Harley Benton Custom Line CLG-48CE Wide NT

For many years my only folk guitar was a Yamaha FG-180 made in Taiwan bought in London 50 years ago. Those FGs are famous for good reason. This one still plays and sounds very nicely. But, I wanted a wider neck instrument to practice some fingerpicking, maybe with a bit of amplification, and that´s how the CLG-48CE stepped in.

The guitar is very well finished, to my eyes at least, it's almost as good looking as the CLJ-412E NT 12-string I also have. The walnut back and sides, although more sustainable ecologically of course, are a bit darker and greyer that the - more luminous - Ovangkol and abalone-gold combination of the 12 string. But that was a minor issue.

Much sadder was the sound of that thing, or specifically, the lack of it. No resonation whatsoever. That was the real bummer. To make things worse, the setup was irritating since the nut was about half a millimeter too high and the bridge saddle also higher than "normal". I reported the problems to Thomann's after-sales, hinting at maybe rusty string cores and poor setup, but they just recommended to see a luthier. Maybe I should havesimply returned the instrument but still went ahead with my not-so-great DiY skills. Sanded the undersides of both nut and saddle, somehow ignoring the recommendations (pick up won't work etc).
In the meantime the guitar was placed on a stand and very slowly it seemed to be gaining some voice, until by the time I bought some new Elixirs locally and put them on the *ROUGHLY* adjusted nut and saddle - it started to sing! Not perfection, but what a difference!

For myself anyway, the conclusion and moral of the story is that - probably the guitar was kept in humidified environment as it should yes, but for too long or too humid conditions. That would explain the visibly rusty strings and mute wood behaviour. And also how after a couple weeks ventilation and string change it normalised to a large extent. And BTW, I never got replacement strings or nuts. Service was obviously too busy and so was I, to vehemently demand it.

Apart from these important issues and considerations, the instrument is quite good for its price range, decent finish, very good intonation (important since not little or no regulation possible) and decent sound, acooustically and amplified.

But I would leave Thomann a suggestion: why not include in these instruments a spare saddle and nut, maybe a hair lower than the main one just to help the buyer solve these all too common issues? It might increase costs a couple of € but it would be well worth it. Or, alternatively, make available the concerned parts on the store.

I have been looking for a nylon strung guitar to play jazz on. I didn't want a streel string guitar because of the wear and tear on my finger nails which I use when playing my classical guitar. I was attracted to this HB guitar because of the wide neck which made it suitable for nylon strings. So I bought one and put ball end nylon strings on it . It has worked beautifully . the tone is more mellow and the volume the same as with the steel strings because of the piezo pickup which picks up vibrations only. The walnut back and sides looks beautiful and the spruce top is decent quality. I like the finish on the neck which is a satin finish, the rest is an excellent quality gloss. The machine heads are quite adequate and do not need upgrading .
The Fishman pickup Presys II is also very good , I use a HB valve amp to amplify this guitar and it sounds good with a bit of reverb. The price is just what I wanted , low!!!
I am generally impressed with HB eqipment , the vavle amp at about £200 is also exceeding good value for money. It is a pity they are made in China because I am not in favour of their politics and I hope HB equipment is not made by slave labour or by children.
Maybe I should ask Thomann about this to reasure me??
Kenneth Rhodes

I have slight motor skills issues, which don't allow me to be very precise with movement in detailed stuff like playing guitar, using a pen to draw, cutting small stuff with scissors and so on, so I bought this guitar to have more space to maneuver my fingers. Since then I have been able to play much better. Having such a wide nut, it is much easier for me to play chords that are relatively more complex, need more dexterity or fast changes in songs. Also, and finger picking is a breeze.

The finish of the guitar, for the price, or even without that consideration, is fine, finish is maybe a little plasticky too tick and the figures of the wood are not as refined than my almost 3 times more expensive top of the line Cort guitar Gold A8, but this one it is ridiculously good for a small amount money, compared to crappy affordable guitars not many years ago.

By the way, I think, because some similarities with my Cort gold A8 on the finish and the construction, that this guitar is also made in a Cor-Tek factory. The Cort guitar is all solid, beautiful figures in the wood and has premium aesthetic details, still this cheaper one is a beautiful simpler piece. This one, in exchange for costing around a third of the Cort, has less decoration and no ebony fingerboard and not as good tuners. Still, I will sell the Cort and play this one as my main acoustic being so comfortable and letting me play better.

The different in sound quality is noticeable when playing both guitars back to back, but the expensive one has UV treatment to make it sound more like and old (which is good) broken down guitar, you can notice the harmonics and tasteful highs and lows, but I hope with time this guitar sound moves on that direction as it get's older and is played more.

Don't get me wrong, It is not bad at all, and very likely any regular person would not notice the subtle differences, or me myself wouldn't have noticed if I didn't have the quality guitar to compare back to back. Still, sound is much less complex, a trained ear will definitely notice.

There are things where they cut corners to make this guitar possible at this price, but if you are willing to invest a little more money, they are easily fixed for a total investment that is still very very affordable:

- Setup by a pro, I setup my electric guitars, but acoustics are a sport at another level if you need need to touch the bridge saddle. My guy did an awesome setup, leaving it with a much more lower action and adapting the setup to the thinner .010 strings, easier to play for my lack of fine motor skills. It did work perfectly fine as it came from Thomann, but now is even better and even easier to play. There were not dead spots out of the box.

- Tuners: They work fine, they keep tuning very good, very stable, but couple of them have play. Still, they are perfectly functional. I will change them, but only out of being picky, don't need to.

- Bridge pins, for those I would say it is almost a MUST. They work fine, but they are cheap plastic, so sound of the guitar raises to a whole new leven replacing those for bone pins which is such an small investment that it makes no sense not doing it. Around 15 eur the Harley Benton branded ones or you can find a 10 euro sets anywhere else on the web. I would stick to HB branded, they should be compatible with no issues and seem to be quality stuff.

The pickup is surprisingly good being so simple. Still, I invested in installing a fix L.R. Baggs sound hole magnetic pickup, which ironically costs as much as the guitar. The stock pickup gives you the regular piezo sound we are all used to, without needing an upgrade (if you are after that sound). I have both installed, so I can change according to the situation or song needs.

If you are after a sound hole magnetic pickup, go for the ussual suspects, L.R. Baggs or Fishman, the later being the brand that is already installed for the piezo.

If you are playing plugged in, specially with a band, the guitar will sound as good as any, subtleties on wood harmonics and complexity of sound is mostly lost once you go electric and through effects, although it is nice to play at home acoustically with a guitar that sounds expensive or even for recording, but being myself an amateur player, this guitar is perfectly fine, as I vote for playability first. What can I do with a quality sound if I can't play right? This one is much easier to play than the expensive beautiful one.

For the price, with eyes closed. I am also looking into the cheaper dreadnought model that also has the 48 mm nut Harley Benton Custom Line CLD-1048SCE NS. It also has good reviews and finish is natural satin, so I assume you can feel the wood a little more, some people find this as an indication of cheaper price, but I find it lovely in matters of feeling the wood more in my fingers. If I get that one, will keep only the stock pickup, more likely doing the other changes (pins, tuners, lighter strings and setup if needed).

Materials: great quality woods, very well crafted. Fretwork excellent. Die cast tuners.
Intonation: first thing I checked and it’s as good as intonation can be.
Action: perfect for me, on the low side but not so low as to attenuate the strings when strumming. Quality control apparently checked string height and recorded this on a little card.

I chose this guitar for the 48mm neck and at last I can play a basic A chord without my fingers fouling the other strings.

Pros: everything; this is a fabulous guitar out of the box; because of the woods, it will improve with age; maybe I got a particularly good one but this instrument sings out beautifully and gives off wonderful harmonics.
Cons: tuners are not as precise as I would like but this is certainly not a deal-breaker; it’s possible to tune the guitar as accurately as it’s possible to tune a guitar.

Summary: blown away! An absolute gem of a guitar.