Harley Benton Custom Line N-150CE Natural

Firstly, this guitar is absolutely beautiful. I mean, stop in your tracks, hairs on the back of your neck to attention, goosebumps beautiful. I honestly wasn't prepared for just how stunningly gorgeous this thing is.

That out of the way, a bit of context. I had to sell my last acoustic some years ago due to falling on hard times - a wonderful Ovation mid bowl that just soothed the soul with it's tones. Back on my feet, and I'd always wanted a resonator but couldn't justify the prices and wasn't prepared to go in debt for one - I'd just come out of that circle!

The Custom Line N-150CE caught my attention with glowing online reviews, and I lost count of the YT videos I watched before pulling the trigger. When it turned up today, I was like a kid at Christmas. I've not played for years but was hoping this would be my way back in. And, oh my, yes, it absolutely is.

When I first removed all of the packaging, I was genuinely quite emotional. Yes, it's THAT beautiful. But the real gut punch was when I started to play it. I don't think I've ever played a guitar out of the box that was in tune, but this was pitch perfect and while I'm undoubtedly rusty, the playability felt like it had been in my hands for all of these years without one thanks to the superb setup. And then their was the sound. THAT SOUND!

I like my acoustic tones warm and deep, and the first few clumsy chords filled my little cottage with such a wonderful sound that I just carried on noodling. For 2 hours straight. I'm sure there are people reading this who have developed 'that' connection to a certain instrument, but I've never felt it quite so immediately as this.

I've still yet to plug it in and I'm aware that the resonator journey is quite a different one, but I'm already so excited to learn what's ahead and delighted with this guitar. It is truly beautiful, absolutely incredible value for money, and fits my playing and audio needs better than I could have possibly imagined.

Thanks to Harley Benton and Thomann for giving me back something I thought I'd left behind a long time ago. I absolutely love it 🤘

I've been a mediocre guitar player for years. You'll have a hard time finding another instrument of this quality at this price point.
The guitar arrived early. It was pristine out of the box. No it wasn't in tune. Germany to Ontario Canada it was in perfect condition and it tuned up easily and stayed in tune. Who even thinks that's even possible?
The tuners are solid. The neck is smooth along the frets and it feels really good to play. Not sure how to maintain the purple heart finger board yet but I'll figure it out. It sounds fantastic. It's brash and loud without the harsh overtones.
I actually got awesome sounds with a slide, my playing notwithstanding.
If you want an excellent guitar this is the one.
The quality exceeds the price.

This marvellous guitar arrived very well finished and perfectly set up. The only adjustments I made were to install a second strap button and re-string with John Pearse 13's to give a bit of depth to the sound. It plays really well even with the 13's and has a great range of sounds from 'honky' to 'smooth'. The neck is very comfortable, there's no sharp fret edges, no string buzzes, the cutaway gives great access to the higher frets and it has a nice 'gritty' sound when plugged in. All in all it's an amazing guitar and I have to keep reminding myself that it only cost £189.