Harley Benton Guitars

DM60

Well-known member
I have been noticing popping up on my news feed about Harely Benton guitars. Prices are crazy cheap, anyone know much about these low price guitars?
 
I do indeed. It's brand sold by Thomann in Germany. If you are unaware of Thomann, they are an amazing firm, run with Teutonic efficiency and they pioneered the three year warranty when it was unheard of. They ship all over the world, but I have spent thousands of pounds with them over the years and they are totally fault free. Small or large goods, doesn't matter. They encourage you to buy and send back if you don't like, and when brands like Behringer were dirty words, they offered these warranties on goods others slagged off as unreliable rubbish. It paid off.

Then they started to offer Chinese products sourced in large numbers and with their own brands - microphones, loudspeakers, power amplifiers - the same keen prices and warranty. Harley Benson is their guitar brand, and the guitars are sourced from factories in China.

We all have opinions on the chinese Fender, Gibson, PRS and Rickenbacker counterfeits, but a bit of Googling reveals some as dire unplayable instruments, and others as absolute gems. Harley Benson are the good ones. Musicians seem to love them because they play well, sound good and have a bit of kudos now.

The only thing to watch out for is length of production run for these instruments. Thomann will buy hundreds, maybe even thousands, of an individual model, but when gone, the next batch may be different finishes, have different hardware and sound different - the same applies to Chinese lighting kit.

If you look on AliExpress at the moment you will see some very similar guitars, but if you do the figures, the Thomann ones may well be cheaper due to container shipping costs vs one-off air freight.

I was going to buy some PA speakers direct from China, but I bought from Thomann because it was exactly the same product. For years, I sold a microphone made in China - excellent sound and cheap - I sold over a hundred then one day, sales stopped. Thomann had the same one, with their T-Bone brand on it for less money that I paid the Chinese supplier. Annoying, but it IS a great microphone.

They also sell the Shure SM-57 counterfeit many people were buying believing them genuine - they had the factory put the T-Bone name on the grill instead of Shure, and priced it really cheap and called it TB-75 or similar. It's a great budget mic for beginners, a solid microphone, once not pretending to be a Shure.

If you phone Thomann, the minute they answer and you say "hello" they switch to flawless English.

There are few other suppliers who have these kinds of products, and often have B stock - where they are the returns - at even sillier prices.

I've had two guitars I sourced for friends and they hold up very well. Both were kept and not returned and they still have them.
 
You know, now that you mention it, my brother in law, who is German, had mentioned this place. It kind of went right past me, but he was telling me the same thing. Huge place he said in this small village. When you go there, they still behave like they are a small shop.
 
I really like the looks of that Cream PJ Bass with the darker tort, and the price is even better.
 
I've had a HB VT Series 52 tele for over a year now and I love it.
All I've done to it is lower the action slightly to my own personal preference.
No problems with hardware or anything else for that matter & it seems to stay in tune indefinitely.
It's a keeper.
 
These prices seem too good to be true, though after adding in shipping it's more in line with domestic pricing. A nice looking Jazz bass for $98 !!?? + $75 shipping. They're making it very hard to NOT buy one .. OR TWO! :rolleyes:
 
I've been looking at these things more and more recently, cannot wait to get my hands on one. Feel for you guys in the US...I'm in Scotland and shipping is STILL ZERO despite the brexit thing.

Although I guarantee the minute I order my first HB guitar that will have changed...
 
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