Post by mattmilton on Mar 6, 2019 11:30:51 GMT
Just spent a few days with the Harley Benton Custom Line CLA-28V WN and the Harley Benton Custom Line CLP-15M
Have been wanting to try out these two guitars for ages, as I'm a big fan of small-body acoustic guitars: parlour and orchestral models. Especially ones with wider nut widths: as a fingerpicker, I don't like standard 43mm widths. Both of these two have an advertised 45mm nut.
So I ordered them both. I decided to take a chance and ordered B-stock versions, figuring I could always send them back if any had anything wrong with them but I liked the guitar overall.
First off, the CLA-28V wN. It's an auditorium (or orchestra) size guitar; bigger than a parlour, smaller than a dreadnought. My overall impression was 'this is a good guitar'. It's very well balanced, bright but not thin, a respectable amount of bass. Comfortable to play, with a slim neck (a little too slim for me personally).
Set-up, intonation etc seemed to be perfect. The reason it was B-stock was obvious: there was a smudgey mark in the lacquer, which didn't bother me, but it was big and very noticeable.
Overall, I was a little underwhelmed by the CLA-28V wN. If you wanted a guitar to play contemporary singer-songwriter stuff this would be a very good value-for-money choice but it was a bit vanilla for me. Also, while it did feel wider than 43mm, it still felt a little constricted compared to the 46mm I'm used to on my Recording Kings.
On to the Custom Line CLP-15M ... A very different story. It's a parlour, with a solid mahogany top, laminate mahogany back and sides. 12-frets to body. It looks very cool. Straightaway I really liked it. My kind of guitar. Immediately there's no mistaking it for a mahogany parlour guitar in sound. A little boxy in sound, but also paradoxically quite 'big' sounding when you play in drop D tuning.
It is surprisingly loud with a very stark clarity of tone when you hit it hard and a lot of warmth when you play quietly. For a small guitar with laminate back & sides it seems very easy to produce harmonics and ringing overtones. More so than plenty of all-solid guitars I've played. The light satin veneer probably has a lot to do with that: heavy lacquer can really stifle a guitar's personality.
Its light weight and small body make it feel a bit toy-like but to me that's part of its charm. If you play folk or blues stuff this guitar is a no-brainer.
Reservations? I did initially wonder if there were intonation problems as some chords sounded off in different places. However, when I tested this systematically (comparing open strings with their fretted-note equivalents, checking all notes across octaves and strings etc) it seemed perfect. Weird. I'm wondering if it's just that the strings are very light and I'm used to medium-heavy, and I'm bending them a bit.
I'm also finding the action almost too low. Only almost. I think it's lower than on my other acoustics. It's fine though.
What's interesting is that even though it's the same nut width (45mm) as the CLA-28V WN, it feels wider. I think this is due to the neck being chunkier. For some reason this feels more ergonomically pleasing to me; I guess it 'trains' my fingers to stretch a bit more. Anyway, I personally find it more comfortable.
No B-stock issues that I can see other than two very small thumbprint-like splodges in the satin finish. As it's a brown guitar, it's very hard to spot.
So the CLA-28V is going back to Thomann. (They're charging me 15 euros postage from London. well worth it for being able to make an informed comparison in my opinion) And I'm keeping the CLP-15M. I've already slung it in a soft case and cycled with it to a few open mics: 160 euros well spent.
Have been wanting to try out these two guitars for ages, as I'm a big fan of small-body acoustic guitars: parlour and orchestral models. Especially ones with wider nut widths: as a fingerpicker, I don't like standard 43mm widths. Both of these two have an advertised 45mm nut.
So I ordered them both. I decided to take a chance and ordered B-stock versions, figuring I could always send them back if any had anything wrong with them but I liked the guitar overall.
First off, the CLA-28V wN. It's an auditorium (or orchestra) size guitar; bigger than a parlour, smaller than a dreadnought. My overall impression was 'this is a good guitar'. It's very well balanced, bright but not thin, a respectable amount of bass. Comfortable to play, with a slim neck (a little too slim for me personally).
Set-up, intonation etc seemed to be perfect. The reason it was B-stock was obvious: there was a smudgey mark in the lacquer, which didn't bother me, but it was big and very noticeable.
Overall, I was a little underwhelmed by the CLA-28V wN. If you wanted a guitar to play contemporary singer-songwriter stuff this would be a very good value-for-money choice but it was a bit vanilla for me. Also, while it did feel wider than 43mm, it still felt a little constricted compared to the 46mm I'm used to on my Recording Kings.
On to the Custom Line CLP-15M ... A very different story. It's a parlour, with a solid mahogany top, laminate mahogany back and sides. 12-frets to body. It looks very cool. Straightaway I really liked it. My kind of guitar. Immediately there's no mistaking it for a mahogany parlour guitar in sound. A little boxy in sound, but also paradoxically quite 'big' sounding when you play in drop D tuning.
It is surprisingly loud with a very stark clarity of tone when you hit it hard and a lot of warmth when you play quietly. For a small guitar with laminate back & sides it seems very easy to produce harmonics and ringing overtones. More so than plenty of all-solid guitars I've played. The light satin veneer probably has a lot to do with that: heavy lacquer can really stifle a guitar's personality.
Its light weight and small body make it feel a bit toy-like but to me that's part of its charm. If you play folk or blues stuff this guitar is a no-brainer.
Reservations? I did initially wonder if there were intonation problems as some chords sounded off in different places. However, when I tested this systematically (comparing open strings with their fretted-note equivalents, checking all notes across octaves and strings etc) it seemed perfect. Weird. I'm wondering if it's just that the strings are very light and I'm used to medium-heavy, and I'm bending them a bit.
I'm also finding the action almost too low. Only almost. I think it's lower than on my other acoustics. It's fine though.
What's interesting is that even though it's the same nut width (45mm) as the CLA-28V WN, it feels wider. I think this is due to the neck being chunkier. For some reason this feels more ergonomically pleasing to me; I guess it 'trains' my fingers to stretch a bit more. Anyway, I personally find it more comfortable.
No B-stock issues that I can see other than two very small thumbprint-like splodges in the satin finish. As it's a brown guitar, it's very hard to spot.
So the CLA-28V is going back to Thomann. (They're charging me 15 euros postage from London. well worth it for being able to make an informed comparison in my opinion) And I'm keeping the CLP-15M. I've already slung it in a soft case and cycled with it to a few open mics: 160 euros well spent.