Harley Benton JA-Baritone BK

I wanted to try a baritone and for the price this was a no brainer. Not knowing what to expect having read mixed reviews online, I was pleasantly surprised to find this to be a pretty solid guitar.

It’s very “plasticy” but it doesn’t really feel cheap in your hands. What does it for me is the neck which is great and overall the guitar plays fine (except for the frets that are very sharp, to the point it will hurt to play for longer than 5-10 minutes at a time).

Sound wise this guitar sounds awful plugged in. It’s very muddy. It’s not a guitar I would record or perform with.

My guitar had a few minor aesthetic flaws, glue residue still left on the neck and it was kinda filthy when I got it. There’s some fret buzzing and also I can’t quite get the highest string to sound right no matter how I adjust it. Also it doesn’t really keep in tune…

I bought this guitar because I wanted a baritone guitar to play at home for fun. And that’s what I got!

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.

Plays good and the factory strings were perfectly usable! pretty easy to adjust and seems to stay in tune. I like the sound of the mics. The mic selector switch works OK though I am not sure how durable it is against rough handling as it is pretty exposed and felt like could be damaged relatively easily if hitting it accidentally with something. The pots work fine and felt pretty standard.

Pretty heavy guitar, the body is quite massive and feels like a base guitar. it is a bit larger and longer neck than the short-scale actual base guitar I have and about as heavy.

The tuners do work fine but the knobs are, well, what could I say. Very tiny and cheap looking and feeling and not very suitable for this type of instrument. Not sure what was the point of taking some super cheap tiny and miserable knobs from kids toy guitar and fit them to a real guitar with thick strings which needs some strength and precision to tune right. Can even hurt one's fingers to tune it sometimes. If finding a solution will definitely change the knobs or the whole tuners if necessary to get proper tuning knobs.

Pros:
+price-quality ratio is great
+good playability
+sounds nice
+adjustments ok
+electronics seem to be good enough
+factory strings are perfectly usable
+frets felt properly finished, no sharp corners found nor buzzing
+neck profile was good for me and the finish lacquer ok

Cons:
- tuner knobs really bad. like what were they thinking. the tuners themselves are ok but the knobs are not. hopefully can change them at some point. it is usable but seriously why those knobs why.
- it is a bit heavier and larger than a real short-scale base guitar I have. I knew the dimensions when ordering but it was a surprise still. Perfectly fine when getting used to it but just a note that it is a large-ish baritone guitar, not a regular-guitar-sized instrument
- like with most other guitars, it was a real pain to rip off the protection plastic film from pickguard and could not get it completely off from under the pots and switch. This is an issue with other guitars too so not really HB's fault but I think something could be done with the extreme annoyance of trying to rip the protection film off and pieces of it still left under pots and switches and stuff.
- the mic selector switch is feeling like it could be damaged relatively easily by hitting it with objects accidentally. Not managed to ruin it yet but can imagine it being a tiny bit more vulnerable on live gigs and rough handling than most other guitars

Overall great value for the price with the only real considerations being the bad tuning knobs and the size and weight. There is better looking baritone guitars but this is the affordable one which still sounds great so a no-brainer if can't afford the double or triple priced ones. The finishing quality is pretty good on this one so it is a perfectly good instrument if you can manage with the tuning knobs or change them