Harley Benton D-200CE-12BK Reviews

a good sounding 12-string peice ! the sound is good .. looks good

Suprisingly good

I bought this guitar because I needed a 12 string but first I was a bit suspicious because of the low price. I was pleasantly surprised to learn this guitar sounds way better than the price tag suggests. I have it for years now, and completely satisfied with it.

Great Guitar

Pity it doesn't have a built in tuner

Could do with a better factory setup, great for the price though!

Aaaaah!

12. I always wanted a twelve. So I ordered this one, because of the price and good youtube reviews. My first Harley Benton, but hey, all over my expectations!

Everything fine, two different pickguards came with to choose. No finish cracks, nothing bad, fretwork nice. So checked the neck - which was a bit bowy - high action, so lowered. I will maybe replace the saddle with compensated one, because of better intonation.

I am using it at home, for a jammings with friends, and this black beauty is well done and very nice and loud sounding instrument.

What a bang for your buck!

Totally blown away with the quality and sound of this 12 string..Keep it up Harley Benton.. I'm buying more.

Harley Benton D-200CE-12BK

Een goede gitaar, kwaliteit/prijs uiterst belangrijk, voor de doorsnee gitarist.

For under a 100 bucks...........really?

I am a very happy HB customer, not only did all my product arrive in perfect order.....took the guitar from the box and it was 100% perfect, not a mark or anything. Cleaned it with a cloth and oiled the fret-board then tuned it up, Sound, play-ability and tone is amazing. This is a 500+ guitar and more any day of the week. HB if you keep this up some of the fancy names are in trouble.............enough talking, time to play!!! Wow, what value!!! Yes, I am very happy indeed!!

Jan Strydom

Tel Aviv

Useless for fingerpicking

No room for fingerpicking! Strings look like they weren't paired at the saddle side. Distances between all 12 strings are almost equal. The spacing between the high & low string in pair is wide. Fine for strumming but useless for fingerpicking.

Great 12-string at surely an unbeatable price.

For a long time now I have wanted to try a 12-string guitar as some of my favourite tracks use one. But, as it has a very distinct sound, my repertoire would be limited and so it was hard to justify the outlay on one.

Then I saw this one at 118 euro, and it had received many good reviews. So there was no longer an excuse to deny myself the experience.

I was not disappointed. Out of the box when I started playing, the local cats all ran for cover, but once I tuned it up all was well. Of course having 12 strings means more work to keep it tuned, but having done so the sound from this guitar is very rewarding. The fretboard action is extremely good (as I have previously found with Harley Benton guitars) which makes the adjustment to playing a 12-string an easy transition. The quality of construction is very good and paintwork finish is close to perfect (which is not always so for black guitars). I have only used it amplified for a limited amount of time as the sound is 'big' enough for home use without amplification.

In summary, if you are hesitating about trying a 12-string for the first time, you cannot go wrong with this model for not much more than 100 euro.

Unbeatable value for money

Pros:

The guitar came safely packaged in perfect aesthetic condition.

Out of the box the guitar is decently playable with no buzzing across any of the frets.

The tuners hold tune well and the strings sound good.

The pickup system works as it should, they even give you a free 9v battery.

Cons:

I have the guitar tuned to D standard and the intonation is a bit off. I would need to reshape the guitar saddle and compensate each of the strings individually to get perfect intonation. For the amount of money I paid I can't complain as even much more expensive 12 strings have intonation problems.

To get ideal action I will have to deepen the string slots at the nut by a small amount, after that the guitar will be even more playable.

Another con is that the frets need to be polished, but they are well seated, leveled and the edges are smooth. You won't really bend strings on a 12 string so it's not a big deal that the frets aren't polished.

Overall:

I don't think there's a better budget 12 string guitar out there to be found. All of the cons are minor things and easily fixable.

All I need to do now is practice, fingerpicking a 12 string is much harder than a 6 string. I basically have to relearn my picking technique to get the strings to ring properly.

Great guitar for a first 12-string.

I've owned this guitar for a year or two now and have had no issues with it, it sounds excellent and is comfortable to play, it holds up really well under live conditions as well so definitely consider buying if you are interested in 12-strings, it's a good guitar to start 12-string playing on,

NOTE: if you are buying this to play JBT's 2012 "Ocean" definitely find a set of steel strings to sit on it, and get a 12-string capo. You might also want to consider getting a sub-octave pedal to go with it, this guitar does the song justice under those conditions.

Very Good Indeed

A cutaway electric 12 string for 118euro. Can it possibly be any good at this price?

Yes it can- and indeed is!

Just for the record, at the price I paid,I have given it a deserved 5 stars all round. To be fair, had it been priced at say £3000 it wouldn't have scored quite so well.

Visually it's a looker. Cream bound neck and cream bound body set off the black bodywork to perfection. To be picky, I could comment that the paintwork is a bit thin, but then thin paint gives the wood more opportunity to produce a good sound. As is to be expected at this price, the top (and sides and back) are going to be laminate, and the strings are not from the top price range, but that doesn't stop this baby from producing a surprisingly good tone. One of the first things I normally do on a new guitar is change the strings, but I just don't think it needs it. And volume is very good too..

Straight out of the box it was very nearly in tune, and absolutely playable, with no sharp fret ends, which is very creditable. Like just about every guitar you buy- from anywhere and at any price (at least under around £500-£600) it will greatly benefit from being breathed upon by a good luthier. As supplied, the truss rod is pretty well set, although measuring might well yield some minor improvement. The bridge and nut can certainly be lowered, speeding up the action. The frets are pretty level and would be adequate for most people, but fret levelling and polishing would improve this guitar even more.

Ok, like some other reviewers, I have gone on about setups, Please accept that this guitar is NOT inferior- it's jut that setting up is very time consuming, and would put up the initial price, so manufacturers cut back. But this guitar is so good to begin with that any additional work by a good luthier would be well worth it- and I would go so far as to say that spending say £75 on a full fret level and polish, plus a set up would produce a guitar that would easily match any guitar on a shop wall costing £400

Excellent for the price

Always wanted to have a 12-Strings guitar, but wanted something cheap to start with, to my surprise it's amazing value for just 100€... you really cannot ask more. Recommended.

Outstanding

This is the 3rd Harley Benton that I have bought, and I'm not disappointed.

The build quality is amazing for the price.

The sound is lovely and bright.

You really cant beat this.

Nice price 12 String

This is an excellent choice for someone who has never played a 12 String before but wants to try one out. It won't break the bank, it is relatively easy to play (but it is a 12 string after all) and sounds good.

Harley Benton 12 string electric/acoustic

I purchased this guitar to familiarise myself with 12 string country style guitar and then to upgrade to a more expensive product. I have now changed my mind. I wouldn't consider swapping it for any other guitar. It looks and sounds brilliant. Playability is second to none. Good range on equalizer. Exceptional finish. Highly recommended.

All round superb quality

Absolutely brilliant quality product that arrived well packaged and set up ready to play. Got it out of the box and after a bit of tuning played a lovely guitar for hours afterwards. This guitar holds the tuning well too as going back to it the day after it required very little tuning. Very impressed all round.