Harley Benton Custom Line CLJ-412E SB

Well what can I say about this Harley Benton custom Line CLJ-412E 3SC.
Living in the UK this is a guitar I’ve had to buy blind and on reviews, so you can understand that I was unsure on the production and with it being my first 12 string guitar I want to get it right.
After going to PMT and trying out Martin, Faith, Gibson & Taylor 12 strings, so these were all very different prices.
So I decided on taking a punt on HB and having the 30 day money back guarantee I might as well give it a go.
However when delivering by DHL and the box was damaged my heart dropped thinking this is going to be broken, but the well package box by Thomann save the day.
Straight out of the box wow what a stunning guitar and the neck felt better that any I tried at PMT and some of those were over £4000 ( Gibson, Taylor)
I check over the guitar there no sharp frets, crack, dints or dings, tuner works fine to a bit tune tune up but that was me as never owned 12 string.
Might need few little tweaks for my own personal playing style but out of the box sound awesome with very playable neck.
My conclusion is for the money it’s an outstanding lump of wood, looks, feels sound brilliant and with a guarantee 30 day money back it’s a winner 👍🏻
Do your homework and research try some other brands and make you own Decision you won’t be disappointed
That my honest opinion
Hope this help and you can understand my review being dyslexic
Enjoy HB CLJ-412E 3SB

This is the best acoustical 12-string that I have owned. It is my 4th, but my 1st Jumbo body, and I'm glad I bought it. It keeps good tune, and sounds great.

I was initially hesitant about ordering it, but relieved when it arrived and undamaged. It was delivered in exactly one week to East Tennessee, USA. I also ordered the 129726 case, which fits this guitar great. I prefer a case to a gig bag.

The Fishman works great and sounds good. I like the output plug goes out a normal place and not through the rear strap button.

I am delighted with this guitar and features.

This is my first 12-string that I bought two months ago, and boy do I wish that I got this 30 years earlier. The build and sound quality are excellent: playing it is thrilling and being engulfed in the rich and warm sound is a marvelous experience. The tuners feel a bit flimsy but I can live with that. The only thing that annoys me is the built-in Fishman tuner: unlike my Ovation tuner, the Fishman does not switch off automatically after a while. Consequently, as I often forget to switch it off, I have already drained two (expensive!) 9V batteries. That’s a bummer, and as I don’t think that my memory will improve in the coming years, I hope that future models will have an improved tuner, and that Harley and Benton will generously send me one of those.

Purchased this as a gift for my son, it far exceeded both of our expectations! The finish is simply flawless, couldn’t find any imperfections. Overall build quality is excellent. No issues with the neck, fretboard or any hardware. The guitar has a very solid feel to it, not at all cheap or flimsy. The sound unplugged is very very good, bright and slightly chimey with a very full character to it. Just what a high quality 12 string should sound like. Plugged in also sounds great but we purchased it to be played mostly acoustically. We would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a larger 12 string guitar and considering what it cost it represents a tremendous value. And as usual, Thomann service and shipping is second to none. It arrived from Germany to NJ in just under five days, we’ll packed and without so much as a slight blemish. A pleasure to order from!! Way to go Thomann!!

Having read previous reviews and watching the video of this guitar I decided to buy it . Straight out of the box,in tune ready to play. It has a huge sound with a rich tone. The finish is excellent with fantastic colour on the front. The Tuners are are good quality and the Headstock looks great. If I didn't already have a good 6 string acoustic I would definitely be ordering the 6 string model.. Even though the neck has the right amount of relief I will probably adjust the bridge piece little just to lower the action down a touch when I change the strings. Don't bother with the second hand market when this is available at such a good price. I haven't tried it plugged in yet so can't comment on how it sounds amplified but see no reason why it shouldn't sound just as good. I just can't see how they do this for the money. You won't be disappointed.

I've owned many HB string instruments, and I know that their intonation out of the box is totally incompetent, but this one really tops it all. The intonation was so disgustingly bad, I wonder how this even got through QC. Yea sure, it's a nice sounding 12 stringer otherwise, but in this case, I just cannot simply say "It's cheap" and get over with it.

That being said, it's most definitely a solid piece of gear. The resonance of a jumbo body 12 string guitar has a special place in my heart, and this one does as well. Everything feels really good about this guitar.

Look, I'm not demanding perfection from HB. But be willing to spend at least half an hour to get the intonation roughly in the ballpark. This guitar CANNOT be used for any recording/live out of the box. It's such a shame that its beauty gets shadowed by the whacky intonation job....

I bought this guitar as I never had a 12 string in my collection but I figured that, for the amount of use it would probably get, that for the money it was worth buying one to have a play with. I have to say that this guitar more than exceeded my expectations! Straight out of the box it played great, looked beautiful and sounded amazing! This actually puts my other expensive big name acoustics to shame it's so good. This is easily the most comfortable acoustic of any sort I've ever played. I'm going to post a Youtube review to back this up and if this is what all Harley Benton guitars are like, then I'm coming back for more! Only downside was that it took 6 months to come but that's a global supply chain problem at the moment and, to be honest, it was well worth the wait!