Musikhaus Thomann e. K. reviews

My first experience with Thomann. The selection of products, pricing, service quality is top notch! Will definitely return as soon as I will allow myself next musical joy.

The SC-550 Faded Tobacco Flame is my second Harley Benton guitar (my first was the SC-Custom Honey Flame purchased from Thomann last year). I play at home or with friends now, but have been playing off and on for 40 years. I was so pleased with my SC-Custom that I decided to get the flagship model, the SC-550 Faded Tobacco Flame.

Out of the box the guitar is stunning. The Faded Tobacco Flame finish was excellent, without mars, dents or cracks. The flamed maple top is centered well and book-matched. Absolutely beautiful.

I was pleased to find the D'Addario EXL .010-.046 strings had been loosened and the double-action truss rod tension had been relaxed to a neutral position. I have seen so many reviews where the new owner is disappointed that the guitar wasn't in-tune right out of the box. Loosened string and truss rod tension eliminates the risk of bowing the neck or snapping off the headstock if bumped. A little neck relief, string stretching and tuning as a part of a normal setup brought it to life.

The vintage-look Wilkinson tuners are geared to 15:1 and they are rock solid stable. They don't have that annoying tendency to slip out of tune or have dead spots. The body is mahogany with a AAAA flame maple cap (not a Photoshop veneer) and the neck is mahogany as well with a jatoba (AKA Brazilian cherry) wood fretboard (yes, it is CITES compliant). Jatoba wood has one of the highest Janka scale ratings and is well-suited as a fretboard. Most important, it has a great feel. The 22 medium-jumbo frets have been smoothed and polished, with the fret ends nicely rounded and smoothed. The 43mm bone nut (yes it is real bone) has been well cut so there is no catching or pinching of the strings. The neck has a "60's vintage profile" which is often referred to as a "D" profile. For medium-to large-size hands this neck feels great. The neck has a 350 mm (13.78") radius that is well suited to rhythm or lead play. The pearloid trapezoid inlays are perfectly fitted with no gaps or raised points. It has a 628 mm (24.75 inch) scale length.

The body is full-sized and is a full 49.21 mm (1.97 inches) thick. There is binding on the body top and the neck, but not the headstock. In my opinion, the headstock is just right without the binding and highlights the deluxe emblem in the center.

Tune-o-matic bridge and chrome tailpiece complete the "sustain chain". And this machine has sustain. Smooth operating pots and solid pickup selector switch give you precise control of your tone. And the Roswell LAF AlNiCo-5 humbuckers give you lots of tone to work with. The control cavity is spacious and has been coated with shielding paint. The cavity cover has foil coating as well. No 60-cycle hum to be heard.

A basic guitar setup gave me an instrument with a low, fast string action that requires only the lightest touch to riff, chord, or djent until you need some sleep. But you will want to play some more. Basic strap pegs were traded out for strap locks and the guitar is complete. I mean ready to gig complete. And for one-tenth of the cost of "some other brands".

However, the best part of this instrument is Thomann. The Harley Benton instrument line is a private-labeled or "in-house brand" exclusively offered by Thomann. The factory for most of the HB line is in Vietnam (see the RoHS label on the back of the headstock). The instrument is built there, then shipped to Thomann for final checks and prepped for shipping to you. It is reassuring knowing that Thomann has the best customer service available. Look into their 30-day money back guarantee and 3-year Thomann warranty and see for yourself. If there is a problem they do everything possible to take care of it. Period. No other online seller I know of provides this level of quality and service at the lowest possible prices. They even discount your shipping ($35 to most anywhere in the world).

I live in America, but this is where I buy my guitars. I trust Thomann with my business and my musical instrument needs because they have earned that trust. They provide me high-quality musical instruments at the lowest possible price with the best possible service. I couldn't ask for anything more. I give them my business because they earned it. Thank you, Thomann!

Their courier lost our order and Thomann refused to give refund and passed blame to their UPS courier who confirmed the parcel lost. But when we first contacted Thomann they insisted that a signature was obtained which clearly was not the case and we never got a copy of said signature because it never existed hence the parcel was lost. Avoid these rogues!

Received my order today 25 feb which I placed on the 20th great service and communication as always thanks and regards- Paula H ...Dublin

The best website and company...
parcels have always arrived on time. Great customer service and returns policy.

Just the worse customer service experience in my life. My order is in ...Spain from Dec. 17 and I'm in Switzerland. Nobody at Thomann can tell me something about it and the do NOTHING to solve the problem. Juste..."wait please"

I ordered a guitar back on October 3rd 2018. They declared the first order lost in the mail and sent me a replacement on Dec 3rd 2018. It's now Dec 19th 2018. Tracking shows it's still in German Customs. Every time I reach out to them they give me ridiculous answer for the delay. This was the last one and I quote " Thank you for your e-mail.

It's saying the same status because it has not been scanned from your local post yet.

In case you want a refund, please refuse the parcel on arrival and once we have it back here, we are going to refund you the amount.

Kind regards,

They are trying to tell me that guitar left German Customs, went through US Customs and is at my local post office and didn't get scanned once. I will never use this company again. Something weird is going on over there.

I can't speak highly enough. Always great prices and fantastic choice. Their website works like a dream and they are constantly updating and improving it. Shipping is fast and everything is extremely well packaged. The chances of something getting damaged during the shipping process is truly minimised.
But where they truly shine is the after sales customer support and the pre sale advice & after sales advice. My one critique is simple, if a product has or is getting a bad reputation? Drop them like a stone as the mud aimed at them may hit you and your hard earned reputation.

After reading other reviews, I decided this had to be said. I have had issues with Thomann, but not many. I am in Ireland & they are in Germany. When you are shopping that distance away there is always potential for issues to arise. It, unfortunately, takes time to resolve these issues. They will always do what they say. Errors happen. No one is perfect. I do a lot of online purchasing and Thomann, by far and bar none are streets ahead of any other seller online I have encountered in both terms of their website & their customer service.

Consumers need to understand, be prepared for and accept that issues will inevitably arise when ordering online and have the necessary patience to see it through. The question then remains how well do Thomann live up to their promise(s) & resolve your issue(s). They have every time with me. If patience is an issue then find a local shop/dealer and trade with them.

Very good e-shop to buy music gear. Plenty of items to choose from and quite fast shipping. There is definitely something for any musician in here.

I have just had the misfortune of order a Gibson guitar from Thomman, which arrived in perfect condition but was totally unplayable due to several problems from the manufacture. Thomman claim on their website that they check every guitar but when I asked they simply take a box off the shelf and ship it. I was told that for them to send me a new one as a replacement they would either need to have received the faulty one back or I would have to pay again. Understandable I suppose, so I paid again for another Gibson, after waiting for 4 days for delivery I checked the scheduled UPS date of delivery only to find out the Thomman had reversed the delivery as they claim that all Gibsons are like the first one I received so I wouldn't be happy. So when I asked if they could credit me for the second one (the first one was still in transit back to Thomman) I was told No they had to wait until the parcel they return before it even arrived at my home address would have to be received back before they would credit me.
Long story short. I chose another make and model and Thomman then agreed to set it up and ship it Express delivery. Which they claim they did. Now they tell me that something must have gone wrong with UPS (blame someone else) and it was on a standard delivery. So still I have no guitar.

Thomman used to be really slick, now I would really think twice about ordering from this company again. Terrible experience.

i placed an online order with payment process through paypal.

i got order confirmation email and after that there was no correspondence.

i had to follow up with their department after 1 week and i was told they did not ship my order because they were waiting for my tel number .

my point is that i had to follow up to be told this . only after that i got to know why my shipment had not been dispatched .

I was also told they sent me an email asking for my # which is not true as i didcheck all my emails and my spam folders etc , they were lying , there was no email sent to me.

This will be my first and last dealing with Thomann . Very unprofessional . I will probably not deal with them again. Very laid back company to deal with .

like the emoticon/ emoji says doesn"t get worse than this !@!!! stay away from such companies .....

i reside in Dubai . UAE

I've never put a guitar together , so ordered a Tele kit of thomann , decided to just varnish it , three or four coats and a bit of polish later looked good ,right let's put it together ,took a couple of hours , including coffee breaks , it all went together fairly easy including the electronic stuff , one screw had to be replaced with a slightly bigger one , but other then that no problems , all done I plugged it in , quite a lot of noise , I'll take of the bridge plate and check the earth lead one day ,but strangely at full volume noise disappeared , so I'll just play on full volume haha ,it don't take much setting up , and it does sound good , I'm very pleased with it and pleased an old git like me can build a playable guitar ,if you want a fairly cheap guitar that's fairly easy to build , get one of these !

TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE!!! - I never write reviews, so for me to do so, the service must have been really bad. All I can say is ... "What an awful experience I have had ordering an instrument online from Thomann." HERE'S WHY: It took over a month and when I finally received the package ... they had sent the WRONG INSTRUMENT (I found out later that it was due to mislabeling of their product). After receiving the wrong instrument, I had to go through the painful process of sending it back (getting shipping quotes, dealing with delayed customer service emails, taking several pictures of the shipping boxes/labels/instrument, and so much more). After sending back the instrument, I became even more frustrated to eventually get the news that they were "out of stock" on the instrument that I originally ordered. At this point I still haven't received my refund. MY ADVICE: Do not order from Thomann. Just pitiful service all around.

After ordering I was advised the shipping costs had doubled and I would need to pay the difference for my order to proceed. I feel this is a dishonest practice and it left a poor taste. I'm unlikely to purchase from them again.

I purchased a Lexicon MPX Native Reverb software from Thomann whebshop. 2 days ago.

On the following link:
https://www.thomann.de/gb/lexicon_mpx_native_reverb.htm

Did the payment, downloaded the software. During the activation process it has occurred that a hardware key is required for the final activation.

Neither the web shop page or the Thoman's email response mentions that it is not a stand-alone application and I need to spend another 45 euros + postal service charge for a hardware key in order to use the VST plugin. Not talking about that I needed the application immediately - as it was stated (Available immediately) at the web shop ad.

Although it mentions within the system requirements: Pace iLok (item 401447). The hardware key is not not a sort of system requirement like: WinXP min., Mac OSX 10.5 min., 1.6 GHz CPU, 1 GB RAM. So why the hell it is mentioned at the system requirements??? Nothing to do with the system requirements, right?The hardware key is actually protection for the software manufacturer, in this case one can not use the software without it. So it is the part of the product.

Furthermore I got the Thomann's email response with the download link after purchase, which doesn't say a word about the hardware key. Very BAD communication!

Being tricked into this purchase, I immediately emailed them on the given address. I declined from the order and asked for a refund. I did not receive any answer.

But after I called them 3 times (spent at least 30 mins on phone, international call) Daniel Lindmark e-mailed me, saying they normally can't offer any refund on download items. Regardless if it works or not? I think the whole customer service is a joke.

This is a misleading sell! This is how they do the profit? Very interesting.

I don't know, how it will match the reputation of Thomann?

Attached a document as well.

Regards

Istvan Tutunzis

I've been shopping at Thomanns for many years. Once it was a good store. But now they have reached a critical mass for size, where they obviously do not care about the customers anymore.

In recent years, they have begun selling guitars that have already been sold at least once, as brand new. You can see it on the guitar if it has been sold before. There may be strings other than specified, there may be special settings and there may be DNA tracks after the previous owner !! Naturally, I return this kind of guitars, as I do not want to buy used. The system has worked in part because of somewhat easy returns with package collection at my home. But just try to hear this story:

I ordered a Framus guitar that arrived in very bad condition. Due to bad packaging from Framus, a strap lock (metal piece) had loosened from the guitar and rattled around in the inner guitar bag and ended up on the edge of the guitar, where it made a big chin. There was also a black stripe from a marker under the lacquer somewhere else on the body.

Of course I do not want such a defect thing, so I wrote to Thomann about the problem. A Kafka like process started. They would have me to photograph all the packaging, wrapping and the guitar. I should also fill in a note and go down to the post office and let them sign that it was their fault that the damage to the guitar had occurred !! I do not work for Thomann, so I made them aware of that. Then a fermented process began: Thomann has a Danish department, but only for sale! If there is something wrong, the Danish department will only send things on, and you have to write it all back in English. In total more than 30 mails were exchanged !! I felt it as an assault.

Eventually they became convinced that I would not perform the required tasks. They then sent a return label to Postnord, ie. where I by myself would be draging the package down to the post office. I am old, the post office is far away and the box is big. I have no car and it can not fit on the bike.

Thomann offered me a label for a UPS pickup, IF I PAYED. I have no other options, so I had to eat it. 30,- euro to look at a defective guitar. That is too expensive. And it was extremely unpleasant with the humiliating contact with customer service.

If Thomann answers this, you should be very suspicious if they do not lay flat down and apologize, but instead try to explain their way out of this mess. Mail order is a matter of trust. Would you trust Thomann after this?

I live in America andnd wanted to buy a set of bass strings not available there. I found them on Thomann for a good price, when I checked the shipping costs they were $37 for a small package. I find this way too expensive as shipping within Europe is free, way to alienate a hug market Thomann

shopping with thomann on line makes it very easy and the equipment is of very high quality and delivery very prompt

I received my guitar a few days ago, very well packaged in 2boes with loads of cushioning. I have given the guitar a CST 24 T Delux in Paradise Flame, a very good try out, I am extremely happy with this guitar, I have played other guitars at £1500 plus that have not matched the tones or playability of this instrument. I cannot fault it, well the G string needed a very slight adjustment of intonation but could have gotten by without it. I will certainly buy another Harley Benton guitar and have no problem advising anyone to purchase one. I ordered late on a Friday night did not expect it to be dispatched till Monday, which it was received the guitar on Wed. Germany to Edinburgh Scotland in 3 days great stuff. Thank you, Thomann, Keep up the good work and workmanship.

Jättenöjd med Thomann, lätt att söka sin vara, lätt att beställa, betala och en fantastisk snabb leverans, ända till min dörr!!!l
Det kunde inte bli bättre!!!
En jättenöjd kund.
Catherine Sjöblom, Göteborg, Sweden

Great Costumer care and unrivaled prices and availability! So far my experience has been very satisfactory... All the items I purchased arrived in mint condition, well packed and fully functioning! The online store is very well designed and very efficient as is the online mobile app which is available for free

the one of the best... ! i'm only on on the trip and the thomann i'st only available! it's very good contractor !!!

I have been using this store for as long as I can remember. From when I got my first bass at the age of 14 right up to this guitar pick and replacement acoustic peg purchase at the age of 29. I have recommended Thomann to many friends and family and everyone has come back more than happy with their purchases. if I could give more than 5 stars I would.