TE-52 NA Vintage Series : A Beast of a Telecaster

Although I was skeptical of ordering a guitar online, my Harley Benton TE-52 arrived quickly and double-boxed, with thoughtful packaging throughout. Even the 0.10-gauge strings were carefully wrapped in brown paper to prevent scratching the frets during transport. Pretty cool!

The real surprise came when I plugged into a small tube amp. The sound has a lovely warmth, a healthy bit of twang and sustain for days. Putting it on my postal scale, mine weighed 9 pounds, 6 ounces. (I had guessed greater than 8 pounds.) It's definitely a beast, and I am now a big fan.

The roasted maple neck has some serious heft that provides great manual feedback without being unwieldy due to its relatively narrow profile. My hands are on the smaller side, so I've felt challenged to play a vintage Les Paul, but no such problem here.

I've had it now for a couple of weeks, and it almost feels weird to play any other of my guitars. If I were to upgrade anything, it would likely be the nut. But in the meantime, I'm having such a great time playing it that I don't imagine putting it down long enough to change a thing.