TE-90QM Trans Red : How do they do it?

I stumbled across some reviews of Harley Benton guitars, and in general they were glowing. I was aware of the make, but had assumed they were bargain bucket instruments and parts for those on a seriously low budget, so the reviews made me think again. I like taking cheap instruments and fettling them to something reasonable, so I had a closer look. The TE-90QM looked beautiful in the photos, and it had P90s which I wanted, so I thought, for the price, why not?

Well, with the addition of a decent cable to earn free delivery, the HB turned up at my work in good time, and what a looker! The finish is quite excellent, and with minor tuning, it played beautifully out of the box! The pots feel weighted, the neck is very good, satin smooth with no sharp fret ends and the frets are pretty good but could do with a polish at least. Two guitarist friends at work were also rather impressed, one went off to check the website to buy one himself! This is not just a good guitar for the money, it is a Good Guitar. We were shaking our heads wondering how they can make them for such a relatively low cost. They really mustn't earn much in the Chinese factory, but if they turn out this quality I'll be buying more to show my support!

OK, there was only one niggle, in that the nut slot for the G string was cut a fraction low causing some buzzing on the open G. This isn't an issue for me as I'll be modding it somewhat, putting in a compensated nut, doing a fret level (not that it needs it much) maybe changing the pots / pups (again they sound pretty good anyway) but it might be an issue for others.

Bottom line, lovely instrument, almost perfectly constructed, with a beautiful finish. Buy one even if just to hang somewhere!