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Could the Harley Benton CLA-15MCE Be One Of The Best Budget Acoustic Guitars Out There?

The Best Acoustic Guitars Under $500/£500 - Acoustic Guitar Reviews

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Saul Ukraine
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Could the Harley Benton CLA-15MCE Be One Of The Best Budget Acoustic Guitars Out There?

Unread post by Saul »

I didn’t quite know what to expect when I unpacked the Harley Benton CLA-15MCE. I had of course heard of the name before. It is a house brand of Thomann Music, Europe’s largest musical instrument retailer and the HB brand itself was established back in 1998 so they have been around a long time.
CLA-15MCE.png
The guitar arrived extremely well packed, so much so it would have taken a heard of elephants running over it to cause any damage! On removing the guitar from the packaging I must admit I was immediately impressed by by the finish and the the way it felt in the hand. In fact I did check to see if they had sent the right guitar because this one felt a whole lot more expensive than the £174.59 price tag.

The CLA-15MCE is part of their ‘Custom Line’ range and of the 000 variety often referred to as an ‘Auditorium’ which means it is smaller than a dreadnaught, slimmer in the waste and not as deep. It is an all mahogany guitar, so that is a ‘solid’ mahogany top, laminated mahogany back and sides and mahogany neck. The fretboard is Ovangkol which is a West African wood related to rosewood and bracing is of the scalloped x type. Bridge is also Ovangkol. Nut and saddle are bone.

The fretboard features rather nice “Snowflake” inlays and there are dot markers along along the top of the board. The frets by the way are well finished with none of the sharp edges which you sometimes find on guitars at this price point. Machine heads are chrome-plated die-cast and feel great so no problems there.

Electronics are taken care of by the Fishman Isys+ preamp system with integrated tuner. Strings are D’Addario EXP-16 .012 – .053

I will be doing a full video review to accompany this write up which will give you a better idea of how this guitar looks and sounds but for now I have to say I was very impressed by the quality on offer here and for such a low price. This is a really well made guitar and not only that it sounds and plays great too. How they manage to put this out at £174.59 is something I am still trying to figure out. Solid top guitars usually come in well over the £200 price point.

Who would this guitar suit? If your just starting out I can highly recommend it. The quality is excellent and you will be very grateful for the easy playability…the low price doesn’t hurt either of course. However I would also say this is a great guitar for anyone on a budget no matter what your skill level. You really don’t have to spend a lot of money to get a decent guitar these days and the Harley Benton CLA-15MCE is a case in point.

Would I buy one? Definitely! I have had a lot of fun playing this guitar. It sounds and feels like a guitar twice the price and were I on the look out for a good quality, value for money guitar I would be very pleased to have found something like the CLA-15MCE.

For more details see:

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton ... _15mce.htm
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Re: Could the Harley Benton CLA-15MCE Be One Of The Best Budget Acoustic Guitars Out There?

Unread post by kennyloggins »

Looks pretty sexy. How is it compared to Fender CD60S CE? The all-mahogany one? I kind of liked Fender's semi acoustic and it was around USD 300 point.
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Re: Could the Harley Benton CLA-15MCE Be One Of The Best Budget Acoustic Guitars Out There?

Unread post by Saul »

There have been huge price cuts on the Fender CD60SCE recently so it is extremely good value for money right now. Check the latest prices here https://amzn.to/3dZnIXw
Fender CD-60SCE Mahogany
Fender CD-60SCE Mahogany
At the price, I would probably take the Fender over the Harley Benton. The HB is still a nice guitar for the money but the Fender is even nicer :)
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Re: Could the Harley Benton CLA-15MCE Be One Of The Best Budget Acoustic Guitars Out There?

Unread post by SKYWALKER »

Interesting to have your review on this HB guitar Saul .
This brand seems to offer a lot of what appear to be great features , but their very low prices make me suspicious . I tend to think that there must be something wrong with them . They've got that ' Too good to be true !' thing for me . 🤔
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Re: Could the Harley Benton CLA-15MCE Be One Of The Best Budget Acoustic Guitars Out There?

Unread post by Saul »

Harley Benton (Thomann) does seem to be able to bring these guitars in at very low prices and keep the quality up.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the CLA-15MCE. You get a lot of guitar for the money.

However, it was over 3 years ago and things have moved on. Other brands have upped their game. Cort, Fender, Tanglewood etc are all producing equally good guitars at the lower price point.

I can't see anyone who is used to playing mid to high-end guitars suddenly want to switch to an HB but, if you are looking for a budget instrument you could do a lot worse.
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