Harley Benton HB-35 VB Vintage Series Reviews

Love it

beautiful and easy to use guitar

Topper

Great sound I use is for jazz Sounds great Put on flat wound strings If i would play a Gibson or this one you would not Head the difference

Better than I'd hoped for

Used for practice when I don't have an amp and it still has a great tone.

Amazing quality semi-hollow guitar

Absolutely amazing quality guitar for the price. It came set up perfectly and in a very secure package.

Not the best

Received my HB-35 in June or July, and the fretboard was extremely dry, probably been sitting in a warehouse for months.

Guitar wasn't particularly set up very well either. Anyways, it's a cheaper guitar, so I let it slip and not bother contacting about that.

As I played it, I realised it had a slight vibration, especially when playing low end chords, like A. I began to think the truss rod was loose, but as I am learning jazz, Im not down at the A chords/lower chords really. But the more I play it, there is a slight vibration then today, trying to ascertain what was causing the vibration, I noticed that the pick ups move very easily, and this may be the cause of vibration or part of it. along with truss rod. It is a nice looking guitar but I don't want this issue to get any worse. I don't think I would buy one again. I have played Strats/guitars for over 30 years, since 1985, so I know my way around a guitar. This was my first 335 type shape guitar, to learn more jazz, but it's kind of putting me off now.

Good quality

Good quality good sound at an incredible price.

Wow !!

Just took delivery of my new guitar, very well packaged I must say.

I can't believe what you get for the price, I am very pleased.

It is well at home with my other guitars five times the price

Well done Harley Benton

Will be buying more.

Regards

Russ

UK

Very nice guitar look amazing sound very nice

Great Value

Have treated interested guitar buffs in family to these great value tools. They are, like me, really impressed!!

Aesthetically pleasing but frustrating in parts

The guitar looks wonderful and is very comfortable to play. The tone is very nice too (and I'm playing through an old Line 6). Tone an volume knobs all work perfectly also.

Unfortunately the strings don't tend to hold their tune though. I've tried to remedy this myself but (so far) to no avail. Its a shame because, for the price of the guitar which I know is budget, if this could be improved then it would be an absolute catch!

Superb value

This the first semi hollow I've owned and I love the sound. Can't go wrong for a budget guitar.

A nice surprise

This lovely guitar rules.

Everything was more than my expectations:

The delivery lasted about 5 - 6 days, I was expecting more tbh

The quality of the finish on whole of the guitar is perfect.

The tabs are so accurate.

Already playing two months without change factory settings.

Too low price for a very good quality!

For the money? Insane.

You'll be hard pressed to find better value for money in the guitar world. Sounds great on its own after a setup, and a wonderful springboard for further mods.

Awesome for its value!

I thought at first that because it was international for me shipping would be terrible but actually, it arrived extremely fast and customer service was super friendly and communication was the best I've seen and way better than some other guitar companies in the United States.

The guitar came well packaged and upon the first appearance, it looked amazing and the guitar did not have any blemishes or scratches the gloss is amazing and the burst was too. The out-of-box feel and playability was really good and very impressive. you might have to polish the frets a bit and carefully sand the fret ends but other than that i would say this is 100% worth the money.

And in case you think this is a Bot comment, I can assure you this is not. the guitar was actually this impressive and has convinced me that I absolutely have to move to Germany or the UK.

Great twangy semi-hollow

I bought this guitar as an alternative to the lemon HB-35Plus I already own. And well I did. While the one I had was jazzy warm, I wanted a twangy semi for my clean needs, and this does the job wonderfully.

Like I mentioned, its tone is bright and clean, a proper guitar for surf rock or spagetti Western, particularly if one provides it with coil split switches. Its highs are not brittle, though, it has a smooth voice and can sound full, with the right amp settings. Its pickups are reasonable, a bit too high output for my taste.

The build of this guitar is nothing to regret, but not for the fancy. It feels solid and tied together, has no deffects. Tuners hold fine, everything works properly. The finish is simple, pretty, no nonsense, and the wood figure is beautiful. Its color is not that classic vintage sunburst, as exemplified in the pictures, but it's darker and reddish. This orange tint makes it look older / vintage. Its fretboard is dark, matte, barely figured, as shown on the website.

In summary: a simple, pretty, bright guitar, with a vintage twist.

Great Tone for Affordable Price

This guitar has surprised me for the total overall quality compared to the affordable price it's sold. Comfortable gib-style fretboard, nice sound, colour and finish. Definetely satisfied!

Update to June 2020

The lacuqer around the joint of the neck has cracked. The bridge is popping out of the body and the tuners dont hold the intonation well. I will contact the customer service.

Good guitar

I really like the guitar it looks way more expensive that it actually is. The strings are easy to play and close to the neck. The only thing that bothers me slightly is that the switch is located in my strumming range which causes me to flip it sometimes while strumming but this might be my own fault.

If you are looking for a good semi acoustic guitar without spending too much money this guitar is probably the best you can find.

Really lovely guitar, sounds good, looks good and plays very comfortably. I did find the toggle switch very flimsy and after a couple of weeks, I replaced it with a goldo switch, cause it would always pop back to the middle. Very happy with the result now.

Stunning guitar for the price

straight out of the box this guitar was stunning, not a blemish anywhere in the finish, action was a gnats too high, quick fret file and adjust the bridge, sorted.The pick ups have a nice tone on neck or bridge. The only on issue I found was the tuners had a lot of play in the mechanism, also felt like they were filled with sand, shame really as the rest of the guitar is stunning

Exceeded expectations!

I recently joined a (gigging) band and decided it was time to expand my guitar collection. From what I have read about Harley Benton and given the price I decided to take a shot.

Aesthetics:

The guitar arrived in 3 working days, which was a nice surprise. Getting it out of the box I was amazed how pretty it looked, it was very nicely finished, and has no blemishes at all, not one! It looks a lot more expensive than it actually cost.

Sounds:

I first plugged it into my PC/interface and tried out a few amp sims to see what the clean tones were like. Again I was pleasantly surprised by the tones. I already own an LP style guitar and was concerned that this guitar would not sound different enough. But it sounds very different and there is no mistaking that this is a semi-hollow guitar, the pickups are warm, sweet and articulate, and allow the acoustic tones on the instrument to shine. The neck position was pure jazzy loveliness. Warm, but not muddy and had that nice woody tone, whilst retaining clarity. The mid position was perfect for those funky James Brown 'Get on up' tones, or B.B King, very nice. The bridge pickup was very Chuck Berry-esque. This guitar really delivers on tone. I was half expecting to have to upgrade the pickups at some point, but, I really don't have to, it sounds great. I also tried it on a Boss Katana head that our rehearsal space lends out, and even with distortion

it retained its character, though Im not a fan of solid state amps. Tried it later with my Marshall Haze 40 tube combo and its sounded fantastic!

Playability:

When the guitar first arrived I wasn't able to get the action as low as I would have liked without any buzzing. But after a few days, it seemed to be better, and now I have the action low enough to be comfortable to play. I'm guessing it just needed some time to acclimatise/acclimate. The frets could also benefit from a polish. The guitar came with 9 gauge strings fitted. I play with 10's, so when I change them, I will try and get the action a bit lower. If I cant, I will do a fret level, crown and polish. This is not absolutely necessary, but being a tinkerer, I'd like to try and get the action lower. Given the price of the guitar the frets are pretty level, and they were nicely finished on the ends.

Would I recommend this guitar?

Definitely . What you get for the price, is ridiculous. Beats the heck out of my '96 Epi LP Standard.

I've already made a wish list of 5 more Harley Benton guitars, I just have to convince my wife that having that many guitars is justifiable!