Harley Benton G212Plus Vertical Unloaded

The cabinet arrived in good condition, although there was a hole of the packages bottom.
Unlike the 112 Plus, there was no bag with bolts and washers, I guess they slipped trough the hole under shipping.
Thomann claims that they are not included, which sound rather odd, since they are included with every other unloaded cabinet, the bolts need to be 4x25mm to fit.

The speakers are backloaded, so at least the center panel needs to be removed, take note that the panels sit extremely tight, which is good for stability, I would have chosen to design the vertical beams they are attached to, to go all the way out to the sides and be none removable, that would have allowed the panels to sit less tight for easy renoval while still adding support for a sturdy stabil cabinet.

The bushings that the bolts for the speakers are screwed into are rather small compared to what they use for the 112 Plus, which also resulted with one getting pulled into the baffle, handtightened with a regular screwdriver, I did not even have full grip, so no chance for overtightening.
Weird that HB doesn’t use the same bushings, the ones on the 112 Plus are a lot better.

Speaker wiring is weird too, why on earth is it made for a mono/stereo configuration in a vertical 2x12?
Completely pointless and also not very practical with a 2x12 parallel wiring when using 2 cabinets, with a single cab that is 8 ohm with 2x16 ohm or 4 ohm with 2x8 ohm.
So I rewired it to seriel to get 16 ohm, which allows me to use the 212 and the 112 (loaded with a 16 ohm speaker) with all my amps, especially my Orange amps which allow minimum 1x8 or 2x16 ohm.

The front grill is removable, which is a nice addition for placing mics, the frame for the cloth is sturdy, seems to be better than what I have seen for the old 212 vertical.
The front baffle is also inproved and is attached to the inner frame at the front.
Handles are made out of metal, so is the connection panel at the back and the protective corners, the corners at top front could have been a better fit instead of using the same 90 degree ones there.

The tolex is thin, so will probably be scratched with ease, mine also has an air pocket at top, since I will customize the cabinet I don’t care much about it.
I also got a sleeve for the cabinet, the sleeve could be a few centimeter longer so that it covers the back and sides all the way to the bottom of the cabinet.
I mounted 2 neodymn speakers in it, so it is extremely lightweight.

Sound is good, running it fully closed, a bit less thumb than with a 2x12 closed back Palmer cabinet, I prefer my cabs to be less bassy, so the HB wins there.
Overall the cabinet is very sturdy, so unlike the old 212 vertical, this is a cab that should be able to handle some abuse without breaking apart at once.
I would not mind to pay a bit more for another of these unloaded cabinets if HB improved it a tad more as suggested, at least use the good bushings and maybe upgrade to 5mm standard instead of 4mm, after all, buying loose panels almost ready to assemble would cost way more than this cabinet it self.
I will make a video review of both the 112 Plus as the 212 Plus Vertical and upload it to my YT channel JoeBaermann too.

This cab is everything that I need for trying out speakers. Purchase speakers of the right Ohmage and experiment to your heart's content. No need to solder anything so it's a 5 minute job to change speakers.
It also sits a Marshall Studio Head on top perfectly.
This cab enabled me to discover that a vintage Marshall type head rocks harder with H magnet speakers than M magnet/greenbacks. And that the two together is a perfect mix. And that a Vintage30 and H are also great. And that a standard Greenback and an EVH sound different. And an 8Ohm and 16Ohm also sound different.
Stick two speakers in the cab, set it in Stereo mode, match the individual speaker impedance, not the total, and then switch the cable from one input to the other, utilising the amp standby switch, and quickly compare two speakers.
I also find that using two of these cabs is easier than having to transport a 4x12.

Before I get into details, I'd like to mention that I already own 2 Harley Benton cabinets and I think they're great. Incredible value for money and an even better platform for building a diverse array of guitar speakers.

This cabinet is the same. Solid construction and good weight, the level of quality anyone could expect from the brand. This however, brings me to my main issue.

Since the cabinet is unloaded, the consumer is naturally expected to make the correct connections themselves. This would be fine if the provided wiring diagram made any sense whatsoever. Firstly, the diagram itself and the wires installed into the circuit are not the same colors and to make things more confusing, the placing of the supposed + and - terminals is not labeled on the circuit, nor is it matched with where the wires are placed. There is also no indicator of where each terminal is expected to go on the speaker terminals themselves.

The biggest issue of all is that Thomann is not responsible for damages caused by incorrectly wired speakers. This would be fine if the provided diagram matched with what was installed in the cabinet.

My suggestion to Thomann is to actually look at the product you ship out and make sure your installation guide matches it. If you're like me and have no understanding of circuits or wiring beyond "this goes there, that goes here", you might run into the same issue, leaving you with an unwired guitar cabinet taking up space for days until the guitar workshop team actually responds to your inquiry.