Harley Benton Custom Line CLA-15MCE VS

I bought this guitar on a whim without much expectations given the low price tag, but oh boy was I positively surprised when it came in. The quality of construction, look and sound of this guitar are on a level you would expect for something with a five times the price tag. The guitar looks and feels perfect, is comfortable to hold and the tone works well for fingerpicking and the mahogany top gives the sound a nice punch.

The pictures don't really do justice to how good this guitar looks in real life. The sunburst color is just perfect and the construction looks great.

The pickup is also of much higher quality than you would expect for the price (a Fishman? really?) and includes a tuner. I mostly play unplugged but sometimes it's fun to experiment with a distortion pedal and an amp. You get a very Seven Nation Army sound with a setup like that.

The guitar comes loaded with .012 gauge strings that felt too heavy for my weak ass electric guitar player fingers. I restringed the guitar with .011 gauge coated D'Addarios, oiled the neck and it now feels perfect. Almost as pleasant to play as my electric guitar.

After having this guitar for awhile I can +1 one other reviewer who said that when you start strumming chords, the sound (especially the low end) becomes quite muddy. I guess this is where the cost of the low price becomes apparant. This is definitely not a jack of all trades guitar, it works best for fingerpicking. If you want a strumming guitar, look elsewhere. For example some dreadnought with a spruce top.

I bought this acoustic because My previous acoustic left alot to be desired. This acoustic is just absolutely perfect for me.

Pros:
comfort:
This guitar is about 4 inches thick which for me personally is the perfect middle ground for comfort and projection. its not so thick i cant play it (like some concert sizes and dreadnaughts ive played) but its not so thin that it doesnt project and sound like an acoustic.

Finish:
The Vintage sunburst looks absolutely gorgeous and catches the eye while remaining subtle. Id describe the texture as a satin closed pore, it feels silky smooth to run your hands across but not to the extent of leaving prints everywhere. the neck texture is slick but not glossy.

Action:
The action is perfect. the strings almost rest on the frets and require almost no pressure to make a chord at first fret. however is not so low that it causes any kind of buzzing. as i said, perfect.

important to note:
while this guitar is perfect to be that does not mean its without issue. these are minor enough for me to look over but ill mention them here.

cons:

strap mounting:
theres no second strap button at the base of the neck for easier mounting but thats not the only issue. the strap button at the base isnt a standard metal one that is held on by a screw. its essentially a big hole at the base of the guitar with what is essentially an over sized bridge pin jammed in with no glue. this popped out the first time i mounted a strap and if i didnt notice it then could have EASILY resulted in me breaking my guitar. VERY silly design on that part because even £10-£20 ukeleles ive seen have had those metal screwed on strap buttons. a case of them trying to reinvent the wheel and failing here. i hope they change this in future models and maybe install a neck strap button. but i fixed mine with just a bit of glue so not a *huge* issue. just an oversight that can result in a broken guitar if you arent aware of it.

Unorthodox fret markers:
This also isnt a huge issue for me because i rarely use fret markers and im used to slightly unorthodox markers (like on my sc500 les paul where they are just big blocks) but these are just plain weird.
Usually the frets are marked at 3,5,7,9 with a single dot and at 12 with a double dot, then 15 with a single dot. these are marked at 3 with a single dot, 5 with a double, 7 with a single, 9 with a double and 12 with a single. which is confusing compared to my old acoustic. that being said however ive seen some martins with similar inlays and there could well be some reason for this that i dont know about (being fairly new to guitar) so its not something id want changed as urgently as the strap button.

Firstly I am pretty new to playing guitar, this is my first acoustic but I researched very carefully before I purchased.

I have been learning on an electric (fender squier strat, also from Thomann) but after a few months I really wanted to add an acoustic as a lot of the songs I am learning with are more suited to that. I wanted something with a smaller neck and nut width and a lower profile body, I have small, stubby fingers so I need all the help I can get! This fits the bill perfectly. I knew that I wasn't going to spend huge on a guitar just right now so without a doubt Hareley Benton was the best bang for my buck.

For the money this guitar is simply excellent, the craftsmanship is very noticeable, there's nothing cheap or thrown together about these guitars! Really beautiful finish to the guitar and really looks the part.

The sound is excellent and keeps getting better as I get used to the new feel of an acoustic and the guitar settles after being tuned up and adjusts to the temperature in my house.
It has a surprisingly deep and warm tone to me, especially considering it's size and the guitar was pretty much ready to go out of the box after a quick tune up. It has improved markedly by letting it settle and making minor tuning adjustments and now it's a dream to play. I had planned to strip the strings out and put in new ones but there is no need, these will be fine for a while.
When I do change the strings in a few weeks I will give the fretboard a quick wipe down because there very very faint traces of sparkly residue from where the frets were polished lower down the neck, you'd have to look very closely to spot this and is a good sign as the frets were polished to a mirror shine)

I presume it was at very low temperatures for a week or so while it was being shuttled around during delivery which despite COVID delays was still a very respectable 10 days (this has nothing to do with Thomann but due to general delays across Europe and particularly my home of Ireland, and the Thomann support were very communicative and assured me my package would arrive in a few days)

Playability is excellent, I felt the action was spot on which was a relief to me as I have no inclination to go messing with the nut and saddle, it was a nice low height on the 12th fret but not too low, very easy to press the strings down nearer the nut but with absolutely no hint of a buzz across the whole fretboard.

Overall this item is a huge winner for me, I'm going to look to HB again for my next guitar when the times comes I think.

UPDATE: After a few weeks use, including a break over Christmas where the guitar was untouched I just wanted to point out how impressed I am by the ability of this guitar to keep in tune. I'm afraid to change the strings in case I mess something up it's that good.

I am not that experienced with acustics, but regarding the hype around harley benton and experience with other products, this was a bit of a disappointment, at least building quality wise. It sounds good, unplugged and plugged as well. But the setup was terrible, very high action, and the trustrod is very hard to get to, it's very deep inside a hole, unlike other acustics I have seen. After the setup it's better, there are a few high frets as well, but not that high, so it is still well playable. The tuners are fine. The strap button was the biggest problem though, it was not glued or anything, so when I tried to put a strap on, it just fell out. That could have happened after I put the strap on, when I am playing, so that's for sure is something to check if you buy one of these.
With all that said I still consider this a great buy, specs are great for the price.