Harley Benton HB-35Plus Cherry 5-stars Reviews

I had to see if this was all hype or real. WOW!

OK I love my guitars. I own cheapo amazingly good guitars, through to Ibanez (which you just can’t go wrong with generally) through to Gibson Custom Shop. I build and repair and setup guitars too and have done for 25years. I like to think I know a bit about the subject. So, for £177 delivered is it any good. Simple answer…… it is amazing. If I had paid £1500 for this I would be happy. Really. Only two “issues” were very minor…. Lose strap buttons and frets need a polish. The frets are very well finished, smooth ends, no sprouts or sharp edges. Just dull. The neck relief as set up out of the box was as close to totally straight as I would ever dare. A hairs width of relief. A tiny amount. NO fret buzz anywhere, even on bends high up the neck. I wound the bridge down a bit to about 1.2mm - 1.5mm string height above the 22nd fret, and with the fitted 10s NO string buzz even on whole tone bends. Pickups sound incredible. Finish is great. For the little money actually the whole thing is stunning. Very close to my Gibson Custom Shop ES355. I’m not joking.

So as a sceptic I am actually totally astonished by this. I was expecting and counting on a project that would need work. I was wrong. A bit of fret polishing and tighten 2 screws, then adjust string height to preference.

Delivery to the UK was slower than pre-Brexit, about 6 days.

How they can turn these out for the money I do not know. Highly highly recommended.

Hard to fault

Everything good that you’ve heard is true!

Frets needed a good polish and fretboard needed plenty of lemon oil. Split-pots are brilliant.

Buy one now!

better than a Gretsch twice the price

I got a Gretsch that was broken out of the box. asked for a new one and still something wrong. I got this plus a Harley Benton bass plus extras for the same money and couldn't be happier. it sounds fantastic and the coil split allows it to go from clean country to metal on demand.

Amazing ! Way more expensive brands should be ashamed

I picked up this guitar as an alternative to my Gibson 335 to be used in “less desirable” situations. I didn’t expect much due to the price but thought I would roll the dice on it.

I was stunned !

The quality of this thing for the price is on another level, I actually prefer the sound of this to my Gibson’s for recording (I know that’s subjective) and I also just find my self picking this up all the time to noodle with.

I own quite a lot of guitars, several Gibson’s and PRS(USA) and a few American Strats. For me this guitar can hold its own with those big brands.

Obviously some of the fine details and the overall finish are not as refined as a 5k PRS but you have to be out of your mind or rich to take a 5k PRS to a crappy back street London club where it’s likely to get beer (or worse) thrown all over it. Think how many Harley Bentons you could get through until you reach 5K hahaha.

The only thing I would recommend to anyone getting one of these is give it a quick fret job, just level off the frets a bit then re-crown and polish, give the edges a smooth as well while your at it. After that if you played this blindfold you would struggle to tell the difference between this and a Gibson. Also to be honest I have had to give the same treatment to a couple of brand new Gibson les Paul’s as well so it’s not like their quality control is perfect.

Do it !

Buy it now !

You won’t regret it.

Flawless instrument

This guitar is amazing in so many ways. I could not find anything to complain about. The set-up is great and better than much more expensive guitars I own. This isn't the only Harley Benton I own and I have to say the others are also fantastic instruments. If you're hesitating on buying one, don't.

Simply a brilliant guitar

As a relative beginner, with a Fender acoustic and a couple of budget electric guitars, a Squier Affinity Strat and an Epiphone Studio LT, I rather fancied a semi-acoustic to complete the set. I chose this after spending many hours on You Tube reviews and generally "looking around". I tend to ignore the worst reviews and look at the detail of the top 50%.

I was right ! This guitar punches so far above its price/weight !

Out of the box it was all but perfect.

Some say the frets are unfinished - wrong !

Some say the finish is lacking - wrong !

Some say the pups are "not quite right!" - wrong !

... and the scratch plate or pick guard was well cut and well finished !

(perhaps some left the protective film on ?)

All in all, quality control was very very good indeed

For the money, this is the very best finished guitar in this class that you could possibly hope for - It is outstanding !

I could go on and on, but the best thing to say is - I'm happy !

Hard to fault it for the price

Very pleased, out of the box just needed a minor trust rod adjustment, 2 strings intonated to be perfect (pretty good already) and the action lowered to my liking.

Yes the frets do need a polish (although with a bit of playing they are nearly there) but the fret ends are nice and smooth.

Massive Plus

Not much more to say about this other than what as already been said. It is a stunning looking guitar {never mind the price} and I can't stop looking at it. The thing that impressed me was the great warm tone I can get on it. So looks great, sounds great. Any Cons? Only there is a slight buzz on the bass string at the 5th fret when played acoustically. No problem when plugged in. The strings seem below par to me, especially G string. I like the pau ferro fretboard but when I first played it my fingers were quite dirty. A dirty sound with dirty fingers!

All these cons are really minor. I haven't mentioned the price but an Epiphone Dot is twice the price and although I haven't played one I can't seeing it being twice as good, so very happy with my guitar.

Unbelievable!

I watched some youtube videos, and decided to buy one.

The build quality is amazing for the price.

The sound is incredible. Love the Roswell pickups.

My friends played it, and said they wanted one.

The fretboard was in need of some oil.

The high "E" was touching the back of the bridge, but that was a simple adjustment of the the tail piece.

I would not hesitate to buy this guitar. Everyone should own one.

335

Amazing guitar for the money....sounds great on my vox 15 watt amp.

I highly recommend.

unbelievable for the price! looks and sounds fantastic, was worried about it staying in tune from other reviews I've seen but I've had zero problems with it. Just change the strings and it's a great guitar to play.

Splendid guitar

No flaws, great quality-to-price ratio

Magnicifence.

This guitar is amazing really.

Looks and feels incredible and sounds good too.

Some people have said that the flame top is hardly there on there's but I must've gotten lucky as mine is beautiful.

Pros

Looks beautiful

comfortable neck

great fret work .

Cons

-The bolt for the pickgaurd was too long and was touching the finish of the guitar, thankfully the mark it left is very small and I could easily cut it down, it was disappointing.

- Action was too high out of box but that's easily fixed.

- fret board was a little dry as they often are on harley benton. Put some lemon oil on so no big deal.

Second HB.

I love this guitar a lot it has become my favourite guitar and the sustain wow great tone just love it.

But there are some problems for a 175 pound guitar they really did put this together with no love, the bridge and tailpiece are not lined up right and the toggle switch was drilled fair to big and who ever did it was ruff and ripped the wood to shreds.

I cleaned all this up. But it is a stunning guitar stays in tune sounds great feels great love it.

A very nice guitar, especially when you consider the price. Good electronics, amazing sound. Minor mechanical adjustments made by a good luthier will transform it into a really special musical instrument.

Excellent guitar!

I am very pleased with this guitar. The overall workmanship what you'd expect to see in a guitar costing thousands more. Right out of the box everything was set up perfectly and ready to play. It sounds great. I love the coil split option so you also get the single coil tones. Highly recommended.

HB-35Plus Cherry

Very nice guitar, cool looking. Two blemishes. Bridge is not positioned optimally. When setting intonation You have not enough movement

available. Probably shipment damage, but the box was not damaged, rear strap button sunk into the body. Repaired with replacing for bigger screw and adding a washer.

I'm kipping the guitar because everything else is excellent for the price asked.

Excellent beginner guitar

Received as a birthday present, been taking lessons for half a year. Great sound, brand was unknown to teacher but really sounds good. Great that also can hear sound without the amp...when amp is not available or for early morning practise

It's a wonderfull surprise. I cannot recommend this enough to any beginner or seasoned guitar player!

Ok, I waited for a while before this review and now i can make a more accurate assessment of this guitar. First thing’s first. I should say right off that i am enjoying this guitar far beyond my expectations.

The scratchplate was flawless, but my HB-35 is probably from a newer batch. (The sratchplate is an LP style, not the rounded one usually found 335’s).

The “Flamed” maple IS there, but it is almost imperceptible on my cherry HB-35. Maybe the finish is just to thick, i don’t know, on the other hand the guitar still looks amazing and this could be a plus on durability.

The neck is made of three different pieces of wood, (Headstock with a neck scarf and two pieces on the neck joint).

Electronics are fine. The push pulls and the three way switch feel much better than i had expected beforehand, and the roswell pickups are a wonderful surprise on warmth and clarity, (mainly given the fact that the whole guitar costed only 195€). I actually liked the pickups a lot and i was really not expecting that to happen.

On other reviews that i've read some people liked the fact that the jack input was located on the bottom of the lower bout and not on the top, but on my case the was actually a problem. I use a Shure wireless and the even with the bodypack on the bottom of the strap the longest shore cable is difficult to reach the input jack, (the reach wouldn't be a problem if the input jack was located in a more traditional place).

The hardware is kind of what you would find on your average epiphone, and i only had an issue with the TOM bridge. Nothing about the material, but more about where it was installed. I had to reverse 4 saddles in order to get intonation accurate above the 14th fret.

On the other hand, after this saddle adjustment i was actually able to lower the action a LOT and the neck and build quality allowed it to happen.

Although i had to do a totally new setup in order to make the guitar fully usable until the 22nd fret, please don’t get me wrong, the guitar sounded amazing in the lower octave just out of the box, (factory strings and all). Can't really criticisethe nut, it's well cut and looks ok.

After a wonderfull week playing it I decided that this guitar would be used in gigs side by side with gibsons and other much more expensive brand guitars so i ordered some greenish keystones shallers with double rings. The ones that came from factory held tuning ok-ish, but these new ones work flawlessly. The other only upgrade the guitar got was a gibson 498T pickup installed in the bridge. Again this was not because the roswelll bridge LAF PU didn't sound right, it was just because on the set i’m doing for the moment, this is what I need in order for this guitar to fit in without having to make any adjustments on my rig.

In terms of size, the body of the HB-35 is between a 339 and a 335… for me is just perfect. Not to big as a 335, not to small as 339.

Cons…, yes there where a few, mostly in terms of setup, but nothing that i had not found before on epiphones or even gibsons. All in all I’ve upgraded the HB-35 spending additional 140€ and I didn’t had to spend any money on a luthier because i can do everything myself. (beside the pu and the tuners i changed strings to 9’s, oiled the fretboard, polished the frets and lubbed the nut with big bends nut sauce. Anyway i’m really glad I did these upgrades because with about 410€, (including the suitable hardcase), i have an instrument that fulfils the job of some of my other guitars that costed between 1000 and 5k, and that is simply amazing. (i think semi-hollowbody epi’s are more expensive and i don’t like their pu’s).

From a reference standpoint i should state that I perform professionally mostly in auditoriums, and this guitar performs as good any other instrument costing 5 to 10 times more.

When i ordered this guitar i thought i was ordering a “335” style guitar… i’ve even upgraded the tuners to copy the look and vibe of the vintage dot gibsons. Well, after this experience, and in my mind this guitar is something of it’s own, it looks great and feels and sounds amazing. It’s not some 335 knock off anymore and i’m proud showing off this HB headstock on stage because the guitar has an amazing tone.

p.s. I only went trough the trouble of writing this review because i can still not believe how much value for money the instrument represents even without the upgrades that I had made, so i cannot recommend this enough to any beginner or seasoned guitar player.

Stunningly beautiful guitar

What can I say? This is one hell of a guitar for the money, the finish is equal to or better than a lot of leading brand names. In fact I've seen much more expensive guitars with a less impressive finish.

The Roswell pickups are surprisingly good, and while some experienced guitarists may swap them out for a brand they have a personal liking for, I think the roswell's are just fine and I will be leaving them in. If in time one goes faulty I may swap out but I would probably just replace with another Roswell. Coil taps work just fine as well, I've heard one or two criticisms about output drops when engaging single coil, but that is only to be expected, and easily coped with. Single coils generally produce lower signal than humbuckers.

Tuners as you would expect on a guitar of this price point are not high end, but they are smooth and hold tune just fine - certainly the best I've seen up to now on a guitar in this price range. Bridge assembly seems OK but I've yet to play around with the action, and I don't anticipate any issues.

Controls are small pots as you would expect, but in function as good as anything high end. Both volume and tone are smoothly responsive all the way. If they wear out in two years I may opt for better replacements but honestly, unless they go unreasonably quickly I may replace like for like if I need to.

My "baby" has always been my Fender Telecaster but the old girl has some competition as I've fell a bit in love with this HB-35 plus! You get a lot of bang for your buck with a Harley Benson and it's easy to see how people can end up with a collection of them. I normally only have one guitar and one bass, while keeping a "when I win the lottery" list. I've got to keep my beloved tele, I have a very gigable HB35, and a CST 24-T arriving tomorrow. If my amp hadn't given up the ghost yesterday I would have been ordering a Big Tone and a Fusion St within a month or two. So it's save the penny's for the new Boss Katana II then back to expanding the Harley Benton Collection for this new fan boy!