Harley Benton CLF-200 WN

Picked this little thing back in early 2018, and it has only gotten better. Lovely rich tone, bright but carrying a nice warmth underneath. Despite the small parlour body, it projects surprisingly well. Not the best guitar for strumming chords, but for fingerstyle it is an absolute steal.

Arrived set up perfectly, didn't even slightly need to adjust the truss rod. Smooth frets, no jagged edges and polished well. The machine heads are absolute crap though. After a little work they hold the tuning very well, but they are not very accurate/smooth while tuning making it a much slower and tedious process than it should.

All in all, at this price point it is a fantastic value buy.

It's also really pretty (just a couple minor blemishes).


An edit - There are many 5 star reviews of this guitar, and that is easy to understand why - it is a marvelous piece. However, there's a very big difference between a guitar that is as pleasantly surprising as this one vs one of extremely high quality craftsmanship by master luthiers and I think people might be being a little bit generous with their 5 star ratings. WITH THAT SAID - BUY THIS GUITAR, you won't regret it and you will fall in love.

I own lots of expensive guitars and needed something I could travel with and let my kids play without being anxious about it being damaged. For the money, a solid spruce top and walnut neck and sides (I assume laminate) how can you beat it for $200. Impressions. Strings were too heavy and filthy - maybe 12’s. I put new 10’s on. Also the action at the nut was way too high. I didn’t want to spend $100 to $200 for set up on a $200 guitar so I took a chance, knocked the nut out and sanded it down and the action was much improved. I think the tone is very good, much brighter than the mahogany you find on most low end guitars. The frets are a little rough, not terrible, but again, what do you expect for $200. The finish is very nice. All in all, a great value.

First, i love this guitar. It sounds amazing and is really beautiful. BUT, there are cons. I played the display model at Thomann, and everything was great. The one they gave me from the warehouse the action was so high it was difficult to play. I tweaked the truss rod, and now, more playable, but there is fret buzz on low E about the 3rd fret. Very frustrating. Next, The tuners are sort of amazingly bad. Lots of jerking around. It will hold tune, so there's that. I will try some graphite on the nut and see if this helps.
I am still a fan of HB guitars, but this one just missed the mark. I know they make flawless guitars...this just isn't one of them. Trying to decide now whether or not to send it back and try another.

******UPDATE****** So, i sent the first one back. First, Thomanns reputation for amazing Customer Service really is warranted. The send back process was easy and amazingly fast.
On to the new guitar. Far better than the previous one. The tuners still have their issues. But, the action on this is significantly better (thought still a bit high) and do not have anywhere near the same amount of buzz...only when I really crank on it. Will probably still try to get the action down a bit by adjusting the nut and whatever I can get from taking off the bridge (oddly both guitars have really low bridges already from the factory).
As before, i really, really like the sound of these guitars. The volume is incredible and the overall tone is quite impressive for a small body guitar. The mids especially "jump" out of the sound hole. Overall a good guitar for this price.