Harley Benton GS-Travel Mahogany Reviews

Take it everywhere!

Great versatile lightweight travel guitar with a scale length that is still decent and playable for larger fingers but perfect for me. I record with it as well as taking it away with me on every break.

Holds tune perfectly and the carry case included is perfect protection for this beautifully built instrument.

The build quality is first class with great finishing detail, everything is smooth and clean.

Good sound, unplayable even after work

So, what did I expect from a $80 guitar? Not much, to be honest, and boy did it deliver. Fretwork is abysmal, sharp and uneven, even after hours of leveling and polishing it still buzzes. I replaced the saddle with a TUSQ one, but still had to use 2 of the 3 included horrendous plastic shims, the slot is so deep. String spacing is wrong, the high E string cuts my finger when playing barre cords.

As it is, this guitar won't even work as a cheap campfire instrument, it is amazingly hard to play well due to the frets.

Looking for a cheap travel Guitar...

... Look no further!

This is an absolutely fantastic little travel guitar - for the money - I've tried a Martin mini, Taylor Mini, Takamine ... all exceptional sound for a small body ... but they will lighten your wallet and for that price you'll be scared to bring it on a beach or throw it in the boot of your car.

This little baby offers all that and some - in a acoustically treated room you will be able to tell that this is not a high end travel guitar ... but don't feel that this sounds like a plank, far from it.

The finish is good - frets sprouted a bit on my one, bridge needed filed a bit - an afternoons work with some sand paper and cup of tea - well worth it.

Changed strings and would possibly suggest investing in a set of decent machine heads to keep the tuning accurate. But for the price it is totally worth it. It smiles at me and I find it irresistible to pick up.

The neck has a chunky feel ... which may not be ideal for a small child wanting to learn on, but that is just a personal preference.

If you want a cheap great sounding traveller - do yourself a favour and check this out.

Finally - if you do some home recording - Hi-string this guitar - the sparkle you get on your recordings are really dynamic.

A must buy

Nothing can beat this for the price.

I was looking for a cheap guitar for travelling since my acoustic Fender is too expensive to replace in case of theft or damage. Now this guitar has turned into my main instrument. I just can't get enough of how easy it is to play, how good and big it sounds compared to its small size and how sexy it looks (pictures online don't do the guitar justice)

Whether you're an experienced player or a beginner, I am sure you'll love this instrument. Plus the gigbag that comes with it is high quality.

Poor quality

I bought this guitar for my mom as I birthday present. The guitar came very very poorly set up and had buzz fretting all over the guitar so it isn't playable at all. Really bad quality.

Brilliant value!

I play mostly at home, but i wanted a smaller size guitar to take less space and something convenient to take anywhere i wanted to.

I was not a big fan of the headstock in the pictures, but i have to say that in person it as grown on me.

In terms of finishing i can't find many issues really. The cavity of the nut doesn't seem to be completely level and you can see they sanded the nut to fit better, but this is me nitpicking, it doesn't affect playability or looks at all.

The fretboard is a bit dry, but at least that gives you the flexibility to leave it that way if that's how you prefer it, or do the treatment with a product of your preference. I'm not a big fan, so that's something i'll need to take care of.

I'm a fan of the V neck profile though. I'd never played with one and it's very comfortable.

The tuners work pretty well. They seem to keep in tune and there's no dead spots. That being said i'm not really a heavy picker and i'm mostly playing fingerstyle, so for a heavy strummer this could be something to consider upgrading.

Sound wise i was extremely surpised especially considering the size of the guitar! Playing some natural harmonics you get clear notes with a nice sustain.

The gig bag is fantastic value for the price. I've paid 30/40€ for similar quality gigbags!

I'm really really satisfied with this purchase. If you're a beginner or someone who just wants a smaller guitar to mess around with it, you really can't go wrong with this one, i believe you get more guitar than the price implies.

Great sound besides its size

This guitar has a great sound and it is very loud and clear. It has a really high quality for a cheap guitar.

In the beginning the neck feels weird because its triangular shape but in a few hours you get used with it.

I think that the gauge of the factory strings are heavy for standard tuning

Great starter guitar

I bought this guitar for my girlfriend to start learning on, managed to play it a few times and it's got a great sound for the size and price. I would probably put thicker strings on it, I found them to be a bit flimsy for playing harder styles, but overall a great product. Works great for folk styles. Would definitely recommend!

Highest value for money.

This guitar offers an amazing value for money. The setup is very good, the neck profile is very comfortable and the sound is better than expected. I am very impressed. Best guitar purchase I ever made. Also the HB coated strings that come on it seem to last forever.

Best acoustic I've ever owned.

I have owned Martin, Taylor and Ovation acoustic guitars. This is the least expensive one I have ever owned, yet it is the nicest playing one, and comparable in sound quality to all of them. I would not hesitate to buy another as it is a blast to play. I can find nothing to complain about. I am impressed by the quality of the workmanship and the sound.

for such price - great deal

great small acoustic guitar. I had yamaha jr 2 before - twice more expensive. Jamaha has a bit better sound and is more esthetic, but still, this cute harley benton is my favourite.

Ridiculously cheap but efficient. Decent sound, perfect gibag. With this price really unbeatable.

!! Bargain of the century !!

I bought the mahogany version of this guitar for home use.

Out of stock when I ordered. But only took 1 week to be dispatched, and subsequently delivered within 3 days.

Very well packaged - no chance of damage in transit.

It really does live up to all the great reviews.

Sounds amazing for such a small guitar. Think Nina Simone of the compact guitar world.

The wood looks classy and is well finsished.

Very light and compact (bit obvious, but I have been used to playing a Washburn DS10)

There are a few negatives, see the 'cons' below. Mainly around quality, but nothing that can't be addressed.

In summary:

If you want Taylor build quality - buy a Taylor

If you want Taylor sound/tone quality - buy this and save 400 quid!

Pros

Value for money - less than £100 (inc. delivery)

Sound/tone

Mahogany looks great

Nice little gig bag

Cons

Fret quality - poor finishing, 5th & 7th slightly raised from the fretboard

Strings - look like they've been taken out of the rubbish bin

Neck - 'v' profile may not suit everyone

Good guitar for the price, still needed a huge set up

Its a little bit funny how a guitar - not bad at all quality - can cost so little. Still, the frets were badly mounted. After I took it and made the set up guitar was revived, and now is pretty good sounding guitar. The price for that set up was half od the price for whole guitar.

Amazing Value for Money

An amazing Guitar, very good sound and feel. Totally value for money, with a few minor modifications could be a perfect instrument. I recomend new strings of better quality and a tiny bit of lowering the actions. Apart from that it is an excelent budget choise.

Brilliant bit of kit.

Punches way, way above its' weight.

I can only speak for my guitar: Very well finished - no jagged edges, no errant glue or patchy staining. Luckily - really pretty pattern- and, actually the sound is great.

Personally I find it meaningless to compare with other guitars, as I don't have any other guitars for $80.00!! At that price it's not even worth comparing it to a decent bottle of whisky as the guitar has lasted longer already!

I feel like a spoilt kid who's bored with the Ferrari and just wants to play on the dodgems - so much more fun than my 'serious' guitars.

Mind blown.

Amazing guitar

Don't know how it's possible to make such a good guitar with so low price. Seriously. It even comes with a quality gigbag. Similar to taylor gigbags. With padding and everything.

It doesn't feel cheap at any way. Very good guitar.

Sound is great. Almost as loud and deep-sounding as fullsize dreadnought.

For the price - amazing

This is a nice guitar. It plays nicely and had a sound that is very comparible to the original Taylor it is based on and I tried in a store once. That one is 10 times more expensive!

Drawbacks. I had to tighten the tuner keys, some of them were really loose. Not a problem to do so.

The frets are not even across the neck. It looks that some of them are also not completely pushed in the fretboard.

Overall, I think that some filing the fret ends and some leveling would fix this. I haven't done this yet, but next time when I change strings I will.

Currently I am using it as my main guitar (just started playing - I came from a Spanish acoustic with a much higher action, so this HB plays great in comparison). I am going to buy another western guitar as my main one and use this for my summer vacation to take along in the nice sturdy guitar bag that is included.

Very good guitar, impossible at the price

Remarkable guitar, punches way above its price so I gave it 5 stars all round. Well made, looks good, sounds good. I like the simple modern headstock shape though I'm sure some won't. Responds surprisingly well to traditional parlour style playing with a nice warm tone, glad I bought the mahogany version, and has enough attack to made a good go of Gypsy Jazz. I expect it to improve when I change the strings. Action is good, short scale plays fine as the fingerboard isn't skinny, neck is slighty deeper than usual in the older parlour style which is welcome as it gives it more presence in the hand and makes it feel less small. I could fiddle with it and tweak it and improve it but to be honest it doesn't need it so I'm not going to bother. This was supposed to be a guitar to take to dodgy places or the park or beach and to allow insane young visitors to have a go rather than risk thousands of pounds worth of Gypsy Jazz guitars, but it's far better than it should be, I have no idea how they've done it for the price. I wish I'd had a guitar like this when I started 46 years ago :)

Lovely, sweet little guitar

I bought this to play lounging on my sofa, laying on my bed or outside in the garden.

Out of the box, it's very playable - I haven't changed anything.

The mahogany gives a warmth to the sound, which I like. On a guitar body this small I don't think you'd need the brighter sound of a spruce top - I haven't tried the spruce version though.

Mine has a closely grained mahogany top rather than the more striped look of the one in the pictures - mine looks lovely. It's pretty light weight - ideal for what I bought it for. It sounds and projects much better than you'd think from the size (and price).

If I hadn't bought a CLA-15m soon after I'd be picking this up all the time - as it is, I pick it up a lot.

It has clarity, punch and warmth that are way above it's size and price tag.

Now the big question - is it as good as the Taylor? I have no idea, I've never played one. But it's the wrong question and missing the point; For the likely intended uses of this guitar, it's as good as you need.

Don't get me wrong - it sounds good, it plays well and it's fun to play. But do you really need to pay over £500 for a travel/sofa guitar?

It's hard to justify that unless you're recording with it a lot (to cut through the mix - and this will do the job). Or maybe want a smaller scale instrument for a child/teen. You could buy this and get two custom line acoustics (Harley Bentons) for that money - I know which I'd prefer and that's exactly what I've done.

Tuners - they do their job. People complain about a lot of new guitars not holding their tuning but it's just because they haven't bedded the strings in - (pull them away from the guitar 3-4 times, tune the string back up, do this 3 times for each string - you'll now hold your tuning). Speaking of which - when I tried that on this guitar the peg came off on the lower E string - I'm not bothered; I put it back in and developed a method of pulling the string parallel to the body, which works fine.

Construction is fine - don't expect bone nuts and bridge saddles at this price.

It's very neat and tidy, rather attractive and I love the curve on the back.

I have an old Martin travel guitar - I never play it. This is so much better - it's a proper guitar, just a bit smaller and light weight.

For the price it's a bargain - it even comes with a neat little gig bag.

If you want a full blown acoustic, I'd recommend one of the custom line ones. But I have plenty of guitars and I can't resist this little beauty - it gets far more of my attention than the price would suggest.

You know you want one.