Harley Benton has unveiled an all-new acoustic guitar with a solid Sitka spruce top, a pickup/preamp system with 3-band EQ and integrated guitar tuner – and a very cool aesthetic for anyone whose tastes skew vintage.
Okay, so none of us are going to remember the HBJ-45E SBK’s by name, but most of us will have little difficulty recognising the inspiration behind the guitar’s design.
Just take a look at it. We have the slope-shouldered dreadnought body shape, the single-ply binding on that solid-black top, the dot inlays on the fingerboard. There’s no question it there is a Gibson J-45 vibe. Give it a white pickguard (the HBJ-45E SBK has no pickguard, which is cool too) and it’d have a similar look to the ‘60s era Gibson workhorse.
But look a bit closer and you’ll find a lot of key differences on this Harley Benton guitar. For beginner players – for anyone who is in the market for a budget strummer with plenty of guts – this has a lot of potential. There are a lot of selling points here. And if the look is very much in the J-45 ballpark, the build is quite different.
For a start, this has a longer 25.5” scale length, not 24.75”. The back and sides here are ovangkol.
Naturally, there are some financial realities when making a guitar at this price; Harley Benton does not mention if the ovangkol is is solid, so we can presume that is layered. Either way, it makes an interesting counterpoint to the Sitka spruce. Ovangkol is more on the rosewood side of the tone wood scale.
It certainly has a nice deep red-brown colour, which Harley Benton has left with a natural satin finish, complementing the all-black top nicely.
Elsewhere, we have a mahogany neck topped with a blackwood fingerboard, and ovangkol bridge, a 43mm graphite nut and a set of open-backed nickel tuners. Sure, they are not three-on-a-plate Klusons with white plastic buttons but they are agreeably retro.
But retro or otherwise, the HBJ-45E SBK has everything the modern guitarist needs, at least electronically speaking.
The HB-03 acoustic guitar pickup and preamp system should get your through your first open-mic night without too much drama. The chromatic tuner will be life-saver.
And, this is a cheap acoustic guitar by anyone’s standards. Available exclusively through Thomann, and through Harley Benton’s Reverb Shop in the US, it is priced £169/$228.
For more details, head over to Harley Benton, or go direct to order it from Thomann.
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