Harley Benton HBO-600TB

From the the quickness of order placement arriving at my front door to the quality of the product top to bottom. I have not seen any company that can come close in comparison. The action was set perfect, the tuners worked without issue, the sound was amazing, and the electronics functioned properly. The only thing that required attention from me was the fret ends were sharp in places. Ten minutes it was resolved tuned and unbeatable. The finish is amazing with one minor blemish that appears to be a sag in the gloss but you need to really inspect in very good lighting to notice it. I have bought a dozen more expensive and better known acoustic guitars over the last 35 years, this one beats them all. The last guitar I was this impressed with quality for price was a Washburn D10N back in the 90's. I wanted to see the type of quality on a less expensive Harley Benton before I went all in on the higher priced models. All I can say is "Thank you Thomann, and Harley Benton" I will definitely be shopping here from now on and Harley Benton will be the brand I purchase.

I needed an electro acoustic for a little folk/irish/pub singalong band I'm playing with. I was using an old Takamine but when I started getting hand cramping and difficulty fretting Bm cleanly (a cursory examination revealed the Taka in dire need of a refret) I decided to explore a few other options.
One of my colleagues turned up at rehearsal with a Harley Benton Banjo Ukelele thingy the quality of which impressed me, and as other members chimed in with praise for HBs in general I thought I'd have a look at the website upon which you are now reading this.
Browsed the guitars and decided on the HBO-600, as I've always fancied an Ovation (a chum has a lovely old example). I went for the blue guitar bundle, as the odds and ends included will all come in useful (you can't have enough straps, leads plectrums etc. when you're gigging!)
Couple of days later a large package turned up bang on time and in perfect condition - can't fault Thomann's delivery system. Good start.
The guitar was in perfect condition, nice blue colour, strings slightly detuned for shipping (presumably). My first observation was the fret ends where a wee bit sharp in places, but not enough to be a problem. I have an old Japanese made Tokai which has developed fret sprout in it's old age. My guitar tech will fix it in two ticks. The frets could also do with a polish but not an impediment. I'm not doing any string bending on this wee geetar.
My second observation was the round back. It takes a wee bit of getting used to if you are used to a conventional acoustic. One of my chums reckoned with his beer gut it would just pivot round him! No problems for me (must drink more beer). I usually practice sitting then standing up for a bit, so I just leave the strap on. I experimented with the guitar height, and came to the conclusion (for me) to either play it quite high up on your body or really low (us punk band low). Much as the idea of playing an acoustic really low down amused me I decided to adopt the higher option. Couple of weeks later I don't even think about it but I can see how the round back may put some players off. My aforementioned Ovation playing chum told me he plays his "sort of on my hip".
(The Ovation has a round back as all you guitar slingers will know). Actually looking at the headstock etc. the HBO -600 is pretty much an Ovation "tribute". No problem with that.
The neck is a fair bit chunkier than my C - shape neck electrics, more like the U - shape guitar on a 52'tele reissue I had a while ago. Not a problem for me, and I have medium/small hands (and lousy technique but that's my cross to bear).
So I tuned the thing up and played it for a bit - then I tuned it up again, and then again. Realised the strings hadn't been stretched in so did that.
No problems with tuning since - seems to hold tune pretty well so no need to replace the machine heads, standard ones doing the job well enough. Played it for a bit, then a bit more, then decided it was a keeper.
Good.
Out of the box the action and neck relief were perfectly set, the guitar comes with the allen key for the truss rod, a nice extra. The action might actually be on the low side for you acoustic players, but for us electric refugees it's bob on. No fret buzz, sitaring or dead spots I can find - mind you I haven't played higher than the 7th fret much.
Can't comment on Thomann's returns system therefore.
Rehearsal night beckons and off to the pub where we rehearse. Everyone was very complementary about the guitar's appearance, the other guitarists who played it were frankly amazed at the playability. Compared very favourably to the much more expensive guitars in the room.
Sound wise not as sweet as the old Takamine, but perfectly good. What's it sound like plugged in? asked my pal. Err haven't plugged it in yet I replied.
So back home plug it in - nothing. Pressed the wee battery check button - zero effect. Opened up the battery case and instantly diagnosed the fault. The supplied battery still had the protective plastic wrapper on! Sensible of Thomann to ship actually, just remember to take it off!
Plugged it in to an amp and sounds fine - again not your classic rich Ovation tone but nothing wrong with it.
Then the acid test - the gig!
Brilliant! Best gig we've played and the wee HB performed faultlessly. Having a guitar I didn't have to think about playing made the gig much more enjoyable for me. Sounded great through the PA, stayed in tune all night (well as much as any guitar stays in tune when you're thrashing away!)
So as you may have already surmised, I'm quite taken with this little blue baby. It's doing everything I want from a cheap biffabout guitar that isn't going to cause me any anxiety about dings or playing rough pub gigs.
So to sum up-
Stretch the strings in,
Take the battery plastic off,
If you're picky tidy up the fret ends and polish the frets (I haven't bothered and probably never will),
Play the daylights out of it.

PS I'll try to remember to update this review in a few months, when I've restrung and done a few gigs.
Keep music live !!!

This is the third HB guitar I've bought and it's also the cheapest one as well. (I have the GS Travel-E Mahogany and the HBO-600TB's "brother", the classic nylon string HBO-850).
Out of the box, looked well enough and even seemed to be in tune already (it was, relatively, but not to concert pitch). A quick retune and I gave it a go. The frets aren't dressed as nicely
as the other HB were when they arrived. I will look to that later. The worst fault was the neck relief, although that was simply down to truss rod adjustment, which fixed it. Again, the other HBs didn't need attention. Some say that Harley Bentons can be a bit of "pot luck" whether you get a Mercedes or a Lada!! The two bad points I listed don't make it a bad guitar. With a little attention this guitar will be fine, perhaps a bit more care at the factory?? . I was lucky with the other two anyway, and to be fair I've heard quality complaints about the expensive brands too, so no huge deal.
Honestly, you cannot beat the price and when set up nicely the guitar is surprisingly good. The pickup works well, I imagine most players of this type of instrument use some amplification and I'm not disappointed with it. Unplugged it's "very good" rather than "outstanding" - but for heaven's sake, at under €90 I'd be justified in saying it's incredible! I will be changing the strings, the factory ones work but I suspect my usual brand will be better. I'll dress the frets at the same time then it WILL be a great little guitar.

Extra comment: Three days after the unboxing. I haven't changed the strings or given the frets a "beauty treatment" yet, but I've played it a lot since it arrived and I have to say I'm getting more fond of it all the time. A cheap guitar just shouldn't be this good.

Obviously a lovely looking guitar and an inexpensive one to take here and there, especially with its more rugged design.
I guess I am not so lucky as some, as I have only had one guitar out of 8, bought from online places that didn't need lots of work in terms of fret levelling, nut grooves and saddle filing. It's no big deal for me and I have just come to expect it now. I can't really afford expensive guitars but it would be nice to get another guitar that I can just unbox and play it. The one that was pretty much fine cost £118.
I would urge caution buying cheaper guitars if you don't know how to do these setups, or simply can't be bothered to learn or are just being overly conservative with your wallet. Certain YouTubers seem seem gleefully prepared to gloss over various aspects of setup shortcomings, no doubt after been sent (probably free) guitars to review that were given the full attention. This one, bizarrely and alarmingly had both the low E and A tuned to an F! I find it slightly difficult to believe it was checked before being dispatched, and if it was, then perhaps someone should be having a little less Schnapps. I realise this is a busy time of year for retail, but... Personally I think guitars should be sent out a tuned a tone or semitone lower than standard, as it could be very hot, or very cold in transit depending on the season. At 1st I thought perhaps this perplexing tuning had twisted the neck, but it was the typical grooves in the nut which needed deepening especially on the lower strings, so I put my concerns behind me and set about making it more playable.
I still have some fret leveling to do on the higher frets and took the action down as low as possible. This is after all an acoustic which has lots of frets. I will be playing lead guitar parts for acoustic sets and recordings, and in my eyes it's scarcely worth all the frets if you can't play them without a degree of swiftness with a low enough action, but this of course takes some work to achieve and there are a number of frets causing issues. Not really surprised, but for some, that would totally suck if they don't want to be bold enough do some fretwork, and remain knowledgeless perpetually frustrated every time they hit a certain fret. We've all been there, but c'mon, YouTube is your friend with these issues. You can help other people with inexpensive guitars, kids learning to play etc.
The neck is looking straight but at any rate, I couldn't get into the access point for the truss rod anyway as the screws are in so tight that I just couldn't unscrew them for fear of stripping the screw heads, it's almost like no holes were pre drilled or something. I have the right size head on the driver, but it's only a small one without a decent handle more for electrical stuff, but I will need to apply a little relief on the neck as I plan to put a set of 10s on this. I'm used to playing 11s for standard tuning, main guitar thing, but this feels more like a set of 12s to me. The sound is very nice, better than I expected and there's that old school Ovation type crispness to it, but with a surprising amount of depth (the 12s I think) but I obviously want something lighter for lead guitar stuff (especially on account of the fact that I'm apparently a wimp who can't remove a screw)
My other steel acoustic has GHS phos 14s on it for low tunings so I don't really need anything in the middle. I would another cheap acoustic for even lower baritone or other experimental tunings, but I have 3 classicals guitars with different tensions for different tunings, so I must behave in terms of acquisitions, plus I need an electric and headphones next, because my housemate is now working nights and I can't really disturb him with playing, which really sucks after buying these acoustics and fancy sets of carbon strings. I think a nylon in Nashville tuning would be good (Same, but a tone down D G C F A D. Flat capos are available)
I had considered sending this back and looked at it for a number of days but decided to bite the bullet and start sanding and filing again, as I had done with the cheap black £50 HB electro classical guitar a few days before.
Unless something is drastically wrong, for this money, its worth persevering with setups, especially if you enjoy doing it.
For the price, I can't really give it any less than 4 stars, despite the issues.
I will be doing my Al Di Meola impressions soon.