Harley Benton Traveler-Steel

So where to begin?

This guitar is a suprise in the shape of a parlor guitar.

-The whole guitar is in the shape of the old parlor/country cowboy guitars, so its nowhere near the good ol' dreadnought, so getting used to it is a must. But if you put a strap around it, then all your problems are solved and you will find no problen holding it.

- The fretboard is great, the frets themselves dont stick out on the sides and going up and down the fretboard is extremely comfortable. The roseacer wood feels great! Yet again Hartley Benton suprised me.

-The tuners themselves are standard tuners that do their jobs well and are built sturdy and good. You can change them if you dont like them but i didnt see the need for that since they are good.

-The bridge is well built and is shaped in such a way that it feels natural when you are strumming your guitar.

-The body is well built and it resonates sound well and even.

-The sound suprises you, because you expect it to be high as the body is so slim, but its full and loud and its suprises listeners because they never expect a full body acoustic sound out of such a guitar! Amazing

For such a low price you get a unique acoustic parlor guitar that you can take anywhere, and the build quality is amazing for such a low price.

So do you want to sit by a campfire under the starry night and pretend youre an outlaw country legend like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings or Johnny Cash? Or even if you feel the Mississippi delta blues of Robert Johnson? Well even if you want to be that person at a party who always picks up a guitar and goes "anyways, heres wonderwall)", or even if youre chilling in your home during this uncertain times and you need some good ol' acoustic music in your life, well then this is the ideal guitar for you!

This is my second Harley Benton guitar and i plan to expand that number for sure!

Playable out of the box, this instrument exceeded my expectations regarding sound, playability, and construction. For the cost of about $55 USD, the instrument is built reasonably well. No glaring sloppiness issues, the most significant problem is the fret ends having some sharp edges. Cosmetically, the side dots on the fingerboard binding are s little sloppy at the 12th fret. That's about it. While playable out of the box, it can really be improved if one is willing to put in the effort of tuning up the action and intonation at the nut and saddle. I ended up filing the nut slots a bit, lowering the saddle mostly on the bass side about 1mm, and tweaking the truss rod to add a little relief, to make for a beautiful player. The tuners are nice, without noticeable backlash. The sound surprised me. I was expecting a very tinny tone, considering the soundbox is about the size of a tenor ukulele. But it's quite tolerable and sweet in tone, much more so than, say a Martin Backpacker. Curiously, the tone improves if you can manage to play with the back of the soundbox free from resting on your body, allowing the back to resonate as well as the top. While this isn't necessarily a practical way to play all the time, it indicates the capability of the tiny sized body. The instrument as delivered differs a bit from the one in the description. First, the scale length is about 1cm shorter than the stated 595mm. It has 21 frets rather than the stated 18. And it came with strings from 0.012"-0.053", significantly heavier than I was expecting, but in a good way. The heel of the neck isn't as chunky as the one in the photos. The only improvements I would suggest to Thomann would be aesthetic. The herringbone soundboard "inlay" decal could be eliminated or substituted with a laser cut design. And the neck binding seems like it could be eliminated without sacrificing any quality, and be cost effective, too. Seems strange that they bother on such an inexpensive instrument. But other than that, I'm really enjoying the Traveler, and it proves impressive for an instrument of this size and price.

I am really pleased with the sound also the playability. I had Washburn Rover travel guitar, steel string version, and the sound was really terrible and almost impossible to play without without the guitar strap.

Though I already have a Washburn Rover Nylon string version, and also I bought this low grade version, I am thinking of paying more and get the electro version.

It's a pity that I bought the low grade version because after inspection I have seen the defects. One of the major defect is the significant 'cut' on the 6th string fret.Though there is no buzzing but unfortunately there is really bad buzzing on the 1st string 2nd fret.

Despite the defects, I love this this guitar and it is going to be with me for years to come.

One thing which I did not expect to get- guitar carrying case. I was not expecting to get one because I had made an enquiry about this guitar and was told the guitar did not come with the bag.

Over all highly recommended to those people who wish to purchase it.

I had this guitar for more than a month now, the product as out of the box is ready for the adventure, comes with its little gig bag, and an allen/hex wrench for adjusting the truss rod. For that price... Amazing!
Not long after, I've been asked to buy a second guitar for a friend so I tried both.

-First of all: A strap is a must in order to be able to play!
-The looks and the woods are so nice... better than the pictures could tell.
-Sound is surprisingly good considering the size, if you want to change the string set, consider .11 or thicker so you help the low frequencies ;-)
-Bridge might need tweaking, maybe a turn on the rod, as the action on one of them came way high.

For what is worth...everybody should have one, can't regret it.

I have various physical characteristics which make holding and playing a guitar difficult – particularly the bigger guitars in the dreadnought shape. I happened upon the Martin backpacker guitar at a guitar show and was delighted to be able to pick one up second hand. I love that guitar, which has a built-in pick-up and a swish one-strap, padded gigbag. However, that guitar is worth around £200, and I feel a bit anxious about taking it around the pubs for open mic nights. So, I was surfing the web, browsing ‘Parlour’ style guitars, and I came across this one – which was on Thomann and so I added it to my basket, which already had items such as lyre harp strings in it.

At £55 it is difficult to quibble about the price, for what is a good quality instrument in its own right, without considering the portability etc. The description says it comes with a ‘gigbag’, which technically is true as it has a zipable cover in the same kind of fabric as you get with factory-produced lyre harps; but it isn’t padded and will protect from scratches, but not from knocks e.g. people bumping into you in a crowded bar. After purchasing it, I noted that there is a ‘Harley Benton Traveler-E-Steel’ version for £66, and in the product description there is a link to a suitable gigbag – 396739 – which can be purchased separately…but why was this not noted in the acoustic only version?!

Now then, there’s a dilemma here between the ‘E-steel’ and the acoustic version. I purchased a pick-up to put on the guitar for open mic nights, but this works out more expensive than getting the ‘E-steel’ version. However, the pick-up is removeable and can be used on other instruments, such as lyre harps. Also, if I do decide I want to go travelling and probably won’t be performing but just want to have a guitar with me, I won’t be hampered by the extra weight of the built-in pick-up. Also, if built-in pick-ups go wrong, they will need to be replaced by an expert, whereas removable pick-ups can just be, well, removed!

The instrument itself is slim, sleek, and cute. The Harley Benton branding is very stylish. It tuned up reasonably quickly for a new instrument out of the box and it has a nice sound.

I had bought a pretty blue guitar strap, but there is only a place to attach it on the one side; I have thus had to purchase an adapter to attach the other side of the strap – by running the thin leather strap across the neck of the guitar.

All in all I am very happy with this purchase.

OK, I decided to summarise my review as such: if you build a guitar, you go through 3 stages, 1, the cut and assembly of the instruments, 2 the finishing of the product, 3 quality control.
Here we have a product at stage 1, maybe 1.5. The frets are not "frets", but raw wire that is dangerous to the hands. Everything is unfinished and "sharp", the binding, the bridge, etc. But the fret ends are lethal.
Now, After a couple of hours of filing and sanding down, the instrument is now "finished" and I can review it as an instrument.
Beware that the scale is small. I am a "short man" and still, my fingers find it difficult to play even an E cord. The strings are cheese-wire quality level. The bridge also has to be sanded down and lowered. The neck needed to be straightened and the fingerboard oiled. I repeat and conclude: a cool and cheap "project guitar", but not a finished product.
Strongly not recommended for kids or beginners who could injure their hands along the neck.
Would I buy it again? Sure, for the money as an "expert" I can make it a cute travel guitar. Just beware.

This is a great little guitar, essentially a modern take on the parlour guitar. Like those, it sounds a touch boxy strummed (I think it adds character!) but brilliant for fingerpicking.

As with almost all of my Harley Bentons, it arrived from Germany to the UK still mostly in tune, and it holds tuning well. The action is a touch high - I intend to sand down the saddle when I next change the strings (although I've grown to quite like the action and how it changes my playing!) Its size is perfect for always having it down by the side of the sofa.

If you want a convenient, good quality guitar I can recommend this one, especially if you are fingerpicking/considering the parlour type sound.

The frets may be a little bit sharp, but that doesn't bother me. The sound quality is absolutely fine for that price range. The size is not too big but also not too small, making it a great travel companion. One thing to note, however, is the small corpus with which it might be a bit unusual to play the guitar at the beginning since you can't rest your arm on the corpus but somehow have to balance the guitar when holding and playing. It's not that big of a deal since you can get used to it, but it's still worth mentioning. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the guitar, and for the price I can't even complain. It's a simple small guitar with a good sound. Thumbs up!!