Harley Benton HBO-850 Classic Blue Reviews

Suprised

30 years of love for guitar took me there. I am not an active musician. But sometimes I like to play Spanish style Pop songs.

The guitar arrived in perfect condition.

All installation done. Some high action was needed but I toned it down a bit for better playability.

Electric, piazo is standard. Don't expect too much, but it's quiet and decent. Works at small events.

The paint is in good condition and has a shiny surface.

There are small unfinished details inside the small holes. No problem.

His voice is very successful acoustically. Although the body of the guitar is thin, it has a very loud sound.

There were small sharp parts on some of the frets, which did not hinder playing, but I did a little work and fixed them.

It made me very happy, I did not expect such quality for this price. My friends and my wife liked it very much. We especially loved its color.

I would definitely recommend it to those who want this type of model.

All setup was done. A litte high action was necesssery but I decreased a few for better playablility.

Electrical, piazo is standart. Don't expect too much but, noisless and decent. It works small events.

Brilliant And Beutiful

In a word, Wow!

What a nice guitar. Very beautiful looking, comfortable to play with good action at the frets, plus it has 23 frets which is harder to find on a classical guitar.

The acoustic sound is clear, clean and resonates very well with a beautiful tone.

Plugged into an amp, the electric pick up is very clean and clear.

It gives nice range of boost to the trebble, mid range and bass sound through the pick up controller on the guitar.

It is incredible value for the money.

I am thrilled with my purchase and love this guitar.

Incredible value guitar

OK, let me start by saying this is an incredible guitar. There's definitely bang for buck here.

I have one tiny problem, the pickup wires are creating buzz even on open strings. There is no buzz when i lay it down or hold it at an odd angle, but when i hold it to play normally, its buzzing. It absolutely is the wires, whatever way theyre sitting. Now that wouldn't normally be a major issue, but I can't get at them because of the pretty but small sound holes. I've managed to hook one wire and I taped it to the inside but I can't reach the other one.... yet, but I will, otherwise I'd give this guitar 5/5 in all categories, a guitar of this standard at this price point of deserves 5/5.

It is a stunning guitar, lovely warm tone. The fretboard and neck are just a dream to play. Not too loud, but that's what I wanted for playing at home in a small house. The quality is surprisingly good, for the price. If I can fix this buzz then I can see it becoming a go to guitar. Highly recommended

Edit: while the cables inside are very long and loose, I'm now not sure what is causing the g string to buzz. I'm now thinking it's the nut, but also some kerfing fell out of a sound hole. I don't want to have to return it. All in all, still a good value guitar considering the price point

Incredible value for the price

I got this for my daughter. I wasn't expecting that much based on the price, but I've gotta say it's impressive. The sound is clear, loud and crisp. The finish is beautiful.

The neck was almost perfect, just needed a slight truss rod tweak. The action is easy.

I put better Daddario EJ45 strings on it immediately, so I can't really comment on the sound with the stock strings, but with the EJ45s it's great.

HBO-850 Blue Nylon String Classical Acoustic Electric

Extreme fast shipping , Packed Very Very well , Arrived without a scratch , Finish was flawless , Strings slightly detuned , as they should be , Tuned to pitch E 440 , Plays great sounds great , Already buying 2 more

First nylon string... NO RAGERTS!!

This is my first nylon string, and I think it's perfect as such. My girlfriend pointed out that the wood work on the front looked a little cheap. The lines on it look like they should be etched with a wood burner but they are drawn on. Extremely minor detail. It looks great and it has the warm, soft tone you would expect from a classical guitar. It plays great! I have not tried plugging it in yet, but the demos for the preamp are underwhelming. I expect as much for the price. I'm sure it's perfectly fine for live performances.

If you are thinking about getting this guitar, you will 100% want a strap. Round back acoustics are a pain to sit down with, as I'm sure many of you know but this is a tip for the beginners.

Nice classic for the price.

Guitar is really good for the price, as all hb products are. Pickup not so great but acceptable. It has a nice sound (recorded with mic) and I used it in some projects. For that amount of money, you will get a really good classical guitar. Tuners are also great. I wish I had such a quality guitars when I was starting out.

Beautiful blue finish. Great tone. Great value.

I was quite impressed when I received it. Well constructed, it looks and sounds great. It projects well, and the preamp is a nice addition. It amplifies while maintaining tonal qualities. The round back tends to make the face of the guitar roll upwards. I use a strap.

I like it so much, I ordered two more! Waiting on my order to process. I hope they will be as pleasing as the one I have.

I've read other people's comments about wishing the ornamental oak leaf sound hole amulets were recessed. Sure, however making such recess into the soundboard would be a structural issue, otherwise, I'm sure they would have done it. Either way, they're very nice and this is a great guitar at an amazing price. I have no complaints. 9 Harley Benton guitars and I love them all.

nice guitar

It is a nice guitar. Not that expensive, ideal for traveling or campfire songs.

It stays in tune well, it plays nice.

Only downside is that it slides away from your body when you sit and play.

la beauté du bleu

il ne faut pas oublier que cette guitare est une entrée de gamme, je pense qu'après avoir appréciée la beauté de la guitare ,, on doit automatiquement faire le rapport "qualité , prix". Ce constat permet de bien la classer. Cordialement

Accidental buy

Was trying to order the steel guitar string ones of these and order got messed up so I just kept them since I live in Des Moines Iowa USA//I buy lots of stuff from your guys and overall you guys do a great job💙🙏🏼✌🏽👍🏽✊🏽 not bad little classical guitars if that’s your thing👍🏽

A pleasant hybrid acoustic guitar.....

Why I chose this guitar....(This may be of interest if you're an old timer with arthritis like me, otherwise jump to the Review if you're in a hurry). I learned the ukelele as a boy and was given a beaten up student classical guitar in my early teens. In my twenties I bought myself a steel stringed acoustic, then in the early 1990's an HSS Strat. I've jammed with a few friends but the vast majority of my playing has been on my own in the house, so strictly an amateur but I've been playing on and off for decades. Around 5 years ago I treated myself to a ukelele which I love. However, the arthritis that I had in my knees spread to my hands causing me loss of flexibility and significant pain if I tried to play anything. I didn't play for around 3 years. I've been taking some supplements for my knees which helped ease my hands a little so I started reading up on what I could do to make things easier to play. First up was nylon strings rather than steel and lowering string tension. So I lowered the tuning on my ukelele to match my guitars and yes it helped...which got me thinking maybe I could get back to playing guitar. I didn't want a classical guitar as the wide flat neck would have been difficult for me, I needed nylon strings and a neck a little wider than than a steel string guitar. I also wanted to be able to plug into my amp if possible. In other words a hybrid between electric and acoustic, something that could do both.

Review.... This is a bowl back acoustic guitar modelled on a well known brand but at a significantly lower price. The neck is an attractive mahogany and has a smooth satin coated finish. It is 48mm wide at the nut, which is what first drew my attention to this guitar. Wider than a steel string guitar but narrower than a classical. It also has a mild radius rather than being flat which helps me with chord playing. The fretboard is hardwood with ABS binding. The body is black ABS plastic with a cream plastic binding and the top is wood. The multi sound holes are decorated with leaf effect wood epaulets which are glued on. There is a 9 volt pre amp/equaliser.

The guitar looks lovely and quality is generally good. The neck needed no attention at all. No sharp fret ends, raised frets or buzzing. The action is a little high compared to a steel string guitar but its what you'd expect for a nylon stringed guitar. Not sure what to do about the nut. The top and bottom E strings both fit flush into their slots but the other strings seem to be raised a little as if the slot isn't quite wide enough. I have contemplated opening up these slots slightly but the action is ok so I've left it for now. Maybe this is deliberate to match the radius of the fretboard..? The black body has a mild raindrop effect pattern on its surface and seems pretty tough. The jack plug socket is on the lower side and I had to tighten the nut which was a little loose. There is no access panel (other than removing the pre amp which is on the opposite side) so if the nut had come off and the socket had dropped inside the body it would be difficult to retrieve. The top is wood and there is a light grain visible. Its hard to tell if it is solid wood, veneered or has some other sort of finishing under the clear coat. For the price the finish is fine, however, there are a couple of minor aberrations. One edge of the lower decorative epaulet is not glued down properly and has started to lift. This will need gluing down at some point as it will get caught and split off. There is also a blob of excess glue on the inside edge of one of the sound holes which I can probably trim off. The colour and finish coats are not as neat as they could be where the ABS neck binding meets the top. It looks like the neck and fretboard are attached to the body before the final coats are added. The masking around the neck ABS trim could be better. It's only a minor issue and not bad enough to warrant returning the guitar.

I have limited movement in my index finger so I cant play some open string chords but I have found this guitar easier to play than my steel string acoustic. Unplugged this guitar has a pleasant balanced sound and plenty of volume if used with a plec. Plugged in the pre amp is hot enough to produce some distortion if required and the 3 band equaliser gives good control if you wish to adjust your tone. There is a battery test button but no in built tuner. I've played this pretty loud to test it out and while it is possible to induce feedback, you just have to adjust where you stand in relation to your amp/speaker. The HB strings that were on the guitar sound ok but after 2 months I'm still doing a minor retune each time I play.

I have found that with a strap the body does naturally face upwards a little. I'm still getting used to this and consciously have to make sure the body is facing outwards otherwise my left wrist is bent around too much and gets painful.

In summary this guitar is well suited for my style which is backing accompaniment to most modern music from ballads to rock. It is easy to play, looks lovely and sounds good.

A very affordable nylon string guitar without compromising quality

I'm a fan of nylon string guitar and Harley Benton HBO-850 is my third one. The first two guitars I bought locally in home country and I was quite reluctant of buying online because of unpredictable outcome when receiving the product. To my surprise, the Harley Benton HBO-850 was well packed (in two boxes, actually) when it was delivered and I received it in a very good condition. What really makes me more happy is the tone of the guitar. Although, it is the cheapest compared to my other 2 guitars but surprisingly, it produces a tone with better clarity and higher sustain. Well done Harley Benton and I will surely look out for more Harley Benton guitars from here onwards.

Pretty, functional... and affordable!

Great looking guitar that sounds best when amplified. Put a little reverb on and it does the job spectacularly! At first I was bummed 'cause the action seemed high, so I googled the recommended string height from different luthiers and -- lo and behold -- the Harley Benton was set exactly as they specified! So, as it turns out, if you're coming from electric guitars (like myself), the action on a Classical will seem atrocious... get used to it.

The only problem I encountered with this guitar was that I couldn't keep in tune, but that was fixed by replacing the strings. I'm in my fifties and have been playing consistently since I was 16, I own too many guitars and I would recommend this Harley Benton in a heartbeat as a great studio tool for recording.

great guitar for its low price point.

it sounds a tiny bit muted, but i love its unique tone so i dont mind it at all. the one small issue i had with this guitar was its poorly finished fret job, the edges need a little filing down, and the 14th fret in my case was ever so slightly higher than the rest. I've watched enough guitar building and moding to feel confident to fix those issues my own, thankfully i was successful.

UNBELIEVABLE PRICE!

Nice guitar , very good quality,!!!

A present for my wife on our 36th wedding anniversary

This guitar comes out of the box looking so beautiful I was afraid to play it, besides, it's for my wife. Haven't plugged it in yet but soon. The quality that you get with these guitars is as good as Martins, Gibsons and Taylors in the $500+ range. Super easy to play, easy on the fingers and a sound that wants to lull you to sleep

Can't beat the value.

Holds tuning well. Sound is very good. Medium problems with fret sprout. Minimal paint run on the blue face. Bowl shape takes getting used to.

very loud and beautiful

it looks amazing and is very loud, absolutely love it!

Great guitar made very well indeed i needed to set it up a little better and change the strings but all in all great for the money