Harley Benton CLG-70SR CE SBK

It looks a million dollars but costs just a handful.
I’m still unsure how Harley Benton consistently release such great quality guitars that are such bargains.
The body is beautifully put together and the figuring and grain in the wood is beautiful. The black top just sets off the whole look.
The setup was good, so almost playable from the box.
After a little acclimatising it plays so well, the tuner is precise and the strings are ok, will do for now until I put something more premium on.
Absolutely no sharp frets and the nut is spot on.
Sounds great unplugged and plugged in through my acoustic amp.
It’s super comfortable to play with the arm rest too.
If you are thinking of buying an all rounder acoustic then go for it you really won’t regret it.

I am an intermediate player who wanted to upgrade my current fender model to a mid range acoustic model. However having martin, taylor on my wish list I never wanted to upgrade because i didn’t wanted to go above £500 on my budget. However while browsing and researching across internet , this brand caught my eye after a deep research. Also I got to know that this guitar had always been that underdog under mid range series with big brands with high marketing budgets shading its availability. However I got shocked when got my hands-on this beautiful piece. It looks and sounds amazing like those big expensive over rated models. And the most convincing and unbelievable part is its pricing which is 1/3 compared to its competitive models. I don’t know how HB fellows are doing it but they are damn good on their game. One suggestion I would love to give them is to market their guitars more over the internet so that everyone gets their eyes on these beautiful models and realize that good instruments always shouldn’t be expensive. 😉

Played guitar for years and years but never had a proper acoustic, until now.. I've had a few HB's before, mostly hit and miss and require some fret/ nut/ hardware work and changes of pickups. But this thing was incredible out of the box. Intonation, nut, fit and finish are spot on. It looks even better in real life.

Holds tune great, tuners are nice and smooth. Fretboard feels great and strings are fine and play well out of the box for once! (normally have to change these!) Oh, and it comes with an integrated tuner and Fishman pickup and preamp?!

My one gripe is there is a slightly rough spot on the back of the neck, but hey this can be fixed eventually (its only £200....)

If you want a great looking acoustic that can do anything and play well, you'd be silly to buy anything else!