Harley Benton HB-35Plus Lemon

What can I say? What a great guitar and what a great price for a great guitar! The finish was pretty much flawless. It's beautiful! I could find nothing to complain about aesthetically. As for the neck, it's fast and smooth and easy to play, which is pleasantly different than what I was expecting to get. The frets are nicely done, although they could use a slight polishing.

I am also quite satisfied with the pickups, both for clean and dirty sounds. (In fact, I love the tones I am getting with it through my Hughes and Kettner Tubemeister 20 and pedals.) IMO the HB35+ pickups are better sounding than the Gretsch 5230's FilterTrons. I have little use for coil splitting but I found that I could get a couple good useable tones out of this guitar with this feature. The tuners are good but could be better, and at some point in the future I will probably add locking tuners. Lastly, the guitar does need a little bit if setup but not much at all. String action was the perfect height for me.

All in all, one cannot beat the value this guitar provides. I absolutely love it! I only took one star off for the tuners, but again I'm not really complaining about them. I just wish it came with locking tuners, although if it did the price would certainly be a little higher. But who cares? I'd gladly pay it because in the past year I've purchased an upper mid-range priced Epiphone, Ibanez, and Gretsch, all of which I've had to return for quality control issues or just failure to keep a tune. But I won't be returning this guitar...Thanks Harley Benton for a great product!

Mine is not as well flamed as in Thomann's photos but overall, it looks nice, bright and happy. Out of the box, the action was a little high, the truss rod needs adjustment and intonation was off. Nothing a few minutes of work can't fix. The frets are slightly sharp and the crowns are a bit scratchy, both of which are easy fixes with a fret file and some polishing. The finish is very good. I can't find any flaws worth mentioning. It has a beautiful orange/yellow burst. The pickups sound pretty good in humbucker mode. When splitting the coils, it has a nice bell-like tone. Of course, you get some single coil hum but they sound nice in that mode too, making this a very versatile guitar. Keep in mind this guitar has a Les Paul-style pickguard and switch placement. Also, the pots are placed opposite that of a Gibson 335. I don't mind those design variations and I like the shape of the f-holes - very modern and unique. I recommended this guitar and it represents great value.

I wish I could give this guitar a full five stars all around- a version of it with no or fewer flaws certainly deserves it. Unfortunately, mine has a few minor issues; The most apparent of these being the bridge volume pot. The push-pull functionality works perfectly- no problem there- but the functional range of the actual pot goes from about 5 to 10. There is no volume change when you roll the pot down under 5- meaning you cannot use the volume pot to turn the bridge pickup off. Not an enormous problem for me, as I'm almost always on 10 anyway and can easily just use a volume pedal to cut output, but a problem nonetheless.

The only other issues are all cosmetic. There are multiple spots of debris caught underneath the clearcoat, though mercifully they are all small and none are on the beautiful top. The binding around both f Holes is also quite rough in places.

Overall, I am EXTREMEMLY satisfied with the guitar, but a few minor flaws hold it back from being perfect.

I bought this guitar because I didn’t have a hollow body in my arsenal. I’m not disappointed with the product, however it leaves things to be desired. The pros of this instrument is it’s build, finish and versatility. The split coils give any player so much room to explore a world of sounds. It’s finish is never loses the initial awe and jaw dropping sight of when you take it out of the box for the first time. The build is solid and comfortable on the leg and there was no scratches or missing parts.

The cons ? Well it was extremely difficult to intonate and keep in tune particularly with higher gauge strings. Personally I found the volume knobs to be oversensitive particularly on the middle position.

Overall I was satisfied with the purchase especially when considering the price. It’s a good guitar for a low price however I would not recommend it as a first electric guitar for a beginner

I bought this guitar based on some positive YouTube reviews of the Harley Benton brand. The guitar arrived with some minor shipping damage and a few finish issues. I contacted Thomann and their customer service was excellent at working towards a positive outcome. Overall, I think the HB-35+ is a great value. The guitar played well out of the box and only needed some minor tweaks to improve the action. Innovation was nearly perfect and I've had no issues with tuning stability. Other than the finishing blemishes I'm happy with this purchase and will certainly look at other Harley Benton products in the future. Also, I can't speak highly enough about the competent and quality customer service from Thomann. Cheers!