Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit T-Style Reviews

I got what I expected

For the low price I did not expect too much. But the overall quality was quite pleasing:

- The wood was OK. I painted it with solid color (orange) so wood grain was not a deal, but I think even a decent stain would have been possible. One thing - the wood is soft, so it is easy to make a dent in it.

- The fretboard (as on the CST kit and on my child's ST-Mini) was very dry, but after oiling, it is OK now

- Fretwork is needed (leveling, polishing), so it is not for absolute beginners, but I think kits are not for total beginners

- I had no problem with electronics and hardware - it is cheap stuff, but they work. I changed the tuners to black Harley Benton locking tuners (very good price and quality) and the bridge (black, with 6 individula saddles), and covered the pickguard and the control-plate with carbon-foil.

- Pickups are OK, the 3-way switch works fine, but the pots are really poor quality, they had to be changed (I used standard 250K log pots).

Still need to do the clear coat on the body, but I made a pre-assembly and I love it. Nice to play, I like the sound and it looks exactly like I wanted.

For the money I put in (kit + new parts + paint + clear coat, etc) you can get a better guitar, but I think kits are more about the "way" then the "result" (but I love my "result")

Great Value

Bought this as a present for my husband for a bit of fun. Only really bought it for the satisfaction of the build, but neither of us expected the finished tele to actually sound really good!

It's a surprisingly great guitar once finished and not just a novelty build. If you're up for a fun customisation product and want something that's actually nice to play, holds its tune and sounds remarkably good for the cash, then it's definitely worth it!

Great value for money and a fun learning experience

I bought this kit to keep myself busy during lockdown and how much fun it was! Assembling this kit is a lot of fun. You can customize this kit as much as you want, give it a personalised paint job, use different pick-ups to get that sound you like. Assembling the standard kit is easy. There was a hole missing between the bridge pick-up and the potentiometers where the wiring was supposed to go, but that was easily fixed with a drill. I was surprised by the quality of the whole kit. The neck feels smooth and is easy to handle. The standard electronics give you that clear sound of the T-style guitar. To be honest it plays good and sounds great. No rattle or hum. Hardly needed adjustments. All in all a great experience, you learn the basics of guitar building and customizing and you get a nice guitar for a ridiculously cheap price.

Every pre drilled hole is wrong. No QC???

FYI: All my points here are to do with the body. As soon as I removed the bubble wrap my face dropped.

One of the predrilled holes which is supposed to hold the bridge plate in place is totally burst out into the bridge pickup cavity, making it totally useless as a screw hole. This is the most aggregious flaw by far.

The scratchplate drill holes don't even remotely line up with themselves and are in a really bad position for the scratchplate to begin with.

The routing is a complete mess with A LOT of burst grain ends inside every cavity but the neck pickup. Maybe the lad in the factory in China was having a bad day when he did this body but there was ZERO care put into it. This is fairly minor and can be fixed with a chisel and some care, but I didn't expect it to be THIS BAD.

Maybe I just got a real lemon here and you might be fine, but this means there is ZERO quality control. At least it was only 85 euro, and may still make a fun project for lockdown if I can figure out how to fix all the problems, but damn I'm so disappointed with how this body was done. I wish I could share photos in my review cos its really really bad.

Out of the HB guitar kits I've tried this was the roughest.

The woodwork on my T-style kit was very rough, and there was a tear where the jack plate connects.

As with all the kits, the pre-drilled holes are out of alignment.

The neck pickup sounds okay, but the bridge pickup sounds terrible it's so muddled that you can't really use it for anything, even with effects it's very difficult to get a decent sound out of it.

These kits are really meant for people who like the idea of building a guitar, they are VERY rough out-of-the-box.

I love building these kits, but I would warn anyone who doesn't like or isn't good at sanding and painting.

Can't wait!

The only reason I didn't give 5 stars, is because I just received and have not started building yet. If looks count...gonna be awesome.

Very good

Once assembled it is a perfectly playable guitar. Enjoyable to assemble too. Sounds pretty decent too for what it is. And at that price, worth a go.

Great kit for beginner Luthiers

I've bought this kit to mess around and experiment some staining paints. The neck is very nice and well finished, but the fretboard wood was very dry which was causing some frets to be sharp at the end. After applying a conditioner it got way better. The body, not so much. The wood feels like you're getting what you've paid, really. Also, I needed to make new holes for the bridge, as the ones made on the factory were about 1.5mm off, causing a misalignment of the strings with the fretboard. Another down side is that the neck does not fit the body tightly. I advise to add some padding with a very thin wood layer to make it fit perfectly, if needed.

Cheap but fun but cheap

I bought this for fun and building it was fun. All the parts function but their quality feels cheap as expected for the low price. I'd recommend it for the experience of building and painting your own guitar but not if you hope to get a professional instrument.

Amazing value for the price

I was blown away by this kit. Sure there are some small issues with pickguard holes not being perfectly aligned, and maybe some other minor issues, but overall this kit is amazing for the price.

The guitar has a very nice feeling, definitively doesn't feel like a 85€ guitar but a much higher range guitar.

The think that mostly blew me away was the resonance of this guitar. I had quite low expectations since it's super cheap but this guitar quickly became one of my favorites (and I do own some higher range guitars).

The kit is very simple to assemble, I didn't need the instructions at all (which have the entire assembly process explained very nicely if one would need help).

Pros:

- great value for price

- great acoustically sounding guitar

- the shape is very close to the original if not same

Cons:

- pickups sound a bit flat and empty (but it's not that bad and can always be replaced)

- frets needed a bit of polish (string bends were not so smooth in the beginning)

- nothing else

If you are thinking about building a guitar and are hesitating whether to purchase this kit, don't.

I owned this guitar for only 2 weeks and it already brought me so much joy both in building/modifying and playing it.

Highly recommended.

Better than expected, but...

It actually sounds really nice, for some reason has some sort of hollow-body tone in it, here I recorded a demo:

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but overall quality is so-so. Pickguard holes did not match holes in the body, so I had to make new ones. Upper frets are bit too high, so there is a buzz if I play above 15th fret. Frets were a bit sharp too, had to polish ends. But still a good deal for the prize. I kinda like the tone.

Just get it! Quality for the money!

Firstly, I am not a gigging guitarist. I play mainly in the bedroom and occasionally at local Jams. I use a Boss Katana amp with an ME-80 and a few other pedals.

I’ve wanted to do a self build for a while now, but was sceptical about a) whether I would be able to do a half decent job, & b) more importantly, whether the materials supplied would be any good.

When it arrived I was immediately impressed that the body was (externally) very smooth and had a nice grain. ( The workmanship on the pickup pocket routing and the control switch routing was pretty poor really, but at least is out of sight). The neck looked really good and the fret edge finish was way smoother than I was expecting for the price.

First off, I checked the neck for straightness and found that it was convex in shape by quite a bit. Easy enough to adjust with the supplied truss rod adjuster. The frets themselves were actually quite smooth at the edges, but after checking with fret rockers, seven or eight of them needed to be filed down a bit.

Now I’m no woodworker or electronic wizard so this area really concerned me. The headstock shape I chose to cut with a jig saw. On reflection a hand saw with a fine blade may have been more useful. That said, after about 3 hours hand sanding with 5 different grades of sandpaper made it nice and smooth.

The electrics were easy to connect with the supplied connectors but I first lined all the cavity’s with copper self adhesive tape.

One major flaw is that the tone pot does not work. Or, if it does, it really isn’t noticeable. (This is something I have seen in other reviews). For me it isn’t a big issue, I have plenty of pedals and effects that can overcome this.

From the outset, I wanted the finish to remain a natural (ish) wood Finish. So I was really happy that the grain on the guitar body was looking very good out of the box. I applied four coats of mid oak wood wax. This deepened the colour somewhat and I am really pleased with the finish.

The tuners seem to be of a pretty good standard, but a couple of the pre drilled holes were slightly off. The string trees look and feel a bit cheap. Most of the supplied screws and holes were ok. The neck fitted the body really well and the strings, when put on, were aligned straight down the neck. The nut is plastic I think, but experience has told me to file the back edge of the slots, just a little bit and apply some lead pencil to the slots. Once the strings had stretched a little and bedded in, it holds its tune really well.

My biggest and best surprise, was when I plugged it in. I think the sound of this build is superb for the money. I have owned far worse guitars that have cost me hundreds of pounds. The pick ups needed a small tweak to get the volume balance right, but other than that, I am really pleased with the volume and general tone of the guitar.

For £75 (from my experience) I doubt if you will find much better. Really chuffed!

HB T Style Kit

I thought I'd buy one of these kits as I heard good things about them and it'd be a good project to keep me busy. I was surprised by the quality of the body and neck and pretty happy to have a good starting point for my project.

Pros:

Wood is quite good quality, seems to be made of 4 pieces though it only says "hardwood" in the details so I am unsure of what it is.

Pretty easy to put together, you just need a couple of screw drivers.

Instructions are easy to understand but it helps to know how a guitar works.

Cons:

Hardware is pretty crap, don't expect anything stunning from the price you pay.

I had to re drill holes for the bridge, control plate and pick guard. Not the end of the world but for people that don't have drills and just want to get playing it would be a let down.

I bought this kit for the goal of upgrading the whole guitar and finishing it in the colour I wanted. It's a great little kit but expect to put a little more money into it to make it really fun but I would recommend it to anyone looking for a project!

truly a pleasant surprise.

I am an accomplished guitarist despite my age (63 years ...). bought for fun, in reality it turned out to be an excellent guitar. Coupled with a good amp you get great sounds, both for the accompaniment and for the soloist. I also enjoyed smoothing the headstock and protecting and polishing the wood. I was lucky enough to have it set up by the great luthier Franco Cavolata who built a bass guitar among others for Jaco Pastorius (I don't know if you know what I mean ...). I didn't think that at such a low price you could get such a good guitar. a guessed purchase that I recommend to everyone.

Truly amazing for the price

First off, the guitar is perfectly sanded. The neck is spectacular, allowing the user to have the time of their life playing the instrument. I honestly would say that I would buy another Harley Benton kit or a full guitar due to the quality for the price. The only issue I'd have with the kit is that the screw holes aren't perfectly lined up; however, it still seeks to be the best DIY kit out there. I'd recommend it to people around me if they're looking for a cheap T-style guitar. The sound is spectacular, giving the classic telecaster vibe. I wholeheartedly and genuinely love this instrument.

Good, but might be better even for same price range

Neck to body fit was perfect. Neck straight, playable - but fretboard were roseacer (which I hate) - not amaranth. Body also Ok. (Unfortunate Update - Neck has wave...)

Generally - all is good, but I personally would prefer body will really be uncoated. Or coated with something easy to remove. I was using stain so need to sand it for a loooong-long time. Especially to remove brown stain factory applied. Also dont know why holes were pre-drilled. Half of it were wrong, so I need to fix that. It would be really better not to have it pre-drilled. Body wood - is fine, but why its so difficult to clearly mention what wood is that? Me (and rest of customers) are really curious - what exactly wood was used?

Great Project Kit (if you are willing to put the effort in)

First off, one cannot complain about material quality when paying this amount for a fully functioning guitar. BUT, if you are planning to buy this kit thinking you are going to spend an hour putting it together and end up with a great tele that you will play often, make no mistake! You will need some elbow grease to get it to play and look the way you want it to.

The one extremely surprising feature was actually how well made the neck was. Fretwork is borderline perfect (frets were even recrowned and polished after leveling on mine so I did not have to do any "urgent" work on them), the neck is straight and fret edges are rounded.

Some of the issues that mine had:

1. All the holes (and I mean ALL of them) were drilled in the wrong locations. Most holes were also not perpendicular to the surface and had to be plugged & redrilled.

2. The body wood (Paulownia) is extremely light and the neck dives hard.

3. The pickguard is NOT a standard Tele shape. Replacement (should you wish to) will need to be made based on provided guard.

Unbeatable Price-Quality

So much guitar for so little money and the fun of decorating and assembling is a surplus pleasure. great product!

Good starter

This Guitar is agood starter for everyone who wants to dig in to guitar building/repairting world. Price is just so friendly, that you can easy forget all the flaws that product have. If you are afraid to screw things up, don't be. Tthose are twiopreasons for that:

1. Package and instruction are straight forward, just read the manual and you are good to go.

2. Is so cheap, that you can always buy two of them.

I have one remark tho. Rosewood fingerboard (I dont think is Rosewood) is really really dry, almost acts like a coal, so be extra carefull with that, it can chip away and crumble really easy.

I bought this guitar for learning purpose, to learn myself basics how to set up an guitar, polish, crown frets, adjust trussrod, saddles...etc.

I manage it to put her together in one hour. (no sanding or colouring)

Neck joint is perfect. pick guard needed slight ajustment (1mm needed to be shaved off) Sound and playability after seting up, and making complete service is great, sound is overal good,

Afterall is good buy, I enjoyed assembly, customizing it, servicing it and playing it...heck, I even gave her a name (Purplecaster). Is stageworhy. I will buy singlecut next 100%.

Good as a project, not so good for playing

It is a really fun project to do and to learn a bit how to build guitars, but the sound of the pickups is terrible (at least for me). Though, I understand that for such a low price you can't expect anything crazy. Would recommend if you want a nice custom guitar at home for a cheap price or just learn it a bit