Harley Benton HB-35 CH Vintage Series

Frankly speaking, I don't really share the general enthusiasm for this guitar.

I agree that in terms of manufacturing, it is perfect: the strings lie low, do not buzzing, the neck is straight and comfortable, the frets do not protrude, the tuning pegs are smooth and doesn’t has any backlash, the guitar holds tune well, the pickup selection switch working distinctly, generally the appearance is impeccable, I would say that the instrument looks much more beautiful even than its original (Gibson- 335).

But then the disadvantages became - mainly they are related to electronic, and more precisely - to pickups (humbuckers). They are bad. They generate background noise (how is that possible?!) It is well known that the biggest advantage of humbuckers is absence of background noise, but here they make buzzing noise like ordinary single coil pickups. Sound, which produced by these humbuckers are OK – it is suitable for performing saturated (“meat”) soloing with overdrive, or distortion, but these pickups absolutely inappropriate for any funk, rhythm-n-blues or any other “speed” styles – the sound is very muddiness and rumble.

When I’ve tried to correct this sound with the help of EQ – sound became offensively harshness, and background noise became more.

To summarizing: definitely this guitar needs customization - it's absolutely necessary to change pickups (as well, as appropriate potentiometers), but of course it will much increase the guitar cost/ price.

After playing a cheap acoustic guitar for 3 months this was the most affordable electric guitar that I liked and I am glad I chose it even though the low price might make someone think it is low quality.
It arrived right on time.
The guitar came in perfect condition and almost already in tune.
I am not a professional obviously but I have used this at small gigs and it sounds great and is easy to use. The strings are fairly close to the fret board which I think is a plus.
A negative is that the pick guard is really crappy looking, The shape of it is really harsh and unappealing so I took it off as soon as it arrived. There are 2 tiny holes where it was held on but it is not too noticeable.
Also it seems the binding is painted on which is not too bad but it just shows that this is a cheap guitar in some aspects and that would probably bother someone who has been playing for much longer than me.
It was my first Harley Benton product and because of the amazing price and the care taken during shipping I will definitely use Harley Benton and Thomann from now on for my music gear.

This guitar is a wonderful 335-style guitar that looks beautiful and sounds great. It's a great bedroom jammer, but could probably be used for smaller gigs as well. The combination of tone controls and pickup selector give great tonal flexibility, from a clean jazz tone to overdriven blues/rock tones. It came relatively well set up; the only issues on the guitar I received were small fit and finish issues, and the frets didn't come 100% leveled, although they were pretty close. The fret edges had some work done so that there were no burrs or really sharp ends, but there were some tooling marks on the binding as a result. Overall, I am very happy with this guitar, and you certainly can't beat the price for what you get!

Always wanted a 335, but can't afford the Gibson & don't like the Epiphone ones.Bought a couple of HB products & was happy, so thought id give the HB-35 a go. First the good:1. Great finish 2. Setup very good & playable out of the box. 3. Solid, sturdy, well built & well balanced. Thought the binding was painted on, because I've owned guitars with fake binding and own lots with real, & it looked fake, but my luthier said it was real. Now the bad: 1. Pickups while sounding ok with distortion are very bright and a little tinny , & hard to get good cleans out of. 2. Tuners aren't great 3. Fretboard has uneven coloration, but Thomann & my luthier told me that's just the wood grain 3. Logo and "inlay" on headstock look cheesy & cheap. Otherwise, great guitar for the money. Maybe I'll like it more after I change the pups & tuners