Harley Benton CG-45 NS 5-stars Reviews

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.

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.

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.

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!

Simply Beautiful

A mahogany guitar, with a satin finish. Comfortable to play, and has a full-bodied resonant sound. A simple but very pleasing instrument. Nice gold machinehead with pearloid buttons, and very attractive decoration around the soundhole. first class.

this is a wow guitar

like the origin for small pennys... the best guitar in that pricerange, feels like real maoni all around.