Harley Benton D-200CE-12NT

Inspired by bands such as Big Star and Amon Düül ii, I was looking at buying a 12 string guitar for my birthday, at an affordable price (not an easy thing to find). This is my first Harley Benton guitar, I am amazed by the high quality and great sound for such a low price! I have listed the pros and cons below.

PROS:
- Classic 12 string sound, sounds amazing both plugged and unplugged
- Nice glossy finish, beautiful instrument
- Lightweight and still has a solid feel to it
- Action level is perfect

CONS:
- Strings break easily, the high G broke on my first time playing it. Luckily I got it in a bundle, so had a spare set of HB strings, and would recommend getting an extra set of strings when buying it
- Large distance between paired strings near the saddle (though I also fixed this after re-stringing)

Overall, I'm very satisfied with this instrument, I'd highly recommend it! My first Harley Benton, and definitely not my last!

EDIT: recently, I filed down the fret ends (which were sharp in a few places), and also added ebony pins, to replace the plastic ones. The plastic pins were of very low quality and did not last long, I'd suggest buying some ebony pins... much better quality, and even look better on the ebony bridge!

First of all, thank you Thomann for your quick and safe delivery, as always!

Now, let's see the guitar. It's my first touch with a 12-string guitar so many points maybe not very objective.
As a general feel, taking into account the price, is indeed a good value for money instrument.
Build: The wood is not of high quality and inside you can see the glue is a little bit scattered. It really looks like a super quick production model. The neck is sturdy to withstand the string tension and it takes a while to get used to since it's wider than a classical guitar. You need to adjust your hands better. The bridge wood is low quality and can be easily scratched and damaged, so be careful when removing the pins.
Strings: Change them at once! If you don't, they will break, as the other users already have mentioned. So, it's good to add a new set of strings to your basket. Personally, I put elixirs so that I won't have to worry about changing strings for a long time, as changing strings in a 12-string guitar takes time!
Fretboard: New material for me. It does not feel or sound like rosewood. There were some scratches on the fretboard but at an accepted level for me. Also, be a little careful when oiling it. I noticed it does some stains when it is absorbed, so apply very very little oil. Some sharp frets but I was expecting it.
Tuners: They do what they have to do. Decent.
Nut: Nothing special. Just put some graphite with your pencil when you change your strings.
Pins: Really bad for me but ok for the price!
Electronics: Pretty basic but not bad. Also, the battery is included!
Sound: I like it! I don't know how it can be when I compare it with a more expensive instrument but it gives a nice full sound! I was impressed!

My overall experience so far is that it's worth to give it a try to enrich your sound and also to learn a new instrument, as it really feels different than a 6-string guitar! If you want, you can try a 12-string guitar in a local shop before ordering because you might feel strange the first time you get it in your hands!

Enjoy the music and happy playing!

The tool looks great and is pleasant to the touch, you can immediately see what has been done with high quality. The slim neck makes it easy to pinch chords. The tuning pegs are spinning hard. The system holds perfectly. I can play for a week, and then I just adjust a little. The neck is adjustable with an anchor - you can adjust the height of the strings above the neck. Even on standard (factory) strings, the guitar sounds great, conveying different shades of sound. However, it is still better to change to better strings, for example Elixir.

In my opinion, the guitar will suit both beginners and experienced guitarists. For such a small price, it turned out to be an excellent combination of price / quality. There is no better way to learn how to play the guitar. As soon as I bought this particular guitar, I began to progress faster in learning, because I want to turn to a quality instrument more and more often, my hands still reach for the cabinet where the guitar is.

Play, sing, develop. Good luck to all!

I ordered this guitar to add a 12 string accoustic to my collection. I didn’t want to spend a fortune on a guitar I was not going to use a lot so decided on the HB D 200CE 12 NT. knowing it was in the budget price range I was not expecting perfection but I was pleasantly surprised with it when it arrived. There were no blemishes and it looked good. However the strings were nowhere near tuned up, so the first thing was to tune it. The g string snapped before reaching the correct pitch so I had to get a fine g string from a spare set I had to finish it off with. I then strummed the guitar and I have to say that it sounded good. Better than I expected. However, on the downside, the fret ends were very sharp and definitely need smoothing off, plus the pickup wiring inside the body is loose a rattles when the guitar is moved. Despite these two issues, the guitar is very good value for money.and I would recommend it for a player who doesn’t want to splash out a lot more. I think it would mean splashing out a lot more money to get a noticeable difference.

Purchased this guitar because I wanted to own a 12 string, but didn't want to commit too much money for something that I think I'll rarely play. The quality for the price is surprising. It plays well, has a low and consistent action and it's stayed in tune really well. I haven't been able to put it down since it arrived.


Guitar was shipped from Germany to Australia and arrived within 10 days, as promised. Double boxed with plenty of padding there isn't a shipping mark to be seen. Extremely happy... so much so I'm working on purchasing another one from Thomann now.

This is my first even 12-string guitar. Indian movie songs have not used much of 12-string guitar sound. But whatever they do have, these songs are an all time hit chartbusters. So always wanted to try my hands at a 12-string guitar. This model has wonderful looks and finish, sounds very good for this price. There are always various MAKE's available in the market. But the Harley Benton policy of good products at an affordable price keeps their word for this too. Glad for this purchase. But definitely there are some improvement expectations.
1) The frets are sharp edged and it doesn't let the user disregard that. HB should take care to grind, file them before dispatch.
2) After placing my order, I had requested Thomann to check the action, nut placement and frets finishing. I got a response that it would be charged extra for inspection and my order was put on HOLD. This was completely shocking. Why should a buyer pay for an inpsection request? I was told they do the standard quality check before dispatch. But then what I received wasn't in line to their this commitment.
However, as I said these are just areas of improvement. Hope the Thomann team considers this in a constructive manner.

But overall, the sound, build quality, tuning pegs are all in order. Shall definitely come back to Thomann for my future music instrument purchases.

Having wanted a 12 string for a while I did a fair bit of footwork around some local music shops and came to the conclusion that, unless I was able to spend serious money, I wasn't going to get anything fantastic. The most affordable one I could find was just shy of £300 so I decided to wait.
My wife actually suggested using Thomann again and looking at something inexpensive to "make do with" until I could save up enough money for something high end.
Harley Benton 12 string for next to no money... how can you go wrong?
The point is, this guitar is actually no less playable and sounds just as good as 80% of the ones I tried out but costs around a third of the average price. Like most budget end guitars it benefited from having the action lowered a little but that is just my personal taste. This is a cracking little 12 string with a lovely finish and a great sound. It even has a pickup built in with EQ...how do they manage it at such a price?
I won't be bothering with anything else for the foreseeable future as this does the job nicely enough.