Harley Benton HB-35Plus Lemon Reviews

I don't know how they do it!!!!!!

I have some high end guitars... This HB is awesome... it's not perfect, but, it plays outstanding.. stays in tune and feels great. Looks pretty damn good...pick ups are very nice... If anyone is looking for a ES type... Buy it. The only thing I don't like is the wireing you can see thru the lower f hole and it looks sloppy. Based on the the quality put into this guitar. I would think they might route the wires better and perhaps cable tie them... It would make a big difference asteticly.

im no Hendrix but this thing is great

bought this to jam with my kid who's 11 and started to get into his guitar... plugged into a marshall amp and we pretend we're playing sold out Wembley..

A GIFT

Bought for the Hubby for Christmas.... he's checked it over and had a play for 10 minutes on it...! Safely back in the box again to get wrapped up off Santa.

He's going to be like a kid at christmas now

Great guitar and great value

Great guitar although I disliked the shape and quality of the pick guard. I spent ages finding a more conventional pick guard to replace it.

HB 35+

Couldn't be happier with this purchase - absolutely fabulous guitar in every way!

You get much more than you pay for.

The HB 135 plus is my first ever Harley Benton purchase. I scrutinized this guitar when I got it, expecting to find something wrong. I found nothing but some frets that were not well finished. Nothing a little steel wool can't rectify. The fit and finish looks great. The intonation is spot on, the nut is well cut, the neck relief was near perfect. The action was a little high but that only took a couple of minutes to adjust. The bridge, tailpiece and tuners are all adequate. I was especially impressed with the sound of these Roswell humbuckers. After putting a set of my favorite strings on this guitar I would have no problem using it on a gig. I think it's the best value going for a semi hollow body.

High Quality for a budget guitar

I was amazed by how good Harley Benton guitars are. Beautiful guitar to look at.One small cosmetic flaw on side of headstock but can't see it from the front. Plays really well and has a great tone with split coil humbuckers

If you are looking for a ES335 style guitar, this one is a MUST !

I can say many great things about this guitar, but I will keep it simple; this guitar not only looks great, but it sounds amazing. The finish, the feel, the tone and the playability are incredible. I am a big fan of semi and full hollow bodies, and this one is one of my favorite. Stunning guitar, in every aspect.

Good for price

I bought this guitar because I didn’t have a hollow body in my arsenal. I’m not disappointed with the product, however it leaves things to be desired. The pros of this instrument is it’s build, finish and versatility. The split coils give any player so much room to explore a world of sounds. It’s finish is never loses the initial awe and jaw dropping sight of when you take it out of the box for the first time. The build is solid and comfortable on the leg and there was no scratches or missing parts.

The cons ? Well it was extremely difficult to intonate and keep in tune particularly with higher gauge strings. Personally I found the volume knobs to be oversensitive particularly on the middle position.

Overall I was satisfied with the purchase especially when considering the price. It’s a good guitar for a low price however I would not recommend it as a first electric guitar for a beginner

I Love This Guitar

I am by no means an expert luthier, nor am I the most gifted of players, I just love to play the guitar. I was always wanting an ES335/GS335, but could never justify spending the cash, then I saw a review of the HB35Plus on YouTube and decided to give it a shot. I was blown away. I could find very little if really anything wrong in the finish or build quality. The set up was near perfect for my playing, I made a slight adjustment to the intonation on the third string at the bridge and that was it.

I love the Roswell pickups. The bridge can be solid and snappy depending on the setting for the coil split, and it has a nice clean P90 sound when split, and then usual Humbucker growl when pushed. Great for Humble Pie style blues licks and reaching for those Chuck Berry driven leads. The neck pick u is great for rhythm playing and finger picking around leads when combined with the bridge. I like to split the bridge and leave the neck, it's a nice sound. The neck does get muddy if you push it too hard, and for that I am considering changing it for standard Gibson Humbucker or Burst Bucker.

It came out of the box ready to play and sounds great. If you're looking for a well-priced and well-built instrument in the vein of an Epiphone or low-end Gibson this is the way to go. I have a ES339 and thinking it's time to send off to consignment since I got the HB35Plus. You can't go wrong with this instrument.

Great guitar for the price!

I recently got my first Harley Benton, a HB 35 plus in Lemon burst. The guitar arrived in about 4 days (US customer). Overall, the quality is amazing at this price point. There is no fret sprout and the fingerboard feels good. Frets needed polishing, but so did the ones on my Epiphone Les Paul modern at 4 times the price. I was a little worried about the binding in the F-holes as I have seen some on reviews that looked pretty rough in that area, but mine was very clean. Finish was excellent. Tuners were good and the guitar holds tune. The action was a little high, but otherwise the guitar was set up pretty good out of the box. Overall, I'm very happy with this instrument. I like the sound of the pickups, and the coil splitting is a really cool feature. The guitar is super resonant and holds tune very well. Had to tighten the screw on the head of one of the tuning machines because is was a little loose, but that was not big deal. I wish that they would upgrade the pickguard though. It is really the only thing on this guitar that looks and feels low end. It is single ply, flimsy, and the outer edge touches the body of the guitar from the neck area to about 1/3 of the way down. I'll probably just take it off till I can find one that doesn't look and feel so cheap. Otherwise, I think this is an incredible value. I would highly recommend it to anyone that wants a 335 style guitar that punches way above it's price range.

Amazing guitar, especially for the price

I can’t believe they can sell this guitar at this price point. Because this is considered a “ budget “ guitar, I went back and forth on giving a rating of 4 or 5 stars. Going strictly on what you get for the price, I gave 5 stars.

To me, this HB35 can easily compete with guitars costing 3 times more with no upgrades done to it. The only things I did that I found were necessary on the one I received was changing the bridge, the strings, and polishing the frets.

After I lowered the action (came a little high) and tuned it up, I got a slight rattle from the bridge. One of the intonation screws was backed out so I put in an inexpensive roller bridge and now everything is good. The frets were actually not too bad but were better after a good polish. And I oiled the fret board while the strings were off. Kind of dry. The strings were not bad but I have my preference. I found the tuners to be pretty good and liked the pickups so I left them all alone.

The only other thing I did was cosmetic. I don’t like bell knobs, especially on push/pull pots, and I didn’t care for the color of the stock knobs anyway so I bought Musiclily Pro speed knobs that I think are much better looking and feeling and make an already beautiful guitar that much more attractive.

I liked this guitar so much that I bought a second one for my son who is a much more accomplished player than I am. He received his yesterday and was completely blown away. All he did to his was tune it up, no other adjustments, and off he went. He kept saying “I can’t believe how nice this guitar is.” High compliments from him as he is really picky and owns some high end guitars. He said it is really well balanced either sitting or standing and I completely agree with him.

Lastly, my wife said to me, “You must really like that guitar. You actually play entire songs, not just bits and pieces of songs.” She’s right. I really like this thing and do enjoy playing it a whole heck of a lot.

Beautiful Guitar! Not just for beginners this guitar sounds and looks amazing, would gig with it no questions asked.

This guitar is unbeliveable for the price point!

Great Guitar

Setup was perfect out of the box. Ordered on Thursday evening and received the next Wednesday in the States. I am blown away at the quality of this guitar coming from. a guy that was a headstock name snob a mere 3 weeks ago. If you are thinking of buying one you can't go wrong.

The tuners work great. I like the Paofero fretboard. Pickups sound as good as my 90's Les Paul. I small blemish on the back but no big deal.

Love this guitar!

Very good looking

The guitar is vert good looking and is made well. The only draw back to me is I do not like the sound of the pickups. Maybe and that is a big maybe I might change the pickups. This is just my opinion I well keep it just for it's looks and how well it is build.

WOW!!

Great guitar, like most of other reviews I’ve read I’ve been playing for 30 plus years. I own PRS custom 24, Clapton real Stratocaster. I say this to let you know when I compliment this HB35 it should mean something. From the neck to the beautiful body this is a really nice guitar. Since buying this one I have bought 2 more if you’re on the fence about HB buy one and enjoy it like I have!

A really good deal!

This is a lot of guitar for the money. Great looking finish and superb quality. I use it for recording mostly and sounds really good especially when cranked up high through a tube amp. Good sustain too and the coil tapping gives a wide range of sounds.

Great Value

Arrived in a few days to the US in perfect condition. Every aspect of the finish is flawless. I tuned it up and plugged it in and was quite pleased. I had to tighten one of the pots down, but everything else was well setup. I’m no expert but I’ve played enough comparable guitars to know this is a good value for an enthusiast like me. Overjoyed I chose this.

Love this guitar

Not just a beautiful finish but also a great guitar. The only thing I would do is put new tuners on it. The rest is great from the humbucking tones to the single coil split on the neck pickup. I have 13 guitars and I play this one regularly.

A very nice guitar

The HB-35 is beyond expectations for the price point.

I am so pleased with this guitar.

The only thing I've done with it but play was I polished the frets.

I am looking forward to my next Harley Benton guitar.