Harley Benton GS-Travel Spruce Reviews

Great Starter Set

Bought this for my son for Christmas. He's very happy with it, and it was great value considering the quality. Highly recomend.

Great

Bargain...plays really well

Looks great

Feels great

Great knock around guitar

Amazing for the price. Easily comparable to the Taylor GS mini. Unfortunately, a child spilled a cup of tea literally in the guitar.

Bad quality guitar. Lots of issues in fretboard and warped neck. Cheap wood body.

Bad quality guitar. Lots of issues in fretboard and warped neck. Cheap wood body.

Perfect Travel companion

Bought this for my 12 year old son because I didn't want him to learn on a toy. Full sound, sturdy, great finish, will be loud enough for busking. Comes with a soft case. For a small guitar it packs a punch. He loves it when he can get it away from me!

Best under 100 I've ever spent.

I bought a taylor last year that came with a baby taylor as part of the promotion. This guitar blows the baby taylor out the water, so i sold it. Even the gig bag it comes with is on par with the one taylor sent. I take this everywhere with me and if i break it i would buy another straight away. My friends are constantly surprised by the volume this thing can produce.

Awesome little guitar

As a beginner, I found this guitar super pretty and I think it sounds awesome, even with the original cords. Its smaller size makes it very handy for people who have smaller hands or someone who likes to travel with a guitar. The included good quality travel bag makes it even more worth it.

Harley Benton GS-Travel Spruce

This is a really good guitar for the price. Several of my students have this model and I or they have never had any problems with them. It also comes complete with a really nice good quality gig bag. Absolutely would recommend this guitar...

Amazing guitar for that amount of money. Worth double

Fantastic value for the money

Everyone should own one of these. This is the perfect couch guitar. Extremely comfortable to play, excellent soft V neck, and sounds huge for such a small bodied guitar.

Can't give anything but 5 stars at this price range

I have now played two of these guitars and I think they are the best answer to "what should I buy if I want a decent acoustic but not spend too much?" question.

I could not find any cons that are relevant, i guess if I must:

- strings it comes with are not good (expected at this price point)

- smaller body, takes a little bit to get used to (clear from the description)

But the guitar is quite amazing:

- Great sound from a small body. Has clear definition and projection and is loud enough for a campfire

- Set up is always great, will not scare the beginner away.

- Fretwork is good, no issues

- Build quality is good as well.

- Comes with a great case, you expect a case like this in 400-500 range guitars

- Tuners are good, keeps in tune fine.

And it's just such a joy to play. Will always recommend it if someone wants a guitar and does not want to spend.

Amazing.

Insane price to quality ratio

Before anything else I want to say how absolutely amazing this guitar is. It is above average for a small guitar in terms of look, sound, and general build quality. And if you take in the non-existent price, this is unbelievable for me.

Changing strings is no hassle, the tuners are very high quality, the sound is not tinny like a smaller guitar often can be and it looks great. The finish looks good and the fretboard is nice and smooth, easy to slide on. It weighs a bit less than I assumed. The size feels like an average electric guitar, which I also play, which is pretty nice to me.

Comes with a gig bag that fits the guitar well and looks fine.

Overall, I had no issues. If you want a cheap, 'throwaway' guitar, definitely consider buying this. It might be the best one in the market, and it's quality is much higher than any other throwaway guitar you find.

Sturdy, Nice sounding, Budget

This the real travel guitar, you will not mind to abuse it a bit because of the price and it can stand it all!

It also sounds decent for your average back of the night gig.

Only the bottom of the gigbag (where the endpin is touching it) wore through quite fast, but that's why we have duct tape.

Amazing guitar for the price

I bought this guitar to bring camping and to parties etc. and it hasn't disappointed! It's very well made and the finish is excellent. The supplied strings are a bit rough but they are fine really. This has now become my 11 year old sons guitar and he's well able to play it. The padded case is great too.

The sound is a little thin due to the small body size but that's to be expected.

For the money this guitar is great value, its so much better than a lot of planks I have played over the years! I really don't know how they can afford to produce instruments of this quality for such a small price. Highly recommended, also great as a first guitar for a child.

Bought it as a present for my nephew. Guitar sounded amazing out of the box, it did go out of tune the first hour or so pretty badly but once the wood and strings settled down it was great.

Sounds excellent for its price and size and will serve as a learning instrument incredibly well. It comes with its own gigbag which is very decent, you wont have to upgrade it since it offers sufficient protection. I would buy this again and probably will so, but one with built in electronics. This is in my opinion a great instrument and I would recommend it.

A great guitar at a great price

Ordered this guitar after purchasing an electric Harley Benton before which I was really pleased with. Wasn't too sure if the guitar would be of an acoustic quality that I required for the price I was paying but decided to give it a try as the cost was so low.

When it arrived i was blown away by it. Firstly the finish on mine was fantastic. on closer inspection I noticed how well the instrument had been fretted. No sharp edges and evenly set. The only adjustment I had to do was to tighten the truss rod slightly to achieve the playing action I required. After doing so the guitar was a dream to play and it seems to hold its tune really well. It also sounded much fuller than I expected and in my opinion would be good enough to perform with. When I read initially that it was supplied with a gig bag I was expecting some cheap looking almost throw away type but I was so wrong. The gig bag is of good quality and fits the guitar perfectly.

Pros

Fantastic value for money

Really good finish

Well set up

Easy to play

Cons

None

All in all this is a fantastic guitar for the price paid and I would recommend this guitar for both advanced and learner guitarists. This is now my most played guitar

Lovely guitar for my granddaughter

I bought this for my granddaughter after having purchased 2 Harley Bentons for myself. My granddaughter has quite small hands and struggles with bar chords on a full sized guitar, so this size instrument was ideal. The GS Travel Spruce is well built and and is very attractive. I liked the headstock. My granddaughter thinks the guitar is lovely, and is extremely pleased with it. The tone is very nice, and the finish is very good. An excellent guitar for the price.

A wonderful little guitar at any price

I'm taking no points off. Anywhere. This thing deserves the full 5 on all counts.

I did file the fret ends a little....just to smooth things out.

And I raised the bridge 1,5 mm, and tightened up the neck.

Wasn't really neccessary, but the 2nd string was zinging a little on the 4th fret, and I knew I could make that go away.

I ordered a set of "good" strings with it, thinking I'd want to change them right off the bat.

Didn't have to.

The stock strings are fine.

So....

It's an eighty euro guitar.

It sounds fantastic.

It stays in tune.

It looks good.

It's easy to play....and...

It comes with a gig bag (which looks VERY much like the one you get with a T----r GS Mini).

I'd give this thing 6 stars if I could. Can't put it down.

Brilliant

Really good sounding guitar especially for the price. It's more than I expected. Really good finish. With some bridge height, neck tension adjustments and Daddario strings quality its above the price.

Incredible guitar for the price, how can they do it?

There aren't many reviews out for this product so hopefully mine will help some people out here.

TL;DR: Awesome small guitar with amazing sound, especially for the price. Finish lacking a bit but won't affect the performance of the guitar. Good tuners, matte neck and comes with a gigbag.

Having moved to Germany recently I was missing my guitar back home; a big dreadnought which is actually pretty hard to play. I wanted something small and robust I could take with me everywhere and wouldn't mind getting dinged or scratched up.

Lo and behold the Harley Benton GS-Travel. Of course, somewhat of a copy of the Taylor GS Mini. It has a shorter scale length than a full size guitar but is still about 50mm bigger than the Harley Benton Mini. When I first unpacked it I was kind of shocked, it's small! The sound however is anything but small. I was so surprised at how good it sounds and how well set-up it is from the factory. Neck didn't need any adjustment, action was perfect and the 10 gauge strings make it a breeze to fret.

The V-shape neck might take some getting used to, but for me it complements my playing style. For a tiny guitar, it is sufficiently loud. Its actually somehow louder than the auditorium guitar I used to borrow from a roommate but it doesn't project as far. Of course, this version doesn't have a solid top, but for about 20~30 euro's more you can get a solid top version (but won't be able to handle abuse as much as a laminate). Tuners work remarkably well and are accurate, even more so than the 350 euro guitar my roommate has.

The finish isn't perfect but honestly I don't mind and don't notice unless I look for it. The neck has a matte finish which makes it easy to slide up and down on and the headstock looks absolutely gorgeous in my opinion. The lower frets have some dirt/oxidation on them but it doesn't affect the playing. The bag that it comes in offers decent protection, just a normal gigbag.

If you're looking for something to play around the house or take with you and don't care about getting abused then definitely go for it. The V-neck might not be for everyone but I like it. For 80 euro's, I cannot figure out how they can produce such a good guitar. This easily beats guitars in the 120~150 euro's range from well-known manufacturers. I still have to try out 12 and 13 gauge strings to see how they perform, but the 10's are already impressive.