Harley Benton HB-AC30 Rechargeable Amp

The earlier reviewer has benchmarked this product perfectly. I bought a 'stereo pair' of these together with a Behringer UB802 mixer - primarily for PC use - but with the flexibuility of non-mains PA and busking.

Good handling of the two instrument/mic channels plus 'insert' (eg CD,) input. Probably because of the number of inputs, it's a bit 'white noisy', but not too bad. Good high and low handling, but I've no idea how flat the response is. It has even coped quite musically with my basses - at low levels! These are really flexible and great to have as general-purpose amping. Quite a 'steal' at the Thomann pricing (even though each unit has gone up by 10 GBP since I got mine!). Still excellent value.

Not really tested - only had them a year or two. I notice that the supplier now sells replacement lead-acid batteries for these. I'm not sure if that's telling me something now!

No issues.

As I've said - working-up to this point - these little amps represent great value and as long as the battery stays serviceable (left on charge continuously) then I think they'll remain in my small stock of kit for all occasions.

30 watt 2 channel buskers amp. 8" and 2" tweeter, 2 input channels 1 with vol & tone, 2 has gain (switchable boost mode as well)3 band eq and level. FX insert and headphones.

Mains adaptor/charger supplied. You can charge/run this off a car cigarette lighter socket too.

Rechargeable lead acid battery gives 8 hours for a 4 hour charge.

The cabinet's solid, made from some kind of heavy duty resin and is angled and footed so you can use it as a high angle wedge, low angle wedge or on its side. It's also got a top hat built in for mounting it on a pole.

Does all you expect from a buskers amp. See the Harmony Central reviews for the Crate TX30.

It's bloody loud, I'll say that.

I'm not fond of the sound it makes on its own so I'm sticking the guitar through a multifx which I can tweak to make it sweet.

The guitars going through it are a Simon & Patrick sp6 with a Dean Markley soundhole pickup via a yamaha compressor and an Alesis acoustifx and the elecric guitar is an '83 Ibanez Roadstar series II superstrat through a Zoom G21U.

I've tried a couple of mics on an unbalanced line and they work well enough in the second channel. An AKG c1000s on battery power didn't have as much level as an old SM58.

This primarily a pub folk session amp, and I don't need it nearly as loud as it can be because I'm working mostly with other people playing unreinforced acoustic instruments. I just need it loud enough to play melodies and lead lines without dominating the session. If anything it would be a bit loud on its own and I'mm having to attenuate the signal from the multifx to give more headroom on the amp.

I'm often unable to take electric guitars into sessions because of the lack of mains power available so the rechargeable battery is just the boy for that kind of playing.


You can also sit on it! Having your own chair at a crowded session is a definite advantage.

It gives the impression it would take a right good kicking and be unscathed.

There's not much can go wrong with this.

Thomann give a 3 year warranty on everything you buy.

Been playing 40 years and I have various instruments and gear including a Roland GR20 guitar synth and a Fender G-dec 30 mdelling/does-everything amp which in combination are the best fun you can possibly get as a solo act. If I need more power I stick the lineouts through the PA or mic it up.

In comparison to other products - Ha!

This Harley Benton is a Crate TX30 at a fraction of the price.

Identical specifications and the connection is so blatant that HB's manual has illustrations cut and pasted from the Crate manual.

I paid ??66 for this from Thomann in July 2007. Sound Control are asking ??229 for the crate!

Do the arithmetic and ask how many beers the price difference buys you.