Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit T-Style 5-stars Reviews

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

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.

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)

Experiment gone good

I bought this as I wanted a yellow guitar and thought it would be a fun project, what could really go wrong for 80 euros? If it went poorly I had a guitar, if it went well I had a guitar that I would enjoy to play

Pros

-Cheap

-Great kit to practice setting up guitar

-Easy to play

-Don’t feel bad cutting and customising

Cons

-Hardware a little cheap - tuners clunky

-Pick-ups a little noisy - but they are single coils

-Instructions not the best

The build was easy. the hardest thing was painting and placing some homemade transfer stickers. Instructions were not the best, e.g. which screws went where, but it was easy enough to work out.

I spent a little time dressing the fretboard (again first time I had done this but an 80 euro guitar is the way to practice!) A quick set-up and intonation and I love it. It plays and sounds great.

I have no regrets purchasing this guitar. It has become one of my favourites to play at home. It has also given me a guitar to upgrade without the worry of 'wrecking' another guitar.

A great kit and I highly recommend it.

for that price a no brainer

i was stunned by the quality of the wood and the details of the neck, i made a very good guitar out of it, and with fine tuning it became a good guitar... for peanuts! ps i am a keyboardplayer not a guitarist but i like the play and feel of it... but of course my opinion...

Perfect for guitar project

If you are looking for a Tele to customize, look no further. Easy to assemble, lightweight body, very good neck and decent fret job. You're gonna have to do some work on the frets, but nothing major, and obviously, I strongly suggest new tuners and possibly pickups. The original pickups sounded good, but with a set of Emg alnico...it sounds fantastic!!!

Great guitar KIT

I bought this TELE just for fun. I didn?t expect much but It really surprised me! Assembling is easy, everything is well prepared ( except few holes for bridge and pickguard...I had to redrill them but it wasn?t big deal). It stays in tune and the sound is really great (it?s not like american Fenders of course.....but for 79Euros its awesome tele sound! :).

The bigest advantage is you got many ways how to customize this guitar, even headstock.

So If you are looking for some good guitar KIT which is in addition cheap, I can highly recommend you this one.

This guitar? Yes

Never tried drugs. I don't have the nature of a puritan, I was just never interested. But I'm addicted. Plucking these strings produces a sweet sound that lets me know. This is what those addictive drugs must feel like

I can't keep my hands off it! It took three days to build and now we might as well have a new member of the family. It goes wherever I go

Just holding it has a sort of calming effect. Here's what it looked like just after the assembly:

finish looks better now, fully dried out)

Painted the body, drilled holes for through-body strings, shaped the headstock, put varnish on the wood, put aluminium foil in to reduce noise, assembled the electric components (installed Fender Tex-Mex pickups instead of the included Chinesium ones) and then just a few screws... wait, why doesn't it play? My heart sank. Turns out that EQ knobs at 0 cut out all sound, and my soldering job is fine, but boy did I sweat a few that moment

I'm not a particularly handyman-person. I've been told before that I am technically adept - - as in I can read, understand and execute a manual. I can even do better than the manual, sometimes. People seek me out, trusting me to understand and explain poorly translated technical lingo. In contrast, I'm just barely good enough working manually. I'm no craftsman, no tradesman nah that ain't me

What my two left hands (apologies to left-handed sons of the devil) achieved is quite impressive (to me). So as far as he build complexity goes, if the guitar came in a Lego package, I'd rate it 9+ years

I guess the reason why I ordered the kit instead of one of the many assembled guitars on offer was that I wanted to make it more personal. This is after all why people buy these, isn't it? If I wanted to cheap out I'd probably have gone with one of the assembled pieces. I lost much more than the difference just on sunk time

Even though I've been advised to shy away from the pre-assembled guitars if they come in shipping. Store-bought is fine, so I've been told. At least for the cheap ones, the story goes that they may have issues during shipping and that the required luthier visit might cost more than the guitar itself

I recommend it as a personal project. It was an anxiety-ridden mess (characteristic of me, likely not for you), but boy did the payoff make it worth it.

To keep it long :- We have a family musician, a person deeply acquainted with the musical world. I'd rather not reveal too much, point is I respect her opinion a lot. She doesn't have a collection of guitars, she says one is more than enough. I think she has three

(Two loud black concert acoustics and a classical spanish nylon guitar that she doesn't show off for some reason. I've seen her play more but these are the ones at her house)

I excitedly showed her my creation (well, not *entirely* mine) once it was done aaand I got blank stares. Five minutes and a few chords later "it's okay I guess". "you messed up on the finish" (I did to be honest). "why did you do that to the headstock?" (I had to, I'm sorry, I would've hated the rectangular look) "the tuners look cheap" (had no issues w/ them, but I assume they are cheap?) "the fretboard has a great finish" "the neck is really nicely done, why did you do that to the headstock again?" "the frets need a little playing, maybe smooth them with a file"

And so on and so on... she didn't give it back for 4 hours, more actually. She's not a very direct person, but she implied that I "built a good guitar" (sic) and that's probably the best I can ever get out of her. Oh and when I said how much it cost her face quickly turned a shade of red, like rose red. She gave it back, I played it for a while and was told to practice rhythm and strumming. This is irrelevant to the review I just wanted you to know I suck at playing the guitar

One could change the tuners I suppose, I don't have issues with turning them like some other reviewers. They are not perfect but they hold perfectly, there is no jank/"pre-turn" before they start tuning at least for me, after 3 weeks of having it. And I tuned it a *lot*... Jesus christ has it only been 3 weeks? Feels like it's been part of my life forever

Also, installed a different bridge than the one that came in the box. I think it looks more musical and less "manufactured" that way. Also I trust the material the new bridge is made of a lot more. It just feels sturdier, but it's probably just a superstition of mine

As far as the sound goes, now I'm no expert but I feel like the sound quality is mostly electronics and pickups, with setup and pedals taking 2nd place and guitar neck/body last. I put in different pickups and didn't even try the ones that came with the guitar. I also immediately put on some strings whose manufacturer I know the name of. So I'm not sure if my experience with the sound will be same as yours so I'm not going to clarify much further. But obviously, I love it

I'd include a play sample if I could but alas. Basically it sounds like a fender, which is kind of expected (?)

Other things I've read/heard from other reviewers:

- the nut is fine, I put in some graphite to "grease" it

- the neck feels great in hand

- the maple body is light and easy to dent. luckily I've no visible dents as of yet

- it's neck heavy. it's not that bad though, and one can probably think of a DIY solution for it, like re-positioning the strap holders

- tuning stability is great! I had to take the saddles aaaall the way back though

Oh and now that I remember - use both string trees! I read somewhere that "cheap chinese guitars" are better off using only one of the trees, that there ought to be enough string tension as it is. I tried to follow this advice and it most certainly did not apply for me. My tuning stability was totally whack on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th string! I couldn't figure out why, was almost starting to think of sending it back when I decided to just for the kicks of it try both string trees and I was set-up with nigh-perfect intonation across the fretboard in 3 hours! Then again, I might've been doing something wrong, who knows

I have also been told these kind of guitars built of kits have a low re-sell value. I was flabbergasted, I mean I still am. To me the value is uncountable. And despite my busy schedule (made even more busy through my tendency to waste all of my free time on playing the damn guitar) I'm trying to find a way to cheat in another build to my calendar as soon as possible (let's see, no sleeping, no eating, there that _might_ work out)

10/10 would do again

Very nice kit. Perfect body and neck matching

I haven't managed to assemble the guitar because the body was stolen when I left it to dry with fresh paint.

Although the neck and body joint was very stiff and fitted perfectly. I read many comments about DIY guitar kits that it is a very big issue and it is hard to screw a neck to the body in the right way because the joint is wobbly. So this is a big plus for this kit.

The body was almost ready for spraying the paint, there were just a few places (where the holes were drilled for screws that needed extra sanding.

The neck is beautifully finished with some kind of matt lacquer and it is slippery so it should be no problems with fast hand movement.

I cannot tell anything more about this kit because it's obvious that without assembling it completely it is hard to judge other elements.

I am going to buy another kit to have a nice and playable instrument.

P.S. I COULD NOT POST THIS REVIEW NOT RATING THE SOUND QUALITY. I HAVEN'T TRIED HOW IT SOUNDS!!!!

A good kit to start with

As the title says a good to start with, to build your own guitar.

Everything you need is in the pack. The wood for the body is actually good quality. You may want to customise the head stock, as in cut to your own design.

You will need to solder one single connection, basically to earth the electronics (close the circuit) Very straight forward.

As for the sound........You've got a Tele here !

good first instrument

better than average quality. would recommend

All the favorable reviews are true

My only issue with the kit is the screws for the machine heads felt as if they were made of aluminum; they stripped easily with only hand-pressure and a screwdriver. I was able to make them seat completely in all but 1, and it is very close to being all the way in. I will likely replace them all. The pre-drilled holes were slightly off for the bridge but not enough to have to fill them and replace, and the pick guard did need a bit of grinding with the rotary tool to allow the correct shape to install flat.

I truly enjoy this T guitar, and am very, very happy I decided to order and build on my own.

Useable, which is good enough for such a low price

Easy to assemble, easy to set up, takes about 30-40 min to go from pieces to a working instrument. No soldering needed, which is a huge plus.

Obviously doesn't sound like a custom shop telecaster but for 79¤ you get a useable instrument. I even dare say it sounds good.

Great little kit

I bought this some time ago and build with my dad our own first hand assembled guitar. It was a great experience. Unfortunately the first one that I got was a dud, and I decided to return it immediately. If you get one with a couple of construction holes in it, return it. But for really small amount of money you get a decent playable T-style guitar. Lovely DIY.