New (Very Cheap) Guitar Day

guitarjack66

Got my first Harley benton Guitar delivered today for the princely sum of £74 with delivery charges. Hard to fault it really,expect maybe a slightly high action and a 'coffee table' design I'm not keen on. Smaller bodies folk style instrument.

https://imgur.com/v8tPVg4

WBT2079

How does it sound. I’m looking for a bit of a banger to sit in the corner of the living room that I won’t be worried if it gets knocked a bit to replace a 18 year old Jim Deacon folk style whose bracing is starting to come unstuck.

hollywoodrox

When I got my vintage sunburst 120 cutaway it was about 54- 56 . They’re very good . I spent £40 on a setup and it will do me now 

guitarjack66

WBT2079 said:

How does it sound. I’m looking for a bit of a banger to sit in the corner of the living room that I won’t be worried if it gets knocked a bit to replace a 18 year old Jim Deacon folk style whose bracing is starting to come unstuck.

I haven't had a lot of time on it but it sounds ok. A new set of strings and a set up would help significantly though.You could play it straight from the box,no problem though. £74 for a fully function cheap guitar is not half bad. I haven't tried the pick up just yet though.

GoFish

What?! You didn't spend twice that to get upto the free delivery threshold?

That's half the hassle! I once paid the extra £8 for a set of TI flats - that still made them cheaper than UK sellers. Was a while ago though.

I'll look forward to getting an update in a week or a month. Hope it suits you.

HNGD!!

Soupman

Harley Bentons seem to have a good name as value instruments. Looks decent, & you say it has a pick-up fitted for that price? I paid a hundred for a fishman soundhole pick-up! And I had to fit it myself!   

bertie

can't see it   -  what is it ? 

bluecat

I can see it fine Bertie ,must be something wrong with your settings mate .what can you buy for £78. ?who knows.

Dave_Mc

Very nice! Hard to go wrong for £74. I have to admit I've been eyeing up some of the HB acoustics recently, too...

guitarjack66

Dave_Mc said:

Very nice! Hard to go wrong for £74. I have to admit I've been eyeing up some of the HB acoustics recently, too...

I wouldnt advise you against one. I will not write them off for any of my future purchases.

bertie

bluecat said:

I can see it fine Bertie ,must be something wrong with your settings mate .what can you buy for £78. ?who knows.

not at all,  I just dont have an imgur account  

guitarjack66

bertie said:

bluecat said:

I can see it fine Bertie ,must be something wrong with your settings mate .what can you buy for £78. ?who knows.

not at all,  I just dont have an imgur account  

You dont need one,I dont have one either.

GoFish

Imgur is data heavy, so sometimes can be bumpy if you're on mobile etc. Otherwise it's probably something in your settings.

guitarjack66

I cant use imgur on mobile,only on my laptop.

Mellish

@guitarjack66 ; nip it round to KGB on Pacific Road, Birkenhead mate, to get the setup dialled in. They're pretty good  

Dave_Mc

guitarjack66 said:

Dave_Mc said:

Very nice! Hard to go wrong for £74. I have to admit I've been eyeing up some of the HB acoustics recently, too...

I wouldnt advise you against one. I will not write them off for any of my future purchases.

  I'm definitely struggling to avoid them... Have managed so far, but it's getting harder. 

DavidR

All/mostly mahogany? Looks like it might be. And is that an abalone rosette and real purfling. If so that's incredibly impressive for £74.

If so makes my recent purchase of Vintage V300MH at £220 look positively expensive!

Only joking. Buying a cheap reasonably good quality instrument and 'doing it up' a good option in these troubled times. Just ordered a clear pickguard for mine off Amazon for less than a tenner. Having only just noticed it didn't have one. Looks like you could add pickgguard too if you wanted one. Otherwise just adjusted action and swapped horribly cheap bridge pins. Looked at upgrading bridge saddle and tuners but in fact they're fine.

One nice thing about a wallet-friendly guitar is you're less bothered about what you do with it and where you take it. It's a long time since I didn't put a guitar on a stand but this one? Just prop it against the table. Doodle enhancing!

Congrats on your new instrument. Some more description would be interesting please :-)

Tannin

I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that you are going to get way more than your  £74 worth of fun out of this little thing. It is good to have a few different instruments to match up with the mood of the moment. Enjoy!

PS: which bit is the coffee table?

guitarjack66

Tannin said:

I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that you are going to get way more than your  £74 worth of fun out of this little thing. It is good to have a few different instruments to match up with the mood of the moment. Enjoy!

PS: which bit is the coffee table?

Haha! @Tannin the 'coffee table' design is my description of  the lined Mahogany? design I believe. It always reminds me of the furniture of elderly relatives and I had an SG in that design and hated it.
@DavidR The 'abalone' rosette appears to be some kind of transfer type deign and not the real thing. And while it may be described as 'Mahogany' I'd be surprised if that Mahogany is any thicker than laminate. The guitar feels very light so to my untrained eye it doesn't give off a 'premium' feel at all. This is not any kind of deal breaker at all,it's just that my other guitars are more solid,for want of a better word. 
There are some interesting string wraps on the headstock where the strings dont even go through the eyelet on the tuners but that will be remedied by new strings. 
I havent tried the pick up yet but will get to that in due course.

Mellish

I wouldn't say "cheap". To me, it conjures up a mental image of tacky and nasty. Inexpensive is much better

That looks a decent guitar. 

guitarjack66

Mellish said:

I wouldn't say "cheap". To me, it conjures up a mental image of tacky and nasty. Inexpensive is much better

That looks a decent guitar. 

Fair enough,inexpensive is a good word for it. It's definitely not premium but its a fully functional guitar for a very reasonable price. I now want an electric,a tele,but Thomann's versions tend to be a bit heavy and that is a problem for a *cough,cough* middle aged man like me.