Harley Benton HB-35Plus Vintage Burst Reviews

Great guitar

Ordered this guitar almost a year ago. And was extremely impressed with it in terms of how it felt and the features. The one caveat I had was that the neck pickup was a little muddy. But the guitar felt amazing in the hands.

Awesome guitar

As a newbie, I can not provide a very deep analysis, but for me, the guitar sounds awesome, it's pretty looking and it definitely is worth the price. The build quality is beyond decent, it does not feel like a cheap product. I have not perceived any buzzing, but I must say the tuners could be better, but they do the job. The split-coil functionality it's cool and bout pickups sound great.

Amazing Product

I wont lie, I had no idea what I was buying as a new guitar player. I just had the chance to read the reviews and listen to demos on products page. I can't suggest this guitar enough for people who wants a great sound from a high quality guitar on budget. I am still using it to this day and I don't think of changing any time soon!

Loved it so much bought one for my daughter

What can I say about this guitar but it is one of my favorites. Everything about this guitar speaks quality for the cost. I have 3 guitars I play all the time right now and this is one of them. I play this over both my Gibson Les Paul and my Fender Strat. I think what I love about it the most is not the specs, not the beautiful finish but how it feels to play. You know when you pick up a guitar and it just feels right and you don't want to put it down.. Well that is how this feels. I loved it so much I wanted to introduce my daughter to it so I bought her one. She is not a hollowbody / semi-hollowbody guitarist or I should say wasn't. She is now using it at her gigs as she travels around the country. You can not beat this guitar for the cost!

If you are looking for a guitar that feels good and makes you want to play this is it!!

Amazing product

The guitar made me very happy - the build quality and sound are amazing!

This guitar does everything that I expect it to do -- the chords and comping are deep, warm and silky and it starts singing on the higher frets. Awesome sound, even not factoring in the price.

On the downside I hear a lot of fret buzz and it will need fret polishing eventually, the guitar had stains of unknown white substance, and the fretboard needs a thorough cleaning.

Overall, the downsides are easy to fix, and you get awesome guitar for cheap.

Beware that regular guitar cases don't fit this guitar.

QC on electronics not great, but excellent bones

My neck pickup arrived ungrounded and buzzed when touched. Instead of dealing with returns, I opted to completely rewire the guitar. The construction of the guitar is awesome overall. The only setup I really need to do was polish frets and oil the fretboard. Now that I have Seymour Duncan 59 neck and JB bridge, this thing is absurdly good. Just keep an eye out for crappy electronics wiring and be prepared to polish frets and give a proper setup.

Great guitar

Not bad at all use it for the studio.

With a new bridge fitted from gear 4 music.Nashville i think,it added sustain.

Have a video of it

https://youtu.be/tPKFc_W0A7o

A lot of guitar for the money!

Read a lot of reviews on this guitar and based on the price point thought I would take a leap of faith and buy one.

Currently playing a Fender Strat I knew this was going to be a different experience all round and was expecting it to be similar to the Epiphone Dot I had a few years ago which I was never that keen on.

But I have to say this is a beautiful guitar to play and looks gorgeous too. Great tonality and sound options and very easy to play action out of the box, really smooth and great for blues solo's and funky bar chords.

Very happy with the HB 35 Plus and very happy with HB as a brand, this is the third HB I have bought and cannot fault the quality for the price!

great value !

The quality and sound of this HB35 is well beyond its cost. I am a less than a year beginner and for the price I expected a flaw or two. Nope I could not find even the tiniest issue. Found nothing sloppy even in the smallest details. Impressive. Only possible con is the flame maple finish isn't top tier but what do you expect for a $250 price tag. The finish and paint are still superb . Incredibly fast delivery ,got it all the way to west coast of USA in 4 days !. Out of box setup was ideal, a slight tuning and I'm jammin...It's a beautiful guitar and I love it.

HB score again

This guitar is everything we wished for in this genre.

Could not find any faults and it arrived in excellent condition. No faults at all!!!! We use it when we are looking to emulate Beatles et al but it's versatile so we can tackle anything we want with it. Pickups are fine and HB has definitely improved in this area. I used to think of them as low budget but these days they are consistently very good.Definately a keeper. To add a little more we also bought a Bstock lefty. This was as usual just as good as a new one.

Amazing for the price

I use this guitar very often and its built like a tank!

the truss rod did need adjusting when it arrived but that is to be expected.

It sounds beutyful and works like a charm !!

Purchased as new

Guitar arrived nicely packed and surprisingly in tune. I ordered a new guitar but there are scratches on the body especially the pickguard as if this was a B Stock, floor demo or a return. Aside from that, it plays beautifully, though I will probably replace hardware as needed such as the bridge hardware for more mass as well as the bridge pickup for a Seymour Duncan JB. Absolutely cannot beat the price for the quality and is a great base platform to upgrade as desired. I own 3 Gibson, 1 Fender, 3 Ibanez, and 2 ESP guitars and this purchase was by far the most satisfying. I have played other upper level semi-hollow body guitars and the HB35 is very comparable. This will not be my last purchase for sure.

Awesome guitar. Love it

I have to say that I LOVE this guitar. I'm 61 years-old and have been a semi-pro working musician since I was 14. I've owned a number of guitars through the years, including a Fender, Guild, Ibanez, custom Carvins, and Gibsons( including a 1963 Gibson ES-335), and this guitar is wonderful. I'm astounded how well it's made and sounds. I will admit that it's not as good as the '63 ES-335, but I was not expecting it to be. I should never have parted with 63 Gibson and have been looking to replace it ever since, but I just couldn't justify paying Gibson's prices. Apparently I don't need to now. I mean, how much better can a Gibson be? This guitar is that nice. I will say that if you are looking for that 355 feel and sound and can't/won't spend the money for a Gibson...this is the guitar to buy. You can't go wrong. it is a pure joy to play.

Pros

Workmanship is amazing considering the price. It just feels like a top quality guitar in all ways. I haven't found any flaws in it. It's beautiful to look at, feels wonderful to hold and play, and sounds great. The tone on it is just what I was expecting in a 335 style guitar.

Cons

There are 2 things I would change on this guitar. That is the placement of the pickup switch and the placement of the treble knobs. Harley-Benton decided to the put the pickup switch in the same location as it is on a Les Paul (above the strings). I switch pickups a lot and it's just not as fluid as the Gibson location (below the strings near the bridge). The other thing I don't like is the placement of the treble controls. They moved them a couple of inches and they are just too far away. Not a huge deal as I don't change tone often, but it's annoying. I'm actually considering having the treble knobs and pickup switch moved. Shouldn't be hard to do.

Overall it is a great guitar and absolutely worth what I paid for it. It looks, feels, and sounds like it should be worth 10 times as much.

delivery charge

i wish they had told me about the delivery charge of £55 by the delivery man i had to borrow £60 from a a friend who lived next door to me costing me £177 plus£55 think im going to buy any instruments from the uk

The guitar has some cosmetic flaws, but sound and features are amazing for these money.

Far exceeded my expectations!

I've been looking for a reasonably priced semi-hollow body for quite some time now(for jazz/rock/blues), and stumbled across multiple youtube videos extolling the virtues of the "HB-35" series. I decided to take the plunge and am glad I did so!

Pros

Fast shipping: This guitar was ordered on Feb. 6th and arrived this afternoon, Feb 10th... It was shipped from a location in Germany, crossed an ocean, and was delivered to my door(U.S.) around lunch time, 5 days later.

Overall build quality: The fit and finish of this guitar is really quite amazing, given its price-point. The binding and finish were extremely well done, the neck feels great, the fretboard looks and feels really nice, the frets were fitted properly, and the guitar was properly intonated right out of the box. The action was good, with no buzzing.

Tonal range: This guitar does everything you'd expect a semi-hollow body guitar to do, and the coil-taps add additional opportunities for finding new sounds.

Cons(These are mostly )

Strings: The stings were pretty bad and were replaced immediately

Fret appearance: The frets were downright dirty and had visible toolmarks, but no dead-spots and they polished up nicely

Minor cosmetic issues: Very minor issues with slight over-spray and somewhat sloppy f-hole paint

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with this guitar and already have another model in mind for my next purchase

i dont think you can buy better for the money ,, this 35 plus is flowerless and i meen flowerless iv not had a Gibson 335 but it can not be much better than this guitar maybe the pickups,,but as far as im concerned the sound of the pickups on this guitar are A1,, excellent guitar, i do think in time harley benton guitars will be rated a lot higher than they are, iv been playing for over 40 years and id take any one of the 8 guitars iv had of harley on stage and no iv got a good sound

Good value for money!

Pros - Good sound, fair playability, great looks, sound build and good value for upgrades,

Cons - Weak machine head, needs some non-expensive fret work for better playability

Good value for money. Suitable for introduction to the world of semi-hollow guitars as well as for upgrade enthusiasts.

Cooler than all budget solutions!

I have more than 10 semi-acoustic guitars, and this one is the best made. Clear sound, frets do not ring, beautiful smooth edging and slits. Made very carefully, but the most important thing is the guitar sounds! It sounds very cool on pure sound on humbuckers, and at the same time gives out a fat juicy sound on distortion.