Harley Benton HBO-850 Classic Blue

Why I chose this guitar....(This may be of interest if you're an old timer with arthritis like me, otherwise jump to the Review if you're in a hurry). I learned the ukelele as a boy and was given a beaten up student classical guitar in my early teens. In my twenties I bought myself a steel stringed acoustic, then in the early 1990's an HSS Strat. I've jammed with a few friends but the vast majority of my playing has been on my own in the house, so strictly an amateur but I've been playing on and off for decades. Around 5 years ago I treated myself to a ukelele which I love. However, the arthritis that I had in my knees spread to my hands causing me loss of flexibility and significant pain if I tried to play anything. I didn't play for around 3 years. I've been taking some supplements for my knees which helped ease my hands a little so I started reading up on what I could do to make things easier to play. First up was nylon strings rather than steel and lowering string tension. So I lowered the tuning on my ukelele to match my guitars and yes it helped...which got me thinking maybe I could get back to playing guitar. I didn't want a classical guitar as the wide flat neck would have been difficult for me, I needed nylon strings and a neck a little wider than than a steel string guitar. I also wanted to be able to plug into my amp if possible. In other words a hybrid between electric and acoustic, something that could do both.

Review.... This is a bowl back acoustic guitar modelled on a well known brand but at a significantly lower price. The neck is an attractive mahogany and has a smooth satin coated finish. It is 48mm wide at the nut, which is what first drew my attention to this guitar. Wider than a steel string guitar but narrower than a classical. It also has a mild radius rather than being flat which helps me with chord playing. The fretboard is hardwood with ABS binding. The body is black ABS plastic with a cream plastic binding and the top is wood. The multi sound holes are decorated with leaf effect wood epaulets which are glued on. There is a 9 volt pre amp/equaliser.

The guitar looks lovely and quality is generally good. The neck needed no attention at all. No sharp fret ends, raised frets or buzzing. The action is a little high compared to a steel string guitar but its what you'd expect for a nylon stringed guitar. Not sure what to do about the nut. The top and bottom E strings both fit flush into their slots but the other strings seem to be raised a little as if the slot isn't quite wide enough. I have contemplated opening up these slots slightly but the action is ok so I've left it for now. Maybe this is deliberate to match the radius of the fretboard..? The black body has a mild raindrop effect pattern on its surface and seems pretty tough. The jack plug socket is on the lower side and I had to tighten the nut which was a little loose. There is no access panel (other than removing the pre amp which is on the opposite side) so if the nut had come off and the socket had dropped inside the body it would be difficult to retrieve. The top is wood and there is a light grain visible. Its hard to tell if it is solid wood, veneered or has some other sort of finishing under the clear coat. For the price the finish is fine, however, there are a couple of minor aberrations. One edge of the lower decorative epaulet is not glued down properly and has started to lift. This will need gluing down at some point as it will get caught and split off. There is also a blob of excess glue on the inside edge of one of the sound holes which I can probably trim off. The colour and finish coats are not as neat as they could be where the ABS neck binding meets the top. It looks like the neck and fretboard are attached to the body before the final coats are added. The masking around the neck ABS trim could be better. It's only a minor issue and not bad enough to warrant returning the guitar.

I have limited movement in my index finger so I cant play some open string chords but I have found this guitar easier to play than my steel string acoustic. Unplugged this guitar has a pleasant balanced sound and plenty of volume if used with a plec. Plugged in the pre amp is hot enough to produce some distortion if required and the 3 band equaliser gives good control if you wish to adjust your tone. There is a battery test button but no in built tuner. I've played this pretty loud to test it out and while it is possible to induce feedback, you just have to adjust where you stand in relation to your amp/speaker. The HB strings that were on the guitar sound ok but after 2 months I'm still doing a minor retune each time I play.

I have found that with a strap the body does naturally face upwards a little. I'm still getting used to this and consciously have to make sure the body is facing outwards otherwise my left wrist is bent around too much and gets painful.

In summary this guitar is well suited for my style which is backing accompaniment to most modern music from ballads to rock. It is easy to play, looks lovely and sounds good.

This is my 5th Harley Benton purchase and I've left it a little while to "review", to try and form a reasoned opinion.

Pros - The instrument looks fine from a short distance. It plays nicely - after a little work. I find it nice to go back to a classical guitar string spacing for clean chords, maybe I have fat fingers ? To have a nylon string guitar but with a truss rod adjustment is nice, to have the ability to fine tune the action is great and helps the playability. The price is incredibly reasonable and to incorporate a piezo pickup and tone controls within that package, very good.
Cons - I find with each of my H.B. guitars there always seems to be some imperfections in the finish, it is a bit of a lottery. This guitar is no exception - A few minor marks and scuffs. I have learned to accept that these products may need a little extra finishing and setting up. Consequently and ironically I have learnt quite a lot about guitar finishing. This guitar had a number of high frets, but I have found that before you get involved in "dressing" them, use a mallet and a wooden die of some sort, support the neck immediately under the problem and give it a tap, problem goes away. I'm surprised how many H.B. frets are not seated properly. Sound wise - Acoustic. I feel it lacks a brightness, the top three nylon strings lack a clarity. I was hoping for something a little crisper, I'm sure I've had even with cheap classical guitars. Obviously I changed to fresh strings, a brand which I assumed to be of reasonable quality, straight away - though I've a feeling that the guitar was shipped with good fresh strings. Sound wise - Pickup. I like the amplified sound a lot but I'm sure the response to the low E is down, I'd say 50% of the other 5. Though it's hard to tell with the guitar in your lap. I need to distance the amp and get another listener. But to me it's apparent via Headphones.

Sum up. I purchased this guitar for a variety of reasons. In my youth I always hankered for the "O" type guitar this is based on. I like and wanted to recreate the slightly artificial / synthesised sound of a nylon acoustic put through effects; reverb, delay, chorus etc. By plugging this guitar into a Katana I get the kind of thing I was after with lots of sound options at great price. I can EQ some treble clarity back into the sound. There are small finishing issues, most of which are easily sortable and having done so, I am going to live with the questionable piezo. I would never have purchased the four figure equivalent. But I do have something which looks great in the collection and is very enjoyable to play and experiment with. Therefore, for the price, reasonably pleased with my purchase.

My first ever order with Thomann and my first Harley Benton. I ordered the HBO-850 in the blue finish having wanted a bowl back guitar since my teenage years (all the way back in the 90's). So how did she do? Read on good people...

First Impression: It's quite nice out the box, the leaf designs stood out nicely without being overstated, neck looks lovely and feels great in the hand and headstock was nicely done. No frets sprouting out but a few were a little sharp. Came with a wrench for the truss rod.
Action And Intonation: Once the guitar was tuned up and strings stretched in I measured exactly 0.10 relief at the 8th fret. Action is comfortable and low when combined with the comfortable satin neck. To my surprise the intonation was almost perfect out the box too.
Fit and Finish: A few sharp fret ends on the guitar but nothing that would cause blood loss or injury. A bit of light dressing or a rub down with a sanding sponge would sort this. The binding on the neck is lovely up to 12th fret but is a quite untidy around the neck join and upper frets. Around the leaf decorations and bridge there was a bit of glue residue and the finish was a bit untidy. Not the worst I've ever seen but if your a perfectionist this isn't for you. If you can live with a few imperfections and are willing to do a bit of work yourself it's not terrible. I initially thought the nut was badly cut but after checking it over it was just my eyes and the nut is reasonably well done.
Sound: Unplugged it has a sweet sound, a little light on bass but it has a unique and pleasant sound. When plugged in it's quite responsive. The onboard eq is good and you can dial in a nice sound. Again not the best but very functional and tone wise it does a decent job.
Overall Impression: I paid £82 for this guitar and intended it for home use, a little recording and general jamming. And yeah it's not bad for the money. If you are expecting amazing quality control and custom shop levels of attention to detail then save your money and get something else. If your after a reasonably priced acoustic and are willing to do a bit of work to tidy up a few odds and ends you will have a well set up, pleasantly sounding and reasonably good looking guitar. You could do a lot worse for the money folks.

Great looking guitar that sounds best when amplified. Put a little reverb on and it does the job spectacularly! At first I was bummed 'cause the action seemed high, so I googled the recommended string height from different luthiers and -- lo and behold -- the Harley Benton was set exactly as they specified! So, as it turns out, if you're coming from electric guitars (like myself), the action on a Classical will seem atrocious... get used to it.
The only problem I encountered with this guitar was that I couldn't keep in tune, but that was fixed by replacing the strings. I'm in my fifties and have been playing consistently since I was 16, I own too many guitars and I would recommend this Harley Benton in a heartbeat as a great studio tool for recording.

I wanted a classical guitar for occasional use but as I mostly play narrow necked electrics, I find it irritating to have to use the classical guitar's wider neck and fretboard. This seemed like an ideal option - best of both worlds - and that's exactly what it is.

It looks great. The finish is very good - even around the joints and around the binding. There's a couple of areas inside the sound-holes that are missing a bit of paint and are rough to the touch but nothing that can't be fixed with a sharpie and a bit of wet & dry. Fret ends need rounding and a couple are noticeably sharp but no more so than some £800 big-name electrics I've bought - and rounding them off is an easy job to sort, one that any guitarist should learn to do. Action is very comfortable - about as low as it can sensibly be with nylon strings. The nut is plasticky and oddly, not quite long enough to fit the neck-width - but replacing a nut is an easy (and pretty much automatic) "upgrade" on most guitars. The neck itself is fine - no trussrod adjustment needed but the option is there and it's adjustable at the headstock, thankfully. There's quite a bit of pinging and catching when tuning a couple of the wound strings so even if I wasn't going to replace the nut, I'd be looking at giving it a bit of TLC but again, nothing difficult or costly required. The tuners feel okay - though I have to say, I've never liked classical-style tuners (I get why they're needed - I just hugely prefer separate electric-style tuners). The bowl-back is cool but it's not ideal for playing seated - you can't tuck it into you torso and it feels a bit unsteady - but that's only if you play in "the correct" way for classical playing - play lazy with it hanging over your right knee and it's fine.

There's no issues with string buzz or intonation - the included strings are okay but not great (lively wrapped strings but a bit dull on the plain strings). The EQ on the pre-amp is very responsive so there's plenty of tonal options there. Preamp volume is also good so you can vary between output from this and gain on the amp to further tweak the sound.

Overall - a very cute guitar and very playable. Any electric or folk guitarist who wants that nylon sound will love it. For the sake of a few tweaks and a couple of cheap upgrades, this can be a really good guitar. Another Harley Benton bargain - not "cheap and nasty" but a "real guitar" that is really good value.

I have ownded several low end acoustic guitars (I'll never buy a low end electric guitar any more!) and this is the holy grale of cheap guitars!
Playing is very light and sound ok when playing acoustically. Keeps tune fine. Looks very nice from distanse (over meter), but closely you can see the quality of materials and work.
Drawbacks are: Round back is not perfect for keeping on lap, but it is ok. Smells glue (as all my Harley bentons does, even after long time). The feathers/leafs/or what ever the ornaments are is almost dropping off.
So mine was with nylon strings, but will be ordering one with steel strings also because I'll wan't to know was this just lucky piece :-)
Built in tuner would be great addon!

I'm a fan of nylon string guitar and Harley Benton HBO-850 is my third one. The first two guitars I bought locally in home country and I was quite reluctant of buying online because of unpredictable outcome when receiving the product. To my surprise, the Harley Benton HBO-850 was well packed (in two boxes, actually) when it was delivered and I received it in a very good condition. What really makes me more happy is the tone of the guitar. Although, it is the cheapest compared to my other 2 guitars but surprisingly, it produces a tone with better clarity and higher sustain. Well done Harley Benton and I will surely look out for more Harley Benton guitars from here onwards.

30 years of love for guitar took me there. I am not an active musician. But sometimes I like to play Spanish style Pop songs.

The guitar arrived in perfect condition.

All installation done. Some high action was needed but I toned it down a bit for better playability.

Electric, piazo is standard. Don't expect too much, but it's quiet and decent. Works at small events.

The paint is in good condition and has a shiny surface.

There are small unfinished details inside the small holes. No problem.

Guitar timbers very successful acoustically. Although the body of the guitar is thin, it has a very loud sound.

There were small sharp parts on some of the frets, which did not hinder playing, but I did a little work and fixed them.

It made me very happy, I did not expect such quality for this price. My friends and my wife liked it very much. We especially loved its color.

I would definitely recommend it to those who want this type of model.

This is my first nylon string, and I think it's perfect as such. My girlfriend pointed out that the wood work on the front looked a little cheap. The lines on it look like they should be etched with a wood burner but they are drawn on. Extremely minor detail. It looks great and it has the warm, soft tone you would expect from a classical guitar. It plays great! I have not tried plugging it in yet, but the demos for the preamp are underwhelming. I expect as much for the price. I'm sure it's perfectly fine for live performances.

If you are thinking about getting this guitar, you will 100% want a strap. Round back acoustics are a pain to sit down with, as I'm sure many of you know but this is a tip for the beginners.