All user reviews of 3/5 for the Harley Benton Slider II

-Lap steel manufactured in Asia. Mine is as pictured above, black with chrome plate
Made-in a big piece of wood, plastic fretboard, nut and mechanical wood seem to hold water,
-1 Micro simple, 1 volume, 1 tone
Comes with bag-not too bad a tone bar and cylindrical.
€ 88-bought on the net.

UTILIZATION

The strings are mounted at the start too soft for the slide. A tonebar is heavy, and if you hit a few strings, the sound is too soft for my taste so I changed the strings: 0.15 / 0.18 / 0.22 / 0.25 / 0, 40 / 0.52 and it sounds much better. With the original strings the rope the more acute now it did not sound better, same for bass. Well if it's really the bottom line in low-end. But fortunately a lap steel guitar making is not complicated and therefore the price is pretty good. I play the guitar for more than 10 years and loving the slide, I wanted to discover the lap steel. It's been 3 months I use it a little every day and I am aware of its weaknesses. The electronic! The volume knob is useless if not mute, and yet he spits, not at all progressive. Same for the tone. The microphone is not great either but hey, for the price ... And then the slide is the expressiveness that makes the sound!
Oh yes and I also realized that the fretboard should be a visual cue to be fair in tone, is wrong! For the 12th target the 12.5 box and it will most acute in that empire. Feeling!
Consider using an angled jack as the jack is on top so can be troublesome. The mechanical, classical guitar type is sufficient since we only play with the tone bar it does not pull the strings and tune the instrument is very little. The pitch is quite short: 53 cm from the nut to the bridge. I admit mostly open tuning A.

SOUNDS

For the style of music to play the course, Ben Harper is no better, and it left a DISTO, Faded blablabla blues all this all this. But I also like to experiment, and produce strange sounds. To give an image, the difference between guitar and lap steel, it's like the difference between skiing and snowboarding. The lap steel is freedom! I use some effects, in order: maxon lapsteel + ICSD + TS9 + Big Muff + Mrs. + electric + amp Epiphone Valve Delay J, and have opportunities to its very extensive. In the clear (direct amplifier) ​​is not bad but a bit dry and cold, which have to be expressive. With the TS9 with drive to win in heat one half is much better. With the big muff is the pat on the fat! Agreements serious swing serious! With the TS9 you get more treble and bass twang that much drooling. We can play very rhythmic sound like a guitar, Accor or arpeggio, melody or not. I love playing with your left hand just by rubbing one tonebar (slide) on the strings, it sounds a bit like a violin, it can be very subtle or violent. The hamer / pulling of the microphone sound good but very dry does not forgive any mistakes! + Seen in the visual cues of the fretboard are false, it is a lot of feeling and a good ear to stay in the key of a song, but this is normal and makes specific slide.
Too bad the buttons are for volume and tone quality so pitiful, I wish I could play the volume while playing, are the last volume pedal for that. The microphone has a single output level not too bad actually, in any case it goes very well with the Big Muff.

OVERALL OPINION

I highly recommend this tool to all those who want to try the lap steel. For less than € 100 (the price indicated in the € 200 argus is probably a mistake) we take too much risk, at worst if you order on the net some sites offer a guarantee of 30 days money back, then go for it! But it's really for beginners and one quickly realizes the technical weaknesses of this model, although with some effects pedals in the ass, you come out really nice and sounds rather strange and surprising at times, if a regal you are noisy or if you like the atmosphere hovering ...
5 / 10 for very low-end is so much better, but not for this price! So good model to start.