Harley Benton CG-45E Vintage Sunburst

I paid €900 for my "work guitar" a couple of yrs ago, I'm holding this cg45e side by side with my work guitar, if it wasn't for the F holes in my gretch, there would be very little difference in visual qualty.
Action is perfect, frets are smooth, fret ends are perfectly smooth too, tuners aren't just as smooth turning them as the gretch, but they work p'fectly, neck, head, body, inside & out, binding too, I cannot find any problems at all, the over all finish too is faultless.
Its natural sound unplugged is plenty full range for a new guitar, so can only get better as the guitar ages.
Sound plugged in is very nice, balanced nicely through all the strings with flat middle eq. I've had a few quality piezo acoustic guitars with string ballance problems which were difficult to eq 😐
My PA is recent & almost broke my bank, this guitar sounds very nice when plugged into it.
I'll give the gretch a rest for a while now I have this cg45e, will see how it takes to the stresses of regular work, but so far I'm very happy with this €80 budget cg45e 🎶👍 I love it
.addition 6 weeks later. This plays & sounds so good it has moved up my guitar ladder, in fact I use it every time for my smaller gigs, my gretch is saved for the more executive gigs, I have found a neg point which might inters some, in some of my more expressive numbers I can knock the controlls, but easy enough to correct.

It's a great guitar with wonderful sound quality. It's perfect for both strumming or Fingerstyle playing. It feels very comfortable in hand and it's easy to play as a beginner. Best deal at this price point. I am yet to test the pickup and the electrical functionalities, but so far just as an acoustic guitar it has served me greatly.

The design, material and build quality is as good as you can expect at this price. I love the sunburst theme. The only problem I found was that, one pin for attaching the guitar strap was missing. It's not a big deal if you don't wanna perform while standing and don't need a strap. You can also get a pin attached from any local store for less than 5 bucks.

Overall, I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a wallet and beginner friendly multipurpose guitar.

Great Budget Surprise – Perfect Backup Guitar
I was staying in Italy for a while and needed to keep up with my practice, but I didn’t have a guitar with me. Normally I only play established brand guitars, but this time I decided to order the cheapest one I could find.
I was pleasantly surprised. The guitar arrived quickly and free of charge at a fairly remote countryside location, which was already a good start. But what really impressed me was the build quality. No sharp frets, well-adjusted neck, and decent sound. Sure, it’s not going to compete with high-end instruments, but what do you expect at this price point?
What makes it even more remarkable is that it comes with a built-in pickup and tuner – you get an incredible amount of guitar for your money. You honestly wonder how they manage to pull this off.
Bottom line: this is a great instrument for beginners, or if you need a cheap backup guitar in a pinch. Highly recommended for what it is.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Pro-tip: order a fresh set of strings (I’m using ELIXIR
11025 Polyweb Custom light, .011 .015 .022 .032 .042 .052) and replace the factory installed ones. You won’t regret it.

I bought this as a cheap stummer to keep my hand in when back at my parents as I live and work away with no great expectations. As usual with Thomann it arrived promptly.
Straight out of the box it was obviously playable with a surprisingly full tone. The only issue as pointed out by other reviewers was extremely sharp fret ends and a slightly high action. With a tweak of the truss rod with the supplied Allen key and a bit of work filing, smoothing and polishing the frets, paying attention particularly to the ends I have a guitar well above it's price point. The finish is fine, the hardware is alright. I've not plugged it in yet as I have no facilities here and it wasn't the point of me buying it.
I'm conclusion £69 and a fiver for a set of fine files from Homebase, a bit of tidying up and a eminently playable nice little guitar, you can't go wrong!

I'm going to be honest by saying that this guitar did not impress me right when it came. I found it lackluster in many regards. But then I tried one, two, three others... and this one turned out to be really versatile!

It doesn't shine in sound. Dreadnoughts are louder, have a fuller profile and more sustain.

It doesn't shine in build quality. It's thin, has plastic tuners and some build errors - glue leftovers, a little split of the wood near the sound hole.

It's compact, though. Much more comfortable to play than the dreadnoughts. And at this it still plays really decently. Very unique, a bit defying the standard acoustic sound. But not bad.

For what it is, it looks decent. The satin veneer finish is pleasant to the eye. The dark vignette is quite contrasting with the white edges.

The pickup sounds really good too. For such a cheap guitar it's absolutely outclassing itself.

Despite all, it's decent! If you know what you're getting, you'll be pleased. If not... maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised like I was in the end.