Harley Benton Slider II Vintage Series

Ordered with a gift card i received from a labelmate as thanks for some help with bass tracking. The build quality is impressive for this price, potentiometers are quite frictiony and the tuners jump around a little but the body itself is solid as a rock.

The lone single-coil sounds a bit dinky at first but once you get your pedals/amp dialed in to add some beef it sounds really nice, not microphonic at all and gets some lovely twang when you compress it a bit! Shockingly little hum as well.

This is my first dedicated lap steel but i've had quite a few guitars in my day and i can definitely say that most people will definitely get quite a bit of use out of this thing. I'll likely be upgrading the pickup and tuners at some point but it's definitely a very competent instrument as is.

I bought this as an introduction to slide guitar. I've always been curious and didn't have much money to spend on an experiment. This got solid reviews so I thought I'd give it a try. Without having any other experience with slide guitars, I can't really compare this to others. But it has worked well for me. The hardware and electronics all seem to work fine. (One small exception is that there is sometimes a slight buzzing on the 2nd string near the nut, but since I haven't changed strings yet, maybe this is something that will go away when I do. Anyway, when it's plugged in and I'm playing it, it doesn't seem to be a big problem.) There is some hum from the single coil pickup, which is to be expected. If I ever get proficient enough to justify it, I'll probably upgrade the single coil to a single coil-sized double coil pickup to solve the hum problem. But besides the hum, the pickup sounds good enough for me. All in all, for the price, and if you're a beginner just wanting to dabble in slide, I think this is an easy choice. (And it comes with all the accessories you need to get started, which is a nice bonus.)

I bought this Slider II Lap Steel 18 months ago as a cheap entry to playing Lap Steel, and so far I'm pretty much totally happy with my choice...

First of all, it features a nice light body which adds good resonance to the sound - just what you want for C6 country or Hawaiian style. The scale length is relatively short and the string spacing reasonably close, which makes slants and "grips" (what the hillbillys call a chord on LS ;) much easier for the more ham-fisted among us.

The pickup is reasonable quality and squeal-free, tuners are smooth and accurate, the controls are nice and smooth, the chrome plating is ok though scratches easily. I also spent the extra 10€ for the tone bar and fingerpicks bundle. The picks take a little getting used to, but trust me, the tone bar is worth every penny! Finally, the fretboard markings are nice and clear, especially compared to my Recording King which is SO easy to get lost on.

The paint is a blue-sparkle finish that's nice and smooth and fairly tough. A choice of colours would be nice, and I'd happily pay more for a pearloid "mother of bowling ball" finish, but for 88€, what do you want?

I've given it 5 stars for the sound - If I had the same pickup in a guitar, I'd upgrade it. That said, it's a traditional downhome instrument and somtimes traditional downhome instruments aren't meant to sound all pretty-pretty. If you pick up a 1940s Regal or Sears Silvetone lap steel, the pickups were pretty shocking, so this is just fine for me.

The strings are so-so. Despite what people say you can tune them to C6, but a dedicated replacement set will improve your playing much quicker.

The only real down-side is the bridge. For lap steel you don't need to set intonation down to the last piffometer. The 6-saddle tele bridge is a total PIA to set totally flat, and once you do get it set right the string tension isn't enough to stop the saddles from working loose again, so I'm really not sure why Thomann / Harley Benton went for this system. There's nothing wrong with the quality of the bridge, I just don't think it's the right bridge for this instrument.

I've since replaced my individual bridge saddles with a single piece of 2cm aluminium right angle bracket and it's just so much better. Same with the nut - the string heights need to be totally flat and mine seems to have a very slight arch, though not enough to make it unplayable.

So, to sum up, if you're looking for an inexpensive introduction to Lap Steel, at under 100€ this really is a great place to start your journey. It might not have the mojo of a vintage Gibson or Fender or the class of a Duesenberg (or the price-tag for that matter) but if you want to get a taste for the lap steel without breaking the bank, then it's pretty near perfect.

I read all the reviews, and chose this item as It was no great loss (in money terms) If it all went to pot. Being forewarned of some of its failings, and being able to correct them, I bought it. Delivery was quick, tracking good, The issues raised by others were soon fixed, ie; a new set of quality strings of the correct gauge. A few screws needed countersinking better, the bridge is ok for now, but may get changed later. The steel supplied is not my favourite type, but I already had a Shubb quality one which is easier to use. I may buy another and string it up to use in the E7 tuning to save re-tuning when that is a better option. A quite usable item, the only real problem was the string gauge, so I would say change that before trying to play it. ############ OK. 29/11/17. I did buy another as I mentioned earlier . I repeat all my comments, Thomann have nowhere to write another review, so I,m tacking it on here. Its the string gauge is wrong, otherwise its a good product to learn on. I have put heavier strings on, and Thomann should advise the makers about it. I mean an 8, and a 12, and a 14, are really not heavy enough for the first three strings. Other than that its quite usable.

Its a great studio tool, very fun to play
Its pretty much perfect, with a couple of exceptions:
1. the tuners need to be put in the trash the moment you receive it. And its coming from someone who has nothing against cheap hardware. These are complete garbage for sure - very hard to use and feel like they would break in a week under this kind of stress
2. the pickup is... well its a ceramic single coil, so it sounds like one. I'm using my instrument mostly for the leads so I swapped it to a blade humbucker.
With those couple of improvements its a solid instrument. What more could you ask for at this price point?