Harley Benton Custom Line CLR-Chrome Reviews
A+
I have owned two previous resonator guitars a Dobro and Liberty. Both were bell brass and biscuit coned. This iron bodied out shines them both. As closer to a National sound , very nice mid range! Plays right out of box no tweaking save my brand of strings. I couldn’t be happier with this purchase. Plays and sounds great 👍👍
Nice!
I am very happy about this purchase, the sound is good and the neck is beautiful! Very easy to play and the setup was spot on.
It’s not the deepest sound of this kind of instrument but the sound is sweet and even.
For recording it has a very nice balance and it probably the easyest resonator I hav ever use for recording.
This guitar is highly recomended!
3rd Time Lucky
As the title suggests this is my third resonator guitar.
I previously has a Regal RC-51 Tri-cone and a Regal RC-2 single cone.
I never liked using them.
I again ventured into the realm of resonator guitars again with this HB.
The quality of the HB is every bit as good as the Regals. In fact, in certain respects it is better. Aesthetically, it looks the part with the slotted headstock and Art Deco tuners. The tuners are smooth and excellent as well as fine-looking.
I am now enjoying playing a resonator. That is due to my greater experience and using picks on all fingers. You really have to use picks to get the sound out of it. Bare fingers no good. Picks make it ring out bright and strong.
I was looking for my first ever resonator guitar. I could spend up to 1000 euro, but,
after a couple of weeks of reading and listening, I decided I probably would be best off with this one, even if it was not amplified. I Have two HB acoustics, and they are good value for the money.
It came perfectly packed (to Portugal) a day earlier than expected (3 days total) and for my taste perfectly set up.Action: It is easy to play fingerstyle, be it chords or single notes. For slide, it takes a bit getting used to, but I am not a natural born slide player. Does the job for me.
The right hand needs to learn a trick or two, as string dampening does not work as with a normal acoustic, due to the height of the bridge.
It looks stunning and sounds just great.
Cons:
It is a bit heavy, and tends to slide down from one´s lap. But after some manouvering,I found a comfortable way to use it while sitting.
It lacks a pin for a strap on the neckside. But, if you look at old photos of early bluesplayers, they just had a piece of rope as a strap, and tied it to the headstock.
Pro:looks plays and sounds great.
From a very happy first time resonator player.
Excellent value
Excellent value, good quality, great sound
Harley Benton Custom Line CLR Chrome Resonator
I brought this to inspire me to properly learn old style bottleneck Blues. It arrived in standard tuning and from the first chord I could tell it has a really authentic sound. Tuned to open G the action is still low enough for fretting without worrying about pressure from the slide ( I use a variety of slides now, from heavy Porcelain to light Glass Bottles ) and its character changes noticeably according to the Slide used. It is also very loud, the cone really pushes the sound and it can easily hold its own against heavily strummed acoustic guitars, even when playing single lines. it has excellent projection and can be easily mic'd (you will not need a separate mic near to the neck to capture that authentic Delta blues rasp from the strings) . Overall really happy with my purchase.
Pros:
Excellent projection, authentic sound, great playability.
Cons:
Its HEAVY! Not really a "Con", but you will definitely know its there.
Highly Recommended
Nice Guitar but work needed
Having owned a resonator in the past, I knew what to expect from such an instrument. Upon opening the box, the guitar looked nice and the quality was acceptable. There was a little excess glue showing where the neck met the body, but that was easily removed.
The biggest disappointment was the sound. Initially it sounded very "banjo" like with little resonance from the higher strings. This was improved by an immediate string change to a branded make. The next problem was that the nut was low, so that when using a slide, there was a lot of string rattle from the first fret. Again, this was rectified by removing the nut and adding a thin strip of plastic card beneath the nut to raise it slightly. The guitar now sounds bright and loud, particularly when using a brass slide. The remaining criticism relates to the very sharp fret edges. This is something I will have to take to a luthier to be corrected. Despite all of the small problems I have experienced, I would still recommend this guitar, but there are some QC issues and maybe I was unlucky. Considering the price point of this guitar, I would summarise by saying it is worth the money but be prepared to possibly having to work on the setup.
Great little steel guitar
I've had this for a few years and thought I'd write a review that has a little more history, other than the usual taking the guitar out of the box, giving it a few strums and then commenting on whether it is good or not.
Even after two years I still pick up the guitar regularly and use it predominantly for slide. I haven't had to set up a thing on the guitar since the day I received it. The action is reasonable for playing chords and scales and just about high enough to get some great slide guitar tones. The neck is really nice and has an old school quality about it. The tuners are very good and don't cause any noticeable tuning problems. The metal work is bright and well chromed but I like to leave these guitars to tarnish/ become road worn as opposed to cleaning them with polish.
I did try modifying the guitar by replacing it with a cone that was spun in the National factory in the USA. Totally pointless as it did nothing to the tone! So buy the guitar, get a decent slide and tune it to Open D or G. That's it.
Fantastic value for the money.
If you want to get started on playing resonator guitar, this is a decent looking & sounding instrument for not very much money at all.
It won't give you the sound or quality of a £2000 national, but add some heavier strings, put it into open G , grab a bottleneck and you'll be producing authentic early blues noises,
Lots of fun...no idea how they do it for the money.
A great starter resonator
This guitar is great for someone who wants to venture into the world of resonator guitars.
In honesty it isn't fantastic. The quality can be lacking. I found that the machineheads don't like to stay screwed into place though this is easily fixed. Some areas are a bit rough, the finish can tarnish is not cleaned on a regular basis and the holes near the headstock are rough.
It isn't going to stand up to a £1,000 resonator but don't let it put you off. It's very good for the price and still has signature sound. Stick some heavy gauge strings on, whack into an open tuning and get a good quality slide for some really authentic blues.
It's the sound you want at a price you want. What more could you ask?
Harley Benton CLR-Chrome
This Resonator instrument is attractive with it's slot headstock and faux Grover heads. It is good value but it arrived with a nut that was far too high and terrible strings.
The neck was slightly bowed. That was corrected quickly with an allen key.
The nut itself need to be cut down in height and the nut slots properly re-cut to prevent damping vibration and strings 'binding' in the slots.
With new strings and the nut 'fettled' it plays quite well.
However it is not very loud and we suspect that it would benefit from a better cone.
Taking into consideration the price of the guitar these are minor quibbles.
Recommended at the price, provided that you have someone to 'set it up' properly.
A VALUE PACKED RESONATOR
THIS IS EVERY BIT AS GOOD AS SOME VERY EXPENSIVE MODELS I HAVE PLAYED.NOT QUITE THE FINISH OF SOME , BUT SOUND WISE ITS BRILLIANT.
Very good value for the money !!!
This dobro sure has the looks - cosmetically it can compete whichever of the famous brands !
Also qualitywise it is definitely on a quite acceptable level .
The playability is great concerning the neck.
Unfortunately the body-weight is not distributed to keep the balance comfortably on top of crossed legs, you are forced to "sit spanish" to play.
The sound is also unfortunately a bit to much "tuna-can" to give this otherwise nice instrument the highest score.
But then again - compare what you get to what you pay - wow !!!
