Harley Benton HB-35Plus Lemon 5-stars Reviews

Brilliant Guitar

I couldn't be more pleased with my choice, owned it for a year now with no problems at all. Love it.

Value Value Value

Im blown away by the feel and sound of this 355 style guitar. I can say without a doubt that this is the best guitar of this style I’ve played. Im ready to try another style- perhaps a SG style!!

Great guitar for the money

Arrived in perfect condition and in 3 days from Germany to Boston. Changed strings and gave it a quick setup and it was good to go. Coil splits are great and the pickups are very impressive for the price. No blemishes or paint spill-overs into the cavity as seen on other reviews and YouTube. Can't go wrong with this guitar and it looks beautiful.

Beautiful Guitar 🎸

Looks good, feels good, plays and sounds like a much more expensive instrument. That's why I bought two

Amazing Value

This a fantastic guitar for the money.looks fantastic and plays beautifully.

it sounds and feels like a guitar 3x the price.do not hessitate if your looking for a guitar like this just pull the trigger on it.

Great HB 35 Plus!

Update: Jan 14, 2022

I received my Harley Benton HB-35Plus LD Lemon Drop on Nov 8, 2021 as a Christmas gift. Best gift! Two things I have done. I had a custom setup done because strings were very dirty. Then after having tuning issues two months in I had the turners changed by adding: Graph Tech Electric Locking 3+3 Vintage 2 Pin Chrome (PRL-8341-B0 is a set of Ratio Locking Tuned Machine Heads )

Wonderful Semi-Hollow 335 type guitar. Great look and feel. Great sound. The only two issues. The sound output when you use signal coil goes down about 10% -15%. And the strings were very dirty.

This is my 3rd ES 335 type guitar. This is hands down the best of all three. And the others were 3 times the cost of this HB 35Plus!

Beautiful instrument.

Love the color, very well finished, holds tune, and really like the sound.

Love this guitar!

I have owned numerous Harley Benton guitars but this is one of my favorites. The quality is excellent and so is the appearance and playability. The pick up sound crisp and clean and are very versatile with the push pull split. An awesome guitar at a very low price.

Lovely guitar

I bought this because I didn't have any semi hollow guitars in my collection. After reading lots of reviews and You tube videos I decided to bight the bullet, I was not disappointed. The guitar came set up very well, I only had to lower the action for my preference. At first I thought the neck was a bit chunky but quite quickly got used to it. All in all, tones quality feel are all excellent, love it

Save Thousands

As an experienced player owning a number Gibson’s over the years …including a 335 — the simple summary of this guitar is No Words.

It plays easy - intonation perfect - the neck is wonderful- like the old Gibson Jazz boxes…thick & easy to play — fast fret board low action— great sustain…

The guitar sounds like a great 335 in humbucker mode…including the middle position Plink that guitar is famous for.

What few write about is the single coil mode — you can get beautiful tele & strat sounds for clean country chicken pickin — endless sound combinations.

It is a steal at this price …… the Lemon drop is more of a burst than what I was expecting …… flame etc…beautiful- classic.

Anyone who spends 4K on a new Gibson 335 is throwing money away. You lose nothing with this guitar - nothing compromised. A great guitar — much more inspiring than my last Gibson 335.

Great Guitar!

I read and watched several reviews for this guitar before purchasing it. I am very impressed with this guitar. It is currently my favorite to play. The quality is great. I am very pleased. Definitely an incredible value.

Bumpy start great ending

After watching many reviews of many different guitars I decided on the HB-35 Plus. my decision was based on features, sound & quality for the investment. I had some issues getting the order in, but after a phone call with a very friendly service person everything was was taken care of (while I was on the call). The order arrived in just a few days.

Wow, this thing is nice & sounds great too! I was really expecting to find some flaws. I would put this guitar up against ones many times the cost.

Worth it 100%

I owned many guitars in the last 35 years - this one took me by surprise for it's value - I want to buy a few more now.

A lovely guitar

I am only a beginner and can't really do this great guitar justice, but it has a lovely sound. The setup is just about perfect out of the box, and the finish has a high quality.

The interaction of the two volume controls in the middle switch position is strange, but having asked about this in forums it is standard Les Paul wiring and can be used to good effect when you know what you are doing (see explains usage).

I am very happy for the price. The only complaint, if I am really picky the routing of the wiring is visible through the sound holes, ideally they would have routed round the edge! That has no effect on the sound or playability though.

Great 335 Clone!

I've played guitar for over 50 years and i can't put this guitar down....have bought 3 HB guitars and totally satisfied with them all!

Nice 335 style model

New strings and it was good to go!

Not expected that quality in this price

You should definitely not expect anything perfect. It is normal for you to find imperfections that are visible to eyes. I was expecting something like this for this price. But they are not details that can be taken seriously. The things I'm talking about are cosmatic little details. Knobs are not very useful, they get slippery when playing and can hinder you from moving quickly. But what the hell is that tone? I really wasn't expecting this tone. Satisfying. an experience you won't regret.

Good, Playable, Value Guitar

My HB-35 Plus was a very good value for the price and was ready to play right out of the box with just a quick tuning.

Shipping from Germany to Virginia, USA was surprisingly inexpensive and fast. The boxes had some damage and the foam padding was damaged but I found no damage to the guitar.

Is there room for improvement? Yes, absolutely. However, for a student, beginner or someone on a budget, the fine tuning and pro setup can wait. I have spent a lot more money on brand new, name brand guitars that needed as much or more work than this.

Was fit and finish perfect out of the box? No.

When you look closely, there are flaws and imperfections in the finish and build. There is black overspray on the sides of the headstock and spots in the finish on the body. There are gaps between the binding and body where you can see the filler. The fingerboard has scratches, file marks and imperfection. But remember - this is a budget guitar and none of these things affect the playability or integrity of the guitar.

Was setup perfect? No. Fret ends are nicely finished. I found no high or low frets but they are a bit rough and could benefit from leveling and polishing. Truss rod adjustment and neck relief were spot on. The nut could use filing for better action. The trim ring around the neck pickup was installed backwards so the pickup is at a funky angle. The shape of the volume and tone knobs makes them hard to grab, especially to pull them up for coil taps.

None of these things are critical and can be addressed (or not) as time and budget allow.

I am in my 50s and have played guitar off and on since I was a child. I have had many guitars. Now I want one or two that visitors or I can pick up with no worries about damaging collector pieces. With a bit of fine-tuning, I think this is a winner.

It has more musical value than you paid for ...

I recently purchased a similar guitar for 10x this price. Blind folded, the difference is undetectable to me. Remove the blind fold and the difference is almost nothing. Feels, sounds, acts great. No complaints except the cheapo strings. HB has earned my respect. Time will tell if they hold up, but so far it looks like a promising value.

hb-35plus

great guitar! good build quality and workmanship in general.Binding is excellent,really spot on.Fret ends are really neat, tops are a little scratchy but are playing in quite nicely.Tuners are better than you would expect at this price and stay in tune fine.Set up is good and plays well.Pick ups are very good for the money and give a nice 335 sound. Very pleased with my purchase and the quality is far better than the price would suggest.