Harley Benton HB-35Plus Vintage Burst

HB-35Plus Vintage Burst

Pros:
Price, Finish, Features, Fretboard, 3-way switch location, Output Jack location, Electric Sound, Frets

Neutral:
Frets, Acoustic Sound, Coil Tap feature , A few little blemishes, Strings

Cons:
Strings, Pick Guard

My 4th Harley Benton.
As always, ordering from Thomann?s website was easy and with Paypal convenience. The shipment took roughly 2 weeks from Germany to US/Florida (Christmas/New Year time).
The shipping box was damaged but, all items in the box were in good shape, no product damage!

Initial inspection was pleasing. The finish is very good on a product of this price. It is not perfect, but for this price it is better than I expected. The overall finish is smooth and nicely buffed to a high gloss. As for defects, only a few little specs in the clear, and a small blemish in the wood grain on the back of the guitar, roughly 1/2" long. Not really an issue for this price guitar, and it?s on the back.

The fretboard on this guitar is the best of the 4 Harley Benton's I now have. The fingerboard doesn't appear to have any stain coating as my other guitars had. The rosewood is natural, and has nice grain, however it appears a bit dry.
The block inlays are nicely cut and installed. They fit smoothly to the surface of the fingerboard.
The fret work on this guitar is good, but not finished. The frets appear to be raw fret wire pressed in an dressed on the ends only, but not finished beyond that point. They are clean and free of the crusty buildup my other HB's suffered from.
Sighting down the neck, there appears to be no offensively high, nor low frets, and a quick chromatic run up each string resulted no serious buzzing. I should mention this was done after the action was lowered.
As it arrived, the action was set very high, playable, but not ideal. I roughly lowered the bridge until some buzzing was noticeable, then raise the action ever so slightly.

The neck binding is very good as well, only one small area that is a bit rough between the frets. This can easily be smoothed off, so no real issue.

The strings are better than most I've received, but still not great. They don't feel rough or corroded, but lack brightness when played. I believe this inhibits the acoustic sound of the guitar out of the box. Better strings should make a noticeable difference.

The tuners are closed back, smooth and uniform in function and stay in tune (so far). They all appear to be well produced and bare no branding.

The pick guard - Every review I have read, seen or heard, has complained about the pick guard. I'm no different. It is poorly produced, irregularly-irregular shaped, rough-edged, makes the guitar look very cheap due to the rough unfinished appearance. Two screws and it is now off the guitar.

The coil tap (split) volume pots, cut the humbucker(s) to a single coil(s). As with my HB SC450Plus, I don't think the feature is as prominent as I had hoped, but it does work.

The f-holes are nicely cut and finished on this guitar, some wiring is visible through the f-hole, but of no concern.

The nut appears to be the standard HB plastic cast variety. The string spacing is fine, but may require the string slots to be opened up a little.

The pickups are Wilkinson covered humbuckers. The sound pretty good for stock pickups, especially at this price point.
As for sound, the pickups are fine for now, plugged in the guitars sounds very good (to me). Acoustically, the guitar is a little dull, probably the stings. Remember, it is a thin semi-hollow body as well, not a full bodied acoustic.

The output jack is in a location I prefer over an ES-335. The jack is placed through the wooden side. As it arrived, the jack is neatly installed and tight. I should also mention I like the location of the 3-way switch on this guitar over the 335. If you plan to add a tremolo (think Bigsby), the location of the switch on this guitar just seems better. It won?t be under the trem bar.

The strap buttons are very basic standard style, one at the end, the other on the back of the neck heel.

Recap.
The negatives are minor, a couple small spots in the finish, and a little rough spot on the neck binding in one area as well.
The frets are good, but need to be finished. It's playable, but could easily be much better.
The controls, pickups and tuners all work well, and for the price are quite nice.
This is the best finished Harley Benton I've purchased, it is also the most expensive Harley Benton I've purchased.

What really needs to be done to this guitar?
Finish crown and polish the frets, possibly adjust the neck relief, put on some new strings and check/set the intonation.
And, I might prefer a better 3-way switch. The stock switch works, but feels a little cheap.
Of course, this guitar can be played without any of these changes.

I'm giving it 5 stars because the few blemishes are of no concern on a guitar of this price. The frets aren't finished, but can easily be finished. Overall the total value of the guitar is greater than what it cost. A numerical rating would be 8/10, but the star scale it gets 5/5 for having everything, with minor finishing touches needed.

Please remember, this guitar costs just under $200, it's not $400, $500, $1000 or more. If you expect a $1000 guitar quality, then buy a $1500 guitar. Yep, you read that right.

With a little finishing, this is easily a $400 guitar, or more.

I'm no guitar expert nor any sort of guitar God , Just a beginner n00b with a realist first impressions review.

My first Semi hollow body guitar ever.

Firstly i have to say ....V Nice guitar for the price, Well done Thomann.

Secondly, Any criticism of this guitar is sort of unfounded, Shake your head its a £200 guitar!!! its not even top end of the lower priced guitars.

Yes i understand £200 can be hard to come by as it took me 4 months to save for it and yet it didn't come in "Perfect Gibson" condition. In the past I've seen a lot of criticism about the fit & finish of this make of guitar but they've mostly been nit picking small things. Yes absolutely these things do matter if you're spending good money. However in the bigger scheme of things seem somewhat irrelevant considering the price this comes in at. Its no £3k Gibson but it certainly looks and plays like a guitar that ought to be be twice the price it is.

If you're the type of person who has expensive expectations then you'll probably feel a little let down. If however you're a realist this guitar will not disappoint.

I spent an hour giving the frets a polishing of their life and gave the fret-board a nice sparingly soothing rub with some boiled linseed oil ( I can hear the internet guitar gods screaming right now, chill out, Ive worked with wood for many years ) to nourish it for the next 6-8 months, Whacked some new Yellow RotoSound 10's on it & it gave the guitar a new life from right out of the box.
No additional setup required. It even made me a coffee mid way through polishing the frets... Ok so it didn't but meh it was a relaxing hour none the less.

Fit and finish of this guitar is truly amazing considering the price & I feel I have spent my money well and very happy with Thomann's service and delivery ( Only took 5 days from purchase to delivering to UK ) & the packaging was 100% top notch, a little overkill if anything but that's a good thing right?.

I bought the bundle with a Gig bag and extra lead, both of which are of expected quality and I'm more than happy with both.

In Conclusion:
Yes it didn't come in absolute perfect Gibson condition ( What does nowadays?, not even Gibsons do! ) with very little work, love and attention You've got yourself a worthy purchase.

Nit picking aside however..,
It makes me feel like I ought to sit down, rest it on my ample belly and break into a rendition of "To know you is to love you". Perfect guitar for beginners to practice their funny face pulling.

Thanks Thomann, Thumbs up from me for what its worth.

I have to say that I LOVE this guitar. I'm 61 years-old and have been a semi-pro working musician since I was 14. I've owned a number of guitars through the years, including a Fender, Guild, Ibanez, custom Carvins, and Gibsons( including a 1963 Gibson ES-335), and this guitar is wonderful. I'm astounded how well it's made and sounds. I will admit that it's not as good as the '63 ES-335, but I was not expecting it to be. I should never have parted with 63 Gibson and have been looking to replace it ever since, but I just couldn't justify paying Gibson's prices. Apparently I don't need to now. I mean, how much better can a Gibson be? This guitar is that nice. I will say that if you are looking for that 355 feel and sound and can't/won't spend the money for a Gibson...this is the guitar to buy. You can't go wrong. it is a pure joy to play.

Pros
Workmanship is amazing considering the price. It just feels like a top quality guitar in all ways. I haven't found any flaws in it. It's beautiful to look at, feels wonderful to hold and play, and sounds great. The tone on it is just what I was expecting in a 335 style guitar.

Cons
There are 2 things I would change on this guitar. That is the placement of the pickup switch and the placement of the treble knobs. Harley-Benton decided to the put the pickup switch in the same location as it is on a Les Paul (above the strings). I switch pickups a lot and it's just not as fluid as the Gibson location (below the strings near the bridge). The other thing I don't like is the placement of the treble controls. They moved them a couple of inches and they are just too far away. Not a huge deal as I don't change tone often, but it's annoying. I'm actually considering having the treble knobs and pickup switch moved. Shouldn't be hard to do.

Overall it is a great guitar and absolutely worth what I paid for it. It looks, feels, and sounds like it should be worth 10 times as much.

The guitar arrrived earlier this week with a chipped headstock and a crack at the base of the neck. The neck was so bowed that I had to raise the action extremely high in order to be able to fret it above the 12th fret. It is unplayable as a regular guitar. I contacted Thomann the same day expecting them to replace it but they spent days asking me to send photos of the damage and are now asking me to deal with the delivery company to get compensation!
This is the worst experience I have ever had with with an online company. No hassle, no questions asked guarantee?
What a lie.