Harley Benton HBJ-25 5-stars Reviews

Great banjo!

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

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.

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 :)

Exceeded expectations

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

well made

great banjo for the 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.

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!

Great instrument.

Really good sound out of this banjo for the price. I bought it just to learn to play and intended to upgrade but I actually think the quality is great for the price. only recommendation i would make is to buy strings as well and change them as the strings that came on it were not the best. Overall good buy though.

Excellent!

As the owner of many Banjos, this is the best one I have owned the cost less the £200. Everything from the build quality to the tone are just utter perfection. It leaves little left to be desired. It's worth so much more than it actually costs. At least compared to Epiphone and Gear 4 Music models (ones that are more expensive!)

It's THAT excellent.

Great Sounding Banjo

This banjo comes with a resonator. The action needed a slight adjustment at the nut and I set the floating bridge using instructions from a forum so that the intonation was excellent. It stays in tune well and also has a truss-rod in the neck which I adjusted to make the action perfect for picking. I tried using finger picks and thumb picks and they worked well. If you combine playing this instrument with a good music book on the five-string banjo you will make excellent progress. The tone sounds very folky and traditional and suited old-time tunes the best. The resonator certainly adds extra volume and projection. The notes are accessible right up the 22 fret scale. Tuning requires purchase of a clip LED digital tuner and you may wish to purchase a strap. The Banjo comes with an allen key for the truss-rod and a tool for tensioning the skin. The metal components are well made and sturdy. The neck appears very straight and is also smooth and tapered to allow for easy movement of the fretting hand and fingers. There are dot markers on the side binding of the neck and on the rosewood fretboard which is bound. The strings are nice and light and tuned up well. I was able to play simple banjo tunes straight away. The tuning pegs are open geared and simple but showed no slippage under tension. The Harley Benton Logo is on the double cutaway head-stock. Highly recommended that you play simple tunes from a banjo song book first if you are a beginner. You need to get used to the tuning especially if you have been a guitarist like me. That said, once I was used to the GDGBD which is commonly used on the five string banjo I could quickly learn the simple one finger barre chords and you can of course use partial chord fragments which are fully movable shapes up and down the neck. A beginner should learn banjo rolls and this technique will be quickly picked up on using this fine Harley Benton HBJ-25 Banjo. Very pleased as a new banjo player.

Absolute bargain

Great sound and finish, at this price it is an absolute bargain. Surprisingly loud with the closed back.

banjo H B

ce banjo est d'une sonorité incroyable idéal pour apprendre cet instrument. c'est vraiment un bon achat.

banging banjo

well worth the price bought it as a side instrument with guitar great sound great to whip out at a party very happy with it.great quality great price couldnt recomend more

A most lovely banjo indeed!

This is a fantastic instrument to begin learning the banjo with. It's well made, all the machine-heads turn smoothly, it holds its tuning well. There's not much else to say.

Oh... If you live in an apartment block, consider also purchasing a banjo mute. Your neighbours will thank you for it!

Really, really good instrument

Another absolute win from the Harley Benton team. I was put off buying a banjo for many years as everyone claims that to get a "good" one you have to spend £5-600+ and that was just too much for me merely to "test the water"...

However, I'm really glad I chanced this purchase. I figured it was so cheap that it wouldn't be a great loss if it turned out to be a piece of junk but, just.... WOW !

My friend has a banjo that he paid 800 euro for and I shall not name the manufacturer but it's made by one of the premier/big banjo producers and this banjo, in my opinion, plays and sounds just as good. It's crazy.

There is NOTHING low quality about this instrument to my eyes/ears. It really is a classy looking banjo and I would easily have expected to pay a lot more for this kind of sound and playability. It's a joy to play and sounds lovely.

It also looks very nice, with no part of it belying the cheap cost. The wood finish looks great, it's not "too heavy" but has a suitable weight to it and the remo head and tone ring look really "the part". It has the look of something that should be a lot more expensive. Tuning pegs are nice, not slack and they're responsive and easy to tune with. The neck is very nice, too, very fast and no quibbles whatsoever with fretting or any other usually problematic matters on lower end stringed equipment.

I've said it in other reviews but everything I have bought by Harley Benton is just great. I've seen them getting a lot of grief on forums etc but when I check the dates of these posts they're always from around 8 years ago so I can only presume that quality took a real jump forward. So, basically, don't let negative press fool you, these instruments are really great and are of astounding quality and playability considering the price.

I don't say that as a negative, either, like "well, it's great - CONSIDERING THE PRICE", as in if you pay a little you should expect to get something not so great. No, quite the opposite, I think in this case you pay a little and you get something that is comparable to instruments many times the cost.

For beginners and banjo afficionados alike this is a great instrument. I'm really glad I made this purchase and have no problem at all recommending it to others.

Great instrument

This is a great instrument for a beginner. Nicely balanced, good neck and sound projection. The edges of the frets could have been a little more polished, but that is really easy to get done, and they have a really nice work for the instrument's value. Definitely recommended!