From my understanding, this guitar based on a Cort L100-OC and more or less designed after the specs of a Martin 000-18CE. Clearly a Martin is build like a Volvo (Swedish car) and the Harley Benton is not. There is a lot of shortcuts on the finish. But workmanship is quite good. That said, the guitar favors the must important things such as sound and playability. It does intonate quite good and you can take chords at the 12th fret without any problems. This is usually not seen in this pricerange.
Her is my pros and cons:
Pros:
- strings are aligned at the nut
- string hight at the nut is good and low, no need to improve here
- the fret-edges are almost smooth, it is sufficient to use some wet-sanding-paper
- the 1st and 6th E-strings are located approx 4mm from the edge, it feels good
- the sound is balanced and the guitar I recieved has a fairly tight bass also
- volume is fairly loud, sound comes fast, it has a good projection, the sustain is long
- pickup sound is quite good
Cons:
- the tuners could be better, i have upgraded to a set of Kluson MS33C, that is a perfect fit
- small finish flaws
- two scratched on the back of the guitar
- the preamp controls it not aligned perfectly,
- some roughness here and there, but nothing that matters in the big picture
Verdict:
- compared to a high-end guitar, in would say 4 stars, but given the cost it is at least 5 stars,
I am confident to gig with it, to be honers I am blown away
- 6 stars to Harley Benton and Cort guitars for producing this little gem, thank you for bringing music to the poor man.
