Harley Benton CG-45 NS

Having given away my travel guitar in the Far East I was looking for something cheap to be my travelling companion for days out and holidays. Having seen the kind of punishment an instrument can get on the road or in the air (even if you are careful). I did not want to spend very much on what would be my "Beater" guitar. These are my findings and thoughts on what I got.

First of all, the service (particularly by Thomas) at Thomann was first class. I couldn't be happier with the communication or their expediency.

My CG-45

Arrived securely boxed, well packaged and protected.
It was exceptionally light. Now for me this was a bonus, for others this would be a minus. There is of course a trade-off in terms of sound. Please keep in mind all the time, the actual price of this guitar though.

I put some Martin strings on it and "Oh Boy!" Now THAT is more like it.In fact, I liked it so much I took it to my guitar tech to install a pre-amp and piezo just in case.

I would not recommend this as a first or beginner guitar. It walks a fine line between toy and instrument. A person starting out would do better in my humble opinion to go for something they can grow with it. Buy the best instrument you can afford. Look at the top of the range Harley Benton's as well as the more "famous" brands.

I have had this guitar over a year now and it is holding up well. Keeps tune pretty good (often a problem with cheaper guitars). Would I gig with it? No. But I would use it as an emergency back-up.

I didn't bother with the stick-on pickguard and a small niggly point, the stickers added to look like mother of pearl on the tuners don't do it for me, nor does the printed rosette, but remember that price? I thought it was worth spending that amount again to electrify it. Just change the strings and you can have a very servicable laminate guitar like "Woody" too.

when I decided to buy The HB CG-45 NS, I knew from 40 years experience
that I would find faults with this Guitar! You see I was brought up to respect an old saying: 'You get what you pay for!!'' Well in this case the saying that I fell for was: Curiosity killed the Cat!!'' OK I am a little disappointed because the one thing that I was afraid of was that the frets would be no good! I was right!! They have not been dressed properly at all! It's as if nobody cared about doing the job right because it is a budget guitar.This is a sad fact but does happen! It would take minutes to be fixed if the ''so called'' Inspector/Passer had not passed the guitar but just taken it to have the frets filed down, my review would have been outstanding!! If that had been done, this guitar would have had 5 stars from me without hesitation!

The good points: The Body and neck are great!!
The wood is great!!
The weight of the guitar is perfect!!
The sound is great!
The Tuners are excellent and hold the tuning very well indeed!

Conclusion: IF the frets were perfect,I would pay more
than double for this guitar. it is good value for money
but I think that the Harley Benton company should get a little more strict
with Quality control!

I wasn't expecting anything great when I bought this guitar. I just wanted a guitar to grab around the house any time I feel like playing without being worried about having a scratch or damage.

First, the high E string broke right away so I have to change all the strings. Right after changing the strings, the real sound of this guitar comes in. Chords are very clear and single notes are smooth.

Surprising the build is not like a cheap $50 you buy in the toy store. Since this is not a high-end guitar, I didn't expect it to be highly crafted but it's well crafted for its price.

I find it better than my previous F310.

First of all, this guitar costs less than 50 euros. It has to evaluated keeping its price in mind.

The build quality is not that good straight out of the box. Hardware is made of cheap and soft metal and it seems that quality control is not the main consern. The edges of the frets were quite unpleasing to the fingers, but once filed, they were fine. Some of the higher frets also buzzed badly. The bridge made the strings rise way too high to be played comfortably, so it had to be adjusted and filed as well. The factory installed strings were dead and dark sounding with horribly unpleasant to play, but that was to be expected, and I chaged the strings almost immediately. The body is made from plywood or something even worse, i don't know. The markings also had some hilarious spelling errors.

The sound, however, was surprisingly good when all of the corrections and adjustments were finished and the new strings changed. Also the playability increased in to a new level. This guitar is now the perfect choice for every camping trip or a summer festival. If it got burned in the bonfire or thrown in to a lake while expressing deep musicianship, it would not matter, since it is not worth a lot.

Again keeping the price in mind, this guitar is good when the strings are changed + some adjustments are made. If you need an acoustic guitar that sounds reasonably good and does not break the bank, this is for you. Just prepare yourself to do the adjustments and corrections and you will be fine.

At 68€ a pop, it's hard to complain about this guitar.

Yes, it did need work out of the box... the action was very high (close to 4mm)... the frets weren't level and were in desperate need of a good sand/polish... the neck relief needed adjusting (this helped a little with the action due to heavy bow... shaving a few mm off the saddle got it the rest of the way)... the cheap plastic nut was pinging on 3rd and 4th string + strings over 1st fret too high... the fretboard was dry and 'hairy' (wood fibers coming off) and the fret ends needed some smoothing over.

But once that was taken care of, the guitar plays well enough and punches quite a bit above its weight.

Let me start by saying, you cant beat the price of this all mahogany construction acoustic guitar. So if you were expecting a Martin for this price - that simply doesn't exist! However, if you are handy with the tools, you can make this feel like a more expensive guitar with a little TLC.

Out of the Box the action was great - i just tweaked the truss rod a little for personal preference. It played and sounded good oherwise.

The fret ends were a little sharp, so i took a (regular generic flat metal) file from my tool box and smoothed them out. If you font know how this is done, then youtube it.

This is me being fussy - but I also found that the binding wasnt smoothed out so i used the same file for the front top part of the binding on the body (where your right arm goes over the guitar), then some rough sand paper, followed by 1000 grit sand paper

If you would like to take it a step further, you could polish the frets, but my my home use and bashing around, its not needed.

All round great bang for the buck.

Okay so it is a cheap guitar, but I got this in a bundle for about £110 including a years subscription to an online learning platform. The subscription should be around £100 on this platform.

The guitar: The tone is nice and the sound is big for what is not much bigger than a parlor model. The craftsmanship is acceptable and all round construction is okay. I am an experienced player and bought this for my son and he is happy with it as it isn't too big in size. A few cons: the guitar was shipped in a tuning higher than concert pitch which was strange, strings are normally loosened during transit. The frets show no signs of being crowned or dressed and are rough against the base of the fingers. The fret board is dry but nothing a good oil wont sort out upon first restringing. The action beyond the 7th is a little unmanageable so if you know what you are doing you might want to address this. The "scratch plate" comes as a sheet of cheap plastic and I wouldn't recommend even bothering trying to attach it.

All said, would I recommend it? For a beginner absolutely.

I'm a professional Muso and have been lucky enough to tour extensively and played with some great instruments. My 'go to' guitar at the moment is a lovely Gibson Hummingbird; now I'm not staying this anywhere near the sound or build quality of that guitar, but you know what? It's a great, honest guitar that's fun just to pick up and play.

Two years ago my partner started talking about how she wanted to learn the guitar, apprehensive of letting her loose with one of my treasured instruments I opted to buy her her own instrument. When you're spending this much on a guitar you have some expectations in your mind when you open the box. What I thought? It's going to be ugly, sound horrible, basically falling apart. What I actually received was something different...

It has a nice double O body with a white binding that goes around the entire circumference of the top (a nice touch for a cheap guitar). It has all gold hardware and comes in a lovely stained auburn finish. The bridge and nut or both plastic and the machine heads feel a bit flimsy, however this is a budget guitar so these shortcomings are to be expected. The sound is surprisingly balance; maybe it sounds a bit thin, but for the purposes of learning its fine. Being a bit of a guitar snob, the most surprising thing about the guitar was the set up straight out of the box. The intonation was bang on (brilliant work Thomann!) and it was very easy to play!

Two years on the guitar is still going strong, no marks, no faults. If you're looking for a beginner guitar or even just to have a nice looking guitar sitting around the house I recommend this product. It's not high-end, it's basic. There is some sort of honesty I like about that- it's a guitar that wants to be used.

When I bought this one, I didn't expect anything.
Taking it out of the box, looking at it, it looked cheap :
painted inlay, matte texture, plastic bridge & nut.
No pickguard ? there is, you have to attach it yourself.
I didn't.
It is, when I started playing it, that I got the shock.
When I heard the sound it dawned on me that this one is a nice replica of the D-45 from the big "MG". The sound is amazing.

Pro : - Sound (for me = Amazing)
- Sustain.
- Neck rather good(no twist, warp) except the fret ends.
- Plays very well after setup.
- Frets perfect as lowering the action didn't create any buzz.
- Very light.
- Tuners hold tuning very well
- Price. Yep, To get the real D-45 you can buy a lot of these.
- Marble inlay (plastic)

Con : - Bad setup.
- Action to high. bridge had to be lowered/adjusted.
- Quality of the bridge/nut for long term use debatable.
- Painted dot inlay.
- plastic nut and bridge.

To make it perfect : lower the bridge, intonate and tune.
The plastic nut and bridge worry me for long term use. The strings will
penetrate the plastic so replacement will be needed.