Harley Benton HBMA-50 Mandoline BK

I bought it for fun because I always wanted to have a mandolin (or an Irish bouzouki which was too expensive..) and I hadn't too much of professional demands towards such an instrument. So I decided to go for a cheaper one and ended up with the Harley Benton HBMA-50 and was surprised when I got it. The overall quality was really great (for the price!) and there was nothing to complain about. No sharp frets, no rattling stuff - really usable cheap mandolin. If it weren't for the strings. Those delivered on the instrument were black. I mean really black. The wounded and the plain ones. Incredible how old they must have been.

I ordered new ones and 'Hello World' there was this typical mandolin sound. Bright, small, shimmering. Wonderful. Okay, it's missing the definition and fine treble of more expensive instruments. It sounds a little bit 'rough' if you want to say so. But for an instrument I bought just for fun from time to time or record a melody it's perfectly fine. If you want to learn mandolin seriously I recommend buying something 'better' (and I mean better, not just more expensive) for everyone else or experimenting it's a wonderful chance of gambling around with a mandolin.

When i first got the mandolin i would say i was pleasantly suprised. I think the colour and finish of the body was bright, and it had a fair amount of depth.
The hardware, mainly the tuning pegs feel and look a little cheap, but they do the job. I'm sure you could upgrade these if you really wanted to.
I sanded a little round the bridge, tightened truss rod, and put on new strings to get the mandolin closer to my taste.
I think the acoustic sound of the mandolin is pretty good. Quite woody, and sparkly, especially when the strings were changed.
The amplified tone of the instrument is again not bad. I plugged in and played into my soundcard without issue.
Overall i would say for the price it is pretty good. I don't think it's fair to compare this to mandolins which cost 5 or 10 times as much. Of course they will be 'better'. I did make a few adjustments because i am an experienced musician and felt they would benefit me, and make it easier to play.
I think if you want to try out a mandolin, and don't want to break the bank doing it, this is a good product to start with.

I had to lower the action, replace strings, add some felt padding to the end piece, add grommets to suppress harmonics behind the bridge and sand the bridge flush to the body to make it sing, but it sounds decent out of the box, the truss rod was set correctly, however the action was way too high on the bridge end.
A setup leaflet would be a handy addition. The fit and finish is not great, but more than acceptable at this price range. Once it's tuned up and the strings had time to settle in, it is keeping in tune surprisingly well and sounds OK for a tryout instrument.

Recommended if you have the aptitude to do some setup.