Tl;Dr The bad news is, this is, by far, the worst Harley Benton guitar I've ever purchased. The good news is, even with problems, this guitar is still an amazing value and a really nice guitar. I would buy it again.
So, now I'll explain. When I got the guitar, from Thomann, it had some fretwork that needed to be done. Probably nothing the average person would have cared about, but, I'm picky that way. I spent about an hour dressing the fret edges. They were not smooth, like I like them to be. I also fixed a fret that was a tiny bit too high - not so high that it buzzed, but, high enough that it felt off, to me. That hour would likely have cost me an additional $90, if I had sent the work to my favorite guitar tech. Luckily, it was something I could handle myself. Still, even adding that hypothetical cost to the purchase price of the guitar, it remains an amazing bargain!
Next, I am super picky about tuners. I don't care for the tuners that came with this guitar. They just feel wrong, to me. As a result, I'll likely replace them, at some point, with Grover tuners. So let's see, that's probably an additional $50 for that.
So, even with the Luthier costs, and the replacement tuner costs, the guitar is still cheaper than the Guild baritone acoustic I was going to purchase, before I discovered this one. Not bad!
Now let's talk about what's good with this guitar. The finish is absolutely beautiful! I've purchased 5 instruments from Harley Benton, so far, and they have all been a joy to look at. The sound of the guitar is every bit as dark and emotional as one might expect, from a baritone guitar. I do think an 8 string option, for this guitar, might be good, as it might brighten up the overall sound. That's not a knock on the instrument, it's just the reality of baritone guitars. The fishman electronics are perfect. The instruments sounds very natural when playing through my PA.
All in all, I'm very happy with my purchase. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars were the two small issues with the frets. Overall, it's a lovely, playable, enjoyable guitar that I plan to spend many happy hours with.
Thank you, Harley Benton, for making a quality guitar within my price range. Thank you Thomann, for shipping it to me, from Germany, to Oklahoma, USA, in two days - that's not a typo, two days. Crazy!
