Harley Benton HB-35 VB Vintage Series 5-stars 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.

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!!

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!

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.

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!

After a quick setup playes great.

My HB-35 VB Very Pleased. Small niggles can be sorted.

Bought planning to use as main guitar and modify. Using at home for now. Not as comfortable to hold as my ST style guitars. I would probably get the red one with the coil splits if buying again. I tidied up the scratch plate edges by removing, filing and sanding and re-fixing. Setup and finish are good - I will be smoothing the frets a bit more to get them properly smooth to make it more pleasant to play. Sounds good, especially wired up with an amp. Really great value for money. Highly recommend to try guitars in shops for style comfort wherever possible before making a decision. So pros: Great but not excellent but fantastic for the price. Minor features (no trem, no coil split), sound (acoustically a bit brighter rather than woody due to the gloss finish), and finish (rough cut scratch plate edge and frets polish lacking) points keep it from being fantastic but still very good.

One of the Best Values Out There!!!

I was really surprised at the level of quality of this guitar at such a low price. It's honestly worth minimally twice the price, maybe more. I've examined the guitar very closely and can't find any structural defects or defects in the finish, binding, etc. Everything in that respect appears to be perfect. I was also surprised to find no problems with the fret height. It was set up well and perfectly playable on arrival.

Some of the negative things: The bridge and tailpiece appear to be on the cheap, budget side of things. I will probably replace them someday. But the tuners seem to work well enough. I'm not sure if I'll ever need to replace them. So far, so good. One problem: the toggle switch is really, really loose. Still functional, but really loose. Will probably replace it in the near future. And I'll probably replace the nut for a tusq one. The ceramic pickups sound fine (though I have some alnico Wilkinsons lying around that I will install anyway) and the pots work well. But all this negative stuff being said, what is left is a really, really good, solid guitar that is perfect as a platform for hardware and pickup upgrades. I plan to buy a second one to use as a modding platform very, very soon.

Great for the money

A nice bit of kit. The neck and body are very nice as is the hardwear. The pickups are nice, full and what you would expect from this type of guitar, not thin at all. It was very much let down by the pick guard. That is something many have said, it looked like it was cut out with nail clippers. I chucked it within 5 minutes. I would pay the same, hell, 10 Euros more if they don't put one on. However over all worth more than the money you pay.

Another Harley Benton Winner!

Just brilliant.

Plays as good as my CST-24T. Sublime finish and sounds great. Pickguard cut is the only thing that lets it down but when it plays better than guitars costing up to 10 times as much then I think we can forgive that!

Demo Here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvKNdWrv6To