Harley Benton Custom Line Superior-E VS

After a couple of weeks, here my thoughts on the Harley Benton Superior E-VS.

This guitar looks quite good. At first look, it's beautiful: the woods are nice, the binding around the body and neck is flawless and overall doesn't look like a cheap guitar.
I think that the sunbutst looks awesome (the photos don't do it justice) and i love the headstock logo and shape.
Nontheless, if you pay attention to the details, then you can find some minor flaws. The blocks are a bit asymmetrical and there were some traces of glue around them (but it was esay to clear It).
The pickguard is very ugly and i think i will replace It as soon as possibile.

The construction is solid and i don't have any complaint about it.
The neck is straight and the frets are perfect, there are no sharp edges, dead spots or buzzing even if the action is quite low.
The neck is also very comfortable to play, even if i have small hands.
I love the vintage looking tuners: they are pretty decent, not the best in the world, but they do their job quite well.

And now the most important part: this guitar sounds very very good.
Like the real thing, it has a lot of attack, with a very brillant sound and balanced bottom (to be honest, it lacks a bit of it to really sound like a gibson hummingbird).
The strumming is where this guitar really shines, but it does a very good job also with fingerpicking.

Overall this is a very good guitar, far better than its Epiphone counterpart.
And of you think that i paid it 220 euros (including shipping and a gig bag) this is an incredible deal.
Once again Harley Benton proved to be a very good brand, and maybe the one with the best value for the money on the market.

Well done HB!

I must say right away that the guitar was delivered to me in excellent condition. Oftentimes I am afraid to risk buying such things for delivery. I had no complaints about the build quality.
The guitar very quickly became the mainstay in my arsenal. I very often heard only good reviews about Harley Benton guitars, so I was not surprised by such a gift.
In general I use this guitar on recordings at home. I may not be entirely happy with the pickup, but many other guitars are even worse for this price. However, all problems disappear when you record it on the line and on the microphone at the same time (however, as it should be). In general, this is more of a niggle than a flaw.
Personally, I think this guitar is great for strumming. With such a deep sound, she perfectly plays along with my girlfriend's vocals.
Before that I mainly played Epiphone ej200ce among acoustic guitars. It may sound strange, but Benton overshadowed it.
From Russia with love
Thank you so much for giving me something that finally satisfied most of my musical needs.

Comes with a Bone nut & bone bridge ,sounds amazing I fitted bone bridge pins to keep the theme , I wasn't impressed with the built in tuner maybe my one was a faulty one ,most important it sounds amazing it's loud has plenty of sustain ,the neck is thin and easily playable ,action is sweet no buzz the neck seems to be one piece no scarf joint ,it's a beautiful guitar visually small flaws with the inlays ,but all is forgiven it sounds amazing and that is what counts ,thank you Thomann it's the second acoustic Harley Benton I've purchased and I'm so impressed ,amazing value as this guitar sits up there with the big guns ,this one could be a future classic .

I have had my custom line Superior now for about 2 weeks and and am getting to like it more and more every day. Ok, for the purists, it is obviously a clone of the Gibson/Epiphone Hummmingbird, but quite frankly I cannot see how Thomann can produce this guitar for the money. I have an Epiphone Hummingbird (also purchased from Thomann) and it is a nice guitar but in no way better than the Superior. In fact, unplugged, the Superior is vastly Superior. Also, maybe not as important, but the finish is perfect. I have looked very hard to see if I could find any kind of flaw and failed. But if you have two or three grand to throw away, then by all means buy the big brand, but to a degree that's all you are buying; a big brand. Once again Thomann have managed the almost inpossible; to create a guitar of this stature for an almost unbelievable price. One very happy customer.
Regards,
John Hall.

My two Harley Benton guitars came to me in flawless condition. And the fact that the prices are so reasonable, explains why Thomann in Germany has so many world wide customers. You cannot find a better guitar within Harley Benton price points. The Superior E-VS is a really fine sounding dreadnaught shaped acoustic guitar, with a solid Sitka spruce top. and comes with the Fishman Presys pickup system, you won't find anything like it for what I paid for this instrument. The Paradise Flame CST-24 T, is far beyond my expectations for what I paid, I cannot say enough about how well this guitar is built....
Thank you I will soon be purchasing at least 2 more models.

After purchasing Harley Benton's Custom Line King (J200 copy), which was simply amazing, I had enough faith in HB to buy this new Hummingbird copy branded the Superior. I've played Epiphone Hummingbirds and, just like the King sounded way better than the Epiphone EJ200, this HB-built copy exceeds the Epiphone counterparts in every way. For less money you get a richer sound which comes a lot closer to the actual Gibson Hummingbirds than the sound that Epiphone delivers. As others have pointed out, the finish is perfect, although I'm more of a fan of cherrybursts than vintage sunbursts when it comes to Hummingbirds. That's personal taste obviously but it would be nice to have a choice, at this point the vintage sunburst is the only version of the Superior available. Other than that, this guitar exceeded all my expectations, just like the King did. In this price range these Harley Benton models are simply as good as they come.

The sound is much lighter and more bouncy than my solid wood acoustics. Very well balanced. The guitar was set up excellently right out of the box (the low E was not in the nut, not sure how that happened. Put it back and everything was fine.)

Changed the strings to medium (13-56), sounds terrific.

Pros: This is a first line instrument. Thin neck, very playable, well setup, good tuning heads. Very light weight. Tuner works acceptably, electronics are just ok, knocked off a star for this.
No "finish flaws" that I could see, although the pick guard color is slightly off. More on that below.

Fits perfectly in suggested case. Was able to perform at an open mic with it the day it was received.

Cons:
The pickguard color does not match the color tones of the overall guitar finish. It is close, but it does not look like it goes with the guitar.

Several of the tuning machines anchor screws were stripped, and really not holding the tuning machines in. One tuning head was completely loose, only held in by the tension of the string. I corrected this by putting sawdust and Elmers glue in the screw holes, and reseating them. 100% good now.

This is a terrific value as a balanced tone, work horse acoustic guitar. The playability and attractiveness can't be beat, and it matches well with $800-$1000 acoustics at Guitar Center.