Harley Benton HBO-850SB

254

Steel-String Guitar with Pickup

  • Roundback with cutaway design
  • Spruce top
  • ABS super shallow bowl body
  • Sapele neck
  • Roseacer fretboard (thermally treated maple wood)
  • 24 Frets
  • Cream-coloured body and neck binding
  • Scale: 650 mm
  • Nut width: 43 mm
  • Built-in pickup with 3-band EQ
  • Diecast machine heads
  • Strings: .011 - .052
  • Colour: Sunburst high-gloss
  • Matching case available under Article Nr 177639 (not included)
Available since December 2010
Item number 252606
Sales Unit 1 piece(s)
Top Spruce
Back and Sides Plastic
Cutaway Yes
Body Depth Super Shallow
Fretboard Roseacer
Nut width in mm 43,00 mm
Frets 22
Pickup System Yes
Colour Sunburst
Incl. Case No
Incl. Gigbag No
$118
The shipping costs are calculated on the checkout page.
In stock within 8-10 weeks
In stock within 8-10 weeks

This product is expected back in stock soon and can then be shipped immediately.

Standard Delivery Times
1

All the world’s a stage...

Roundback guitars are the epitome of the electro-acoustic guitar. They traditionally come from the USA and are usually handsomely priced – a perfect reason for Harley Benton to develop its own interpretation of this classic design: The HBO-850SB. Of course, all the essential features and adornments – including the richly decorated off-centre sound holes and the rounded bowl – are included here, and the HBO-850SB also boasts an integrated pickup, which makes it an ideal choice for even the most devoted electric guitarists.

Round sounds different

For once, the focus is not on the guitar’s top but rather on its ABS shell. Beyond its inherent technical advantages (such as excellent feedback suppression), this design also has a strong influence on the acoustics, since the sound waves behave differently than they do inside flat-backed guitars, and that is what creates this guitar’s characteristic tone. Because the guitar’s body is also very shallow and features a cutaway, it provides unrivalled playing comfort. The spruce soundboard is fitted with X-bracing and finished in a sunburst lacquer, while the sapele neck offers a 650 mm (25.59”) scale length and the fingerboard extends to an impressive 24 frets on the treble side.

Rock stars love it

Yes, the Harley Benton HBO-850SB is the right instrument for acoustic-savvy electric guitarists. The slim neck, low action, thinline body, cutaway, and last but not least the .011-gauge strings fitted as standard will make every electric guitarist feel at home in an instant. In addition, the piezo pickup with its three-band EQ will deliver the very sound that fans have come to associate with this type of guitar thanks to countless Stadium Rock anthems. And needless to say, this complete package comes at a sensational price.

About Harley Benton

Since 1998, the Harley Benton brand has been catering for the needs of numerous guitarists and bassists. In addition to an extensive range of stringed instruments, Thomann's house brand also offers a wide choice of amplifiers, speakers, effect pedals, and other accessories. In total, the range includes over 1,500 products. Built by established names in the industry, all Harley Benton products combine quality and reliability at attractive and affordable prices. The continuous expansion of the range ensures that Harley Benton always provides new, exciting, and innovative products that keep players perfectly in tune with the musical world, day after day.

Being quiet is strictly optional

Of course, one can play the Harley Benton HBO-850SB purely acoustically. The shallow body delivers a subtle yet incisive bass response, and the sound feels well-rounded and “grown-up”. However, this guitar really thrives on stage – and the louder, the better. This guitar is pretty much feedback-proof thanks to its rounded ABS back and the design of its top. Incidentally, we recommend playing this guitar standing up and using a strap. This doesn’t just look good – the guitar also naturally tilts towards the player’s face, which allows an excellent view of the fingerboard.

In the spotlight

254 Customer ratings

4.4 / 5

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171 Reviews

C
A real pleasure
CapCal 28.10.2021
My HBO-850 came when promised and has been a real pleasure to play the last 2 weeks. This guitar really does look good and the finish was great. A real close inspection showed 1 teeny-weeny-weeny blemish under the lacquer but I need my reading glasses on to see it! The frets were prepared well, the neck was setup perfectly with just the slightest amount of relief in it. The guitar does get you close to that Ovation sound from my experience of playing them in shops. It perhaps lacks a little depth compared with the real thing but this gives you a powerful sound for a shallow bowl body. I didn't buy this to use through a PA or a DI but can tell you the pick ups work and the preamp gives a good degree of control but the default sound of the piezo pickup is BRIGHT so you will be taming it with a heavy cut to the mids. All the pros I have listed here make this a clear winner I am happy to recommend.

The cons are small and should not put you off unless you believe you can get a truly perfect guitar for less than a ton. Firstly the string action at the 12th fret was well over 2mm from 1st to 6th strings. Bar chords from 7th position up were therefore a bit tiresome and solo playing required some good technique! An hour working on the bridge with some 120 grit paper and refitting it to the guitar a couple of times to try it out has resulted in a perfectly fine setup for what I want with no rattles/buzzing and could go lower if needed. An upgrade I will try is a quality bone bridge (a Tusq bridge might make this even brighter and that may not be a good thing), Strings are fine and having played them in have lost some of the sharpness but I will invest in some coated strings for its next set. The finger board is just the slightest bit 'rough' on some fret positions so you feel the grain resisting the string if/as you bend it. Over time that raised grain will wear down naturally but I will see what some lemon oil after a light brush along the grain with steel wool will do to this.

My first experience of Thoman's in house brand has been good and I have since ordered a GS Travel mini for my daughter and had it delivered to her Uni abroad rather than take her Taylor equivalent (at 7 times the price!) with her.
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Good but with some issues.
Anonymous 31.03.2016
I ordered this guitar several reasons. The most important reason was that the Thomann website said that the nut width was 45 mm. But when I received the guitar I measured the nut width and it was 43 mm, so that was a disappointment.

Another disappointment was with the tuning keys. I started playing the guitar right out of the box and it was very nice, but the strings on it were old and dirty and I also noticed that there was some corrosion on the base of one of the tuning keys. So, I decided to change the strings and as I was doing that I realized one of the tuning keys did not work. The tuning key for the D string did not hold tension so I could tune, whenever I turned the key it would release the tension and the string cannot be tuned. I took the guitar to a local luthier who told me that the tuning keys were dead and I had to buy a set of new tuning keys and have them installed by a luthier, which cost money.

These were major disappointments, but the guitar has a nice tone and overall OK for the price. But of course it would have been much better without the above problems.
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At
Roundback is unexpectedly awesome
Alex the strummer 03.01.2022
I used to play dreadnought and I was always surprised what is the roundback guitar able to provide. So, I decided to try the HBO-850 and I was very surprised. It is really loud and provides very interesting tones. Of course they are different from dreadnought ones but it is interesting. The playability is awesome and I am fond of playing this guitar.

I have found only one minor lack - one of the decorative leaves is broken, but still the guitar looks beautiful.
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M
Good, but needs work
Mikatile 15.02.2022
I bought this guitar as an alternative to miking an acoustic up and it does a pretty good job. It's feedback-free at high volume and sounds pretty true to an ovation.
There were one or two issues out of the box. The fretboard was very dry and needed a lot of oil to rehydrate it and the frets were very scratchy, but if you spend an hour polishing them the results are good, there were no deep scratches, only superficial roughness.
Also, the action was quite high 2.5mm at the top 'e' and 3mm at the bottom 'E', I had to remove the bridge (it came out without problem) and sand it down to my preference.

After I had set the guitar up it played well and it's a nice easy playing good-sounding instrument, especially at this price point.

If you have the know-how it's quite easy to get this guitar to a good standard, if not, you may have to spend a little more to have a decent playing instrument.

For the price, I'd recommend it.
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