Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit T-Style 4-stars Reviews

A great project for someone wanting to learn more about electric guitars

I have to say I ordered this kit not expecting much of it. I just wanted to play around with it to see if I can get a guitar that plays. I got much more than I expected. I actually use the guitar with my band and the fact that I assembled it myself makes for a great story. I'm not a professional, but still. I don't see myself as much of a handyman but I love building stuff and I've built stuff like furniture (much to my wife's dismay).

I'd say that assembling the guitar is a little more difficult than building Ikea furniture but much more fun.

PROS

* The most attention was given to (IMO) the most important part of the guitar - the neck. It still shows that it is a neck of a cheap guitar but it works

* Maybe I was lucky with the kit I got but I only had to adjust action and then the guitar's intonation was great. The neck is straight, frets at the position they are supposed to be - no need for truss rod adjustment or bridge adjustment. That got me really surprised because I generally have to do the adjustments to every new guitar I get.

* The pickups work surprisingly well for the price - they do hum, they're singles, I guess. I expected I would have to replace them but now I'm kinda on the fence whether that is really necessary.

* It's a solderless kit - makes for an easier build. I actually do own multiple soldering irons, so I wouldn't mind that, but it can be a great deal for someone not experienced in that particular field

* Although the wood isn't the greatest quality, it actually resonates really well and has a surprisingly good tone

CONS

* Some of the pre-drilled holes are drilled rather unprecisely. The ones belonging to the bridge (where it really counts) were OK, but you have to make your peace with the fact.

* The pickups would hum less if there were some shielding

* The manual won't tell you which screws to use for what. But it can actually be fun figuring it yourself (which was my case)

REMARKS

* You should paint the guitar. The wood is sealed quite nicely. I used 3 coats of color lacquer and 2 coats of colorless lacquer (I used a brush, I really can't use spray paint in a flat, especially with two small children)

* You should cut the head. The original doesn't look too good and could make the guitar head-heavy

* Okay, the wood on the body isn't the greatest but let's be reasonable

SUMMARY

If you are a guy or a girl who likes to build stuff, challenge themselves and likes electric guitars, go for this kit. It was a great experience, I learned a lot about electric guitars, e.g. that there is a reason that the Tele design stood the test of time.

Very nice

For a fun project and something creative to build, it is amazing!! it took me 40 to 50 minutes to assemble it and it played nicely. But expect some work to make it look nicer and feel better in your hands. The frets must be polished, and the body must be sanded and refinished.

All the electronics worked fine, it had ok strings, and the neck and body joint is very good.

OK for a first kit

The initial kit I received had all the pre-drilled holes misaligned. Contacted customer support and they immediately sent a replacement.

Built the kit using a DIY body and very happy with the results. Plays and sounds great!

Fantastic DIY Kit

This is my first a tempt at a DIY kit guitar however I have to say im a pleasently surprised, overall the kit was pretty well made and the guitar is shockingly good once finished, pickups not the best but appart from that I cant really complain.

Pros

- fantastic neck

- decent fret job

- handlels very low action well

- stays in tune well

- neck stable

- great price

Cons

- frets might need a tiny bit of work but mine where fine

- pickups sound pretty weak

- some rough cornerns needed sanding

- poor drilling on screw holes, needed repositioned

- neck heavy.

- very soft wood.

all in all I love this kit and will most likely buy another, great for a bit of a weekend project and in the end you get a fairly decent guitar thats genuinly enjoyable to play.

for a cheap kit its a deal

for the price its a deal breaker but it does need alot of adjustments but itl help if u wanna get into building

Great kit for the price.

This is a very nice kit for the price. I was most pleasantly surprised at the overall quality.

Pros: the neck of the guitar is amazingly well done. The maple neck, the fingerboard and frets are pretty much perfect.The wiring was easy to manipulate with no soldering required. The hardware was better than I expected.

Cons: the wood making up the body was quite rough and not matching. If you plan to cover in paint, I guess it wouldn't really matter. I used stain and Tru Oil. It would be better if the type of wood used was heavier in weight. I still have some issues with the high 'E' string sounding correct. I changed the string trees and plan on installing a new nut.

Overall this kit was a great experience and highly recommended. It would be a super project for kids as well.

Great kit for the money

The kit is easy to assemble, works great and sound surprisingly well. I had to get a new body because the first one was full of tool marks and was low quality.

Good value for money

This was my first attempt at building a guitar from parts, so I picked this kit as I figured a Telecaster- style kit would not be too challenging for a complete beginner. The order came in time, no problems there. All the parts were included and the instructions were Ok. Quite a lot of work went into finishing the body and neck. The body is made of some pretty soft wood and was not always easy to work with. Anyway, after a lot of hard work and trial and error I got the kit put together. The guitar sounds and feels nice. However, i will probably have to swap out the tuners and pickups at a later stage. All in all a good package for a first time build.

Cheap, awesome kit

Bought this, was not expecting much because of the cheap price.

But, I was surpriced of the quality/fit and finish of this product, for this price of course.

I have bought new HW for this guitar, so I cannot comment on that.

Bought new picups and Pots (SD Hot Tele set + Emerson prewired potset)

The Neck was almost ready to play, one fret (nr 6) was abit taller than the rest. So I did a light polishing/sanding, and thats about it.

The fit on the body was straight and snug, really good.

I was able to set it up with a relative low action, using 10-46 strings, the strings that come with the set are only useful when you set youre guitar up, not for playing, the guitar deserve some good strings.

The body had some kind of coat on it, I sanded it down with some 380 paper, then for finishing some 600 paper.

On the neck I used 600 paper, used finishing oil and left it like that.

The body,Stained it red, then used some finishing oil (4 layers) , and now I have a beautiful looking and a sweet playing Tele.

If you want something basic, you can buy this, then mod it for what its worth if you feel like it.

Its a really cheap way to get yourè self a greate guitar if you are able to put some work into it.

Im happy with my Teleset, have also just ordered the ST set, looking forward to build that one too..

Great kit

Bought this as a project for my son. He built it no problem (I helped a bit), and it sounds pretty good. Looks good too, except for one gripe: The headstock is ugly, and should have been shaped a bit more - I don't have access to fancy jig saws or whatever you would need to finish that feature. Good value though, and has had a lot of ply in this house

An overview of how the building of my Harley Benton telecaster kit went.

Step 1: Neck

I started with checking if the frets were level. They were playable but still needed some levelling. They were also very scratchy and the top was barely crownded.

I levelled, crowned and polished the frets.

Then I cut the headstock into shape, sanded it smooth and covered it with 6 coats of clearspray.

Step 2: Body

The body was very ruff and had a lot of dings and even a few holes in it.

I sanded it until it was perfectly smooth. Then I filled the holes, scratches, dings and woodgrain with wood filler and sanded everything smooth again. Next I applied 2 layers of primer and sanded everything smooth. After this I filled al the remaining holes and scratches again with woodfiller, after this, again I sanded everything smooth. Next I spraypainted the body with 6 layers of turquoise lacker and 3 layers of satin clearcoat.

Step 3: assembly

The tuners and string trees went in perfectly with no problem. The neck fitted perfectly in the neck pocked. The bridge, output jack cover, strap buttons and the plate with the switch and knobs also fitted perfectly.

The pickguard however not so much. The holes in the body didn't align with the holes in the pickguard. I drilled new holes in the body and now it fits. The pickguard does touch the plate with the pickup selector, this is not supposed to happen.

Step 4: setup

The tuners hold tune but are a bit difficult to tune with, they are a bit jumpy.

The bridge is easy to intonate but impossible to intonate 100% perfect because of it's design, but that was to be expected.

The nut of the guitar is cut to high, because of this the action is always high and the first few frets will sound out of tune. I am going to fix the nut later.

I had to adjust the pickup height a lot.

The result:

- Even with a 9-42 set of strings this guitar is very loud acoustically. It resonates more than any guitar I have ever played.

- The pickups sound remarkably good for such a cheap kit. I dont think I will change them anytime soon.

- The guitar plays very nicely, I expect it to play even better once I lowered the nut slots.

- The guitar holds tune good enough.

- The pickup selector is wobly and stiff. The volume knob is pressed against the metal plate it's atached to, this makes it imposible to operate it with 1 finger. It has to much friction. The tone knob works perfectly.

Conclusion:

The kit I got has a very good neck and body but the hardware is lacking. The hardware is functional, you could keep it, but I am probably going to upgrade it.

I have a feeling once I upgraded it this is going to be my favourite guitar.

Score:

Body and neck 9,5/10

Hardware 5/10

Pickups 8/10

Total 7,5/10

UPDATE:

I placed straplocks, upgraded the stringtrees and the nut to graptech, changed the tuners to harley benton locking tuners, placed compensated bridge sadles and placed a fender 4-way tele switch (I discovered that the original switch used the same pickup configuration in both position 1 and 2). I also maneged to fix the hard to turn volume knob.

After these upgrades this guitar is fenomenal. It holds tune very well and is very smooth to tune, it has sustain for ages, with the 4-way switch you have a lot of tonal options and it plays like butter.

It is my favourite guitar at the moment.

Score with upgrades:

Body and neck 9,5/10

Hardware 9/10

Pickups 8/10

Total 9/10

wow

The pickups are very nice for that price, all the electronics are really good, the hardware is excellent except tuners: they tune quite easily but they hold the tuning not for too long. I mean I'm a lead guitar player, so I do all solos and that stuff, so it is quite upsetting when you need to tune the guitar after every solo (especially when there are a lot of bendings)

also the holes were drilled not quite correctly so that the neck was a bit angled down and the bottom string was hangin in the air on 15+ frets so I had to fill them in and drill another holes.

so, the guitar is very good for that price except the tuners and not quite propper drilling

For the price one of the best!

For the price you probably can't get a better guitar. It sounds pretty good. The neck pickup is really warm and sounds amazing for lead and clean parts. The bridge is for me personally a bit too trebly/cutting through, this is a personal preference however and it can easily be fixed with the tone knob. All the other hardware is pretty decent too. Stays in tune pretty well and plays very nice. Neck has a smooth satin-like finish in a C shape.

There's one bad thing however, this might be exclusive to my unit, but it has some necktilt which makes the guitar almost unplayable in the higher frets (starting at the 8th). This can be fixed with a shim which i plan on doing. This may be exclusive to my unit as i've not seen other complaints about this.

Also in assembly 2 solder joints broke off, not much of an issue for me, but i can imagine people want to keep it fully solderless (which it otherwise is)

Good kit to work with, but not a guitar one can assemble and play right away

PROS.

1. Technically, this kit allows you to follow an IKEA-like manual and put together a guitar, functionally identical to a cheap guitars of well-known-brands-we-won?t-mention-here for a fraction of their price.

2. The body and the neck are done surprisingly well for a price, they fit together better than I saw on some? ahem? much more expensive guitars. Frets don?t try to cut you to death. Neck is not bent to a propeller shape. Slots in the body for neck and pickups are precise enough.

3. Other parts are inexpensive yet mostly funcional. I planned to replace everything except body and neck, but left tuning machines, bridge and some other things be: they are okay to the level when ?good enough? turns into ?just good?.

CONS.

1. Frets require some work. Frets are unpolished (which is not a problem) and sometimes are slightly uneven (which IS a problem). So if you need a low action without buzzing, fret leveling is in order, and fret leveling is not a task for a complete newbie.

Nut is a regular plastic thing, and it is not set to a proper height. To get a proper action and proper tone, you should cut it to the right height, which requires some minimal understanding of the task, some skills and at least some tools. So, again, not a task for a complete newbie.

2. There?s no shielding and a kit manual never mentions that shielding is required, which could become a problem for a newbie. You?ll need to shield a guitar with foil or graphite, otherwise it will work like a good old radio antenna, buzzing left and right.

3. Build quality is not perfect when it comes to a small things. All screw holes, including holes for neck bolts, are hand-drilled sloppily, which means random depth and direction of each and every hole. If you suffer from serious case of perfectionism, just like me, it?s easier to seal and redrill those holes. Otherwise you probably can ignore it: screws still hold it together, so it?s okay. Tip: always use a wax on screws, it helps.

Fingerboard of my guitar had a small splotch of some brownish substance that tried (with questionable success) to mask a small dent in a wood. It didn?t affect playability, but it wasn?t nice to look at form close distances, so it had to be fixed.

Tone control in my kit wasn?t working. It wasn?t a problem for me, as I just replaced all electronics. But such things could be a problem for some kiddo, who doesn?t know how to solder wires yet. Be ready to rewire the guitar properly.

CONCLUSION.

In general, this kit is a good base for amateur guitar builds and experiments. Reshape the body, paint it wild, cut the head as you please, add pickups of your dreams... Kit has no critical flaws and allows you to build a really good ?semi-custom? guitar for a ridiculously low price if you are ready to put some work in it.

Kit is ?technically functional? even right after screwdriver assembly and basic tuning, but don?t expect much from it. Fifteen minutes of intense screwdriving will turn a kit into an electromechanical tool, which in a dim light could be considered an electric guitar. But it won?t rise to its full potential without additional efforts.

Great kit guitar to learn about building guitars

The fretwork was not perfect, but it was easy to sort out. I replaced the electronics and pickups with higher end stuff .

This is a fantastic kit. Since I got it, the telecaster has become my favorite guitar. This kit is easy to assemble and set up, except maybe for the headstock. You need some tools to do that, but the result can be anything your desire. The strings that come with the kit are no good, so it's best to order a decent set right from the start. Another thing that could be better is the neck dive ; a heavier body would better counteract this.

Great project

I was pleasantly surprised with how good this was. It feels and sounds great. But of course it had its flaws. I was a few screws short and the frets needed some levelling. Other that that. After solving those its now one of my favourite guitars and was great fun working on it

reasonable price the main motive

Value for money

For this price, don't hesitate getting one; It's fun

Present for my father

Bought as a surprise present for my dad, he was amazed and delighted (definitely surprised also!). He had a great time building it, took his time, sanded and filled the body and then used car paint to paint it.

The result is a unique tele that hangs on the wall with pride. For the price I really do recommend this for anyone interested in crafts/music/DIY or all the above!

The neck in particular is great quality and well fretted. The neck pickup is a bit dull but the bridge has the tele twang.