Harley Benton CG-400CE Thinline BK

Is it the best nylon string guitar I've played? Nope. Probably not in the top 10 either. But wait, how much was it?
I wanted a nylon string acoustic and I didn't want to spend a lot, just to play around the house and for demos etc. Having had very positive experiences with other Harley Benton instruments I thought I'd try this: it has a built-in preamp with 3-band EQ, and a tuner, and I liked that it is slightly thinner body than normal. It didn't disappoint and I cannot put it down since I received it. Not sure what kind of woods are involved as everything is coated in black, and the fingerboard looks like some kind of synthetic material, but it feels good. The sound lacks the resonance of a good classical guitar (costing many hundreds more!) but it has a sweet sound. Yes, there are some little internal rattles, but very subtle and hard to notice when playing. The frets are well seated without sharp edges and plays beautifully. The preamp/piezo system is, as you'd expect, not top quality and it can sound a bit harsh when plugged in directly to a recording interface, but the built-in EQ helps sweeten it, and if you use an external decent preamp and a touch of reverb it can sound surprisingly good. I prefer to use a microphone for quick recordings as its natural sound is pretty nice, just lacking a bit of body, but with some minimal processing its built-in piezo system can give very nice results. Overall, I am very happy I bought it. If you want a serious classical instrument this is not it, but then you can't expect that for only 100 euros. If you just want a nylon string guitar that plays nicely amplified or not, I find it extremely good value.

At first I didn't like it at all. Fret buzz made it unplayable. The A string sounded like a sitar not a guitar. I made contact with Thomann service who suggested a new set of strings. Before I ordered anything I read quite a bit about what could cause this. It seemed high tension strings can do this. So I purchased a set of D'Addario normal tension strings and installed them. The buzz was gone and the guitar finally came alive. It's not loud which would be good for apartment dwellers. Then I plugged it in to my amp. Wow. This does not sound like a cheap guitar. It doesn't sound like a high end one either but for the price you can't beat it. I highly recommend as long as you are prepared to do a string change. I gave it a 3 on features and a total 4 because of that. I also thank the Thomann service people . They are very helpful .