Harley Benton HB-35Plus Black Reviews

My 5th HB35 Plus

I had to have a black one to modify It’s stunningly finished and well set up out of the box A little truss rod adjustment and lower the bridge and I have buzz free action at around 1.2mm last fret on all strings with now buss and can bend up an octave and more with the fitted 10s with no buzz. Out of the box with no fret work!! That’s amazing. Super well finished. My only gripe is that the machine heads on this one are not as smooth as the previous HB35plus guitars that I have bought previously. Not a deal breaker at this price!! Don’t hesitate to buy if you are interested. There is a reason they sell out as soon as they come back into stock!

The best value ever

Got this as a test to see if Harley Benton are good and boy was I pleasantly surprised, they guitar came fast, in good shape and shockingly perfectly set up and intonated which I loved. It feels and sounds like my 1000$ Epiphone (if not better). The split coil mode is great and versatile and its overall awesome.

Like Others Say - Just Buy It

I received my HB 35 Plus this morning. I am so very well pleased. Not even one tiny lil scratch. One extremely super ity-bity tiny lil chip on one of the knobs but unless you get up super close no one nor I would see it. I will most likely change out the knobs anyway so no second thought on that. The sound is excellent along with the tone adjustments. Things that I always expect and or understand is the setup to be customized just a tad to my playing specs. Frets will receive a polishing. Fret board will get a good oil to revitalize the lil dryness it has. New strings. These are all optional for this guitar. The guitar came professionally fit & finished and setup. Kudos to the inspection as well. Excellent job. This is my second HB and I am very happy with both!

Best 335 style guitar out there

I've tried 335 style guitars from countless brands and this is easily my favorite

Read the reviews then buy it!

Bought this based on the positive reviews I saw. Great decision! I saw one review that said 'this isn't just a good guitar for the money it's a good guitar, period'. 100% spot on. Impressed right out of the box. It's a beautiful, quality guitar, well-built and the gold hardware looks great. Tuned it up unplugged and it has pretty good tone even without amplification. Plugged into my Vox it sounds great. It plays very easily , has very good tone across a variety of music styles, and I really like the coil-splitting feature.

One more thing: It made it to the U.S. in 3 days and there wasn't a scratch or even a finger smudge on it.

Outstanding

This is a great guitar. I was surprised to find that I love the coil tap positions and really like these pickups. The neck also feels rolled on these they eally nailed it woth this. One thing no one mentioned is that the body is a bit smaller on these than mmy other 335s not quite as small as a 339 but noticeably smaller. When I play it lying down its a bonus as it is more comfortable.

Great sound

This guitar is really easy to play, the sound is great, the pick ups are really hot!

HB35 great out of the box

This guitar was fine right out of the box. I think the only thing did was take an eraser to the frets and lube the fret board. Another well constructed Harley Benton guitar.

No better instrument for the price

I spent a couple days with the HB35plus before reviewing it so I could give it a fair review. Here is the good, the bad and the great. First, it ships from half a world away, through different climates so don't expect it to be gig ready when you get it! It was close... I did give it a slight truss rod adjustment to put a little relief in the neck. Lowered the bridge saddle a few mm, raised the neck pickup and lowered the bridge pickup. Took a total of 5 minutes and the action was then exactly how I like it. The fret ends are not bad at all. Harley Benton obviously put some effort into finishing the ends. Only had 1 fret (7th) that was slightly high, but overall most of the frets were level although very rough and gritty. I spent maybe 2 hours polishing them to a glass like smooth. The tuners are solid, but maybe a little aggressive. Not sure what ratio, maybe 14:1? They work and hold tune though. The Roswell pickups are great sounding pickups and the coil split gives the guitar so much versatility. They are maybe a little quiet and won't really push your amp, but are otherwise perfect for this platform. I am perfectly happy keeping them.

The finish is flawless and glossy. I honestly do not see a flaw other than one tiny speck of dust in the finish near the jack. The binding is smooth and consistent. The f holes... are kind of rough, they aren't finished nearly as well as the rest of the guitar, but they still look good, and you wouldn't notice any of the flaws from more than a few inches away.

All in all I am blown away that Harley Benton can offer such an amazingly high quality instrument at this price point.

Love my Harely Benton Black HB35 plus

The guitar arrived in great time, even with Canada Customs and Canada Post in the mix. The guitar is easy to tune and keep in tune and the intonation, right out of the box, is almost perfect. The look, sound and feel is great. I was nervous about ordering overseas, but I am very satisfied and I will probably order another Harley Benton in the near future. The fit, finish and overall build quality is excellent, especially at this price point. Note though, I am an amateur musician and you should consider that in reading my evaluation.

Incredible guitar and service

After viewing so many positive reviews about this guitar on YouTube, I decided to take a chance on it. A friend of mine spent 10 times what this HB-35 cost me on a real Gibson ES335 and I don't think he got 10 times the quality. In fact there is not much difference except for the name, as far as I'm concerned. And unless you're super picky about guitars, you won't regret buying this one. The guitar arrived in almost perfect condition and ready to play only three days after I ordered it. And I'm in Canada! I heard reviews mention the tuning pegs should be changed but mine seem to be fine so far. Some of the frets are a bit rough and could use some fine adjustment but very playable nevertheless. The action was perfectly adjusted. The feel, the look... awesome. Great service, great guitar. Highly recommend.

Unbelievably good

Bought this after seeing so many good reviews and can honestly say that it's even better than I expected. It's not "good for the money" - it's good, full stop.

It looks amazing - went for the glossy black over the brighter, flame-topped versions as I liked the single colour all over. Glad I did - it looks classy with the ivory binding and gold hardware. I know it's not always easy with a new guitar and that honeymoon period but I haven't spotted any issues at all with construction or finish - it's very. very tidy all round. The nearest I'd come to a criticism of the cosmetics is that the internal wiring is visible through the f-hole but I knew to expect that and plan on tidying that up later myself. The frets definitely need polishing but again, that's something I expected from the many in-depth reviews and is just something I take as part of buying a new guitar anyway. Fret ends will benefit from a bit of rounding-off and polishing but there's no sprout or overhang.

The set-up is better than "adequate" - intonation is spot-on as is neck relief. Action is fine for me - pretty much the same as I have on my way-more expensive Gretsch equivalent. It was down-tuned about a semi-tone and tuning it up to pitch gave another pleasant surprise - the tuners are fast and accurate and the guitar has stayed in tune after about an hour of playing. Some reviewers had criticised the tuners - mine feel and work extremely well. There's absolutely no fret-buzz and no rattles or sympathetic resonance. Weight is around 7.8lbs - about 3.5kg - which is pretty much "perfect" for a 335-style guitar. Balance is not an issue - there's no neck-dive or whatever the opposite of that would be.

The pickups sound good without needing immediate adjustment (in fact, if I do tinker with the heights later, I'll want to note these positions as I suspect they may already be ideal). The bridge pickup is bright and the neck is dark without getting too muddy. The volume controls are superb - there's no tone-sucking as you lower the volume and the taper is perfect. Tone controls are equally well done. The individual pickup coil-splitting is brilliant and gives a huge range of tones - right up to a passable impression of an acoustic. Played unplugged, it's resonant enough that you could practice or strum away and still get a decent sound. Through a clean amp, it's chimey and rings out but it also sounds great with more crunch. Played through a Pod Go, the pickups really work well and sound good.

Overall - I think this is one of those rare occasions where I'd tell anyone - just buy it. There is simply no down-side here - it's a gorgeous-looking 335 clone and and an excellent guitar in its own right. The construction quality alone means you'll be getting a terrific base on which to play around with alternative hardware if so inclined but as a playable guitar - it's 100% ready to go without spending more. I've got guitars that cost many times as much and none of them feel that much better, if at all. This isn't some cheap and nasty "beginner's guitar" - it's an extremely good guitar that's incredibly good value.

Queen of Sheba

Beautiful accoutrements and finish, this guitar plays nicely straight from the box. Raising or lowering the pickups helps me find the sound and feel I'm looking for, along with a little tweak of the trust rod, and off we go!

Best budget guitar I've ever played!

Packing is wonderful! When I received the guitar, I was pleasantly pleased with its appearence. The sound is also very good for this price. But unfortunately the quality of the fretboard made me a little upset.

GREAT GUITAR FOR THE PRICE, SOUNDS AND PLAYS GREAT

I was looking at the Harley Benton website to see what all the hype is over these inexpensive guitars and I ordered some of them and to my surprise these guitars are well made, sound good and set up before they are shipped and got them within a week of being shipped to Canada from Germany. I will buy more later without hesitation due to the great service of the HB team and these guitars are awesome.

The best value in a semi-hollow. Incredible build quality for the price.

Have been playing for 30+ year. I own Gibson's, Martin's, Fender's and have owned great imports... the HB-35 Plus is my first Harley Benton. I bought it after watching numerous YouTube reviews. Not being very happy with the Epiphone ES-335 Dot and even the never ES-335 "Inspired by Gibson" models I was looking for another brand and was not expected the amazing quality the HB-35 Plus delivers. This guitar sounds incredible! The neck pickup is especially great. The switch, jack, tuners, pots and bridge all seem above expectations. Way above! I expected to have to gut and replace most of those items and bought this as a moding project, but it sounds and plays so great I'm keeping it stock!!! I don't know how to praise it more... The only caveats are that you will have to polish the frets, there were some rough spots (no buzz, just a few rough spots making bends less smooth than they should be). The action out of box acceptable, but truss rod and action (i.e. basic setup) needed for me because I'm just use to having everything setup a certain way. The out of the box setup comparable to the $3000 Gibson ES-335's at my local music store, so this is just an expected effort for any new guitar and takes nothing away from the HB-35 Plus.

HB-35 Plus

Very disappointed. Guitar will not stay in tune. Very poorly set up.

Knobs difficult to pull for split coils. Gold plating looks "very fake, and cheap." Frets were to high. Over all very disappointed!

Wow is all I can say!

how can they make such a great guitar for the price?

i know its not an original but, for a newbee or a collector of vintage styles

its fantastic!

Quality Built Guitar

Awesome guitar!!!

The only thing I will change are pickups and for the price of the guitar you can afford it.

Very pleased

Overall a great experience from ordering to delivery. Really pleased with this guitar which I bought totally from reviews online and I'm not dissappointed. Thanks :)