Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit T-Style Reviews

Great tele kit for an unbeatable price!

Maple neck, mahogany body, tidy frets, good hardware, nice electronics and a cheap price. How can you go wrong?

Great kit

Easy to assemble with basic tools, will buy another kit in the future.

In love with this guitar

Ever wanted to learn to assemble your own guitar and do a full setup yourself? Look no further and buy this kit.

I've bought this kit as a learning project to learn more about guitar 'building' and setting up a guitar. This kit is very well manufactured and has a good manual leading you through the process.

The parts inside the kit are of good quality. The body did have some small dents but since I've painted the body into a 'butterscotch'-ish color they are barely noticable anymore. The neck is of very good quality as well. Only one slightly high fret is noticable which I need to look at fixing, but other then that it's playable right out of the box. The hardware is also of good quality. Everything is prewired so it's only connecting the wires together. I was thinking about swapping out the pickups but after hearing the sound I don't think that'll be needed in short time.

Assembling this kit gave me the confidence to also buy the Harley Benton strat kit which is also good fun. So if you're looking for a good sounding telecaster and learn something along the way, this is kit is it.

Enjoyable Project - Reasonable Guitar.

As a secondary music teacher, working on this has given me skills to repair the instruments in my department.

Once constructed, the instrument is perfectly servicable and I use it at school regularly (not a guitarist principally) to demonstrate to and accompany students.

PROS:

Reasonable quality guitar for anyone with a passing interest.

Great if you want to learn about the anatomy of the instrument.

Easy to put together.

CONS:

The quality of the instrument is likely not enough fior anyone wishing to play seriously.

The pickups were notably rough (and were replaced fairly quickly).

You can make an enjoyable guitar

You will probably have to redrill body holes, but neck fits nicely in the pocket. Frets are well fitted, and don't have sharp edges.

Great fun to build

This guitar kit was my first, but with a bit of care I produced a guitar to be proud of. Pro's, the quality was better than I expected. Cons, I spent many many hours sanding away the sealer on the body as I wanted to stain it.

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.

More than worth the money

I bought this kit as a project during lockdown and saw some of the mixed reviews and decided to take the plunge anyway. I'm so glad I did. The kit was incredibly easy to put together and the build quality of the components far exceed that of some of my guitars that cost 8 times the price.

I intended to make this a bit of a mod project and add parts/upgrade pickups etc over time but I am so happy with the way it plays and sounds that I'm going to leave it well alone for the time being. The pickups are actually incredible sounding.

Be safe in the knowledge that if you purchase this you are going to be getting an awesome guitar that you can put your own stamp on and make yours.

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.

great deal

I tried to make my own telecaster

it was easier than i thought

the tele sounds very well..

now i have to panit it..

very well ..i will try the strat

buy it guys

Really great fun to make this yourself picking the colors that you like then doing it all yourself well worth it guys when you get it plugged in and you hear it for the first time

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!

Happy with this kit.

Didn't know quite what sort of quality to expect, but took the plunge, and you know what? it's pretty good, can do some neat stuff with this 'T type' kit. probably upgrade some parts later. might even get an 'S type' kit as well.If you like making things and woodwork you'll be well away with this kit. Regards all.

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.

insane for the price

Okay, so like most of the people here I wasn't expecting anything from it. Just bought it for DIY fun and to understand the guitar better. But hey, I already see that I will have a great guitar. I mean, we have to keep in my that all bundle cost 79 euros. If i'd pay 300 for it, it would be different. But for 79 it's insane.

PROS:

- The neck and body is really good. It needs a bit more fine sanding before the paint, but it's really good. if you're not picky - you can go with it right out of the box.

- It sounds really good, pickups are decent for the price.

- with some adjustments to truss rod, bridge, i got a really nice playing action. Basically the same as on my Strat MIJ, which is built really well.

- all screw holes fit 98% fine and neck fit the body perfectly.

- and of course DIY fun, which is soooooo cool. You instantly get attached to the instrument

CONS (I can't say it's really cons at this price, but it the things that needs to be fixed, changed, done. But again, it's DIY kit, that's the whole point!):

- Neck dives. I think it's fixable - I still need to cut the shape of the headstock, which will lose some weight in the neck, and I'll also paint the body, so paint and lacquer will add some weight to the body. It probably won't be perfect, but it I guess it will be good enough.

- Fret edges will need a little work, but it's fine from the box.

- Tuners - it's bad. It hold the tune ok, but it's kinda hassle to tune it, it's jumpy, etc.

- Nut - it was way too high, needed to lower it by sanding it. Still wasn't happy, so changed it with cheapo bone nut from ebay - way better.

- Included strings, guitar cable - kinda useless

All in all, 1000% recommend this if you want some DIY fun. And for maybe extra 50€ I will have a very decent tele.

It also really helped me to understand the guitar as an instrument in general, so with the knowledge I gained, I can now easily tweak my other guitars too.

*** FEW NEGATIVE POINTS ***

- Incorrect body material description - it is from approx. 15 pieces. Body is made from 3 main block and each block is from "5" layers (I do not remember now, if there were 5 or 6 layers of wood.)

- Final guitar is front heavy.

- Pure tuning heads. Don't hesitate to invest into better one.

*** POSITIVE SIDE ***

+ Generally I can recommend this DYI kid for somebody who want to make his own guitar.

+ Great for "grand"parent-child project or training how to set-up guitar.

+ Slim neck

+ Loud unplugged - fully comparable with several times more expensive guitar.

+ I do not have other T-styl for direct comparison, but I am very satisfied with sound. I guess that it equalizes to few time more expensive guitars. I did not expect such good performance from this low cost guitar.

+ It is cheap, so you do hot have to worry about any mistake which you can make during DIY process.

*** BE READY FOR: ***

- few hours of relaxing handicraft

- body is not suitable for staining due to mix of several woods.

- on body is used sealer, which is good, but surface finishing is till required for smooth painting.

- for careful handling with body ready for paining, it is made from softwood so easy to damage it.

- extensive fret work - leveling, crowning, polishing.

- neck is with thin finish, you can leave it as it is or easily rework to you preferred finish

- check bridge and pick-guard position before final painting, I had to adjust position in my kit.

T style kit build

Delivered promptly ,well packaged. Easy to build and paint.

Neck was extremely well made,no work needed on frets intonation good holds tuning well

Impressive Kit

I was not expecting too much for the price but having put it together I was plesently surprised. This kit was going to be my starter into the world of guitar set up. However, there was very little to do.

a) Neck was nice and straight.

b) Frets were even across the neck and with no sharp edges. Only needed a fret polish.

c) All screw holes aligned pretty much spot on.

d) Strings were a bit rough thus not used.

Put together within an hour and fully playable.

Pretty cool stuff

As a person who has no experience with guitar building, I didn't know what to expect from this kit, but it turned out really well in the end and I got an instrument to experiment with. There were some bumps on the road so far, here are some thoughts:

+ sounds pretty good for the price, even unplugged

+ price/value is great

+ pretty comfortable to play

- manual is a bit vague at points, there is no description of which screw goes where, managed to figure it out eventually, but would have prefered to skip the guessing game

- compared to what you can see on the pic, the slot of the control plate was not fully cut out for my kit, leaving a section of wood in the middle of it, the original hardware did fit in still, so probably not an issue for most users, however I bought an EMG active pickup as an upgrade and the batteries simply can't fit there by default... not the end of the world, but requires some work and something to keep in mind

With some upgrades, I ended up with a pretty nice instrument that I like to pick up a lot.

eazy fun and awesome

its a wonderful kit and tremendous modding platform since you're already working on it , i threw a homemade pickup in it reversed the control plate and added two tone caps to it , painted the entire thing black over gold and reliced the sh*t out of it

I'm planning on putting a wishby on it in the future (a cheap wish bigsby)