Harley Benton Traveler-Steel

So where to begin?

This guitar is a suprise in the shape of a parlor guitar.

-The whole guitar is in the shape of the old parlor/country cowboy guitars, so its nowhere near the good ol' dreadnought, so getting used to it is a must. But if you put a strap around it, then all your problems are solved and you will find no problen holding it.

- The fretboard is great, the frets themselves dont stick out on the sides and going up and down the fretboard is extremely comfortable. The roseacer wood feels great! Yet again Hartley Benton suprised me.

-The tuners themselves are standard tuners that do their jobs well and are built sturdy and good. You can change them if you dont like them but i didnt see the need for that since they are good.

-The bridge is well built and is shaped in such a way that it feels natural when you are strumming your guitar.

-The body is well built and it resonates sound well and even.

-The sound suprises you, because you expect it to be high as the body is so slim, but its full and loud and its suprises listeners because they never expect a full body acoustic sound out of such a guitar! Amazing

For such a low price you get a unique acoustic parlor guitar that you can take anywhere, and the build quality is amazing for such a low price.

So do you want to sit by a campfire under the starry night and pretend youre an outlaw country legend like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings or Johnny Cash? Or even if you feel the Mississippi delta blues of Robert Johnson? Well even if you want to be that person at a party who always picks up a guitar and goes "anyways, heres wonderwall)", or even if youre chilling in your home during this uncertain times and you need some good ol' acoustic music in your life, well then this is the ideal guitar for you!

This is my second Harley Benton guitar and i plan to expand that number for sure!

Playable out of the box, this instrument exceeded my expectations regarding sound, playability, and construction. For the cost of about $55 USD, the instrument is built reasonably well. No glaring sloppiness issues, the most significant problem is the fret ends having some sharp edges. Cosmetically, the side dots on the fingerboard binding are s little sloppy at the 12th fret. That's about it. While playable out of the box, it can really be improved if one is willing to put in the effort of tuning up the action and intonation at the nut and saddle. I ended up filing the nut slots a bit, lowering the saddle mostly on the bass side about 1mm, and tweaking the truss rod to add a little relief, to make for a beautiful player. The tuners are nice, without noticeable backlash. The sound surprised me. I was expecting a very tinny tone, considering the soundbox is about the size of a tenor ukulele. But it's quite tolerable and sweet in tone, much more so than, say a Martin Backpacker. Curiously, the tone improves if you can manage to play with the back of the soundbox free from resting on your body, allowing the back to resonate as well as the top. While this isn't necessarily a practical way to play all the time, it indicates the capability of the tiny sized body. The instrument as delivered differs a bit from the one in the description. First, the scale length is about 1cm shorter than the stated 595mm. It has 21 frets rather than the stated 18. And it came with strings from 0.012"-0.053", significantly heavier than I was expecting, but in a good way. The heel of the neck isn't as chunky as the one in the photos. The only improvements I would suggest to Thomann would be aesthetic. The herringbone soundboard "inlay" decal could be eliminated or substituted with a laser cut design. And the neck binding seems like it could be eliminated without sacrificing any quality, and be cost effective, too. Seems strange that they bother on such an inexpensive instrument. But other than that, I'm really enjoying the Traveler, and it proves impressive for an instrument of this size and price.

I had this guitar for more than a month now, the product as out of the box is ready for the adventure, comes with its little gig bag, and an allen/hex wrench for adjusting the truss rod. For that price... Amazing!
Not long after, I've been asked to buy a second guitar for a friend so I tried both.

-First of all: A strap is a must in order to be able to play!
-The looks and the woods are so nice... better than the pictures could tell.
-Sound is surprisingly good considering the size, if you want to change the string set, consider .11 or thicker so you help the low frequencies ;-)
-Bridge might need tweaking, maybe a turn on the rod, as the action on one of them came way high.

For what is worth...everybody should have one, can't regret it.

This is a great little guitar, essentially a modern take on the parlour guitar. Like those, it sounds a touch boxy strummed (I think it adds character!) but brilliant for fingerpicking.

As with almost all of my Harley Bentons, it arrived from Germany to the UK still mostly in tune, and it holds tuning well. The action is a touch high - I intend to sand down the saddle when I next change the strings (although I've grown to quite like the action and how it changes my playing!) Its size is perfect for always having it down by the side of the sofa.

If you want a convenient, good quality guitar I can recommend this one, especially if you are fingerpicking/considering the parlour type sound.

Ok, I am by no means a pro guitarist but I was bourn in 1985. Let me tell you, you got a shoebox salotaped to a loo roll in the 90s for this price of this lol. It sounds boxy, but it will, these guitars do, I wanted that sound anyway it's awesome. It's a fantastic guitar to just chill round the house with, lay down with, sit in an arm chair with, walk around with and basically do whatever you want with. I can see this being my go to for song writing now as it's just so handy. It's neck heavy of course but it still feels nice and well made. The finish isn't perfect but not worth knocking points off at this price range, believe me I'm pretty picky too. This was an impulse buy to be honest as I was just like damn that's cute 🤣 don't regret it though. Nice one, happy customer👌

This rating is for the understanding that it is only 58 euros. It came with a few tool marks in different places, the rosette is lifting where it meets the fretboard, and the fretboard was a bit dusty. However, once I cleaned it up, glued down the lifting sticker, and now it looks lovely. It sounds very nice for how small it is, and it is a nice size to play with when sitting around. It has low action so it is comfortable to play. My happiest suprise with this little guitar is that it has a radius fretboard, which I was not expecting on a guitar of this price range. I was also pleasantly suprised at the strings, which are much nicer than I was expecting. I mostly bought this just to get me through while my main guitar (Baby Taylor) is having some repairs done, but I think it will be good to have around after to practice on or take with me instead of risking my other guitar getting damaged when travelling.