality than more expensive budget guitars. I wanted a cheaop Martin travel guitar and this is perfect. Worth every cent and even comes with a bag.

Great ...but here was problem,,

Wow, it's all been said before..fantastic guitar and equal to those at £500 to £600 elsewhere...The finish and sound on mine was spot on ..no complaints here, However there was problem despite a quality control checked sticker and label!

The battery is housed in a supple plastic housing inside the body between the heel and sound hole. It's accessible only by removing the strings, not great for a beginner but ok for me. This is not the problem I encountered.

The lead from the pick up is clipped inside the body to the upper face and should be long enough to reach the battery compartment. Mine wasn't by a good 15cm. A mirror on a stick and torch revealed the problem inside the body. The wire had been wound around several times placed in a fixed clip and left much too short. A real problem if you have large hands and after removing the strings and working by feel alone, after about 30 mins I established the clip glued to the body holding the wire had been bent over several times holding the wire much too short, which was impossible to see by any means but a bit of luck catching my fingernail under it gave it away. Had it not been for my partners small hands and perseverance I would have had to return the guitar, but we eventually managed to free the wire and re clip it....Absolute hassle that should not have been!!

As the guitar was so good in all other aspects I wanted to persevere with it just in case a replacement was not as good. As the owner of 7 Harley Bentons I rate them very Highly but someone in the factory had taken their eye off the ball !!!!

This would have been very disappointing for a novice. Just not good enough guys.

PS...By the way nowhere in the guitar packaging was any instructions on where the battery was housed or how to access and open the compartment. Pretty sure a novice would not have wanted to be taking the strings off and try and work out where the battery went.

For all intents and purposes it could look like the battery is just left clunking around in the body on the end of its wire,,,Small point but very relevant