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!

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!

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.

The guitar was bought to be used in non professional gigs with friends and play at home. It is perfect for it. The sound, plugged or unplugged is very good indeed. The finish was surprisingly very good and no flaws were found. Like most steel strings guitars, the action was too high , so you I had to sand down the bridge a little (about 1,5mm). The guitar stays in tune for a long time, so no problems with that. So, good hardware, good electronics, good finish... what's there not to like? This is a perfect guitar for me, an amateur musician. I've had another pricier guitars that weren't as good a this one. I am very happy with it.