Harley Benton HBMA-50 Mandoline VS Reviews

Perfect for a first timer!

Bought this for my 10 year old who fancied learning Mandolin, only had it a week but she loves it and the sound is lovely. Having trouble restringing but thats my own fault I suspect!

Highly recommend.

Great

Great for Mandoline initiation!

its freaking amazing and cheap

Its my first mandolin ever and was so surprised with the sound of it, and the way it looked, it has a beautiful wood, and the sunburst looks so great, with a lot of great details like the bridge of the mandolin has a beautiful pattern so impressive for the price. the only thing that i could possible say that is not so good is the finish on the f hole, but is no big deal. The sound is very good, it plays like a mandolin xD, the neck could've had a little more finnish work, but its still great.

A steal!

Great to play and well made. Good for practice and jamming. The low string sounds a bit shrill compared to the others but this is the best value for money instrument I've ever bought

delivered in shockingly poor state

a cheap mandolin bought for a friend to learn on - delivered, the action was terribly high, the bridge a cm from intonation, the truss rod needed to be slackened, the frets (which were blackened) polished and the nut slots widened,. luckily, I can do these but someone without the knowledge and skill to do a full set up would have an unplayable instrument which is unacceptable even at this price - after set-up, a

perfectly playable mando with a bright chirpy sound and low action

Great for the price

Harley Benton makes great stuff, period. I bought this as my first mandolin ever, and so far I am not disappointed. Obviously, it needs a bit of adjusting (intonation, sanding the bridge down a bit and contouring it to the body of the mandolin), but this is to be expected at the price point.

Pros: Sounds like a good mandolin to me, plays nice, looks great.

Cons: Not ready to play right out of the box (which I expected).

Okay, I get it now.

I'm in the US, I'd never seen a Harley Benton anything in the wild. I was curious about trying out the Mandolin. This price was just ridiculous for what you get here: I'm no mandolinist, but I've recorded plenty of folk bands in my day, so I at least know what the thing's supposed to sound like.

This little friend is LEGIT.

Fun little instruments with quality problems

I know, it's a super cheap Mandolin, but the strings came rusty and one of the tuners doesn't sit right. Also the tuners are super tight. I didn't expect much and it's fun but quality wise it's just bad.

First of all, this Mandoline looks really great! But it came in with really rusty strings and covered by dust. It was kinda dirty and not in good shape. Instrument itself for this price is good, but at first i was really put off by the state it came in, almost like B-stock which lied in some warehouse for long time, but it was cheap so i was not dealing with it.

Sound is probably good, i cant really tell, never had any other mandoline, but i guess for someone who wants any mandoline or who wants to just try it, its good starting point. But dont expect something amazing, but thats understandable for this price.

Nice beginner mandolin

Frets a bit sharp but at this prive I am happy overall

Really glad I bought this!

I have had a hankering for a mandolin for a few years, more recently after hearing some virtuoso playing on YouTube!

The mandolin arrived incredibly well boxed and protected.

The finish is quite perfect on mine, the intonation is spot on and no adjustment was needed for the neck.

There was a bit of choking or fret-buzz on the second pair of strings (A) at the 9th and 10th fret, however, this was minimal and played out after a few days of scale practice and learning the fret board.

One initial let down were the machine heads (tuners). Six of them were fine, two were quite loose, however, a small adjustment with a screwdriver has them working perfectly.

My HBMA-50 holds it?s tune very well and the OEM strings fitted are bright and clear.

This is an excellent first mandolin and has raised my interest in the instrument.

I have played some slightly more expensive mandolins and I would say they are not 2-300£/¤ better than this and would wait to save more money to buy a ?much better? mandolin (if that makes sense?) ? [By the way the mid-price mandolins I tried were very good, but I?m trying to demonstrate how good my model seems to be].

Just a few of things, buy a tuner, buy a gig bag, buy a chord book and a song book. These can all be had for under £/¤100 if you chose well.

Very good mandolin!!!

Very good mandolin. Soft and very good tune. For students. I would like to have it in its natural color.

Very good mandolin for beginners.

Great Mandolin For Beginners

This is a great mandolin for beginners. I bought this Mandolin as i was looking to start learning. This is the perfect 1st mandolin you could buy. The price is very good value and the build quality is also very good. The only thing i am not a fan of is the tuner keys on this instrument. They are not as smooth as i would like and takes more attention to tune this instrument. Other than that I have nothing but praise for this instrument.

Much recommended for anyone looking to start playing Mandolin who just wants another to add to the collection.

A+++

I was pleasantly surprised when I received my order.

The finish is great.The mandolin looks like its worth a lot more. The delivery was supper fast. The sound quality is good.

Over all I am really happy.I have ordered a number of Harley Benton items and I cannot fault them. Great value and great quality.

Absolutely Brilliant! (for the price)

Harley Benton HBMA-50 Mandoline VS is amazing for the money. Bought as an impulse purchase and now proudly in my collection of instruments. Ideal for a beginner or someone looking for an A-shape mandolin for travelling/festivals. If you're looking to learn seriously I would recommend purchasing a mid range upmarket model. I was pleasantly surprised with this purchase and recommend.

Pros:

- Spruce top, basswood body, teak neck, rosewood fretboard are surprising high quality.

- Rosewood Saddle is great.

- Attractive instrument

Cons:

- Finishing patchy and not perfect at times.

- String only "okay", if possible change

HB Mandolin

I got this for my wife at Xmas but ended up playing it myself. I does the job for budget instrument, action is quite easy and a pleasant tone, more on the trebles than on the lower notes. I'd recommend putting a decent set of strings on it quite quickly as i did this and got better results than the one it shipped with. All said, very happy with this purchase and it is nice to look at as well as play.

You get what you pay for

For just under 60? you definitely get your moneys worth but that's pretty much it. My first impression was disappointment. The stock strings it ships with sounded horrible and I was barely able to tune it when it came out of the box. After changing to some pretty cheap 15? strings and adjusting the bridge a bit the sound quality was much better.

Sadly, my mandolin shipped with some dents and scratches including a sharp STAPLE sticking out of the first fret on the neck which would prick my finger when playing. That's not okay but just slightly not worth the effort of sending it back..

I'll recommend this for people who want a rough-and-tumble Mandolin for taking on trips and adventures.

If you are a beginner I'd recommend looking a bit higher up on the price list, it'll be worth it!

Cheap but decent

Nice little thing to start and mess around.

Needs new strings and a setup (easily done yourself, mostly on the bridge the nut is slightly high but okay)

Overall for 50 euros that's a no brainer.

Pretty good, but...

Ok, so it sounds surprisingly good, but between the G and D strings between the first and second frets there's a piece of metal sticking out the neck. Kinda looks like the end of a nail, about 3mm long. Pretty sure it's not supposed to be there. At the same time, it's my first mandolin, so I'm not certain. Thats I give it 2 stars in quality.