Harley Benton HBMA-50E Mandoline VS

I have been looking for travel and/or harsh party instrument low price (not to fear to damage or loss); tuned and should be played 4-5hours without finger-cramp. This is it - Simple, zen-builted, easy, no flimsy parade, but real workhorse! Test!
1. Tone & sound - high, clear, almost cut-through-stone (high freq.) with some middle range taste, as "A" mandolins have. Fine.
2. Tunning machines and tunning at high possitions: so-so to well. No miracle, no tragedy.
3. Electronics - eeeh... single pickup. High, little silent, with some noise - minihumbucker would be a better choice; think evryone pay cheerly some euros more for clear, non-affected sound..
4. Touch and neck - from acceptable to - good. Great possitive surprise!
5. Look and processing - fine. No considerable reservations. Back is black!
6. MINUS: dot frets - tiny and flimsy. I dont wait long durability.
CONCLUSION: for its price a VERY FINE INSTRUMENT for beginners and also experisenced players as a less-care paddle-board, where the beers-flies-through-the-air-with -glasses-and-dent-prosthesises... :-)
DRINK A LAMP & - ENJOY!

I needed a mandolin for augmenting my home recording demos, I make absolutely no claims to write this review as a mandolin player - but as a guitarist using it for fills, chords and dynamics for song writing ideas.

Pros - price (crazy money for such a nice instrument)
Sound is grand acoustically (as with all stringed instruments you buy - use the set of strings they send to set up the guitar/mando - then fit better strings - as long as the gauge you want is the same)
Pick ups - decent single coil sound - but comes into its own when you try various effects - you can get a very sweet sound that you just cant get on a hi-strung guitar or a 12 string.

Cons - the action was quite high for me when it arrived, but was easily sorted with some filing and sanding - neck and nut were fine - bridge needed sanding ... a floating bridge means you MUST set the intonation carefully yourself. But that's the whole point isn't it? I enjoy doing this work so it wasn't a 'con' to me.

The frets were a bit sharp on the edges ... but you expect that when you buy a cheaper instrument, a bit of polishing and it's sorted.

If you want to add Mando sound to your arsenal - fantastic option for you. Can't beat Thomann for this range of instruments. You will need to do some basic setting up (action - intonation - pick up levelling) if that scares you .. youtube it, you'll be surprised just much you can improve an instrument without needing an expert to fine tune some things.

Superb value.

D’abord changer les cordes, comme c’est un micro magnétique, mettre des cordes avec du nickel, genre daddario ej67
Baisser l’action avec les roulettes sur le chevalet, régler l'intonation, il y a des tutoriels sur youtube si vous ne savez pas comment faire, dévissez le micro,, virez les ressorts qui ne servent à rien et remontez le micro, il est beaucoup trop bas donc le niveau est trop bas, il doit remonter au moins de 5 mm, à faire faire par un luthier si vous n’avez pas l’habitude, demandez lui de mettre un fil entre la masse et le cordier ce qui supprime complètement le bruit de fond, indispensable ! Et voilà vous avez un excellent instrument parfaitement utilisable même en concert !