Harley Benton CLP-15ME SolidWood

Pros:
The guitar is a solid body guitar for a great price. That's the main selling point here. It also looks good from a distance.

Cons:
- The finish on the guitar has many dust particles under it, making the surface a lot less smooth to the touch. This is to be expected for an instrument at this price, as it is difficult to keep the guitars dust free in a factory environment.
- The tuning pegs are cheap, and they have a bit of dead space in them.
- The nut is cut poorly, and the strings are both too high, and there the slots are too narrow giving a lot of binding. Some pencil will help with the binding, but really the guitar needs professional work for most players.
- Harley Benton uses the same saddles for everything it seems, and because this has an under-saddle pickup, the string height came in at a mile-high 3.25 mm. Now, you always expect the guitar to come in with slightly too high action from the factory, but 3.25 mm. will be unplayable for most. I sanded it down to spec 2.25, and the guitar plays a lot better.
- However, there is now some minor buzz in the upper registers of the guitar, as the fretwork also isn't perfect.
- The fretboard gives off grey residue on fingers. This is likely the result of the fretboard having been painted darker. I'm not a hundred percent sure of this is the reason, but nevertheless your fingers will be grey after playing. This should alleviate on its own in time.

The conclusion is that this guitar will work fine, and has a nice sound for the price, but you will need to do some work to make it playable, and if you're not able to sand down your saddle and cut the nut, it will probably need some professional work which will add significantly to the price. In the end, the guitar is fair for its price, but has a lot of minuses, which frankly any guitar at this price is likely to have.

This solid wood parlour guitar is just so well made. I've been playing since the 60's, mostly electric guitar but the last few years I've changed tack and play ragtime and slide guitar using parlour sized guitars with 12th fret body joints. I use a Gretsch boxcar, an Alvarez MPA66SHB Masterworks parlours mostly and needed another parlour to maybe play slide on.

Out of the box the Harley Benton CLP-15ME SolidWood is set up really well, the action is just right. The nut is a tad high but perfect for slide playing, If you're into finger picking then having the nut slots lowered a tiny bit would be a good idea, that's not a criticism of the guitar as most players learn how to tweak guitars to their playing style and it's best to have the nut slightly high rather than low so adjustments are possible. The 45mm nut width is much better than the cramped 43mm nuts used on most other guitars, a real plus in my view.

The build is just so good, the kneck is set into the body perfectly flat with no asymetry, often a killer fault with even big name guitars. With all new acoustic guitars that I check I apprehensively look at the neck heel joint first! The quality control is amazing, all the edges are smooth and very well done, bridge and headstock are very nicely finished. The tuners work smoothly and hold pitch. I've not plugged in the Fishman Presys II as it's not something I need but the tuner fuction is very handy.

I've made quite a few guitars over the years and have done re-frets for other people and this guitar is seriously good and at a bargain price too, half the price of my Alverez and Gretsch guitars. Normally at around the £250 mark you get ply construction with a spruce top, not a bad thing in itself and there are some great ply guitars out there, think early black label Yamahas, but I do like all solid wood guitars.

This Harley Benton is just so good, looking at Youtube the brand is starting to get a very good name for itself with its high build quality. It's a pleasure to play and I really recommend this parlour guitar, go for it!

I almost wrote a 3 star review of this guitar, because I also took delivery of a used Martin 000-15sm the same week. The CLP15ME has obviously been inspired by the Martin, and it has a more attractive finish, believe it or not. However the Martin, larger, is also leaner, and lighter. The CLP has a shorter scale and slighter tighter string spacing---I wish the Martin had the same scale. The Fishman is out of place, a K&K style passive pickup happened to be installed on the Martin, and HB should research and source something similar. The CLP arrived first, with the usual HB high action, but I shaved the saddle and cut the nut in 20 minutes, and with truss tweaks it now has a slightly lower action than the Martin, which I've not yet modified. The HB tones: nice ringing trebles, and slightly muted bass, which does come up with hard plucking, near but not totally in balance (stock strings). I was not dissatisfied until I tried the Martin. I have 10 acoustic/classical guitars of varied size and string. The 000-15SM I guess, cannot be reproduced by electronic speakers. I never heard anything like it. Bass to top it's very loud, yet sweet and incredibly nuanced according to the dynamics of a pluck. I did not know a guitar could make such sound. So the CLP15ME was severely outshone but a very similar looking guitar. I was so impressed by the Martin I looked at 0 and 00 alternatives from Eastman and Pono. But as I've been practicing on this guitar daily, I've become attached to it. Sitting or standing I find it very comfortable. The scale and spacing is easy to play. Is the Martin worth 5 times more? No, from an acoustic perspective it's worth 100 times this and any of my guitars. But this is a good guitar I've decided, and I'll keep it.

I've been searching for a solid wood Mahogany parlor guitar with key features that are important to me. But there always seems to be a compromise to be made somewhere.

Some of the deal breakers for me are...Not all solid but solid top only with laminate back and sides. Or, no pickup which leaves me finding an appropriate pickup and installing it myself or finding a good Luthier to do it. Or, the nut width is too narrow for the style of playing I do. Or, the price will require marriage counselling.

One guitar stood out from the pack. The Harley Benton CLP-15ME Solid Wood.

Being in Canada I had some concerns ordering online from Europe but any worries I had were non issues. Thomann's has an extremely smooth ordering process that never left me feeling anxious. I selected DHL and Canada Post for shipping and hit the BUY button. Just over two weeks later my new guitar was delivered to my front door. There was a small charge for taxes and duty but I knew in advance exactly how much it would be through the Canada Post tracking website after it cleared Border inspection.

The guitar is a beauty! Very similar to some very expensive alternatives. From the quality control check list in the box it's evident that the guitar was set up prior to shipping with 1st and 6th string heights noted at 1st and 14th fret. The strings are then slacked off for transport. The neck is beautifully smooth with no sharp edges or fret sprout. Not one blemish or mark on it. Perfect!.

Thanks Harley Benton and Thanks Thomann's
JPH

I bought this guitar after I tried a Harley Benton acoustic guitar for 88 euros. I couldn't believe how good it feels on hand and sounds for the price. So when I wanted to buy a parlor style guitar, I immediately went for this sweet harley benton solidwood model. I am completely satisfied with it. I even played a festival concert with it, absolutely no flops happened. The sound is good and mid centered (as a parlor guitar) , it feels good on the hand and the fishman pre amp makes it reliable for live playing.
Big plus: It comes with a quality control, so that means that the guitar is set up and ready for instant playing. Well done Harley Benton!