Harley Benton G112

I got a couple of these for installing custom speakers inside. I wasn’t really interested in the speaker that is already in, so I can’t tell much about it, it’s high headroom 100W speaker, 98dB good sensitivity, at bedroom volumes it sounds fine, but I didn’t test it at proper volumes, where all the nasty frequency peaks can really show up. The speaker itself looks well-built, cone and dust cap are aligned properly. I have a few Jensen and Eminence speakers with poor assembly care compared to this one (e.g. glue splatters, cone off-centered, dustcap bends/misalignment). So despite it being a no-name driver the build quality seems perfectly fine. The cone is nice and even.

I installed Jensen Blackbird 12" 100W in one, and Jensen Blackbird 12" 40W in another, the cabs sound great in my setup. It’s a really tight fit for the Jensen speakers screw holes spacing, but it fits without bending anything, the speaker just have absolutely no room to wiggle around, which might be a good thing, makes centering/aligning easier. I had to replace the speaker terminals connectors, at least one of them (negative as far as I remember) is far too thin for any random Jensen/Eminence/Celestion speaker. The stock speaker has one leg thinner than the other, so it makes sense for the stock speaker but not for any custom replacement speaker. So it’s a little of soldering job, which isn’t a big deal for me personally.

The cabinet actually looks a little better than on the Thomann page photos. They are now using black-colored glue inside, instead of ugly contrasting yellow one as on the photos. So it doesn’t scratch the eye from the back.

The cabinet is VERY lightweight, it will go easy on your back, which I really appreciate. I thought maybe it would result into parasitic resonances or “boxiness” but in my experience it sounds nice and big (wide open back and ports help with that I guess). The handle by the way is placed closer to the speaker side, away from the center (aligned with the magnet I guess, the heaviest part in the stock speaker at least), which totally makes sense for easier carrying a lightweight cab as the speaker would be the center of mass anyway, smart nuance.

I personally want my cabs unbranded, I want no logos on it. This one has a glued badge at the bottom-center. But I successfully got rid of it on both of the cabs. Just gently pulling it away it detaches without a damage to the grill. Then scratching the glue pieces off with a turned on vacuum cleaner hose and a little gentle help of a tiny flathead screwdriver to detach the rest of the pieces, and there are almost no traces left that the badge was ever been there.

So in my opinion it’s a really nice lightweight speaker box for your custom speaker cabs that would benefit from wide-open breathing back (e.g. Jensen Blackbirds). I’m planning to buy more of these for some other speakers I have.

The price of.this can is unmatched. It is really cheap. I bought this not to be the best sounding unit but to be something low cost that I can leave at rehearsal spaces.

It does the job really well. I've mostly used it with Orange 15w heads, but I find that the speaker is not the best speaker. The cleans are serviceable, but as soon as you add gain (or a distortion pedal) it starts to fall apart. I've broken in the speaker to remove harshness but still it does not sound that good. For me it is good enough (and.i intended to swap the speaker with something else I already have).

The size is smaller than something like Orange 1x12. It's.makes it lighter and easier to carry, but might change the tone.

Lets me first say that you're not going to find a cheaper, reliable and great sounding cabinet for this sort of money. If you are buying your first amp head and need a cheap and cheerful cabinet to go with it or if you need an extra cab to bring with you to a gig to pad out and widen your guitar sound i would strongly recommend buying one of these.

Now onto the pros and cons.

Pros:
- Incredibly good value for money

- Decent construction, its got going to mind being knocked about in the back of a van or car, well mine has at least stood up to at least 8 or 9 gigs and its not fell apart or shown any signs of major wear to the wood or construction although the tolex is a different story.

- Sounds great once the speaker has been broken in.

Cons:

- Out of the box the speaker was a little lack luster, it does need ample time to be broken in, i suggest running pink noise through it from anywhere between 3 to 8+ hours before you use it in any professional manner whether that is gigging with it or recording with it.

- The grill cloth does feel a bit cheap but its not really a con, i mean what do you expect for less then £70.

- Although the construction seems pretty rock solid the tolex they have put around it can be torn, damaged and broken pretty easily unlike some more heavy duty tolex bigger companies put around their amp cabinets. Just bringing it up a flight of stairs to my little studio and accidentally knocking it against my rounded banister cut it pretty easily, so if you want it to look pristine for as long as possible just have a bit of caution when moving it about.

TL;DR - Great bang for the buck cabinet, solid construction, break in the speaker before professional use.

I bought this to pair up with my VHT Special 6 Head. Its very well priced and is simple and unassuming in its design. It sounds good but not phenomenal but, for the price, you'd be hard pushed to find much better. Its worth noting that once the speaker was 'broken in' it sounded much better. Its very solid in its construction, nothing rattles and the finish is very good. I primarily used this at home but did get to a couple rehearsals with it and it held its own against the other guitarists much more expensive gear. I would recommend this if you are on the lookout for a cheap, no frills cab.

Well, this is not a bad choice, not at this price anyway.

I've used this cab with its original speaker mainly with Harley Benton and Epihone 5W tube amps. It was fine.

I've also used this cab with several speakers like Tonkers (8 and 16ohm versions), Scumbacks (H55 and H75, both 100W) and louder amps like Super Leads. Again, if you are an open-back guy/gal and you're on a budget, that will do the trick but do not expect miracles.

I don't own it anymore but I remember I never had any issues with rattling etc (but on the other hand, I used to play really loud so, there you have it).

Would I buy it again? Yes if I was after a very cheap open-back 1x12.