TE-20HH SBK Standard Series : Better than expected but not perfect

I owned a Harley Benton bass ten years ago. That particular model (Harley Benton HBB200BK) has since been discontinued, which is probably a good thing. That was a purchase I regretted from the beginning. It was a terrible instrument and I soon switched to Fender's Mike Dirnt bass thereafter. I'm mentioning thist just to illustrate how sceptical I was, while waiting for the guitar to be delivered. I purchased it on a whim together with another guitar, since it was so cheap and looked a bit special. I also thought it would be interesting to see, how HB quality has developed.

Well then: the quality seems indeed to have improved. Decent playability out-of-the-box. Action is a bit too high for my liking, but since I’ll probably be using this for alternate tunings, it doesn’t really matter that much. For someone purchasing his/her first guitar, this may, however, be off-putting and a possible issue. The action can probably be adjusted, but in comparison to my other guitars, this is definitely a minus, if you don’t want to tinker.

Otherwise the build quality is surprisingly good. Everything works, tuners seem OK. Frets smooth and nice. Humbucker switch a bit stiff. Of course, nothing can be said about durability at this stage. And it’s not an eyesore either, if that’s important to you.

At this price point I can recommend this instrument, but maybe not as only/first guitar.