Harley Benton GS-Travel Mahogany

Jeg købte en GS traveler efter at have set nogle forskellige vidoer på youtube og jeg blev meget positiv overrasket da jeg modtog den den. Den er flot lavet, fejlfri og har en meget smuk finish.
Den er let at spille på og har en meget stor overraskende lyd i forhold til dens størrelse. Den er i øjeblikket min foretrukne guitar og jeg nyeder virkelig at spille på den.
Og så er der der ovenikøbet en guitarbag med i købet - en guitarbag i en høj kvalitet.
Jeg vil anbefale den guitar til alle der har brug for en god guitar.

This is truly a great guitar. If I just had it handed to me, I'd expect at least a $430 price bracket rather than the measly $140 it costs (GS-Travel Mahogany). The sound is slightly mid-heavy, but far from as much as you'd expect in this form factor. As a whole, the sound is well rounded with deep and articulate bass as well as good timbre and resolution from the highs. The mids are not warm per se, but they're not annoyingly nasal either. So the sound punches far beyond both its price point as well as its body size.

As for ergonomics, I'm a very happy camper. The smaller body makes it MUCH easier to hold and play, and at least on the guitar I received, no filing of bands were needed. All bands were correctly seated and at the same height, and none of the bands had sharp edges anywhere. The lower string tension and string action makes it a bliss to play. It's much easier to play than my fullsize western guitar (of another brand), and it sounds almost as good.

It's been more than 2 weeks now, and I've played it every day with great joy since I got it.

If I must criticize something, it would be the gearing ratio for the tuners. I like a lower gear ratio, which means less change when I rotate the tuner. This allows for easier fine tuning - whereas a higher gear ratio makes it faster to tune, but at the same time harder to fine tune. This is of course a matter of taste, and it's a very minor thing anyway.

I will recommend this guitar for anyone really - whether you're new or experienced. Of course if your collection has guitars that cost north of $1000, this one is not likely to beat any of them in terms of sound - but it IS a great choice to bring along, as you won't be so sorry if it should get a dent.

As for supplied accessories: The gig bag is decent. Not great, but it's usable. The padding is not thick, so keep that in mind if you're throwing it around.

The strings mounted on my guitar, are the Harley Benton Phosphor Coated .12's, and they're great for this guitar. I'd expect .11's to lose a bit of body and character, but I might very well be wrong. It'll be fun to buy a bunch of strings and compare - but the argument of buying a smaller gauge for ease of play, does not apply to this guitar, as the .12's are VERY easy to play as it is. So far they're holding up just fine - and if their coating is doing its job, it should be at least 14-45 days more before I need to change them.

I've has the HB Travel Mahogany for a few years now, and thought I would chime in with my experience.

Build quality is solid, the tone is quite nice for it's size and price, and I have had no issues with hardware or tuners breaking.

My primary issue was several dead frets on the B and high E string. Despite a high action from the factory, some of the frets were very shoddily done and poorly leveled, resulting in terrible buzzing. It wasn't so bad when I first got it, but it seems as when the wood settled in, the fret issues became very noticeable.

Anyways, I had to put some work into it to make it play properly. Now it plays reasonably fine with an acceptable 2mm action.

All in all, for the price, it's a decent little guitar.

I keep it at the summerhouse, so I only use it when I am there, but for this purpose of occasional playing its just fine.

I bought this to play lounging on my sofa, laying on my bed or outside in the garden.
Out of the box, it's very playable - I haven't changed anything.
The mahogany gives a warmth to the sound, which I like. On a guitar body this small I don't think you'd need the brighter sound of a spruce top - I haven't tried the spruce version though.
Mine has a closely grained mahogany top rather than the more striped look of the one in the pictures - mine looks lovely. It's pretty light weight - ideal for what I bought it for. It sounds and projects much better than you'd think from the size (and price).
If I hadn't bought a CLA-15m soon after I'd be picking this up all the time - as it is, I pick it up a lot.
It has clarity, punch and warmth that are way above it's size and price tag.
Now the big question - is it as good as the Taylor? I have no idea, I've never played one. But it's the wrong question and missing the point; For the likely intended uses of this guitar, it's as good as you need.
Don't get me wrong - it sounds good, it plays well and it's fun to play. But do you really need to pay over £500 for a travel/sofa guitar?
It's hard to justify that unless you're recording with it a lot (to cut through the mix - and this will do the job). Or maybe want a smaller scale instrument for a child/teen. You could buy this and get two custom line acoustics (Harley Bentons) for that money - I know which I'd prefer and that's exactly what I've done.
Tuners - they do their job. People complain about a lot of new guitars not holding their tuning but it's just because they haven't bedded the strings in - (pull them away from the guitar 3-4 times, tune the string back up, do this 3 times for each string - you'll now hold your tuning). Speaking of which - when I tried that on this guitar the peg came off on the lower E string - I'm not bothered; I put it back in and developed a method of pulling the string parallel to the body, which works fine.
Construction is fine - don't expect bone nuts and bridge saddles at this price.
It's very neat and tidy, rather attractive and I love the curve on the back.
I have an old Martin travel guitar - I never play it. This is so much better - it's a proper guitar, just a bit smaller and light weight.
For the price it's a bargain - it even comes with a neat little gig bag.
If you want a full blown acoustic, I'd recommend one of the custom line ones. But I have plenty of guitars and I can't resist this little beauty - it gets far more of my attention than the price would suggest.
You know you want one.