Harley Benton HB-35 BK Vintage Series

190

Electric Guitar

  • Vintage series
  • Build: Semi-hollow with mahogany sustain block (Entandrophragma cylindricum) and F-holes
  • Body: Maple
  • Arched top
  • Set-in neck: Canadian maple
  • Fretboard: Amaranth
  • Fretboard radius: 305 mm (12")
  • Dot fretboard inlays
  • Cream binding on the body and neck
  • 22 Frets
  • Scale: 628 mm
  • Nut width: 42 mm
  • Double action truss rod
  • Pickups: 2 Vintage-style humbuckers
  • 3-Way pickup selector
  • 2 Volume knobs and 2 tone knobs
  • Hardware: Chrome
  • Tune-O-Matic bridge
  • Enclosed die-cast machine heads
  • Strings: Harley Benton .010 - .046
  • Colour: Black high gloss
Available since July 2015
Item number 362658
Sales Unit 1 piece(s)
Colour Black
Body Maple
Top Maple
Neck Canadian Maple
Fretboard Amaranth
Frets 22
Scale 628 mm
Pickups HH
Tremolo No
Incl. Case No
Incl. Bag No
B-Stock from £134 available
£169
All prices incl. VAT
In stock
In stock

This product is in stock and can be shipped immediately.

Standard Delivery Times
Delivery free of charge expected between Wednesday, 3.04. and Thursday, 4.04.
1

In the most classic tradition

The Harley Benton HB-35 BK is a semi-hollow electric guitar that instantly calls to mind classic guitars of the past - albeit without the hefty price tag. It features a maple body with an arched top that is adorned with elegant f-holes, and the combination of a high-gloss black finish and chrome hardware completes its authentic vintage look. The guitar's construction incorporates a solid block of wood that runs through the centre of the body, which together with its set maple neck ensures plenty of sustain and helps to prevent unwanted feedback when playing at high volume. The latter in turn features a 22-fret amaranth fingerboard with white pearloid dot inlays that provide a visual contrast and easier orientation when playing, and both neck and body (front and back) are adorned with cream-coloured binding, a feature usually reserved for much pricier instruments.

Pure retro charm

To ensure that the Harley Benton HB-35 delivers a retro feast for the ears as well as the eyes, the guitar features a pair of vintage-style humbucking pickups, and its combination of a Tune-o-Matic bridge and stop-bar tailpiece together with the internal centre block mentioned above provide a full, sustaining sound. At the opposite end, the headstock is adorned by a set of sealed diecast machine heads that promise many years of reliable service. The neck features a comfortable C profile and is equipped with a double-action trussrod for optimum adjustability, and both the 628mm (24.7") scale length and 42mm (1.65") nut width are also typical for this style of guitar. The same is true of the HB-35's electronics, which comprise a three-way toggle switch and dedicated volume and tone controls for each pickup, so players can easily dial in any tone they desire.

Back to the '60s

The Harley Benton HB-35 is an excellent choice for fans of the classic guitars of the 1960s, and its retro looks and typical hollowbody sound also make it a great instrument for the stage. Its vintage-style pickups deliver the perfect sound for live performances and studio recordings too, so players who can do without a tremolo will have everything they need - and the superior tuning stability provided by a fixed bridge will doubtless be a bonus in both situations.

About Harley Benton

Since 1998, the Harley Benton brand has been catering for the needs of numerous guitarists and bassists. In addition to an extensive range of stringed instruments, Thomann's house brand also offers a wide choice of amplifiers, speakers, effect pedals, and other accessories. In total, the range includes over 1,500 products. Built by established names in the industry, all Harley Benton products combine quality and reliability at attractive and affordable prices. The continuous expansion of the range ensures that Harley Benton always provides new, exciting, and innovative products that keep players perfectly in tune with the musical world, day after day.

Chuck Berry sends his regards

From Blues and Jazz through to Indie, the Harley Benton HB-35 will be a guaranteed eyecatcher on stage. It represents a great choice for live players with much more expensive guitars who are looking for a suitable backup instrument as well as for studio musicians looking to unleash their inner Chuck Berry with catchy double-stop riffs, power chords, and full-sounding melodies. To authentically replicate the sounds of the era, the HB-35 should of course be combined with a suitable tube amplifier with sufficient headroom. Those who are looking to expand their palette of sounds with splittable pickups or would prefer an attractive flamed maple top, however, should instead take a look at this guitar's big sister, the Harley Benton HB-35Plus.

190 Customer ratings

4.5 / 5

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147 Reviews

J
Impressive - *updated
James1980 19.01.2018
I'm a semi-pro guitarist. I've been playing for 20 years. I do regular session work and several (big) live shows a month. I also teach and am Adviser to the Arts of a respected UK university. I hope my review comes with some credence.

This guitar is impressive.

The neck is comfortable and the Blackwood fret board is very handsome. The frets themselves are well seated and level, but were very rough. 10 minutes polishing the frets solved this and transformed the instrument. I'm sure there are lots of YouTube vids on how to do this - I used a kit I bought for polishing the headlamps of my car which consists of a sponge pad that attached to my drill!

The tuners are a little high ratio making it a little too easy to overshoot the mark. This may make stage tuning a little awkward for some. Nonetheless they are perfectly decent quality and hold tune fine.

The neck is nice and straight out of the box. With no adjustment to the truss or filing of frets I have lowered the bridge for a really low action with zero buzz. I have guitars I have spent four times the price on where this has not been possible without a pro set-up.

Lots of people will say 'whats the point of spending less than £200 on a guitar if you have to pay nearly £100 having it professional set up?!' - I disagree. I have paid £1000s for custom shop guitars that needed a pro set up, if not at the point of purchase a couple of years down the line once the road has taken its toll and my chops have made made valleys of the frets. Just because a setup is proportionally higher to the initial cost of the instrument, does not mean it is not worth doing if you want a really class act. In fact, I'd say that the shelf price obliges you do either do some work yourself or pay a pro. That said, after my fret polish, this guitar played great out of the box.

I was concerned that the pickups might not sound that great. If you are playing exposed Jazz you may want to opt for the HB35+. My understanding is that pickups on the + are a little more open sounding. But if, like me, you are grinding out rock and pop, you'll have no complaints here. I don't need coil tapping - I have other guitars if I want single coil twang.

Time will tell if the guitar is durable enough for the road. The components seem high quality enough and I got a bargain bundle with a hard case. At this price you can buy a new guitar after a couple of years of hard use anyway!

The overall finish is not perfect. The paint job has some (very minor) orange peel and there are some tiny flecks along the binding. There is also a small patch of rough work around on the fretboard at the last fret. None of these things affect the play-ability and are only noticeable from less than a few inches away in good light. If you want a family heirloom look elsewhere, but if you are looking for a good looking, great playing ES knock off that holds its own in the studio or the stage, this axe is a bargain!

*Just an update after a few months - still playing great. My band-mate brought his Gibson ES-345 along to a gig last weekend - I can honestly say my HB played better and sounded just as good.
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G
HB35 package review. Some minor flaws, but for the price it is great
GaJe 11.03.2020
Here is my review of the HB35 Vintage black :

First of all, a big thanks and heads up for the very good service of the Thomann customer service.
The chat service works great and they are very helpful.
I Ordered the package with the case included and it arrived in a split shipment a few days after the purchase.
Ordered Wednesday, received the case on Friday and the guitar the week after on Monday.
The only complaint I have on the delivery is the fact they are using UPS.
I don’t have very good experiences with UPS, I have much better experiences with other delivery companies like DHL, Post NL, …
If I had the choice I’d certainly would choose another company for the shipment.

Now the guitar :
My first impression when taking it out of the box was very good. Whaw! What a nice guitar, it looked really great!
A quick tuning of the guitar and I was able to test it out. Intonation was almost fine.
After a few more detailed inspections I noticed some minor flaws :
- Some visible wirings in the body
- The attachments from the bridge to the body are protruding from the body (just 1 mm, but still)
- The fretboard was rather dry and needed some lemon oil
- The frets were a little rough and needed a quick polish
- The tuners were OK, (guitar remains nicely in tune) but could be improved (I replaced them with a set of kluson tuners which improved the tuning process)
Some other flaws were a little more annoying :
- When adapting the intonation of the guitar I noticed that the screws in the bridge just move backward out of the bridge instead of changing the intonation. I had to push them back into the bridge with the screwdriver in order to move the bridges in the right place (it worked OK but it is annoying) I ordered a better bridge in the meantime.
- When plugging in the guitar, I noticed that the tone pot of the bridge pickup didn’t work. After fiddling a little bit with the wires inside of the body, the tone pot worked correctly, which makes me suspect that it is an issue of a bad soldering or a short circuit of the wires. Annoying again, but for now it works, so it is OK for me. In worst case, if the issue raises again, I’ll remove the pots to re-solder them or change the faulty pot if required (I guess that Thomann will have no issue sending me a replacement pot if I explain them the situation)
All these small issues make me suppose that the Thomann QC is limited to a quick visual check on big issues and the guitar is most probably not plugged in to test the electronics,
but again, this should probably not be expected for a guitar of 169 euros.

So, as conclusion, despite a few shortcomings, with a little extra investment you can have a great guitar! I am more than happy and satisfied with my purchase and I would not hesitate to by another Harley Benton!
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P
Great piece of kit but a good set up makes it better
Progrockdad 17.03.2020
i am not a very good guitarist, at all, but I am careful about what I buy. After buying this, I gave it to a local luthier/guitar technician who has set up all my guitars, and he said that it was already pretty well set up out of the box. I have to compliment Thomann on the high quality packaging, being the best that I have seen, having bought guitars from two other major UK suppliers who frankly were awful. I replaced the strings with Ernie Ball’s (sorry Thomann, your strings were okay, but EB are my favourites as I have mild arthritis in my hands).
The selector switch was lose but was easily tightened with a plastic guitar tool.
The intonation was adjusted, the bridge was adjusted as was the neck, the neck was “fed” as a bit dry. Some light fret polishing also. The action was almost perfect but Tom adjusted that too.
There were two small scratches on the back of the guitar when it arrived but nothing that concerned me.
This is my favourite guitar. It is bloody awesome. It even makes a 66 year old with crap hands sound good. Maybe I should have bought the + version but I am not sure that it is available in black. This is “testicoli per cani” Greetings from England.
Hey Europe. Kick the butt of this Covid 19 Mother F****r. Help your neighbours. Look after your family. Stay healthy. If I was good enough, I would love to set up all the guitarists and bassists and drummers, singers and everyone else, to arrange a huge thank you to all of the people keeping us alive. Rocking 1000, your cue!!!!!
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2.5 year evaluation
Ermini 29.01.2022
I bought this as my first electric guitar after playing 5/6 years acoustically. I had no experience with electric guitars and i was unfamiliar with the Harley Benton brand. After seeing some (video)reviews i thought: "well I might give this a go, considering the price and the good reviews".

This guitar has given me so much joy in the past years and still does. Its amazing that these quality guitars are being made in this price range. For playability i prefer it over my Epiphone PR-4E-NA.

Three minor details that i found after having the guitar for a while is that:

1. after the 16th fret the frets stick out a bit to the side, but its something that hasn't bothered me yet during playing. I might file them myself soon.

2. After 1.5 years or so, some of the volume/tone knobs sound scratchy in a certain range. I can fix this by using some contact spray (lubricant for electronic parts), but still havent gotten to it.

3. After getting familiar with electric guitars and my playing style i noticed that some strings had a higher output than others. The humbucker pickups are excellent for adjusting the height of the pickup and their individual polepieces yourself. Just consult some online videos and write down what you are doing in a diagram or something, so you can always adjust it back to how it came.

Overall a great guitar, which has convinced me to buy two more Harley Bentons!
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