Harley Benton HBV 870BK 4/4 Electric Violin

Pros:
- A complete kit, works out of the box
- Decent sound, at least good enough if you're playing in a rock band or have a gig with the need of an electric violin
- Won't cause acoustic feedback in a PA-system. At least for regular use. With this we could have regular monitors instead of a headphone monitor system.
- With a little bit of tweaking (read below) its a really decent violin!

Cons:
- The bow that was supplied with mine was heavy unbalanced so I bought a carbon fibre one instead.
- The strings supplied works, but when I changed them to high quality strings I realized how horrible the supplied strings was. I would recommend everyone buying some better strings and restring the violin as soon as possible.
- The output jack calls for a 90 degree angeled phono cable. The supplied cable (which my sound technician called a "licuorice strap") is working for training but I had to have a better one on my first gig and with a regular phono cable you'll get the contact in your shoulder. Keep that in mind if your planning to play on gig, I think most technicians would call for a better cable and then you'll want a angled one.
- After 1,5 years of use the phono contact got loose and needed to be repaired.

Iv'e quite literally taken my time writing this review - Iv'e owned this violin for a year or just over now. Why did i buy this?

- I know Harley Benton is Thomman's [in house] brand for instruments and have a reputation for providing much higher quality than you actually pay for. They may use fairly cheap parts, but they are always high standard and achieve results that suprise you.

- I wanted to learn and play around with something that wasn't loud. I mean violin is one of those instruments that when played well sounds beautiful, but when played badly sounds offensive to the ears. prectice is about making mistakes and sounding terrible until it doesn't. This violin is loud enough when played that you can hear it maybe in the next room without an amp, but wont bother neighbors. You really dont need to plug earphones in.

- Plugged into an amp, the sound seemed good. I usually never play with the strings an instrument arrives with, but it sounded ok. I then put some Dominant strings on it and was blown away with how it sounded. Butter smooth. With a looper or an effects peddle you can go completly wild.

- The original bow is not very good - felt too heavy and off balance for me. A good upgrade will be a decent carbon fibre bow. Doesn't matter how great your strings are - its the bow that makes the sound. I found the orignal bow felt lumpy in parts and made unwanted sounds or changes in volume. Overall i have had no need to replace this violin and remains my only electric version that i am happy to play.

Don't forget instruments are mostly subjective - some like certain instruments, others hate the same ones. If you are learning you want an instrument that doesnt fight you along the way - loosing tuning, not sounding right to the ear, not holding tone - they make you feel it's you thats doing something wrong when its actualy the instrument. My objective review is that this violin plays with you, not against you. It looks amazing, and with the right strings and a new bow, also sounds amazing.

I've had no parts falling off it, nothing needing repairing, if you look after it, it looks after you - and looks as amazing hanging from my wall as in my hands.

This was purchased for an on-stage performance with a folk group.
It worked really well. The big challenge before going on stage was ensuring that it was perfectly tuned up and that was difficult but I eventually managed.
It was difficult to turn the tuning screws but it does work.
The design of the violin is very attractive and people admire it immediately.
The case is very well designed for both the bow and violin and provides the essential protection.
There are also compartments for the resin. The battery for the violin is easy to insert.
Seasoned musicians of various musical styles have been impressed by the sound/quality of what is a reasonably priced instrument.