Harley Benton RB-612CS Classic Series

117 ratings

12-String Electric Guitar

Build type: Semi-hollow
Body: Mahogany, with bindings
Neck: Maple, set-in
Neck profile: C
Fretboard: Roseacer (thermally treated maple wood)
Dot fretboard inlays
22 Frets
Scale: 628 mm
Nut width: 48 mm
Double action truss rod
Pickups: 2 Artec Classic Mini humbuckers
2 Volume knobs, 2 Tone knobs
3-Way toggle switch
Tune-o-Matic bridge
Casino tailpiece
Hardware: Chrome
Diecast machine heads
D'Addario strings
Colour: Cherry Sunburst, high-gloss

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Further information

Colour	Sunburst
Soundboard	Mahogany
Neck	Maple
Fretboard	Roseacer
Frets	22
Scale	628 mm
Pickup System	HH
Tremolo	No
Incl. Case	No
Incl. Gigbag	No

117 customer ratings:

5

65 Customers

65 customers have given this product a 5-star rating.

Of these, 46 customers have written no texts or given their feedback in another language.
4

42 Customers

42 customers have given this product a 4-star rating.

Of these, 33 customers have written no texts or given their feedback in another language.
3

7 Customers

7 customers have given this product a 3-star rating.

Of these, 6 customers have written no texts or given their feedback in another language.
2

2 Customers

2 customers have given this product a 2-star rating.

Of these, 2 customers have written no texts or given their feedback in another language.
1

1 Customer

One customer has rated this product with one star.

No customer has written a text about this; or they have written a text in a different language.

4.4 / 5.0

features
sound
quality

91 written ratings Read all reviews

Jingle Jangle man.

Royarthur, 02.05.2018

I bought this guitar for writing and home recording. The instrument arrived in the usual bomb proof Thomann packaging, always double boxed with plenty of padding, three days after its dispatch from Germany. Upon opening I found a very "Ricky" vibe guitar full of Byrds like jingle jangle wonder, full marks for "cool". The first job was to lemon oil a very dry fret-board, I find a lot of new guitars need this, the grain came out and very lovely it is. Not much of a set up needed, the intonation was 99%, and for once I kept the supplied strings as they were fine....all good until I plugged her in, then, well it just got BETTER!! A volume and tone that work well,then...a lovely transparency of sound that would sit in any mix with a subtle presence all of its own, ghostly, floating....very "far out" from two crisp, tight sounding pick ups. There is not that much variation of sound, neck, middle and bridge, but it is what you expect from a semi 12 string electric. A very well set neck, stable and a nicely fretted board with no finger slicing over hang, a well cut nut and very good action. The machine heads do a great job, a bit tight for large fingers but what 12 string isn't? A nicely bound F hole, good paint job and ornamental tail piece finish her off with not a great deal of neck dive. For its price, a staggeringly fantastic guitar. If you are in the market for a budget 12 string electric with much more than budget construct and sound, then this is your Jingle jangle man.

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The good, the bad and the ugly

Anthony3472, 10.04.2014

I bought this knowing it was a budget 12 string guitar. It was half the price of the closest electric 12 string and less than a Tenth of the price of a Rickenbacker, so you get what you pay for right?
The good - The construction of this is very good. It's slightly neck heavy as you'd expect but not any problem. There are a few flaws on the finish but you'd have to look hard to find them. My nightmare would be if there were would be buzzes or rattles with the strings due to the budget nature. On mine though, there's not. It's nice and straight, the nut fitting is good. The neck is really playable, the tuning is very stable and I find myself picking it up to play it all the time.
The Bad - The pickup wiring failed almost straightaway. On inspecting behind the scratchplate, the soldering was really poor, the wiring was bad and the quality of the pots was terrible, even for a cheap guitar.
I kind of expected this though and I ended up replacing all the pots for CTS ones, tidied up the wiring and resoldered etc.
It was easy enough to do and the resulting jump in sound quality made it more than worthwhile. I had thought of replacing the Pickups too but actually they're not too bad for now and I can always do that in the future if necessary.
The ugly - In copying the Rickenbacker style control panel. The makers stuck two bits of plasticcy looking scratchplate material together roughly. It had sharp edges and looked bad. As I had the scratchplate off to fix the wiring anyway, I made an attempt to replace the scratchplate with a piece of white Pearliod material I had left over from a hobby project. The result turned out great and really improves the look of the guitar. It was easy to do and the guitar now looks and plays so well that people comment on it all the time.

I would recommend this guitar but would just put a warning that the wiring and quality of the pots is poor and you may have to rectify that.
Overall though, I'd buy one again. Even with the cost of parts etc this guitar is EUR150 cheaper than the nearest 12 string electric I've seen and I'm really happy with it.

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