Budget Jazz Guitar? How good is the Harley Benton Manhattan Std?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- HARLEY BENTON offers a very inexpensive Jazz Guitar with the Manhattan Standard at only 222 Euro. Let's see how good it really is.
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Harley Benton Manhattan Standard
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D'Angelico SS (with P90s)
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I'll tell you what guys. I got this guitar, sorted neck, bridge, replaced pickup and it's my regular guitar for small pub and club gigs. I play Gypsy jazz. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻💪🏻😉
So You got it sorted well..Is the bridge now locked down well? What did you replace it with?
That nut cover is a dog..lol..
What pickup did you use for replacement?
That guitar would be perfect for some Post Apocalyptic Heavy Metal Punk Polka Death Western New Age Prog Jazz.
Damn that sounds like an appealing as genre tho
it‘s not black tho, you need a black guitar for new age progressive jazz
You could just say system of a down
In one word:
Igorrr
My thoughts exactly
I just got the Harley Benton two weeks ago and my god is it a gorgeous guitar. I did buy lockable tuning heads for it, definitely want to upgrade the pickup but changing the strings to flat wounds really made a difference in the sound. Intonation is a bit trickier than I thought it would be but for the price it is it’s definitely worth every penny for what you get out of it.
I've never played one of these full body electrics but just from this video I'm impressed by the clarity of the unplugged sound!
I love your reviews - not just because of how you get the right balance of information and demonstration, without becoming tooooooooo detailed and boring.
But most of all I come back to your reviews, even for stuff I'm not looking into buying, simply because you are hands down one of the most hilarious and comical presenters :) Your facial expressions when you're unsure / confused / make a cock-up. Very honest and entertaining. Keep up the good work :)
I think this sounds incredible for the money personally
Those are not flatwounds on that guitar aren’t they? If you want jazzy roundness on an archtop you need flat wound strings.
By the way try to play fingerstyle (bottleneck) blues on it. It has the bite for blues, not for jazz.
Maybe a set of flat wounds would make it sound better for jazz.
And maybe some nice Jazz Chord Progressions would help too.....
I did it and it sounds much better
It does sound great on jazz pitch makes me want to get one 😎
but how does it sound with a Boss Metalzone?
Finally, someone ask the question everyone wants to know
Karo 7 or maybe boss death metal?
Nikolaos Mihalakis The Death Metal was made by Digitech
Wesley Zimmerman wow thanks for the info , i somehow thought boss fabricated it.
Go get a life dude. This is a jazz box type of guitar, not a metal shred machine...
You're simply on the wrong page Lol... Happy searching ♫♫ ♥❀(~‿~)❀♥ ♫♫
The bridge, is SUPPOSED to be 'crooked'! That's HOW you intonate them!
Nice for a cheap arch top semi acoustic!
Maybe he took that round sound by moving the bridge, hehe
IDK...
DMSProduktions CAPS are on again...
this guitar looks like it smells good, dont ask me why
EDIT: 17:03 i knew it.
Wake up and smell the mahogany.
Maybe because it doesn’t have those glossy finishes?
I had this same tuner backlash problem on my other Harley Benton and it is simplest fix ever, just unscrew the peg and put a piece of paper in between the pieces. This will last for ever, no need to buy expensive tuners ;)
Henning you are in charge of the Guitar world now... put a Harley Benton dealer here in the US.... Make it so number 1!
Oh shut UP Stella!
I hear you Mudd wouldn't it be great To have one in the states.They could put the first one in My City L O L
Lets keep stirring the pot! Perhaps they don't want to double or triple sales. Perhaps they don't want a hot brand that they control in the US. Perhaps that don't want wild success. Maybe they just don't want all the money in good old American dollars that tend to trade higher on the currency markets to make them even more profits. What else could it be?
@Hartcourt Mudd *rofl* you are joking, aren't you?
I do try to lighten things up now and then. Truth can be revealed as jest. Henning is our very own Dr Evil running the Guitar world from his not so secret lair. Yes I do enjoy a bit of fun. However I think Harley Benton should have a stocking dealer in the US. A quality well priced line is needed here. New blood has a way of bringing back a bit of life to any market. Competition serves the consumer. I must assume Harley Benton's corporate masters would want direct access to 300 million customers. Here is another thought.. I am both a Amazon Prime customer and very pleased Amazon stock holder. Put them in a Amazon Warehouse after setup on Amazon Prime. There are over 100 million Prime customers add in the regular Amazon customers and perhaps some of that number buys guitars. Which I know they do because I have.. If you have good a product why not sell it in the most efficient system ?
Great job as always demoing it Henning. As for the guitar ... it looks great & sounds MUCH better electrically then it does accoustically from how you demo'ed it. Again thanks for the video of it !! :)
We may not tell you this often, but thank you for your tests, and for your animals at the end.
It's screaming out for four to the bar jazzy chords a la Freddie Green.
I would like to hear this played by someone who is a good 30s/40s style player, but not enough to buy one and give it a try. D’angelico is a different kettle of fish.
yep Apples and Oranges, this looks like a budget 1930/40s Gibson L5 to me, and not a bad attempt at the price.
Beautiful playing skills on the d'angelico henning,always a pleasure to watch your technique.
I really like the tone and the sound. Interesting guitar ... Good on HB for making it :)
Having owned many Archtop guitars and being an amateur luthier , I wanted to point out a few things that are important.
First off regarding a floating bridge, the bridge will most likely need some angle to it, having its treble side closer to the neck for compensation.
If you look at a flattop you’ll see that there is about a 9 degree of saddle angle in the bridge again it is ALLWAYS closer to the neck on the treble side.
You said early on in the video that it was not an acoustic guitar, by definition it is because the bridge pickup “ floats “ off the body and there is no pickup cavity.
Acoustic guitars prior to CF Martin inventing the Flattop guitar all acoustic guitars were Archtops .
They do not project the volume that a Flattop will.
Archtops we’re “ secondary “ instrument in an orchestra the Banjo was actually more effective in the orchestra because of its volume.
Comparing the two instruments is pointless because a mini humbucker lacks clarity and a muddy sound to it where as full-size humbucker is much brighter and we all know the the cheapest thing on inexpensive guitar are the electronics and hardware.
I must say your playing is exceptional because you made the pos sound great.
Thank you!!!
My girlfriend just said that she NEEDS that t-shirt.
Like not even a choice anymore, like it's a matter of life essentials.
What ABOUT the GUITAR??
your jazz playing is really good!
The lady rushing down and picking up the dog reminded me of that BBC TV interview where the Mom had to come and retrieve the kids in a mad scramble 🤣
Lol, I remember that.
That "kind of round" sound of the other guitar sounds like a limitation to me, as if the frequency spectrum were truncated while the HB has a fuller spectrum going further in the high frequencies. I much prefer the HB.
It's the strings. These are regular roundwound. Jazz players will use flatwounds the vast majority of time.
I was also dreaming about this model with 2 P90s. That would be a killer guitar. Please make that, Thomann!!!
Id love to hear that !!
I'd say this is more of a blues or gypsy jazz guitar... I own one and use it for slide, perfect
This style harks back to the earliest days of arch top acoustics that were 'converted' to electrics, not hollow bodies that were built specifically AS electrics!
The mini-bucker IS probably a bit thin sounding. WOULD have been better with a full width hum bucker.
A set up and a BETTER set of strings would make it play better as well!
Absolutely, & as you heard, it is VERY loud acoustically! That pick up is not a bad sounding pick up, but it IS a bit thin! A hotter wound, floating mini bucker would thicken the sound up plugged in as well!
This is more a 'blues' instrument than maybe a strictly JAZZ guitar! I'd guess with a higher action it would be a GREAT slider!
DMSProduktions there's something wrong with your CAPS button...
Needs a set up for sure. Strings rattling on the frets a bit.
Of course! WHAT do you expect for ~E220?
No! What about yours?
Nice sounding guitar. But for jazz maybe it would be more "jazzy" sounding with flatwound strings?
Guitar looks stunning btw.
For that price, buy it, tweak the "ugly bits" and you will be fine.
There are affordable pickups that sound exactly what you want without busting the bank.
It's a GOOD arch top base to build from!
Can you play like Early RocknRoll on it or like Johnny Cash style
Sounds good bud...Was worried when you playing acoustically..
I like that sound, needs some more water on it!! beautiful mohag on it..
So those pickups not as warm as the blonde hollowbody? You having trouble palming that bridge? Wondering, it is a beautiful guitar, would it by wise to change the pickup, Bridge and tuners?
Thanks Henning for all your hard work in putting these vids together plus your lovely assistants who we dare not forget! Was thinking the HB didn't sound too bad until as you picked up the 2nd guitar. Geez, what a difference. But we have to be realistic here, for the price HB is unbeatable although you didn't how much the blonde guitar cost
Looks and sounds like a blues machine to me ,thanks Henning !
Wheres Kiana?
Spot on, much more similar to an acoustic than a jazz guitar
Beautiful guitar, but I don't know that I have a reason to buy it... yet I still want it... Thanks Henning... ;P
New strings would make a huge difference... raising the action will let the strings ring more clearly too... remember, it is what it is, and if it were available in the states, i would buy one...
Love this guy's reviews. Great sense of humor 😂
Been waiting on you to review this one! My favorite harley benton!
The top looks like a Laminex table top but apart from that, It's great for the money. Roll off the tone a little. Its amazing what chinese children can do these days.
With a little TLC, it would be a great blues box.
Dude, you can get a good set of tuners that stay in tune for like £30. Same goes for pickups too really
You can get a good set of tuners by sticking your head up a bulls ass butif rather take this dudes word for it........? Idk
Volume knob kissing the bridge is a deal breaker for me
Would probably sound descent with a set of .12 or .13 guage flat wounds, and a descent set of tuners. But, a used ibanez artcore hollowbody would give WAY more bang for the buck as a jazz guitar.
222 euros, plus new tuners and a new pickup + the labour..... = ibanez artstar
Totally agree, you can't beat the Ibanez jazz boxes for value for money and build quality. Got Ag75 Ibanez and love it.
I had one Ibanez jazz box in the past. I think it was a artstar. Better than the artcores anyways. It was really good.
The mini humbucker is a ceramic pickup. If you replace it with a nice alnico magnet pickup, it'll get a lot warmer.
Exactly the tone you need for certain kinds of jazz. Think Wes not Joe Pass and you’ll manage your expectations.
Nice review. But I would argue that you can get good tuners for less than $100 and pickups for Way less than $200. Look locally, my friends, and support your nearby hand winders :)
Thanks a lot. A NICE guitar for this price.👍
That would be a fun semi acoustic rock-a-billy guitar. Paint some flames on it!!!!!!!
A friend of mine had similar style guitar that he built from a kit. Playing unplugged it didn't sound terrible but it didn't sound good either. He used to whine about the sound of the guitar all the time. He would play it with the amp turned down low. Most of what he was hearing was the acoustic voice of the guitar. One day he plugged his headphones into the amp and couldn't hear the guitar only what was going through the amp. Problem solved.
The bridge was set correctly in the beginning, before you moved it :D
The f-holes' centers are the indicator for the bridge's placement. The upper "neck"-corner of the bridge has to point towards the upper f-holes' center (the lower cornered part), the lower "back-corner" of the bridge has to point towards the lower f-holes' center (upper cornered part). No tuner needed for the intonation :)
There might be a drawing of what I tried to explain here on Google somewhere.
for the price and for what it is,, I think it sounded pretty good
The brightness of the sound is probably due to the longer scale (Fender like, vs shorter Gibson-like scale in the D'Angelico), and the minihumbucker, which is not intended to sound as fat as a full humbucker. To me, that brightnes could be a bonus. You can always roll back the tone pot and get rid of it in case its a little too much for you taste. Looking forward to try this model, even more if it smells good :)
The roundness sound is because it's using a Put some Flat wounds on the guitar, then try it..mini-humbucker.. It spanks!
OMG, You're hilarious!!! Great Review. I ordered one just before I watched your review and I'm actually happy that I ordered it.
When it comes to pickups, entwhistle is my go to. Very affordable and amazing quality for the price.
I've got one second hand for a reasonable price. I change tuners, nut and bridge. I'll put on new strings 0,12 flats. It's gonna sound really jazzy
Looks like a great guitar for the price... Even half decent tuners would make a big improvement... Looks like some people swap out the pickup too, but even then a good base to build from... Definitely on my list now 😎👍
It looks a lot like the Washburn HB-15 that I own. The Washburn has an awful mini-humbucker that is not difficult to replace, and with a new pickup (I used a Gretsch) the guitar is exceptional. The Harley Benton sounds better than the Washburn did with the stock pickup.
HB seems more like acoustic-electric, D'Angelico seems more electric- acoustic
The irony in calling out the D'angelico for being named SS when the HB is literally named std
Impressive jazz chops!
Nice to see you testing something different than the usual HB electric guitars? i do hope that there’ll be some acoustics from HB on the way to you some time in the future!
I recently bought a HB CLP 15M parlor and it sounds great. Yeah, the setup was really subpar and sanding the bridge to get a better action wasn’t that funny, but for 180€ it’s an amazing guitar and lots of fun.
please do a video on the Harley Benton Dobro guitars
Holy shit. That's a surprising sound for a $200.00 jazz box.
with the tail piece you can run heavier gage string for a fuller tone or maybe fiddling with the tone knob.
great skills
That fretboard looks beautiful!
Omg the shirt Henning?! There are no words.....
Llamas! What OUT for the spit!
I do have words: ugly, gross, disturbing, creepy... I can go on...
Lmfao! 😂 yep.... you're spot on... good thing he's so good at everything else, we can almost forgive the (lack of) fashion sense!
Zees paw Chermans...
I have one since 4 years, nice guitar.
Sounds much more jazzy with flat wound strings.
Ceramic pickup is not that warm.
It sounds more accoustic obviously because the ambiant mic also melts with the accoustic sound, which is as loud as the amp.
Henning its been 52 minutes since I requested a Harley Benton dealer network in the US. When will you have that done for us? We need it, we want it and sales will go through the roof...
A good set of D'Dario flatwounds, new tuners and a good setup should make a big difference.
Nice little jazz box indeed!!
should have also compared sound to an acoustic to see how it compares in that way.
I don't like piezo pickups... but this guitar would be better suited with an underbridge piezo pickup and renamed as an "Acoustic" guitar (not a Jazz guitar). The blend with the magnetic pickup would make it sound so much better.
That's what I'd do with it, put in transducers and blend with the magnetic.
I bought a Washburn HB15 ten years ago for about £150. Gloss sunburst finish and pickguard mounted controls, but otherwise looks and sounds much like the Harley Benton Manhattan. The bridge leans over as you tune up, which with messes the intonation something rotten. Our vocalist bashes out cowboy chords on it when we play Rock and Roll numbers in the Key of A or C, great for that, but not much else.
I believe that if you tighten the screws in the ends of the tuner keys it will be perfectly tight. Try that.
The D'Angelico had a nicer sound to be sure, but this is probably closer to a Grote (unsure if they are available in Germany). I dig the late night jazz sounds it makes.
With a DeArmond pickup it would shine surely well !
sounds great, looks great, but I worry about the hardware and playability
Perhaps after the strings have settled in or a different set may have a more round sound.
It's a Semi-acoustic Archtop guitar. I bet it would sound nice with a piezo pickup you could blend in with the Electric one . The Angelico is more semi-holo electric guitar.
How what is the neck profile and how thick is it to play.
I'd say it's more towards the Rock 'n' Roll type... like Elvis!
Still pretty good for Jazz.
I'm sure it can get there by adding some sound effects or tweaking the amp settings.
Its only the pickup. That guitar sounds awesome for that price.
This, i was getting the same thought..Bridge seems a lil dicey..May just need the Luth! Lol
danke schön fur review
Thats beautiful😍
The D'Angelico has more roundness because of the humbuckers, isn't it?
« I don’t really know what I'm doing », he says while playing like a fucking master
Great demo but Mini humbuckers are always going to sound much brighter than a regular humbuckers. You can''t compare the two.
I wanted to buy this guitar but thanks to your video I definitely decided not to buy it anymore. Thanks.
Love it, for the price, AMAZING,, make it a lefty PLS
I think the HB Manhattan is great for slide playing. In your setup it did not convince me for playing Jazz (where the d'Angelico did).
I want that guitar!
you have THAT guitar
Its nice for the price. The sound does not have body, not a "solid" sound,but is acceptable (for comping) and the tune, you know, for 222 $ if I have an emergency I will buy it
Can you tell me please what kind of string is better to use on this guitar? Thanks a lot for the help :)
Can someone explain to me why the bridge BASE in Jazz guitars isn't in contact with the top like in regular acoustic and classical guitars. Is not like the string height section could be affected by that. I got a George Benson MIC and noticed that. You can derive it here when he pulls the fabric from underneath the bridge.
Love your reviews. Have used my Manhattan to play rags live with light strings and I think it sounds nice for gypsy jazz with heavier strings.
Its yours now! They can't sell it with snot on it!
So cool
I wonder if the tuning issues are not the tuners but the nut slots?
Since I know they are sweaty shirts I start sweating when I see them already. Never a dry sound anymore.
That's one damned nice looking archtop for not much money! Too bad they didn't go with a floating mini 'bucker and vol/tone mounted on the pickguard...it'd be nice to hear that mahogany top (I love the smell of mahogany too btw) ring out unimpeded. That one change would alter the character of this axe's tone for the better imho. Still, for the money y'all can't go wrong...they're almost giving this thing away, and for a minimal extranious investment (gotta upgrade those tuners) you can have yourself one mighty fine acoustical jazzy type guitar!