P
Genuine bluegrass tone.
I want to start by qualifying, that I am not a dobro/resonator player, I am a guitarist, but I'm learning fast!
That being said, I want to add this review, for anyone interested in this fine, acoustic instrument.
The supplied strings, were really not good, having swapped those out and tuned to open G, this is the most fun I've had in years. I can't tell you how good it sounds, it has a great, bluegrass honk from the biscuit resonator, which seems to be of high quality, the pau ferro bridge, gives it a beautifully warm, yet soaring tone. Sounds amazing mic'd up also, the tuners are a bit meh, I can see those getting changed out, BUT, they function perfectly.
Aesthetically, it's simply beautiful, and understated, in a rootsy kind of way.
The guitar is built like a tank and will last for years, no doubt.
If you've always wanted to give lap style resonator a try, you can't go wrong with this, it's a very high quality instrument, for the money, and just in general. A talented friend of mine who has played dobro for years, absolutely loved it, and fell in love with it's tone, I believe he's ordered one for himself since. That's a good enough endorsement for me.
That being said, I want to add this review, for anyone interested in this fine, acoustic instrument.
The supplied strings, were really not good, having swapped those out and tuned to open G, this is the most fun I've had in years. I can't tell you how good it sounds, it has a great, bluegrass honk from the biscuit resonator, which seems to be of high quality, the pau ferro bridge, gives it a beautifully warm, yet soaring tone. Sounds amazing mic'd up also, the tuners are a bit meh, I can see those getting changed out, BUT, they function perfectly.
Aesthetically, it's simply beautiful, and understated, in a rootsy kind of way.
The guitar is built like a tank and will last for years, no doubt.
If you've always wanted to give lap style resonator a try, you can't go wrong with this, it's a very high quality instrument, for the money, and just in general. A talented friend of mine who has played dobro for years, absolutely loved it, and fell in love with it's tone, I believe he's ordered one for himself since. That's a good enough endorsement for me.
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YA
Beautiful resonator.
To be honest I wasn't expecting to much from this guitar for the price, however, it's rather amazing. I can't find anything to fault. It's beautifully made, has a lovely finish and a beautiful tone. You could easily pay double this for another guitar and not get close to this quality. The only problem I could see for some people is that the tone is a bit to warm, more like an acoustic guitar than a resonator. For me this wasn't a problem, I love the sound. Check out the video before purchasing to hear the tone. Would I recommend this guitar? A big fat YES.
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b
A good starter 'Dobro' style guitar for the price
This is probably the cheapest 'Dobro' style guitar you can buy, but it actually sounds quite good with a little setup and it will allow you to explore this style without spending a fortune. Although it sounded ok out of the box, I did a few things to optimise the sound. I replaced the thin factory strings (12-53) with a set of (16-56) resophonic strings - but in order to do this I had to widen and deepen the nut slots so the strings fitted and to make sure the top of all the strings were level with the top of the nut and at the same time replaced the split bridge saddle with a new single piece saddle, cutting the slots in it to match the nut, in other words so the tops of all the strings are level with the top of the saddle. If the strings are not level across the whole of the neck you will get unwanted buzzing from strings that are lower. Finally, I had to file back the nut slightly as it was over-hanging the fretboard a little - I had to remove about 1mm to get it flush with the top of the fretboard. It now has a nice balanced sound, no buzzes, good intonation up to the 12th fret and is very comfortable to play :)
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B-
Top quality
This is the fourth Harley Benton guitar I have purchased from Thomann and again it's faultless. As I am a left handed player, I paid £61 to have it fully converted and set up. I am astonished by the work put into this guitar. I have it tuned to open D and it's tone is excellent, a real nasally, swampy sound. The three left handed Harley Benton guitars I previously bought were great out of the box, action, intonation etc were spot on. Also, the communication with Thomann is second to none.
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