Harley Benton Delta Blues MJCE

I searched for a lightweight (and budget friendly) guitar to have as a couch guitar (child alert!) and one that I can take along to trips without worrying too much. I also wanted to rehearse my guitar setup skills.

I searched harley benton models and chose this model based on light weight and helpful sound samples. To me this one easily sounded the best in 100-200 range. Was happy to find out that the guitar I received sounded like I expected.

Setup:
Before setup the guitar would have been unplayable! Horribly high action. Way too much neck relief. Luckily this was excatly what I wanted to rehearse. Truss rod tool quite a lot of tightening before the relief was where it should be. You should remember to do it SLOWLY and maybe even in few days time if a lot of adjustment id required. Small adjustments and let the neck settle. I think I rushed a bit with this at first. Wood takes long time to adjust and even 1/4 turn might effect the neck for many hours. So turn and wait.

With relief perfect strings were still high. So I took out the bridge saddle and sanded the bottom of it (I think it was even 1-2 mm). This is normal also in more expensive brands. It’s good to have extra so you can sand it to the hight where you want it! I also changed the saddle tops shape to get intonation better. And it worked! Maybe later I’ll put a bone saddle on this. I think it will make it sound s bit stronger.

First I changed 10-50 extra light gauge strings. They were terrible with this guitar. Didn’t suite the body resonance and felt like childs guitar. I thought the neck also likes more tension. So I put in 12-54 and WOW the thing started to shine! Of course minor truss rod tightening for heavyer strings was needed.

When changing the 012 string set I ”filed” very lightly then nut slots with the wound strings cause they were a bit tight. Only G and B strings could be cut just a tiny bit deeper. Nothing major there! Probably ask a luthier to take care of this. Most likely very cheap to do if it’s just few nut slots.

The fretboard. The freatboards wood was very dry and rough. Could do with some fine sanding. I just cleaned it from some residue and oiled it twice and that already helped a lot! Will likely sand it a bit later. The frets were spot on levelled! No fretbuzz even when action was lowered. The frets were quite dirty and bit gritty. Good polishing with daddario 8000 polishing cloth did the trick and they were nice and shiny. Fret ends were quite rough and needed sanding. Otherwise hands could get cuts.

After all this setup and playing the guitar for couple of weeks I abslolutely LOVE it! It looks nice and plays beautifully. I use it a lot.

Tuners are just fine. Keeps tune quite well. Nothing to complain.

Altough it took this much work to be good to play. It’s still worth more than it’s price.

If you are not prepared to do the work yourself (internet and sanding paper are your friends!) or to spend maybe 80-120€ to get it to a luthier for setup I think you’re missing out terribly!! It plays so beautifully after the setup work. Practically a whole different instrument!

I think I became bit of a harley benton fan!! Already ordered Fusion III HSH roasted and absolutely can’t wait to see what their pro/deluxe series can offer.

Did I already say I love this guitar?

PS.!!
I haven’t used the electrics on this except the tuner. Not planning to use it like that either. Just acoustic. I prefer miking the instruments if recording.

Ostin tämän halvan hintansa takia lähinnä uteliaisuuttani. Ajattelin, että myyn eteenpäin, jos osoittautuu pettymykseksi. Mutta kitara on hintaansa nähden ihan loistava, pienen kokonsa takia ei soi ihan niin heleästi, kuin toivoisin, mutta toimii kotona näppäillessä ihan mainiosti. Tehdaskielet vaihdoin astetta ohuempiin ja parempiin, sillä sointi parani huomattavasti. Ylä-E särisi hieman kielten vaihdon jälkeen kolmannen nauhan kohdalta, mutta sen sai säädettyä kaularaudan ja ihan pienen viilauksen avulla pois. Kaikenkaikkiaan loistava peli.

I was sceptic when I ordered it as it was so cheap. Took the bundle with a gig bag for 115€. Last time we were in the USA I needed a gig bag and we drove from store to store but we found no gig bags under $30+ dollars.

The guitar is a smaller size guitar and won't sound like a jumbo. The factory strings need to go and frets need some polishing. It has a thin and easy to play neck and I am sure it will stay better in tune with proper strings.

The preamp is a basic one with an eq that does what it is supposed to do and it has a tuner. Nothing special but again it is a 99€ guitar.

The only negative thing I found was that the pick up does not pick up the low E string as much as the other strings. Higher strings, higher volume but that is an easy fix. Just remove the bridge and move the pick up.

I give it full points as for 99€ it is a super guitar and for 115€ it is a great bundle BOTH for a beginner and a pro.