Harley Benton HB-35Plus Cherry Reviews

Fantastic

Had this guitar about a week . It's very well made, has a great sound and looks great. The split coil pick up switch gives it an extra dimension. Anyone thinking of buying one should just do it. I wasn't sure about the make but the HB guitars have great sound and are quality. A bargain at the price.

Looks great. Great value.

Makes me look like a better player than I am. Very attractively finished.

As it is, I'm really an acoustic player so I cannot compare this to other electric guitars, but I'm very happy with it. Intonation off a bit on the first two strings, but I think I can fix that. The others are dead on.

Amazing Value!

I never thought I would have a great ES335 type guitar - the HB-35 Plus is a great instrument which has exceeded any reasonable expectations and I am enjoying getting to know it's capabilities.

What a great guitar!

This HB35 is my 3rd Harley Benton. It is a really great guitar. I have been playing for over 50 years, 10 years on the road all over the S.E. US. I have 15 other guitars buy all the best builders and this guitar is as good as any of them. a true pleasure to play. Fret work was great, I lowered the action just a pinch, finish was awesome. I wouldn't be buying my 3 HB unless they were blowing me away. Good Job Guys! It's good enough, that i show it to all my Musician friends ,and they are amazed.

She purrs. She works. She only has cosmetic issues.

The guitar is amazingly playable. It works extremely well with my Bugera V22 and I recommend that combination to everyone. It's a beautiful sound and great tone. The coil tap also makes it versatile, the action is great and she could take a bigsby if your wanting to mod it.

The only real issues is the cosmetics. The flame maple is nice but it's not great. Comparing to something like a Chapman ML2, it's not even close. The pickguard is not as bad as people make out but it does need a sanding.

The really big problem is the jack. It's on the bottom which isn't great and a right angled cable jack is recommended. It also DOESN'T come with a jackplate. That's a real problem. By the time it got to me in the UK the wood around the jack has dented and the poly finish has cracked. BUY A JACKPLATE FOR IT.

I don't mid as much since it's largely cosmetic damage atm. Just be careful.

The pickups are great. Really great. She... She sounds amazing.

Really loving my new HB-35 Plus Cherry!!

Sounds and plays great and feels right in my hands. Finish was flawless. Solid all around construction. This is my first semi hollow body and the sound is amazing. Only negatives: the bridge bushings were not flush with body and frets were not polished. Makes for a scratchy sound and feel when I bend strings. These problems are easy to fix tho. The AAAA flame top is more subtle than I expected. Lowered action and removed the scratch plate. The Roswell pups sound fantastic. Love the tone options with the coil splitting features. Overall very happy with this purchase!! I highly recommend if you are thinking about this guitar.

Lovely guitar and amazing value

Beautifully playable guitar and incredible value for money. Really well made with no visible flaws and perfectly set up. My 70s Strat is now hanging on the wall and this is now my go-to guitar!

Almost Perfect

This is an excellent and beautiful guitar for a ridiculously small price.

The finishing is very good with only two minor and almost imperceptible flaws.

The neck was in very good condition, good feel and no sharp fret edges. The frets came satisfactorily leveled, the playability was very good because of the low action and the intonation was perfect. The sound is incredible. Both pickups are very good and the coil splits are a very useful and nice add to an already incredible instrument.

I just changed the nut for a TusqXL one and the strings (because I only use coated strings).

The minor flaws that I noticed were a small lack of color near one of the holes and the pickguard was not well contoured, having some sharp edges. Those flaws don?t bother me because the first is barely noticeable and the second was easily solved by sanding the sharp edges.

Bottom line? I will recommend this guitar to everyone who wants a guitar with these characteristics

Just one note, for beginners: When the pickup selector is in the middle position, the volume Pots interact with each other, so, the volume must be changed in both Pots simultaneously.

The only problem is quality control. When I received the guitar it required a lot of work. Fret Polishing, need to change the strings and set up. The frets were very scratchy and it took some time for me to polish them. But once I have done the work, this guitar is really nice. I am very impressed with the sound and I am in love with it.

OK

Not as good as I expected, but OK for the price. Previously received CST-24HB was in much better condition.

Pros:

Feels good, like to play it.

Finish is almost flawless.

Looks nice.

Pickups sound OK and electronics works as expected.

Tuners ares smooth.

Cons:

Fretboard is dirty.

Frets are almost unfinished, flat at top and with grinding marks, bending is hard.

Nut slot is routed at angle and nut is therefore at angle. String cavities are ok, so it will not affect string height, but looks weird.

Logo sticker is scratched and couple of millimeters off.

Scratchplate design looks bad.

I'm able to fix those issues, otherwise I'd need luthiers help.

Another great guitar

very prompt delivery, very well made guitar, good action and intonation. Sounded great straight out of the box and an absolute pleasure to play. A friend saw it, played it and promptly ask me to order him one, which I did, it arrived within three days, fantastic.

Good for the money if you want hollow tone

The guitar is well built and paint job is superb! Its a good looking guitar!

The pickguard is poorly cut! The tuners could be better but they do the job.

Bridge and tail piece are fine! Nut is well slotted.

Tone and Volume pots work well and the push-pull is working smoothly. 3 way toggle is functioning well.

My guitar weighs 3,6kg and feels much lighter than that. Perfectly balanced when on shoulder or on the knee. Its not bottom heavy at all. One can play this without getting tired.

The pickups sound awesome in humbucker mode but not so special in single coil mode. The single coil mode sounds to me almost same as humbucker mode but with less volume. That said the humbucker mode rocks the blues all right!

The flame top on my exemplar is visdible. I know of folks receiving tops with not so much flame but mine sure has it and it looks great. Came set up very well but frets need polishing!

Great guitar!

Great sound, great price, ugly pickguard.

Sehr gute Preis/Leistung

Sehr gute Verarbeitung, bis auf die Fasettierung der (abnehmbaren) Schutzvorrichtung, welche etwas rauh ist. Super Klang wenn das Volumen auf 100% ist. Die einzige Schwäche empfinde ich bei der Elektronik, wenn der Volumenregler von Stufe 9 abwärts gestellt wird, verliert sie sehr viel Punch. Es empfiehlt sich, die Saiten- (Steg) höhe einzustellen (oder einstellen zu lassen). Diese war bei mir ab Werk jetzt verhältnismässig sehr hoch.

Things to do with a HB 35 Plus

General consideration: sound is very nice, pickups are very hot, red finish is quite nice, surface is very polished, neck comfortable, no fret buzz. For this price you cannot find something better.

Two things to do after you receive this guitar:

1. Check the surface for any defect. Sometimes it happened. If is not major...you can live with it.

2. Check the distance between 1st string and the edge of the neck. Should be the same with the gap between 6th string and edge. If is not sensible the same, send the guitar back. Fortunately I havent find any fretbuzz and also the neck was very right.

Nine things to do if you want to improve your guitar:

1. Polish the frets ( with very fine sandpaper and polish compound). The frets were not properly finished by factory so bending technique was not quite possible.

2. Evacuate the wood debris from inside acoustic chamber (mine has 2 pieces of wood inside). This in not a major issue.

3. Clean the fret board wood and oil it with lemon oil. Mine was awfully dirty and dusty!

4. Adjust string high. Use a ruler.

5. Recut the pickboard since the initial one was made awful by factory. Polish the edges at 60 degree. Try not to polish fast since the heat is destroying the resin material. You need a file, fine sandpaper and some skills. I prefer the original ES 335 shape.

6. Grease the pots.

7. Tighten the machine head. Mine was not too stabile.

8. If you have some skills you can make a new truss road. The original one is silly.

9.Adjust the tension in strings by increasing/decreasing the angle of strings over the saddles.

Tune the guitar, play and enjoy it....if you are not too tired. After these steps you'll have a very good guitar for this price.

P.S. Now I am very jealous for the new model with ivory blocks fretboard inlays.

Blues/jazz guitar with some grunt

This is my first semiacoustic electric guitar, having owned many solid bodies. And it ticks absolutely the right boxes for this sort of guitar.

Lots of people have commented positively on the appearance of the guitar. It has a subtly-transparent finish, which shows a pleasant amount of the wood grain.

There were no serious issues with the appearance of the guitar. The pickguard isn't cut brilliantly, and the fingerboard was gluey and dry but those are not significant issues to me.

Out of the box, the action wasn't great as set up but once it settled down at the right temperature it played very nicely with no problems.

This guitar is first and foremost meant for blues and jazz. I've enjoyed the rounded chunky tones for a bit of bebop and blues playing. But most of my music calls for pop/rock sounds with a bit of overdrive. And I'm really pleasantly surprised at the clarity, warmth and strength of the sound when going through some overdrive and even distortion pedals. It's never going to be intended for metal but in a power trio, it has enough meat to make a broad, chunky sound.

I normally like pickups which are a bit hotter, more open sounding and a bit brighter over more vintage styled ones. This is a contrast to that, but a very pleasant one.

The coil split is fun and useful for tonal variety. Don't expect it to replace your strat or tele but it provides that little bit more flexibility than other models. I started one live song with the coil split on and was able to push them in for a more driving sound during the chorus which was very satisfying.

Tuners seem good. I'm not sure there's much more to comment on. If you're looking for this style of guitar, with a dollop of versatility and a great price point, this is an excellent choice.