Harley Benton HBMA-50E Mandoline VS Reviews

Lovely Little Instrument

Bought this for my daughter who is learning various stringed instruments to have fun with. It makes a beautiful tone and looks lovely. Its not the most expensive make or model and that shows a little in the quality of the finish but as a starter instrument its really nice and allows my 16 year old to expand her different styles.

Well worth it

good value

very nice mandoline for this price range, it sounds good enough for my purpose

Acceptable value for the price.

The wood of the upper part start to deform and the instrument is not tunning any longer...

A Wonderful Mandolin for Beginners/Learners

I bought this mandolin to replace an older one that had been broken and I didn't want to break the bank. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality that comes with a pricetag under 100 bucks.

Right out of the box this thing proved to fill its role as a beginner/learner mandolin. The stock strings should be replaced ASAP and the bridge should be adjusted for intonation, but you can strum around on this for quite a while without any complaints.

The tone for single-string picking is quite good, but I noticed that the intonation is much, much better when capo'd on the second fret. I'd recommend getting it set up if you ever intend to bring it on stage, but it's got some great sound for the price.

Pros:

- Neck feels good and easily maneuverable

- Great tone quality for the price

- Build quality is satisfactory

Cons:

- Tuning pegs are a bit rough to deal with and "hang" a bit

- Some intonation issues requiring adjustment out of box (not awful)

- String/Fret buzz out of box (personal experience)

All in all a great little instrument to add to any string-player's arsenal. Highly recommend for learners.

Great little mandolin

The finish is perfect, there are no flaws anywhere.

The action was a bit high so I had to lower the saddle. I also sanded the bottom of the saddle a bit for even lower action.

The nut slots needed to be widened by a file cos they were too tall, it took 10 mins to fix this problem.

I can't complain about these issues for the price. I do these fixes with all my guitars anyway.

The single coils sound great, very little noise. The acoustic sound of the instrument is also great.

Happy with the product

Got it to India. No problems faced. A known fact that we will need to pay the custom duty on receiving the item. Product is very nice. Happy with it.

A killer instrument for the price

I am extremely impressed by this mandolin. I play the guitar and wanted to experiment with such stringed instrument.

The finish looks great, the sunburst has been executed flawlessly (only a very small mark on the side of the neck, but totally not important). Everything works great!

Also, came pretty much set up out of the box. You have to change the strings to something better. Also, around the 14th fret there is a buzzing sound, however at least as a beginner, I am not affected by it. A good technician will make it shine. Even guys who work at guitar shops are impressed by it.

It really convinced me to give a nod to Harley Benton for future instrument purchases.

Good isntrument for the price paid

Perfect instrument for starting playing mandolin for an unbeatable price.

Excellent!

I have been using for live gigs for 2 years now and really happy with it.

Only criticism is tuners could be better but for the price I guess it is acceptable.

Good value.good lookin.Sounds good.

I decided to re- learn mandolin after not playing one for many years. The HBMA-50E has been for me, ideal. Playable straight out the box, just tuned it up, and good to go.The tuners, pick-up,even the strings, good enough, although iv bought a couple of sets of strings just dont need to change them yet.The finish is nice, a lot better than i was expected. So, very good value,plays nice,sounds ok, and i also bought the gigbag, which fits well. I mostly play at home or with a few mates, but i would take it to a gig to do perhaps a few numbers - its certainly good enough.

Got s bad one

I have loved every Harley Benton guitar or bass that I have purchased but I got a real lemon with this Mandolin was unplayable I had to do a lot of fretwork did not was horrible how to be replaced it plays marginally OK now however it was only 100 bucks

I love my mandolin

I've never played mandolin before but I got the notion I needed one in my life.

I picked this up as it's dirt cheap and had great reviews. I was not one bit disappointed. I play electric guitar of the metal persuasion so this was a bit different. I had the mando delivered to work and spent any spare time at my desk learning how to tune the thing and some simple chords. Within a week I was celebrated as an office legend with stories of my musical prowess being told all over the business park.

The stock strings were a bit meh and I got spares but haven't changed them yet. Really is great for the money and has a lovely sound.

A cheap mandolin to enter

If I get good enough, I will buy a better one, but for this price I have nothing to complain.

Excellent for Price

Hi recently bought a Harley Benton HBMA-50E Mandoline VS. It's a great great buy very sturdy and sounds lovely. I play the guitar and always wanted to try out a Mandoline. I would recommend this mandoline for anyone who is just starting to learn instrument. Price wise you could not go wrong. The only thing I would change is the strings, I bought GHS A 260 Bobby Osborne strings. Buy you will not be disappointed.

A decent mandolin

Obviously for the money this mandolin won't take your breath away but it's a decent instrument. The finish looks good at first glance but when taking a closer look it has it's rough spots here and there. The "F" holes cut outs are not as smooth as you might expect. The pick guard does not have smooth rounded edging. Like the HB 35 I purchased, the pick guard looks as if it were shaped / trimmed by hand. The collars on the tuning pegs (machine heads) were not flush against the head stock on 6 of the 8 tuners (they were sticking up pretty high). So I had to loosen the strings and push them down flush. Not a big deal but it tells you a little about the attention to details on this particular instrument. When connected to the amp it worked fine. Not a lot of noise and no feedback (a good thing). Overall, not too bad. A decent mandolin to carry around with you without having to worry about your more expensive one.

Nice price!

I don't know anything about mandolins. My producer on the song I'm recording wanted a mandolin for the track. Being a guitar player for 35 years, I figured I could learn. I didn't want to spend a lot, so I did my homework. This model is the cheapest electric mandolin I could find. Even the Rogue and Luna brands are more expensive. Anyway, wasn't sure what to look for when I got it, but it's well built and nice looking and the pickup works. The ornate etching on the tailpiece and tuning machine bases is a nice touch & the sunburst finish looks great. Think it will be perfect to learn on

Perfect for a beginner like me.

My first Mandolin. So even though I haven't got a lot of experience with the instrument I have got plenty of Irish friends who play. Always wanted some trad so it was this or a fiddle and I thought this would be easier to pick up.

As I have been consistently impressed with HB guitar stuff I thought I'd try out one of their other instruments as at this price it worth giving it a try to see if I enjoy it.

The build quality is nice pretty light where usually HB gear is usually slightly heavier than the big brands. Sturdy though. Appearance wise it great. Looks the real deal.

The pickups pretty basic but you'd rather have it than not as you can at least plug in if you need amplification and can't mic it. Socket is in a pretty awkward place at the bottom of the Mandolin if you wanted to play sitting down. Standing its not an issue.

The sound is pretty good for the price and will be enough for anyone learning or just starting to play with others. Put a bit of chorus on through the amps and you can get a really rich sound out of it.

It's never going to be a professional instrument at this price but great for a beginner and at this price if I don't take to it I can just sell it on and not lose out.

Nice Instrument.

Check the machine-heads

This is a lovely sounding mandolin. However, I must forewarn potential buyers that some of the machine-heads were not fitted properly on my one and had to be adjusted. It's a quick enough fix but just keep this in mind when clicking that buy button.

Great value

I am a guitarist who likes to dabble in mandolin, ukulele and other instruments occasionally, and this mandolin was everything I needed to do that without spending a lot of money. Recommended unless you are a serious mando player.

Good Price

Very good price for this mandolin, i havent played a mandolin before but i thought the sound was very pleasent, altough when you plugged it in to a guitar amp the sound was a little tinny, i havent had much time to properly eq it but my initial reaction was that the pickups wasn't all that great.