Harley Benton HBV 990BEM 4/4 Electric Violin

Ho comprato questo violino per studiare senza disturbare.Suono in un appartamento condominiale e nei gironi feriali lavoro tutto il giorno. E' molto più silenzioso del violino acustico ma si sente comunque nelle stanze adiacenti, peccato. Il suono è soddisfacente, lo uso quasi sempre senza cuffie perchè sento comunque, mentre sono utili per suonare su una base musicale. La mentoniera per me è completamente fuori posto, dovrò comperarne un'altra e la spalliera troppo piccola ma va bene. Il prezzo è proporzionato all'oggetto, non si può pretendere di più. Esteticamente è bello e robusto, non troppo pesante, Archetto e custodia appena sufficienti. Adatto per chi vuole suonare senza troppa invadenza e non ha grosse pretese.

Violin review

I am a music student and I bought this product for two main reasons: practicing at home without disturbing other people and having the possibility of connecting it to effects. I've been using it now for several months and I'm happy all right with it.
I know the list of "Cons" seems to be a bit long, but the overall experience is good and I don't regret my decision. Value/quality ratio is good, probably you wouldn't find anything as nice as this one for that money.

Pros:
Natural sound is low enough to allow you to practice at night without disturbing anyone on the house.
Lightweight for an electric violin, I've tried other EVs and they tend to be very heavy.
Line out 1/4" Jack connection, some of them have an small jack and they tend to fail very quickly.
Position of the tone controls and volume knob is out of the way, helping to avoid any undesired change on settings.
Sound is OK.
Case is OK.
Nice light bow.
Battery seems to last for a good while.
The tuning pegs took a while to settle, however once they did they work very well.
The micro tuner works fine although I find the ??? a bit small and not that nice to handle, they do what they are meant to do anyway.

Cons:
Headphones out is very noisy, Hiss is the word. I only use the line out into my FX unit "BOSS ME-50"
Tone controls are not very good, can't expect much anyway for that price, I use them flat. Better to use whatever you have in your mixer/DAW.
Faders and volume control got noisy quickly enough, even when I don't use the tone controls and only use the volume as an "On/Off", fully closed/fully opened.
Body, the outer plastic frame which also contains the electronics, seems to be very fragile and because of its shape wider at the rear and thiner near the centre of the instrument is very awkward to fit a conventional shoulder rest and that brings me to something that is completely unacceptable...
WORST SHOULDER REST EVER!!! Whoever designed that "useless thing" did not think at all: it falls out of the instrument, is too small and unusable. Since I bought it I tried it a couple of times and down to the box of useless stuff it went. WORST feature of the instrument by far, so do not hesitate to buy one along with the EV, also avoid this kind of SR <a class="article link" href="everest_shoulder_rest_44_violin.htm">Everest Easy Shoulder Rest Violin 4/4</a>
The grip is not good at all and they also come out of the instrument, this one is the one I have and I don't like it at all; go for the traditional ones, the piece that holds them to the instrument has longer arms and grips better. Honestly I think they should apologise to those who bought this violin for it and give them nice shoulder rests instead.

PIECE OF ADVISE: Get a cable with an "L"shaped jack so it fits properly in the line out without disturbing. Also use some velcro to hold the cable to the instrument so that way you will reduce any stress of the cable hanging from the line out and prolong its life.

Hope this help you decide.
Enjoy

Paulo

Summary:
+ Great as quiet practice violin
+ Very well playable
+ Acoustic sound is quiet but loud enough for practicing
+ Acoustic sound is balanced across the range, G string sounds equally as loud as E string
- Electric sound is OK, but not great
- Strings that were installed sounded very thin, replaced them with Tonicas which sound very good on this violin
- The gaps of the tuners at the bottom are very narrow and are only suitable for thin strings, I had to widen them with a file to install the Tonica strings, which probably voided the warranty.
- The tuners at the top need quite a bit of force applied not to slip, although it seems to get better over time.

Review:

I bought this violin as an addition to my acoustic violin. The acoustic sounds very good but is also very loud when playing it. Not just all my family members are able to hear me practice, but the neighbours as well. So I needed something quieter, for practicing purposes only.

As I was not planning to use the electric for performance or for its sound, I decided to try the Harley Benton as a cheaper option and just try it to see if it would work OK. The only requirement was that it would be playable, and that I would at least be able to hear what I was playing without plugging it in or using headphones.

In reviews of similar instruments I read that the strings that come with the instrument are rubbish, so I ordered a set of Pirastro Tonica strings with the instrument, and an Eudoxa aliminium wound E string at the same time.

I was not disappointed. The instrument itself looks beautiful. It is quite easy to play, and sounds about right when playing it. I had expected that without plugging it in the G string would be practically inaudible, but it is loud enough, and to my surprise very in balance with the other strings. It is just like playing my acoustic, just a lot quieter.

The strings that were installed indeed sounded quite thin, but playable nevertheless. After I replaced them with the Tonicas on G-D-A and the Eudoxa on E, the sound improved a lot.

However, when I tried to install the Tonica strings, I found that the ending at the ball side (where the string is a bit thicker) didn't fit through the gaps of the tuners. In order to install these strings I had to file the gaps a bit wider. Be warned that this will probably void the warranty so if you want to avoid that, make sure that you use strings that fit through the gaps.

After the new strings were fitted I started playing and enjoyed it a lot, so much so that it was hard to put the instrument down. Finally just playing without knowing everyone can hear what you are doing. And with a sound quality that is amazing given that the sound is produced without any acoustic reinforcement at all.

I then plugged in the headphones that came with the instrument and the sound was OK. Nothing special, but usable, especially with the built-in EQ. I much prefer the acoustic sound of the instrument though, so I unplugged them and kept on playing it acoustically.

All in all, I couldn't be happier. For the price this is an amazing instrument, and for practicing purposes, highly recommended. For performance purposes, I guess it would be OK in most circumstances, if you could apply a lot of reverb to open up the direct sound of the electric pickup. It also comes with a good bow and a great case. What more could you wish for?

5 stars!!