Harley Benton GS-Travel Mahogany

I bought this to play lounging on my sofa, laying on my bed or outside in the garden.
Out of the box, it's very playable - I haven't changed anything.
The mahogany gives a warmth to the sound, which I like. On a guitar body this small I don't think you'd need the brighter sound of a spruce top - I haven't tried the spruce version though.
Mine has a closely grained mahogany top rather than the more striped look of the one in the pictures - mine looks lovely. It's pretty light weight - ideal for what I bought it for. It sounds and projects much better than you'd think from the size (and price).
If I hadn't bought a CLA-15m soon after I'd be picking this up all the time - as it is, I pick it up a lot.
It has clarity, punch and warmth that are way above it's size and price tag.
Now the big question - is it as good as the Taylor? I have no idea, I've never played one. But it's the wrong question and missing the point; For the likely intended uses of this guitar, it's as good as you need.
Don't get me wrong - it sounds good, it plays well and it's fun to play. But do you really need to pay over £500 for a travel/sofa guitar?
It's hard to justify that unless you're recording with it a lot (to cut through the mix - and this will do the job). Or maybe want a smaller scale instrument for a child/teen. You could buy this and get two custom line acoustics (Harley Bentons) for that money - I know which I'd prefer and that's exactly what I've done.
Tuners - they do their job. People complain about a lot of new guitars not holding their tuning but it's just because they haven't bedded the strings in - (pull them away from the guitar 3-4 times, tune the string back up, do this 3 times for each string - you'll now hold your tuning). Speaking of which - when I tried that on this guitar the peg came off on the lower E string - I'm not bothered; I put it back in and developed a method of pulling the string parallel to the body, which works fine.
Construction is fine - don't expect bone nuts and bridge saddles at this price.
It's very neat and tidy, rather attractive and I love the curve on the back.
I have an old Martin travel guitar - I never play it. This is so much better - it's a proper guitar, just a bit smaller and light weight.
For the price it's a bargain - it even comes with a neat little gig bag.
If you want a full blown acoustic, I'd recommend one of the custom line ones. But I have plenty of guitars and I can't resist this little beauty - it gets far more of my attention than the price would suggest.
You know you want one.

I bought this for teaching guitar. I work in primary schools and I needed a travel style axe and flexibility as I cycle to work. Also I wanted a guitar that I wasn't very precious about it, as younger students might like to try their talent with it while I'm out of the room....
I am a lefty and I knew I would have to change a few things to use it. (There was no lefty option available at the time of purchase). First job, I had to the change the mini tuner heads, they just didn't do the guitar any justice. I built a lefty bone nut and re-angled the saddle to mirror the direction for lefty, .The bridge material took the reworking very well..
The bag lasted about 2 years before wear and tear started shredding the straps, I gave it a lot of hardship as I attached other bags around the arm straps, with a heavy sheet binder and sometimes shopping etc. It was a champ......
The tone is lovely and warm, bright, punchy and clear. It has surprisingly good volume, maybe because of the bowled back. the neck profile is very comfortable and I love the scale length. It feels strange to go back to a Takemine.
All round lovely little guitar for any purpose. Sounds nice acoustic and in recordings.
It holds its own in a teaching environment against a couple of dreadnought guitars volume wise.
I give it about 25 hours of playing a week. It is showing no signs of fatigue after over 5 years, frets are still solid and straight, no fingerboard wear.
If anything happened to my present model, I would consider buying the lefty version. Hope this helps.

I own this guitar for almost 2 years now and I absolutely love it. It's my only guitar at the moment and I play it daily.
I have been playing guitar for about 10 years. I mostly fingerpick and this is where this little guitar excells. It can also handle some light strumming but don't expect wonders.

All in all I would certainly recommend this guitar to beginners but also to more advanced players looking or a great little guitar to leave around in the living room or to take on holidays.
I have owned more expensive Takamine guitars and sold them all beccause I didn't play them anymore.