Harley Benton JA-Baritone BK

After waiting a few months for this to arrive and frantically watching videos about it online, it finally arrived today!

I was worried about possible QC issues and/or electronic issues since rumors about HB guitars have been coming forward a bit more the last year or so (my personal experience with HB products has been only positive), however I am extremely excited to say that the neck and frets feel as smooth as my most expensive guitar, the stock pickups being house-brand sound surprisingly good.

Only minor points, if you can even call them that, are the plastic tuners (which personally do not really bother me for the price and feel sturdy enough), the glossy neck (this is personal preference and I had no issue running up and down the neck) and the fact that the fretboard does not seem to be oiled (which is a 5 minute job).

Overall, I cannot recommend this guitar enough to the baritone lover. I actually wanted it for low-tuned metal which it can absolutely do (with some extra gain and stuff) but nevertheless have caught myself being sunk into its expressive cleans, so I do think this guitar has a lot of possibilities and its p90 pickups have an interesting character. For 199 euros and these features I didn't even care to examine it for dings and scratches and so far I have seen none, plus I have not checked the intonation but this can also be easily remedied. Absolutely great instrument!

I'm going to start by saying I've never been so impressed by any instrument relative to its price tag. The build quality is great, the neck is fantastic, the bridge is solid and adjusts smoothly, the pickups are clear and punchy and the whole instrument looks like I paid five times as much. the frets could do with a tiny polish but I'd be pleased with the shaping and ends on a guitar costing far more. The pots are smooth and clean, and the tone control is probably the most useful I've ever had across its entire range.

I've brought the action down to 1.5mm bass side and 1mm treble, and there's not a hint of buzz anywhere, which is astonishing. I did have to put a bit of extra tension on the truss rod and discovered that it's already cranked to the max, which is worrying but hopefully something I won't have to touch further.

I haven't had any issues at all with microphonic pickups or grounding so I presume that was an early thing. The only things I would note are that the selector switch feels very notchy (even though it works perfectly) and the tuner heads don't inspire confidence, especially with this amount of tension. No problems as yet though.

Get one, but book time out because it's hard to put down.

I bought this guitar to just try out some other sounds. This guitar inspires you to try other things. I think the jazzmaster is a beautiful model and especially if it is completely black. I haven't actually been able to find any shortcoming. Everything is very well finished and adjusted. We're going to throw ourselves into The Ballad of John Henry and other songs with the band. I am impressed by the quality of Harley Benton guitars and the service of Thomann

This was a bit of a punt as I wanted to try a baritone but didn't want to spend big money. The guitar was back ordered and I nearly forgot about it until it arrived and, all in all, I was pleasantly surprised. Fit and finish is outstanding for a sub £200 guitar, no sharp fret ends, no dodgy paint and the neck is beautifully finished. Machine heads look cheap and cheerful but this thing just stays in tune regardless. Action is a little high but perfectly playable. Pickups are a bit raspy but otherwise sound OK and are not unpleasant (the middle position is rather nice). The guitar is very light but there is no neck dive whatsoever. Being a full scale baritone you can get some pretty good hybrid bass/six string vibes and it really makes you play in a very different way. I am really happy with this guitar and I literally cannot put it down, I'll change the strings for some Ernie Balls and may think about upgrading the pickups at some point but, for the money, this is a great guitar if you are looking at adding a baritone to your armoury without spending big bucks.