Harley Benton HBJ-25 Reviews

Great banjo!

Absolutely in love with this banjo! Amazing price - quality. The design is beautiful and it sounds great. Highly recommend!

Good beginner banjo

Good for beginners. Good instrument for a low price tag.

Unbeatable for the price!

For an absolute beginner that's just looking for a training instrument, you just can't beat the price of this one.

It's okay.

It's alright as a beginner banjo, and I guess the price reflects that. I have recurring issues with fret buzz on the two lowest strings that was not present when I first got the instrument and seem to be due to issues with some frets coming partially loose.

Solid Banjo

Bought this 4 years ago, sturdy instrument with quality material.

For a first timer instrument this is more than perfect, you get the same experience while learn with no hardware related issues. Good resonance and sustain. Allows you to get into the several styles of Banjo picking that exist.

Yes there are better sounding, smoother and naturally expensive Banjos out there that will behave in a superior matter, but this one is my ol'reliable and will absolutely recommend this to anyone interested in starting fresh into a very nice community and instrument.

p.s. - The head (the white circle) of the banjo is solid white material, which means you can paint it and make it more personal for you. Just use a marker, heavy paints will affect the sound.

Sounds and looks amazing!

Very good loud and clear sound, very good build quality and looks amazing!

Great

Loverly banjo for the price. Came assembled and not a lot other then that was very fast delivery!

Cool banjo

It’s just a nice and cheap banjo. Bought it for my girlfriend as a gift so we could jam and have fun (she plays the violin and i play guitar and bass). It sounds great and is a lot of fun :)

Blown away by the quality of the banjo considering the price

Harley Benton have produced an amazing banjo for an unbelievable price. Other than tune it and change the strings over the last year I have had to do nothing to it. The fit and finish is excellent. The fretwork was perfect and no sharp edges. The woods used look and feel really nice and like I said it was playable straight out of the box.

The only one negative comment about the banjo I have is that the tuners were not the best. It was quite difficult to tune and went out of tune easily but for the money you can't complain.

I would definitely recommend this banjo to any aspiring players out there on a tight budget. Exceptional value for money.

Exceeded expectations

Cheap instrument but of great quality. I recommend it without problems to my friends.

Good option for starting out

I bought it to try banjo and I think it's a good option for staring out and get a hold of a banjo. Sound is not as beautiful as I would like but still pretty decent.

Bad Quality

For the cheapest banjo you can get, I understand that you shouldn't expect amazing quality, however the quality of this instrument is shockingly bad.

The first banjo sent was broken and a replacement sent out very quickly. The review is based on the replacement.

The tuners on the banjo are unresponsive and jumpy, making the instrument very difficult to accurately tune.

The banjo has terrible amounts of fret buzz, and body rattle when playing.

I even had to file the first fret of the first string as the string was dead due to very poor placement of the rubber saddle holding the top of the string.

The intonation of the banjo is horrible as you go up the fretboard. Chords in tune at the bottom of the board are very out of tune at the top.

I bought this to write music for TV shows. If you're OK at mixing recorded instruments and this isn't used as a lead instrument, it should work...but otherwise the quality is pretty bad. That being said, it has done its job and will be heard on TV shows, although the quality control of these needs to improve.

well made

great banjo for the price

Affordable Intro into the world of Banjos

I've been playing acoustic guitar for some years now, but I've always been into the happy and cheerful sound of banjos. More out of curiosity than anything else, and knowing I wouldn't become the best banjo player around, I bought this Harley Benton as a first step into the world of banjos. My experience when beginning to play a new instrument is not to go for a top-notch expensive one, but to avoid the cheapest ones too in order to not get a wrong idea of how it sounds. As such, this Harley Benton Banjo is perfect for beginners, and quality/price wise, I've found it to be a great deal!

Pros:

-It's a banjo!

-It's cheap, and best of all, it's great quality for what you pay

-Visually, this banjo has a beautiful finish and definitely catches the eye

-Really great sound for a beginner's instrument.

Cons:

-Assembly of the instrument could have been a bit better. My banjo was screwed incorrectly in one place attaching to the strap, but that's easily corrected by oneself and a screwdriver.

-I found the 5th string to produce a buzzing sound which I actually found very annoying (scithar-like), and found out the string was too low on the neck. Once I found the source of the problem, this was easily corrected by raising the string a bit from the bridge (a wooden plug or anything really does the job).

Conclusion:

I guess my banjo wasn't perfect and it did have a couple of assembly flaws, which however were easily corrected. Soundwise, this is a great product to get oneself starting in the world of banjo playing, and it's beautiful to say the least! All in all, a good product for a very good price

Lovely banjo

Really satisfied. Sounds nice, stays in tune perfectly, and the bowl is removable for those who would prefer a more old-time vibe. Nothing to complain about. Durability is perfect and has survived daily practice for almost five years. There were a couple of small dings when he arrived, but the did not affect playability in the slightest, and I soon added some new dents to the mix through the odd accident (which I might add that the banjo survived admirably). Finally, the instrument definitely looks cheap as regards the paint work... for the price though, and how nice it is to play, this quality soon grows on you. All in all I would definitely recommend this banjo to a beginner, or a more advanced player that wants a instrument that doesn’t require being precious with.

Great value as a beginner instrument

I wanted to add a banjo to my collection, but as always for a new instrument, starting off with something affordable in case I end up not enjoying it. This banjo was a pleasant surprise. For the price it has a good sound and is pleasant and easy to play - a great instrument to just pick up and learn with. It holds tune well, the action suits me fine, and out-of-box there was only a slight buzz on one string. I'm having a lot of fun with this instrument and may well upgrade in the future.

That said, at this price point the build quality isn't great. The bridge in particular is just CNC cut plywood, not even sanded smooth so there's burrs left over from cutting. On the body there are some stains of what I think is tiny drops of varnish, but it's only cosmetic and hard to spot. The strap attachment points have nearly come off twice, though that's easily fixed (and I rarely use a strap anyway). With that said, the important things (bridge, body, nut, tuners...) feel well-made and solid, so I feel like the design philosophy was "let's make a genuinely good starter instrument, as cheap as possible without really sacrificing quality and playability", rather than just trying to make a cheap approximation of an instrument.

I definitely recommend this as a starter banjo for beginners. It's very playable, built well enough, and a lot of fun.

Beginner.

Arrived well packaged and in great condition. Great tone.well pleased with quality.

Yee-haa!

I bought this for my guitarist brother, he loved it!

A Solid Banjo for Learners

If you're checking out this banjo, it's pretty likely that you're like me and you wanted to pick up and learn the instrument without breaking the bank. If that's your story, then this banjo is perfect for you.

The sound was exactly what I expected directly out of the box. I basically just checked the intonation, shifted the bridge a bit, tuned her up and she sounded great. Eventually I decided that I wanted to play it without the resonator and it can be pretty easily removed and still played somewhat comfortably. Getting it back on is another story, but it is what it is.

I was honestly surprised at what I got for the money I spent. It was well worth the investment and it's a great piece of equipment to learn on. Looks great on the wall, too!

Pros:

- Bright and beautiful sound for the price

- Decent intonation and pretty durable hardware

- Removable resonator

Cons:

- Neck bends quite easily, affecting intonation at times

- Resonator can be a little hassle to adjust/secure into place

Very happy

Banjo arrived in great condition, just had to tune it. Makes a great sound, and looks good.

There's one minor imperfection on the rim of the resonator. In addition, a number of screws were loose that I don't know the names of. Finally, while playing it turned out that one of the bolts connecting the head to the resonator had become disconnected from the resonator. I managed to put it back in and it seems stable for now, but not great for something that is supposed to be brand new.

I'm a total beginner, and these are just my first impressions.