Harley Benton. is the name cheesy af, or is it just me?

[Fiddy]

It's a name that makes no one ever go "whoa!" printed on headstocks purposefully designed to be ugly but their guitars ain't half bad.

It makes people go whoa-t the fuck instead.

[dc]

Do they make motorbikes as well?

the Know Your Gear guy (who's toured Thomann and reviewed some models) has said the name was made up because "Harley" sounded American and "Benton" sounded British, and so connoted quality or luxury.

one might follow Thomann's thought process and easily believe they would have called it "Harley Bentley," but realized that would have sounded even sillier

[BrendanP]

Sure, the name is a little different . There’s worse out there. Agile? That’s a good name for a tennis shoe brand. I have a left handed, double-bound HBTele copy with a flame maple roasted neck, SS frets, compensated saddles and they even made it with a left-handed control plate (angled toggle switch) I wind my own pickups, so I did replace those, but the Roswell pickups it came with were usable. $250 with a really nice gig bag. Made in Indonesia. 7.5 lbs. I bought a lefty “cabronita” a year before that needed nothing but a setup. I bought a Flying V and Explorer copy back in 2015 and although they were the exact shape and cheap, I thought the quality was crap and flipped them fast. My opinion has changed.

[GilmourD]

I feel like this is an argument that has been put forth about a lot of brands that make stuff of various levels of quality.

I've heard people talk about how goofy "Peavey" sounds and their logo looks. My wife thinks "Gretsch" sounds funny. There's amps named after colors. "Bilt" is spelled funny. There's pedals made by "Old Blood Noise Endeavors", "Death By Audio", and "Catalinbread". They're all kinda weird or goofy.

In the tech world, where I live, we have brands like "Anker", "Aukey", "Asus", "UGREEN", and the like. Sure, they're not "Corsair", "International Business Machines", "American Micro Devices", "StarForge", or whatever, but they're brands now known for quality and nobody cares.

My major concern is if it's a good instrument. I'll play the shit out of my Squiers, which people have said "Ewww... Squier..." before, too.

I feel like this harkens back to Americanized culture and naming schemes where things happen to have distinct names that are easy to spell, kid-tested/mom-approved, but also sensational without being weird. However, not all brands are American. Some will come up with a brand to cater to Americans, like Hoshino Gakki with "Ibanez", there's a good amount that honestly don't care.

Let them not care. If they make good stuff there will be a point where that sort of name is recognizable and won't raise a single eyebrow even a little bit.

[ainm]

Vintage is the one that bothers me most. At least if you put Harley Benton in a search engine you’ll find their guitars. All Vintage is good for is cluttering my saved searches on classified sites and the big online platforms with gunk. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve clicked a thumbnail to see if it’s some oddball Japanese vintage only to be sorely, sorely disappointed.

I guess Harley Benton could’ve done better if they were going for the American/British thing - Chad Compton; Ted Grosvenor; Kathleen Sacksville; nope, they’re all as terrible - but there are worse offenders out there. Maybe.

That’s a point. Any guitar makers out there named after a woman? Any prominent female luthiers? I’ve just never thought about it before, but I’m stumped if I can conjure up any.

[Lieutenant030]

Nigel Marlboro? Chad Farquhar?

[Steadyriot.]

That’s a point. Any guitar makers out there named after a woman? Any prominent female luthiers? I’ve just never thought about it before, but I’m stumped if I can conjure up any.

Mamie Minch and Tunatone come to mind.
Also Iris Carr, she is an absolute wizard; she does violin and violin related instrument restorations:

[eggwheat]

A couple look ok, and they're cheap but this thread isn't about that. We have enough of those... My question to you all is, is this the cheesiest guitar brand name ever?

Yes, a very bad attempt at trying to make a budget Chinese made guitar have a cliched American sounding name.

[ainm]

That’s a point. Any guitar makers out there named after a woman? Any prominent female luthiers? I’ve just never thought about it before, but I’m stumped if I can conjure up any.

Mamie Minch and Tunatone come to mind.
Also Iris Carr, she is an absolute wizard; she does violin and violin related instrument restorations:

Not come across these folk before - thanks! The grain matching on that violin repair is something else. Very nice work. But unfortunately I now have instant GAS for a Tunatone. Those are some gorgeous guitars.

[smalahove]

Any guitar makers out there named after a woman? Any prominent female luthiers? I’ve just never thought about it before, but I’m stumped if I can conjure up any.

To my knowledge, the most prominent female luthier would be Linda Manzer. Her acoustic guitars are part of the top echelon of high end acoustic, and her claim to fame is her many guitars for Pat Metheny, including the Pikasso guitar. In my book, that's as high a praise and endorsal you can get.

“Linda Manzer made me a 6-string. It was the instrument I used to record ‘Lonely Woman’ on Rejoicing. That tune just sparkles because of that guitar. She made me that one guitar, which I immediately fell in love with, and then I said ‘Well, how about you make me a 12-string?’ The night I got it, I wrote four tunes. It was a totally inspiring instrument.”
Pat Metheny




PAT METHENY’S MANZER GUITAR COLLECTION (STILL GROWING):

• Manzer flattop
  Manzer flattop (12 string)
  The Twins: Tiple/Methenytone (a very tiny Manzer)
  Sitar Guitar
  Classical flattop
  Classical fretless archtop 6 and 12
  Little Manzer Classical (7 string)
  Little Manzer Steel string
  Studio Archtop
  Tiny Archtop
  3 Baritone Guitars
  Pikasso

https://manzer.com/artists/the-pat-metheny-page/
https://manzer.com

[s_mcsleazy]

in the UK, we used to have a brand called westfield and there's an interesting story behind how they got their name. their major distributor was based in my home town of east kilbride which had areas with names like "westwood, greenhills, lindsayfield" and one day when i met the distributor, they said they combined the area of EK westwood and lindsayfield, not after the car maker.

[AwesomeWelles]

Totally unrelated, but that instrument looks like something out of John Carpenter's 'The Thing' ...

[Fiddy]

Well, I got one of their tube 15 combos. Even tho it's the 230v version, it works out cheaper than getting one from monoprice in the US, or locally, even with factoring in the 230v / 200 watt step up transformer I bought for it.

[cestlamort]

I think it goes beyond the ESL foreignness and makes it to almost okay because it is so bad that it almost becomes authentic. Example: hmm... let's start a vacation/resort-wear brand called Tommy Bahama... because, y'know, the Bahamas are warm, etc. In comparison, "Harley Benton" sounds like a contemporary of Paul Bigsby or some other 50s/60s guitar maker. (And "Leo Fender" rings pretty implausible, but "George & Leo" is just bad).

[Fiddy]

Why do i keep looking at this Brain May copy....