L Benito 232C Grand Auditorium

This is a grand auditorium cutaway with solid alerce top, honduran cedar one piece neck and solid honduran mahogany back/sides with rosewood fretboard and I believe bolivian rosewood findings on both fretboard and guitar. It came with gold Jenks tuners and they are adequate and well balanced. It also came with B band electronics as was described in the earlier review. The case is fabulous.

This guitar is a fingerpicker's dream. Although not as fully loud as a spruce top guitar, the alerce has wonderful clean tone and unbelievable sustain. I have tried it with Martin SP's, elixer nanowebs, and a low cost set of Immovable Rock coated strings, and they all sounded excellent. I am using lights at the present time. It has a strong growly bass and otherwise it is very clean across the spectrum. The alerce (alairsay) top is absolutely beautiful to see and the smell of the guitar alone is worth buying it. It is very well balanced in both feel and sound.

The guitar was set up perfectly, and since I bought it used, it had been played but was in mint condition. Lito Benito made some fine instruments there in Chile. The guitar is similarly shaped to a Taylor GA. Beautiful bookmatch work and hard to see where the back was joined.

It would gig fine without a backup, and the finish is nice. There is only a heel button. It is a well made instrument

Bought used, and since L. Benito doesn't manufacture guitars anymore, I am on my own, but I don't expect problems.

Used to play in high school, and I restarted playing about a year and a half ago. I have a Larrivee LV-03E, a John Fitzgerald of Downey Calif., custom koa/adi topped OM, GAD 30PCE, Blueridge BR163 and Babicz Acute OM, as well as Cort/Parkwood FM Jumbo. This guitar is definitely a quality instrument with great tone and sustain and will be harder to come by in the future, since L. Benito is no longer making guitars. These guitars were a hit at the NAMM festival in either 2005 or 2006

High gloss finish with mahogany back and sides, Alerce top, cedar neck. Grand auditorium size. Grover tuners. 25 1/2 inch scale. This is probably a 2005 0r 6 model It came with a b band pick up( under saddle)The guitar is plain , e.g. no abalone, fancy scroll work or other junk. The wood is so beautiful it would only be a distraction.

This guitar has a very balanced tone and when strummed softly give a soft sound. However, it can be very loud when played hard. The bass really comes through when picked., but is soft and sweet when played finger style. This guitar is full of many voices and each one is better than the one before. I like everything about this guitars sound.

The grain and finish is flawless. Although bookmatched, it is hard to detect where one half stars and the other finishes. Truly a well crafted guitar.

I have owned this guitar for one month and so far so good. It stands up to daily playing and transporting . The grovers keep perfect tune and hold it. The strap button is where the electrics leave the guitar and feel solid. There is no upper strap button.

No comment. As far as i know L Benito has no distributer here and as yet I have not contacted them in Chile.

I am 60 y/o and have been playing since I was 15. I own a Martin 000-18 that I purchased new in 1969 and a Yamaha 12 string bought new in 1975. I also have a 1999 Taylor baby, which I dearly love. This guitar is the finest sounding one I have ever played bar none and I've played them all. If this guitar was stolen I would buy another if I could find one. This guitar at this time in my playing career makes me complete. I am truly happy. I wish all who read this find a guitar as fulfilling as this one.