Harley Benton HBMA-50 Mandoline VS

Bought this as my first mandolin as I wanted something to accompany a guitar for country songs. It came very well packaged, and in great condition.

First thing I noticed was the finish. It looked really great, and not just for the price. It has a few rougher spots, but otherwise it is very well made. One of the tuners is a bit looser than the others, but never affected the tunability. The scratch plate was a bit loose too, but nothing a quarter turn with the screwdriver couldn't fix.

It needed a bit of a setup to be truly playable. I had to lower the bridge (easy, as it is adjustable) and adjust the nut a little bit. The strings aren't great, and I would recommend swapping them. But the sound is fine, and it sounds good along with other instruments. It is very bright, and it can be loud if you want it to.

I cannot recommend this enough, generally speaking. If you're looking for a mandolin look no further, just get it.

Za tuto cenu mě velmi překvapilo velmi kvalitní dílenské zpracování. Má silný zvuk, ocenil bych více hlubší tóny. Hraje se na ni velmi dobře. Ladicí mechanika drží. Jen jsem vyměnil struny a jsem nadmíru spokojen. Mohu srovnávat s nástrojem v cenové hladině 8-10tisíc a rozdíl ve zvuku tu je. Čekal jsem něco co nebude k běžnému hraní na pódiu vůbec použitelné, ale musím naopak konstatovat, že jde o nástroj, který nezní sice jako mnohokrát dražší kusy, ale běžný divák to nepozná. Jsem spokojený. Sláva Bluegrassu.

I haven't had any prior experience with mandolins. I've bought it to check out if I like these instruments or not (it turned out I LOVE THEM!).

What hit me just after unpacking is that the body finish. The photos on the Thomann site implies something like 3 Tone Sunburst, when in fact it's more of a dull 2 Tone Sunburst. Not that bad, but not great either.

Mandolin arrived completely not set up - no intonation, no string height. The nut was a tad too high as well( first few frets were sharp tonewise) - sanding it off helped a lot. Frets are fine, the tuners are a bit hard to tune. Strings were not terrible, but rather on the bad side. Replacing them with D'addario improved the sound a lot and now the tuners keep the tune way better.

Soundwise - it's a twangy little beast with rather poor sounding G string. Anyway, it sounds like a mandolin. What else do you want for that money?

To conclude. Is it perfect instrument ? Not at all. Is it fun to play? Hell yes! Would I buy it again? Yup!