First of all I play a National Delphi and I bought the Harley Benton to play at open mic and jam nights. It sounds nowhere near as sweet as the National but it does have a good, loud usable sound for slide and fingerpicking and I'm sure a cone upgrade would improve it massively. The build quality is excellent, the neck is really nice to play and overall I'm really pleased with it especially at this price which in my opinion is a bargain. The mother of pearl effect on the slotted headstock is a really nice touch and the tuners give great tuning stability and turn very smoothly. It was set up very nicely straight out of the box and all I had to do was adjust the truss rod slightly to get the action as I wanted it. Overall this is a great guitar to play blues and slide.