Harley Benton Delta Blues O

While the world was going to hell in a handbasket, I serendipitously found myself stranded in a beautiful part of Greece and decided to ride out the pandemic living beside a remote deserted beach. But I missed my guitars. Thomann to the rescue! Shipping took about a week - which is amazing really - and the contents arrived well packaged and undamaged.

The Delta Blues O is actually the second acoustic guitar I ordered from Thomann whilst here. The first was a Harley Benton CLJ-503CE WN, which is a stunning instrument. So good that I want to protect it and keep it safe beside my sofa, out of the sun and salty air. So, after a lot of research, I opted for the Delta Blues O as my cheap throw-around beach guitar.

Out of the box it was almost perfectly setup. Just a quarter turn of the truss rod required. The action and intonation are pretty much spot-on. Apart from a few minor cosmetic blemishes - which you would need to look very closely to see - the guitar is a real looker. The frets needed a little polish and the fretboard and bridge needed some oil, then it was ready to rock. The guitar is a real joy to play!

Although billed as a mahogany guitar, I have my doubts. Is it a really thin mahogany top or a stained laminate? I suspect the latter. The body is really light and gives a bold, deep bass response, almost a little too boomy for strumming. I play fingerstyle mostly, and even my boom-chicks were a little too bass heavy, causing the top strings to less prominent than I would like. Overall, it was somewhat muddy and did not project well. It can sound bluesy for sure, but it doesn't strike me as a typical delta blues guitar. Needs more jangle.

Long story short, I fitted a Tusq saddle and brass bridge pins. These 2 changes went some way towards balancing the tone, allowing a more pronounced treble and improved sustain. I was honestly surprised at how much positive difference the brass pins made. They really help to add clarity to my picked notes, however volume is not much increased. I've solved this by learning to use metal fingerpicks and I have finally arrived at a tone that makes me smile. I like my guitars bright, YMMV.

The tuners are just OK, they do their job but can be a little fiddly. Other than that, no real complaints for the money.I spend a lot of time playing this guitar sitting outside and it makes me happy.

I'm not sure that I would recommend this as a first guitar - I would tend to stretch a little more and get a nice sprucetop, but that's just my opinion. But if you want a cheap, decent sounding secondary practice guitar with head-turning looks to sling over your shoulder,and it easy to play, then this should be on your consideration list.

Budget guitars(when done right) can be grouped in 2 categories, 1: To give you good fundamentals, and a solid platform(allowing you to build up the guitar), and 2: To do something 'off label', and allow guitarists to take a risk, and maybe find something special.

This guitar is something special, and mine is perfect(from the woods, the construction, the paint, the finishes, it's flawless, literally).
Being a guitar without binding, without wood-filler, and without PU-finish, it really allows the wood to sound-out, and that it does, it's a very lively guitar-sound, and it's very loud(even though the O is a smaller guitar than the regular Dreadnought, it can easily keep up with normal Dreadnoughts).
The tuners are solid die-cast, nice and heavy, good grip(on the string, and the buttons), which makes them very stable.
The nut/saddle/pins are very neutral(no muddling of the strings at all), and have a finish(that makes them look a lot more classy, than the normal ABS stuff).
The blackwood(fingerboard/saddle construction) is great, it's a more natural wood(sometimes blackwood can be very dried out(very 'toasted'), this is very healthy-, almost 'juicy'-blackwood, with a very gentle, natural touch, that plays out-of-the-box, like you played it for years.
The construction on mine is very clean, and very precise(the bridge is perfect, the neck is perfect, and the binding-free construction is perfect.

In short, I love this guitar, it does something unusual in being very natural, very raw in it's build, and it works out perfectly, allowing for a very natural guitar, that plays out-of-the-box, as if it's been in your family for generations.