Harley Benton HBO-600NT

So… i have had my share of expensive and midrange steel string acoustics and had to conclude that acoustics would never become my thing. Always trouble with hard strings, stupid bridges that was unable to intonate, impossible truss rods, too high string action…. You know what i mean….
But for this price i was prepared to try it.
First of all it pretty nice to look at, it is built ok, without impressing, but the factory strings was a waste of natural ressources. .
New strings, a slight adjusment on the truss rod and this thing plays its heart out. The action is spot on, the intonation is spot on, the weight is spot on and the tuners are actually not as bad as i feared… The craftsmanship is absolutely accepted as well as the tuners.
But the round back shape makes it extremely difficult to sit with the guitar.
The fretboard was extremely dry, but it still played very well. Easy fixed though…
The acoustic tone is very nice and clear, but if something should be opgraded it wound be the electronics. The amplification of the built in preamp is very low but it sounds ok…. Nothing fantastic but enough for home play. In the studio the acoustic tone is absolutely acceptable, but dont use the preamp….

With thin strings and a very light adjustment this cheap guitar definately has taken my heart.
All i need to do now is to polish the frets which are very rough, and sand a little on the rough wood a few places. Then we are good to go live…. Later i might upgrade the tuners.
If i miss something it should be a a tuner in the preamp section.

Giant recommandation for this absurd low price….
The four stars are for the parameters listed and i have not taken the price into consideration !!

I now have 5 Harley Bentons, and until now I have not been disappointed . Okay it’s a cheap guitar , I paid more for shipping, duty and taxes then I did for the guitar. Now normally when you pay this little for a guitar the expectations are very low and to be honest I wouldn’t even bother . However with Harley Benton I have come to just be amazed at what you get for the money, but this guitar follows the norm …not the Harley Benton norm though . First off the frets were really sharp an dirty , making the guitar almost unplayable , they were really bad , the neck was dry, and there was this blob of something on the high E string, which just ended up breaking with a 1/2 a turn of the tuner. Now I wasn’t expecting much in the way of sound due to the style , but this sounded just terrible and plays even worse. I’m hoping with a full change to some quality strings maybe to a lighter gauge 10 ‘s maybe , along with the frets filed and some neck work , it might make this a more playable guitar , otherwise it’s just going to be a wall hanger.
The finish is very nice , best thing about it unfortunately. It really is a nice looking guitar, which makes this even more disappointing . I just wish it was up to the Harley Benton quality I’ve come to love, respect and expect. O well can’t win them all.
UPDATE: After spending some time on the neck, filing , polishing and oiling then replacing the strings with Martin MA170 extra light 10-47,80/20 bronze , yes these are cheap Martin strings , but a great match with this guitar. This is now a totally different instrument , so much better and the sound is really nice, it has now gone from a wall hanger to a player.
Update 2 : pre amp quit working after about a year, almost to the day! tried new battery, nothing, even pulled it out it to see if a wire came loose, nope all good there, its just dead. Checked in with Thomann, and its just been a series of emails back and forth and then asked to send a video on the issue, I guess they need proof, okay did that. Now I wait for the outcome, stand by.
Update 3: In the spirit of being fair I have deleted previous comments and updated my review as they have shipped me a new pre amp. I now wait for it to arrive, but it took a few e mails asking for an update. In the end they stood behind the warranty which is great considering the quality of this guitar. Lets face it, in at least this case , you get what you pay for.

My first guitar was an Ovation Balladeer which I got as a birthday present in 1980. I have owned scores of U.S.A. and Asian made super-shallow bowl Ovations over the years. I was set to buy another when I came across a video by one Tomek Stężalski on YouTube in which a Harley Benton HBO 600 is compared to an Ovation costing several times more.

Through my headphones, the HBO 600 was a better Ovation than the Ovation was.

As inexpensive as the HBO 600 is, my expectations were frankly not very high.

What I received exceeded those expectations.

My instrument delivered to me in flawless, blemish-free condition. The only other Asian made Ovation I've had with no blemish from new was a late 1980's Korean made Celebrity model. The HBO 600 I received was up to that standard of build quality.

Even the inside of the bowl was neat and tidy and more so than even some US made super-shallows I've had over the years.

The setup, out of the box, was perfect. That's not hyperbole. This instrument shipped set up to have the neck relief, string height at 1st and 12th frets, that I would have adjusted it to had it not already been "dialed in."

No fret sprout. No need to dress fret ends or polish frets.

The only adjustment I had to make was the spacing between the D and G strings and the application of lemon oil to an overly dry fingerboard.

It was literally as perfect as one can imagine human hands and machines being able to make such a thing. It looked like an Ovation. It was built as well as the better ones I've had. It practically plays itself like the better Ovations I've had did. And it sounds exactly like these things are supposed to.

I like Roundbacks because the good ones have very even volume and sustain response up, down, and across the board, with no dead spots or wolf tone areas, and they respond well to variations in picking attack.

They don't sound like Martins. They don't sound like Taylors.

They sound like Ovations. Thank God. It's a balanced tone that sounds great on record with nothing more exotic than an SM-57 microphone. And they don't run out of volume or sustain when your brain takes you to what is the "dusty end" of the fingerboard on most acoustic guitars.

That's what my HBO 600 NT sounds like.... It sounds like the best super-shallow Ovations I've had did. And mine came out of the box with a better set-up than ANY Ovation I've ever had.

Ah, but all is not sweetness and light.......

The plugged in sound was a disappointment. A major, massive, horrible disappointment.

Then, on day two of owning the instrument, it wasn't a disappointment, anymore, because there was no plugged in sound to be disappointed by. The preamp died.

Thomman, of course, offered to make things right. I elected to take matters into my own hands, though. I bought a new Belcat 505 preamp for less than ten bucks from Amazon and had it swapped into the guitar in less than a half of an hour.

As delivered, my HB 600 NT was nearly impossible to get a useable plugged in sound with before the preamp totally died.

With a properly functioning preamp, though, I got a very good sound with the instrument EQ centered on all three bands, the instrument volume at 3/4, and the EQ on the Trace Elliott model of my Peavey Vypyr set flat.

Lush chords...... Piano-like lead lines with long sustain for an acoustic guitar... And tweaking EQ just made things better from there.

It's one of the best "Ovations" I've ever had over decades of playing them and my favorite of the lot due to how spot on it was set up right out of the box.

How it is possible to get this much of what some of us still love about Ovation guitars for so little money is mind-boggling to me, but there it is. Mine isn't just a good guitar for the money. It's a great guitar, period.

I absolutely could not possibly be more pleased.

I was searching for affordable acoustic guitar for camping, and as I'm used to play on electric guitar I wanted to have fast and smooth neck, with a cut to higher frets..
Already have Fender CD60, but never liked her neck and playability.

Sound on HB 600 is a little bit high and thin, when compared to full body dreadnought Fender CD60. But it is loud enough, little bit short on lows, which is expected on roundback slim body guitar like this. And of course like any other roundback guitar, it will tend to slide from you if there is no strap around sholders. Back surface is not slippery, but guitar will slide a little, it is just phisycs.
Sound through preamp is kind of "sinthetyc", like in all affordable electro-acoustic guitars. If one needs a good sound for amp, maybe it is better solution to buy decent acoustic pickup like SD Woody or simmilar.
One more thing that needs some attention, are the frets. They need a good and thorough polishing, because they are rough. Also the fretboard needs some oil, as it is very dry out of the box.
But taking in consideration low price of guitar, in my opinion it still worth the money...and even more..

Now the good points. After polishing, oiling, changing strings to 9-46, and some truss rod adjustment, this is completely diferent guitar. Neck is fast and playable, joy to playing. Action is even lower than on some of my electric guitars, octaves are 100% set.

Guitar also looks very nice, and for now guitar stays in tune. There is no point of comparing it to Ovation of course, but in my opinion you will get more than you paid for.

Excellent balance between quality and price ......BUT....
it has an ergonomic design problem.
It can not ''fit'' at your body and stay stand because of the curve of it's back.It slips away when you leave your left hand from the neck because of the right hand's weight and the curve of the synthetic back which touch your leg when you sit. One solution is the strap belt i guess....this is the main con of the instrument (i am not sure if it happens to all synthetic back type guitars, like ovation) .
The main pros is the amazing work of the neck and the perfect action for this cheap guitar.

I am expanding my fleet of guitars and decided to add a round back semi-acoustic to the rack. I chose this guitar for its natural spruce finish and low price and I knew the quality might not be very high.

I was so wrong! It is very well-built and the action is really low, so it's comfortable to play and doesn't require any adjustment - it's perfect for me. The tuners are okay - I will upgrade them though, probably to Wilkinson 19:1 ratio Grover-alikes (I always do this if needed).

The electrics work fine, although there isn't a tuner or a phase switch but at this price I am not surprised or disappointed - what is fitted works great (I have other tuners).

The best part is the spruce top - I swear is has flame running against the grain (a little like flame maple). It's subtle but you can see the light dancing across the whole top! Maybe I just got lucky with this guitar but it a beautiful piece of wood.

And the sound? That classic, soft acoustic sound with plenty of projection from the circular sound hole. Even better when amplified - it's a unique tone, I think.

To summarise: I would definitely recommend this guitar, it looks and feels and plays way better than its low price might suggest. My third Harley Benton and the keep producing the hits!

I've been playing guitar for over 50 years and have owned instruments at all price levels. I needed a cheap guitar for rehearsing in an enviorment where damage is a high risk and didnt want to risk an expensive guitar. Thought I would give this Harley Benton a go.
I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality for just £79. It came out of the box set with a low action. There were no marks or damage. The spruce top looks good, nice gloss finish. The fretboards is also fine. General build quality exceeds my expectation. The only flaw I found was the neck surface is a little uneven in places but it doesnt affect the playing. The pickup system is adequate but doesnt come with a tuner. I had trouble attaching a clip on tuner due to the rebated top shape of the headstock.
The guitar plays fine, ok, its not at toneful and refined as my D'Angelico but certainly fit for purpose. Just one thing worth knowing, wearing the guitar on a strap puts the guitar at a strange angle, tipping it in at the top towards the player. I got around this by fitting strap button under the heel and that leveled things up nicely. All in all I'm delighted with my purchase.

1 wanted to get a cheap round back and stumbled across this on the internet. Great looks, great sound, (acoustic and plugged in) that resonates well, and with a little tinkering with the truss rod (loosened about half a turn with the supplied key) got a nice playable action with no buzzing. The only issue I had with it when I received it was a slight string buzz (truss rod adjustment sorted this out) and the decoration around the sound hole was loose (a dab of super glue sorted this)
For £70 + £10 postage, what a deal, it came well packed and only took two days to get from Germany to the UK. A++