Harley Benton CG-45 NS Reviews

Great practice guitar

I practice daily with this instrument and takes some punishment but, it has a great sound and stays in tune great...... Especially when i incorporate choking chords. I really hit the strings to get the sound of the snare drum and sounds great and stays tuned. Great guitar for £40.

Melhor pelo melhor preço

Eu estava procurando um presente para um amigo, acabei encontrando esse incrivel violao com preço excelente, quando recebi o produto fiquei tão imprecionado com a qualidade que acabei comprando outro para dar ao meu filho que esta aprendendo a tocar violão. O que tenho pra falar de qualidade. 1 o som é muito bom acústicamente falando e leve e simples pra quem está aprendendo é realmente uma ótima escolha. 2 o acabamento externo braço e corpo são de madeira de boa qualidade o que me impreciona por ser ter barato, achei que seria de compensado algo barato mas não, o acabamento no geral é realmente muito bom. 3 somente algo que não gostei foram as cordas meio opacas, e meio robótica, tira um pouco timbre do violão, mas eu fiz a troca das cordas assim que toquei pela primeira vez. Bom indico a todos que esteja querendo aprender a tocar é um excelente instrumento para iniciantes. Harrley Benton instrumentos tem me irecionado muito. Valeu equipe tomann pelo ótimo atendimento e excelentes produtos.

Best budget guitar!

When I bought it i thought I'll get some cheap piece of ****, but when acctually I used it for first time, I already understood that this one is not so bad... I've played much more worse instruments for higher price so I would say that this one is very good for this price! Quality is awesome and if something bad happens with it, you can call over your friends and like real bad ass punk just smash it, couse this one is so cheap!

So good for the price

I am beginner. I have never had an acoustic but only a classical guitar to practice. I decided to buy this guitar to fulfill my playstyle and it's perfect. I have chance to try my friends' guitars to know differences between classical and acoustic guitar. I would say this guitar is the best of all lol.

I notice the higher tension strings in acoustic guitar make me uncomfortable and I am skeptical when receiving this guitar. But overall the strings are much softer than I expected. Nothing I can complaint, especially for the price. The construction is even better than my classical guitar, even though the whole package I bought (guitar + bag + picks + shipping) is as expensive as my classical one.

The sound is as same as it is in the samples, which I like when looking for a budget guitar.

Cracking Guitar for the money

What a great guitar for the costs. When I ordered this I didn't expect much however on opening and after several hours for playing/jamming I am pleasantly surprised.

Firstly lets talk about looks. The Mahogany veneer and binding is faultless, the binding has a subtle black pinstripe. which looks great against the wood and binding. The finish looks flawless with no obvious defects or runs.

Secondly the guitar is setup pretty good. The frets are level and dressed nicely. The action is fine and there are no buzzes or strange noises. The finger board is smooth and nicely oiled.

All in all I'm very impressed and would recommend this to any starter, gone are the days for have to spend hundreds on a decent go to guitar.

I personally changed the strings on this and its made a world of difference.

Good guitar, great price :-)

unbelievable quality at this price

You simply cannot buy a guitar as good as this anywhere for this kind of money.

lovely looking guitar, well put together,tuners work well, nice tone, nice action,

what more do you need?

I put a new set of strings on mine as the ones it came with weren't the best, but I'm not complaining, not at this price.

sweet campfire atmosphere

i bought this guitar for the price and doenst expect much. but i get tought a lesson very soon!

the first thing i do, when i get a new guitar is to wind up new quality strings.

after it was done i tuned it and began to play... the handling could be better but for this price?! nevermind. a beautifull full sound for struming and also a difererenced tone for picking. i really use this baby a lot. the matte finish is so incredible beautifull, you get every girls heart melting at the campfire! or maybe its wonderwall?

i still love it

Amazing for the money.

I had bought this as a guitar to have sitting about the house.

Very well finished guitar. Mahogany with a satin finish. Mine had no dark or rough spots, and was smooth all round. Amazing considering the price. The decoration around the sound hole and the pearl tuning pegs are nice touches. Very classy looking finish for such a cheap guitar.

The sound is fairly rounded. It does lack a bit of the high end you'd expect from a more expensive guitar, but for the price you can't really complain. It has a very nice boom to it, really nice for blues or a bit of slide, without ever sounding too woolly.

Set up well, slightly high action for a beginner, but the neck is slim so that may make up for it. I think if you've had acoustics before or need it for serious studio or live use it's not ideal, but as a guitar to leave knocking about or a good alternative to the plain glossy beginner guitars you get elsewhere it is perfect.

Interesting guitar for the money spent

Instrument is made from mahogany which gives it richer, full-bodied sound than nato or spruce ones have. Though as can be expected from the price, it doesn't develop character and doesn't have that ''special'' ring to it as more expensive guitars do. Still, you can be glad and happy about this piece of wood with strings if you are buying it for practice or walks on the beach. TLDR; non-expensive doesn't mean inferior.

good guitar for low price

I did some improvements to guitar as change the bridge pins and saddle from plastic to bone, some good strings and the tuning screws, and now I can be satisfied, taking good care of it and making some adjustments sound pretty good, I have to say that I love the wood and the design and size of the guitar.

Amazing value for the money

This guitar is just perfect.

It sounds good enough to play at home or in parties, it is very easy to play and really lightweight. It doesn't sound like my guild but it sounds almost as good as my 200? epiphone.

For this price, you won't regret. Go and buy two.

The best guitar for the price

When I ordered this guitar, I was a bit skeptical. But after I unpacked it, I was blown away by how amazing this guitar is! The finish (no lacquer) is the nicest feel I've ever had on a guitar and it sounds just as good as guitars 3-4 times its price. The tuners hold tune well, I only have to tune it once every few days. The tone of the guitar is very warm and thick, as can be expected from a mahogany guitar, but it lacks high end. Still awesome though! I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great acoustic guitar with a low price point.

000 size for pennies

A great entry level guitar that plays straight out of the box. The body was well finished and gold plated tuners work well. The fret edges are a bit sharp and I needed to tweak the truss rod to get the action down, but for the money you can't complain. It has a nice mid range tone for finger-picking and strumming and is an essential guitar for practising in the house or studio, I would compare this to a £200 guitar for quality and finish.

Harley Benton CG-45 NS nice option for a cheap guitar.

This guitar, for the price, it is very cool, The neck is very pleasant to touch, and the finish has a good quality. I found it odd the nut and saddle come as good height, and the neck is straight .

As everyone knows an acoustic sounds better with age. But for a brand new guitar it sounds good, especially for the price. Of course, we cannot compare it with a Martin or a Taylor. The only thing I don't like, is that when you bend a string it doesn't change pitch like I'd like it.

I've played it a few times with some friends and it holds up well. I've smacked it a few time off a wall of a chair but no dents to the finish suprisingly. I can't say I'd play a gig with it unless I went out and bought a pickup for it but other wise it's great.

Bargain or not!?

when I decided to buy The HB CG-45 NS, I knew from 40 years experience

that I would find faults with this Guitar! You see I was brought up to respect an old saying: 'You get what you pay for!!'' Well in this case the saying that I fell for was: Curiosity killed the Cat!!'' OK I am a little disappointed because the one thing that I was afraid of was that the frets would be no good! I was right!! They have not been dressed properly at all! It's as if nobody cared about doing the job right because it is a budget guitar.This is a sad fact but does happen! It would take minutes to be fixed if the ''so called'' Inspector/Passer had not passed the guitar but just taken it to have the frets filed down, my review would have been outstanding!! If that had been done, this guitar would have had 5 stars from me without hesitation!

The good points: The Body and neck are great!!

The wood is great!!

The weight of the guitar is perfect!!

The sound is great!

The Tuners are excellent and hold the tuning very well indeed!

Conclusion: IF the frets were perfect,I would pay more

than double for this guitar. it is good value for money

but I think that the Harley Benton company should get a little more strict

with Quality control!

Harley Benton CG-45 NS

Who says small guitars do not have volume!? This one has plenty. Constructed from Sapele, it gives good balanced tonal reproduction. The frets might need to be filed lightly at their edges, as mine has one or 2 that cught on the fingers moving up the fretboard. Other than that I found no faults in this guitar. Elir nanoweb strings really bring it to life.

Cost effective

This is the first guitar I've ever purchased, although I've tried a few guitars before.

As far as I can tell, the quality is good for the price. It was not in tune when I got it (nor did I expect it to be), but I had no problem tuning it.

The size is just about right. It's small enough to be comfortable to use.

Although it is a cheap guitar, it does not look as cheap as some other cheap guitars out there.

I've read that some people has problems with the tuning scews, but I have not used the product long enough to verify if it is true or not. It will be interesting to see if there will be any problems replacing the strings, when the day comes.

If you are interested in learning to play the guitar and don't want to spend too much money to find out if it is something for you or not, I think this is a good place to start. The quality is sufficient to find out if you like it or not, and if it breaks months or years down the road and you want to continue playing, you will not have lost a lot of money by buying this product.

A great Starter guitar.

I bought this for one of my pupils and they loved it so much that they wanted to keep it. although a little rough round the edges and the finish is obviously not that of a more expensive guitar, it does the job well and the sound quality is perfectly acceptable with a good action and the intenation holds up. For the money, you just can't get something like this in the UK shops. If you don't want to spend lots of money, yet want something that will hold its own, they get one of these. A lovely shape and feel to hold - you can't go wrong.

Good for slide

Nice light weight small bodied guitar at a good price.Not much bass response which is to he expected.Action is a bit high but this makes it quite good for slide in open tuning.Probable wouldn't gig it but for home use and recording it should hold up fine

great guitar for campfires, festivals, beaches, riversides and much more

Spoiler alert: I'm really stunned by this guitar. It's just unbelievable, how much guitar you get for the buck around here.

But let me take a few steps back..

I have played several guitars in the 100?-pricerange in my time as a beginner on acoustic guitar. They were almost entirely really really bad to play, sounded dull and blunt and were detuned with the blink of an eye

Somehow that did not stop me from playing guitar, but I soon came to the conclusion that I needed a pricier model to be happy.. well I found one in the 300-400? pricerange that was a great insider tip, but since as a student the money is tight, that was my very precious guitar, I didn't want to take anywhere with a higher risk of getting it damaged

My best friend and bandmate who already earned cash at that time got himself this guitar for exactly those reasons.. taking it with him on festivals, barbecues, etc.

When I laid fingers on it, I was impressed.. it was really good to play with, better than all the cheap guitars I owned (and better than most that I played) in the "cheap"-pricerange - even though this specific guitar was the cheapest of all of them!!

Also the sound was pretty solid for the occasions.

Well, after a while I decided to try it out myself.. I was already sure, my friend had a sh*tload of luck when he ordered this guitar blindly and that I'd have to try several copies of this model until I found one that was comparable in quality.

So when I got my delivery I was highly sceptical and searching for reasons to send the guitar back.. well, the mechanics were aligned, there were no air gaps between parts, the mechanics were working well, the bridge seemed alright (it is supported with additional pins connecting bridge and guitar body, maybe without them it wouldn't be sturdy enough, but hey, if it helps, I'll take it)

But when I started playing I found 2 points that disappointed me:

The tie bars had a 'sharp' feeling on my hands on the side of the neck when playing.. and I noticed the fingerboard is rather rough on its surface

Well alright, there was my reason to send it back, I thought.. but kept playing for a while... after a few minutes I noticed the sharp feeling seemed to have disappeared... I put the guitar away for a while and tried it again later, just to be sure.. and indeed, no sharp edges anymore.. they seem to have vanished with the first chords.. so no problem there anymore.

Also the rough surface seemed more even on the frets I played .. in higher positions it was much more rough than in the first frets, where I did some chords stuff.. well. Alright then.

So now I had a guitar that was cheap and was now easily playable. So far, so good. How about the sound?

Well, for the sound.. it's not hi end guitar, that's for sure. It lacks in 'body' (low frequencies) and it doesn't have that 'sparkle' up up high. But it's far from sounding dull or muffled. There really are enough mid and high frequencies to have a clear, open sound. Somewhat metallic and thus a bit 'dirty' in character, which I really like for the occasions I use it.

It's also not too loud.. and actually I take this as a plus, too. With my more expensive guitar I have the problem, that my voice gets masked too much (even though I don't sing quietly) and therefore I feel the urge to sing louder, which makes me sing less controlled and strains the vocal chords

But this guitar has the right volume for me to sing on top of it and still have enough guitar sound to support my singing.

I feel like I'm getting lost in talking, so I'll cut short here:

I wouldn't use this guitar for solo guitar recording (well I have, but the hi end sparkle really is missing and the root notes in the 'body' area are missing, too)

I could imagine it as additional instrument in a mix.. because it has this nice dirty gritty charakter

I really, really want to recommend it for playing inside .. the guitar is loud enough to entertain the whole room but not as loud as to deafen the audience.

In a large space the sound could get lost, so you better not step on stage in a large concert hall with no mics on this baby.. but who would, anyway?

Despite me having a better guitar, I play mostly on this one.. as I explained, it fits all my requirements for 'playing for fun', as it's the right volume and it's easy to play

Oh and I almost forgot: Detuning's not really a problem here.. the guitar will keep the tuning for days at times. Also the mechanics are easy-going and therefore work as it should be expected.

The negative points at the end: After a while I noticed the tradeoffs that come with the price. Almost all bridge pins broke (I replaced them with dark ebony Harley Benton bridge pins for small cash, see my review there) and I can see the marks of the strings working their way into the soft bridge.. more intense than on other guitars.. but nonetheless, this piece of gear is still working well (after approx. 2 years now) and I'd say it is looking forward to this year's summer season at least as much as I am :)

So big recommendation for beginners and for people who need a guitar 'to go' as well!