Harley Benton D-120CE TB

I bought this guitar mainly for playing live, I've never used the pickups and the electronics. They say a good instrument is supposed to sound good acousticly before else. And yes - this guitar does just that!

For 9 months of playing I've not experienced any quality issues. The lacquer finish is great. The neck joint is stable, so are the nut and bridge. The tuning keys are quality as well. Frets are done pretty nice. None of them is sticking out. I can't really find anything flawed about this guitar. It just sings when played. It really got that high top end emphasis while maintaining the fundamentals of the tone. I really love it!

As a natural bass player I bought it with the intend of having a cheap guitar for live playing but there is not anything cheap about this guitar, besides its price, trust me! Harley Benton reminded me again their products should not be valued and measured by their price tags.

I can't really recommend this enough to every body!

I have had this guitar for over 1 month now and I have played it daily. It’s my first acoustic guitar, my previous guitar experience is with relatively high end classical guitars.
For the price it comes at, this Harley Benton D-120CE TB offers unbeatable value for money.
The blue finish is beautiful and, on my guitar, it was flawlessly executed. As with all similar finishes, fingerprints will show up on it and it should be wiped down with a micro-fiber cloth after playing. The package includes two pick-guard stickers. One plain black and one tortoise shell.
The guitar’s setup, out of the box, was perfectly playable and all I had to do was tune the strings. No buzzing and, according to my measurements, there was no need to adjust the truss rod. That may change as the weather changes but this is normal.
Since the first week of playing it has stayed in tune, no matter how long I played. It also sounds very good. Considering I am still using the original strings that is pretty remarkable.
The only downsides I can mention are that the fret edges are a bit rough, particularly in comparison to the classical guitars I am used to. But then this guitar costs a fraction of their price so I won't complain too hard. And, that the roseacer fretboard and bridge take a bit of getting used to, since it always looks like the wood is dry and in need of oil. However, after a bit of research, it seems that this is not the case and, apparently, roseacer always look like this.
I have no need for the pickup and pre-amp so I cannot comment on them personally. A number of Youtube reviews seem to show that they too offer good value for money.
I really wish that decent, value for money instruments like this had been available when I first learned to play guitar 35+ years ago.
In conclusion, I can only congratulate Harley-Benton and Thomann on a well executed, budget instrument that is perfect for anyone from a beginner to intermediate level.

I use this guitar for practicing. I have been an amateur player for about 30 years, my first "nice" guitar was a 1987 Ibanez RG550 which I played in the early 1990's until I needed to sell it to make rent in college. I'm now 48, my day job is an IT Systems Engineer so I don't consider myself a musician but I do dabble.
My girlfriend has a $5000 Martin acoustic-electric, this is not a guitar in the same league obviously, but it's about the only thing I have to compare it to, as I haven't played much acoustic over the years. If I use that guitar as a reference, I would say this guitar is much more pliable, just grabbing onto it and holding the neck makes it bend a quarter semitone or so. I bought this guitar because I was already ordering a Fusion 2 HSH FBLB I had wanted for quite a while and had to wait several months for there to be stock.
TBH, this guitar has impressed me most of the two I ordered. The strings it came with are more than adequate. The sound is warm and bright. After the strings were broken in the guitar keeps tune pretty well. Cosmetically, it is a beautiful instrument, and you'd really have to be a guitar guru/snob/luthier to know that it is a really inexpensive guitar. I think the engineering on it is excellent. I haven't tried it plugged in yet. Machine heads seem to be a fairly adequate quality. Fretwork is excellent, no sharp edges or buzzes. The action from the factory is spot-on.

Pros - inexpensive, sound quality, playability, excellent setup, looks great

Cons - Could be a bit more rigid

I highly recommend this guitar, especially at this price point

Found this guitar and just said "I have to see for myself if this is too good to be true".
I was amazed when it came to how visually stunning it looks. It came perfectly set up and ready to play.
Great guitar for anyone who wants to pick up an affordable yet good quality instrument.

The pros:
- neck, action and fretboard all feel really good. No trouble or discomfort playing whatsoever
- lovely sound out of the box, tuners also feel great
- I like the fretboard material and it looks much more expensive than it really is
- you get pickguard stickers in both black, and red (patterned) so you can choose if you want to stick it there, or just leave it as it is without a pickguard
- there's a pretty decent sounding pickup with EQ controls on the top of the guitar, making this a very versatile instrument.

Cons:
- frets are kind of harsh, and I got a scratchy feeling when playing higher up on the neck (closer to the hole), but it's manageable and you get used to it
- the pickup gets noisy on higher output levels, and touching the metal part of my cable reduces the noise, making it seem like it's not grounded properly (if that's even a thing on pickups), but on mid/lower volume it's barely noticeable

All in all, this is a guitar that's meant for the people who want to get into playing whilst not breaking the bank, or for those who are curios what you can get for less than 100€ nowadays. Love it.

A beautiful guitar - perfectly set up pre delivery - I can not find a single flaw - and for what it cost - I was expecting to find a few - This blue colour enhances what is already a wonderful guitar - The second D - 120CE to my collection - I have paid four times plus - for a brand name guitar that doesn't play as good as these

Follow up review
This is the second D - 120 CE I purchased - in order to keep in an alternative tuning - I play it daily and just like my other one it improves, day by day - week by week - to the point - I have basically abandoned my top end guitars - These two guitars are my true love affair now - I am more relaxed because they are easily replaced - cost wise - and my playing has improved greatly - no matter what any witnesses might say - They sound amazing - so do I - [lol]

I bought this as a gift for my aunt, and had it for like 2 months before I gifted it, so I had some time to play it and really get to know it. It sounds very clear and is very resonant. The fretwork was decent, the action not that high, nothing a good setup wouldn't fix.
The only problem it had was not enough glue under the bridge. My tech sent me a picture of it starting to separate after doing a full setup on it and putting the strings in tension. In the end it was an easy fix for my tech, but I wouldn't have been able to fix it on my own.
The electronics work well, sound extremely decent for the money.
The one thing that lets it down and that I might have to fix for my aunt in the future, is the tuners. They are really vague, and you have to go up and down several times till you get it in tune. But, once it is in tune, it tends to be stable, so we might have to see in the long run.

All in all, I would buy this guitar again for myself, or even to gift again. Not before getting a good setup on it, though.

Thomann, please get your own QC at the headquarters, this would improve customer satisfaction so much!