Harley Benton Delta Blues MJCE

First off, let me say that I am a big fan of Harley Benton, and that I have almost 10 of them, including some B-stock.

That being said, the guitar I received was a used guitar! I can say the with 100% certainty, because the plastic saddle was sanded on the bottom, and had large groves in it at every string position. Clear signs of prolonged use. The guitar buzzed horribly due to this and was almost unplayable.

There was also a worn spot on the neck and one of the peg-holes in the bridge was worn so badly, that the peg could not sit straight.

My other Harley Benton guitars have all been great, so I am really not sure what happened here.

Anyway, after I fixed the problems, and changed the saddle to a new one, it actually plays well, and it looks amazing. The dark wood is much better looking than in the pictures. It is not a large guitar and the sound is bright and crisp. It also keeps the tuning well. All in all, a great little guitar. Just a pity that I got a used one.

I've had a Sigma travel steel string for the past few years, and every time I pick it up I wish I'd bought a full size guitar. I've been looking at Harley Benton guitars on the website and youtube yada yada yada for about 12 months. This guitar got great reviews on both, including a great one by Jonathon in Singapore as mentioned in another review here.

My first Harley Benton - online ordering easy; delivery to Scotland tracked all the way and at my door within a week of ordering. Double boxed, no damage to either box or guitar.

The colour of the guitar was a dark brown/blue/black - darker than on the photos on the website and nicer for it. All strings were tuned down. All tuners worked and held tune well; all felt smooth, no noticeable 'bad ones'.

The sound was amazing for such a well priced guitar - loud enough when strummed, very clear single notes, and good resonance.

The finish of the guitar was not so good - the joint between neck and body looked rough, and the fret ends felt sharp all the way up the neck. Unfortunately I don't have the knowledge or tools to file the frets.

I played the guitar for an evening, and loved the sound but didn't like the frets. The guitar is good value for money (I went for the bundle including gig bag, as it was only £5 more than the guitar on its own with shipping), especially as it comes with an preamp (and free battery). Unfortunately I decided the finish outweighed the sound so I sent it back under the 30 day return, spent twice the money and got a Harley Benton Custom Line CLA-15MCE B-Stock.

A note on the returns - this was a simple to do as the original ordering - go on the website, hit return item, (no need to give any explanation), print off return label, package up the guitar in the original packaging, take round to local post office (return slip had instructions for the post office staff too, just in case), they scan it, and you can track it all the way back to Thomann. Took same time for the return to reach Germany as the replacement guitar to reach Scotland - great service!