Harley Benton Traveler-E-Steel Reviews

I travel quite a lot and I was looking for a handy guitar that I could easily take a long with me. After reading some positive reviews about this guitar I decided to bought it.

Pros:

- The build of the guitar is quite surprising;

- The cost/quality is really impressive;

Cons:

- If you are looking for a traveler guitar with the same sound of your usual guitar, you will not find it for sure on this guitar;

Excellent value, good workmanship, some adjustments needed

I live in Switzerland and occasionally travel to Greece (meine Heimatland). I wanted a small portable guitar to leave there and occasionally take with me on trips.

It's indeed a very small guitar. Its neck isn't so wide and the scale length is smaller than usual. Not quite a ukulele, but so much smaller than a typical guitar. It also has a matte finish all around.

The quality was good, especially considering the price. The frets didn't have any weird fret ends, but were a little rough. I didn't notice anything unusual in the binding, but even if I did, it's so cheap it doesn't matter.

I immediately replaced the strings. Didn't care what strings it came with initially, I just put some Elixirs on, yet... I didn't like how it played, because the action was too high. Though the neck was straight with no warping, I still had to adjust a bit the truss rod. Then I had to trim the bridge a bit, managed to drop it to 1,75 & 2mm on 12th fret E high & low respectively.

It sounds a bit thin, since the body shape is very very small. But it sounds good. It's easy to carry around, it's light and though the machine heads are no-name, they hold tuning relatively well.

I definitely recommend it if you want a small portable guitar to take around. The price is right and you will not regret it. I did deduct a point due to the less-than-perfect setup, but for the price, I could easily buy more of this as a gift for others.

Bent, unusable

The neck is bent. Completely unusable.

It serves a purpose

I bought this because I do a lot of travelling and it is not always convenient for me to carry a full size guitar. The guitar was very low cost but at the same time I find it difficult to play and the sound quality is not very good. That said, it does allow me to practice and it serves its purpose.

Really nice travel guitar

This guitar did not sound/play great out of the box but after a setup it played surprisingly well. It is so easy to play that I find myself picking it up over my other larger (& much more expensive) guitars to just practice on the couch with. The pickup sounds great and you have basic controls over volume and EQ. The only issue is that it is not weight balanced at all and is quite heavy towards the headstock, which makes it awkward to play, this can be fixed by getting a strap though so would highly recommend ordering one if buying this guitar if you don't already have one.

Cute, useful and fun

Full disclosure: was gifted this guitar right when I was about to order it. Played it at Jams in Vietnam and Cambodia and at home, in parks etc. Fits in normal size suitcase, can be plugged in or played acoustic.

Of course! the acoustic tone is not bass or volume heavy but adequate. Sometimes it's sound can be a feature actually. Adding some Nanoweb Elexir strings will hugely improve tone/sound and add volume.

Every guitarist gal I know falls in love with it, my poor and young friend ordered one after she borrowed mine. Great party, beach, travel, "no worry" and have everyone play it guitar. Quality, finish, functionality, wood are great for the price.

Have only one minor complaint. Intonation on mine was not perfect, this might not be the case on each unit. Feel it fair to say that I'm picky about perfect tuning, seem to hear tiny out of tune discrepancies that other people don't care about or never notice.

I had a Yamaha Guitalelle before. I prefer this one by far, since it has normal tuning and nicer scale, which is not full size but playable for almost anyone, unless you got really big hands.

Surprising Fun, Super Handy

I wanted a handy guitar to hang in in my living room for decoration and quick playing when I have an idea for a new song. The plain acoustic sound of the thing is good enough for that, but probably not enough for fireside camping shows. The surprise was when I plugged it in. The piezo pickup was much better than I expected. I was able to make it sound like a much bigger instrument. And then I stumbled onto a great new comedy bit when I played it through a little Peavey Vypyr modeling amp with some Marshall-type distortion. The fun was the image of me rocking out with this peanut-bodied baby guitar while playing Heart's 'Barracuda.' My buddies were in hysterics. Really, This little box sounds as good as much more expensive 'travelers.'

Very surprise to hear it play.

A lot of resonance for its size.

For the price, you'll be able to play this and have fun if you are traveling.

It might be a good idea to bring it to a guitar tech and have another look at it since it's a smaller scale length and the strings on the guitar might not necessarily be the right gage for it. I seem to have issues keeping it in Tune so It might be due to the string gage.

perfect busking guitar

I've looking at smaller guitars for a while since im a busker, and carrying a full bodied guitar plus other equipment can be quite tiring. So i came across this travel guitar accidentally while looking at more expensive models, and since it was so cheap i decided to order it in addition to the guitar already decided to buy.

This was probabilly the best decision i ever made in my busking career, because the guitar is lso light and easy to play i can literally go for hours without getting my fingers or my back too tired. It's best played through and amplifier (which i do), since it isn't very loud when unplugged. Another plus is that because it's a funny looking guitar it definitely draws some extra attention.

Im honestly impressed.

It's great. Use it for comedy shows

It's great. Use it for comedy shows

value for money

good sounding instrument for price

saddle a bit to tall had to take a wee bit off

Frets very small and uneven had to dress a few high frets

Had to file nut down a bit

Replaced saddle with bone replacement

and now instrument is very playable

and is now my go to guitar.

Overall if i had not done work to it it was still playable

once the work had been done i am quite a proud owner

of another harley benton instrument which is value for money

If you want to traveller guitar be ready to set it up from a scratch, crown the frets, change the nut and youll be ready to go! Really fine instrument for the price. Don't expect cedar wood and god knows what Martin gives you, but a straight guitar that you can take ouside and don't worry about anything! I'm roaming with mine everywhere and it still stay in tune and sound loud :)

Some string buzzing, great for travel

This guitar saved me hundreds of dollars in baggage fees as I flew around Europe. That was the primary mission for this Traveler-E-Steel guitar and it fulfilled the role perfectly. I do not consider it an easy guitar to play because of the adjustments required, but it gets the job done of allowing me to practice at least a few minutes every day, no matter if I am traveling or not. For that purpose it is a great guitar. Also, because it is very inexpensive, it also serves as a knock around guitar for the beach, outdoors, camping, or for any place it will see abuse. Glad I bought it!

Good travel guitar for the price

As with many products from the Harley Benton brand, you get what you pay for. When the guitar arrived I had to do some minor setup work but then it was very comparable to my Phoenix travel guitar, which was more expensive but doesn't have the semi-electric aspects that this one does.

Build quality is more than ok for the price, aswell as for the materials used. The (ukelele) pickup actually has quite a lot of range, with a punchy bass (depending on your amp ofcourse) and a good mid-high range.

All in all very satisfied for a guitar in this price range.

Fantastic!

A real gem with it's own unique tone. I wasn't expecting much because of the price but this guitar should cost 3 times the price. Awesome!

I had some doubts concerning the quality and the sound of this guitar. The quality is a exactly what you pay for, the sound is pretty decent for the size, the play ability is better than expected and in overall I totally recommend this guitar.

Friendly

The most basic thing we can get as an electro-acoustic guitar. The strings make the difference, really: if you can use the heavy ones, there is more sound and presence. This one also comes with me as a spare guitar, when I break a string of the main guitar, during a song. It is interesting because it is not short.

Worth buying

A great little 'sofa' guitar for the money. I probably play it more than any of my 15 gtrs at the moment, and that includes the Fenders!

Quite solid, well made, although the fret ends haven't been 'finished' (a bit sharp... shredders beware!)

The set up was perfectly fine for me, strings adequate, and the electrics work well. Even got a free bag!

At this price, you can take it to festivals, leave it in the car, take it on the plane, throw it in the overhead locker, let the dog jump on it, and not worry!

For the price, great!

what a great little guitar. Made for practice. So convenient to grab and play. After some truss rod adjustment, when I first opened the product, I found the action good, plugged sound is excellent and it sounds good unplugged too. My first traveller guitar. For the money this is an absolute steal. Even comes with a gig bag!

A great man toy.

Overall alright for the price

I bought three travel guitar and this model I kept it for myself. Everything is alright with this guitar for the price I paid. Unfortunately, the intonation is not as good the price. I just wish the quality control is tightened up. As I already have a Washburn Rover travel guitar, I had to let it go.

I do recommend this guitar to people if they will have it set it up professionally because the sound is really nice, easy to play, built quality is satisfactory, also better than most of the travel guitar out there in the market.