Harley Benton HBO-850SB Reviews

Almost perfect

I love the sound, the play. The acoustics and electronics. There is only one issue with the frets. They were too long and it scratched against my index finger. My luthier polished them and now they’re fine.

Great guitar for the Money

I love the cutaway and the looks of this guitar. It has a bright tone. I did a full setup on it, fret dress and polish. Really kicked it up a whole bunch of levels. Very happy with this guitar. one of the strap buttons got pulled out so I reinstalled it with a slightly longer screw with a wood dowl on the inside since the regular strap buttons appear to only be screwed into the composite back material

clovation

close to an ovation-action was way too high when I got it and have had some trouble getting that corrected. It is comfortable to play just like an O. great guitar for noodling around. the sound is very good-not thin at all and the bowl is shallow which is what I wanted.

Extremely good cheap acoustic

Im not much of an acoustic player, but i enjoy playing this guitar. For the money i cannot complain. Sounds great and has no sharp edges.

Great round back for the price

This cost me around 115 dollars US. It looks great, feels great. Did need some frets filed, had some buzz going on. But outside of that, it's cool. the neck feels great, had it a year so far and it still sounds good.

Good, but needs work

I bought this guitar as an alternative to miking an acoustic up and it does a pretty good job. It's feedback-free at high volume and sounds pretty true to an ovation.

There were one or two issues out of the box. The fretboard was very dry and needed a lot of oil to rehydrate it and the frets were very scratchy, but if you spend an hour polishing them the results are good, there were no deep scratches, only superficial roughness.

Also, the action was quite high 2.5mm at the top 'e' and 3mm at the bottom 'E', I had to remove the bridge (it came out without problem) and sand it down to my preference.

After I had set the guitar up it played well and it's a nice easy playing good-sounding instrument, especially at this price point.

If you have the know-how it's quite easy to get this guitar to a good standard, if not, you may have to spend a little more to have a decent playing instrument.

For the price, I'd recommend it.

Roundback is unexpectedly awesome

I used to play dreadnought and I was always surprised what is the roundback guitar able to provide. So, I decided to try the HBO-850 and I was very surprised. It is really loud and provides very interesting tones. Of course they are different from dreadnought ones but it is interesting. The playability is awesome and I am fond of playing this guitar.

I have found only one minor lack - one of the decorative leaves is broken, but still the guitar looks beautiful.

Nice guitar

I like the style and design of the guitar (like an Ovation), I’m an at home player with family for my audience.

The only thing I can say negative about the guitar is the sliver left in my finger from somewhere near the sound holes.

Tuning and staying in tune, I find it to be like most of my prior purchases of HB electrics. It holds tune well, typically 5 out of 6 strings are fine.

I will say I’m not a big fan of the round back, that’s on me not on the guitar. It doesn’t affect my playing but it does feel a little off and less stable sitting on my leg, but that’s something you never know until you try it. I can assume/hope it will get better as I get better, play it more and become more accustomed to the round back style.

I have only used the electronics a couple of times and found no issues and it sounds great. At least to my untrained ear I should add.

If you want a nice guitar and don’t want to pay the big $$ this is certainly a great option.

good

good, very good guitar.

Spettacolare e tutto secondo descrizione.

Unbelievably good for the price.

I ordered this guitar for acoustic recording to my soundcard.

The guitar looks and plays very good.

Neck is nice and thin, but needs a little fret filing.

Changed the strings immediately to .10 and holds tune very well soon after.

The sound from the pickup is also very nice.

I would recommend this guitar to everyone.

Harley Benton Ovation

I read reviews and some are great some bad, but now I have 5 HB instruments and i can only tell they built great instruments for the price! This one is so good for strumming, solos... feels almost like you play electric hallow body guitar! Ovation tone and feeling for 100€. It looks so beautiful so if you wanna have it on your room its better choice than some decoration picture.

I am quite suprised and very impressed!

I ordered this on a whim, added it to an order I had planned and at the last minute, $93 more, why not?

It's been a long time since I pulled a guitar out of the box that was this playable, this pleasant to hold and has quickly become a favorite.

I looked at some of the older reviews and honestly, I have none of the 'scratchy frets' that are the principle complaint. It's light, very playable with a 'good' sound on it's own, but sounds great through an amp!

Clip a tuner on the headstock and no onw will know it's not an Ovation!

Bright sounding, great performer

Bought: March 2019

It was already tuned straight out of the box, and hasn't required much tuning since.

It sounds 'bright' with flat/0 eq settings, and has sufficient low end for rich-sounding chords. Barres are no problem and everything sounds good. Easy access to the battery compartment.

Action was a little high but didn't affect fretting, and QC was good all round, with no bad frets or imperfections in the body/neck.

The bowl back feels comfortable

This is my new 'go-to' acoustic out of my set. I know I can pick it up and trust it's good.

Looks great, sound is tinny

The guitar looks very good and would fool any musician not familiar with guitar brand names. Due to it's shallow plastic back, it doesn't have much low end and sounds very tinny. But this is common with guitars of this style and could be an interesting feature to some users.

Feels as cheap as the price

Very low quality guitar. It looks ok but after closer inspection you realize why the low cost. Frets buzz, action so high I got a nose bleed. Frets also scratchy and sharp. The price is attractive but don?t let it fool you. This is the type of guitar that would deter a beginner from learning guitar, which is a shame.

clarity

i have had many acoustic guitars since the early 1960s, this is the best i have ever heard, it has a beautiful tone and is very clear, i definately recommend this guitar for the maestro

Pretty good compared to the price

I think personally , you can not get an acoustic guitar with this price and higher quality. It is pretty satisfying. I was actually amazed with the pickup which works pretty good and can also handle a little bit of distortion effect.

I would recommend this guitar if you do not want to spend too much money on your acoustic guitar but in the same time you are looking for a good quality guitar.

Plastic Bowler

Great copy of the Ovation bowler guitar

Use this for busking nice sound pick up great. Neck is like a c shape nice and thin to play good for Bridge chords stays in tune well 2....A good starter guitar for kids can't go wrong with price

What a guitar!!

What can i say about this guitar?? It is just beautiful!! The designs on it are amazing. It looks like a far more expensive guitar than it was. Excellent value great sounding guitar. Beautiful resonance, tone, clarity. Stays in tune. Have been playing this now for a while and cannot fault it!

Saddle issues

The guitar as a structural construction problem. The saddle is not properly glued to the top of the guitar. I can fit between the saddle and the top of the guitar two sheets of paper.