Harley Benton
Harley Benton is a brand name created by German music instrument retailer Thomann to sell their own line of quality budget OEM-manufactured equipment.
Products
Guitars, Basses and Amplifiers
Guitars, basses and the instrument amplifiers make up the bulk of products produced under the Harley Benton name. The instruments offered are affordable instruments inspired by and designed after more famous guitars.
Some of the guitars in the catalog are for the beginner, with bodies made from plywood. Other more expensive models sport set necks, real flamed maple tops, attractive inlay designs and high grade components such as Grover, Gotoh and Wilkinson hardware.
Electric, acoustic and bass guitar amplifiers sold by the brand are mostly solid-state in construction. These include amp heads and combos, sometimes coupled with amp modeling technologies. However the company also sells low-power all-tube guitar amplifiers in the form of heads and combos which have become very popular with the modding community, spawning small communities dedicated to modding these single ended amplifiers.
Various cabinets for amplifiers are also available.
Other Instruments
Other instruments sold under the Harley Benton moniker are lap steel guitars, banjos, ukuleles, diatonic wind instruments, electric violins and violas and at one time, electric cellos.
Other Products
Harley Benton products also include spare parts for guitars, under the Harley Benton name bear a striking resemblance to the ones that Behringer manufactures, technology wise.
Manufacture
Little is known where these products are produced, other that in the case of guitars they are made in China by OEM manufacturer Saein which produces guitars for Ibanez, Epiphone and Peavey. The prices for the Harley Benton instruments are generally cheap, however the Harley Benton total quality management seems to exceed the expected standards of string instruments manufactured in China and even with various lines of production to that approaching German standards. In the case of acoustic, electric and bass guitars, the more expensive models tend to have better wood and hardware than similarly priced instruments of other brands.
In the case of some of tube guitar amplifiers produced some are made with Epiphone-badged PCBs and hence come from the same factory where Epiphone amplifiers are produced. However, the Harley Benton amps have different controls and have a different finish. The Harley Benton GA5 valve combo is a re-badged version 2 of the Epiphone Valve Junior combo (currently at version 3)