Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit T-Style Reviews

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...

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

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!!!

With work, has made a nice guitar

Cons. None of the pre drilled holes for the pick guard, bridge and control unit lined up very accurately. more importantly, the cut out for the neck, when fitted, made the strings run of the side of the neck as the neck angle was cut wrong.However, with some gentle work with a wood chisel I was able to correct this.

Pros. The neck is very good, smooth and very playable, and okay, as others have pointed out, the pick ups and machine heads could be improved, but for the price they are okay and could very easily be improved.

I have quite a few guitars, including several Harley Bentons, which are all excellent. However, I find myself picking up and playing this kit guitar more than the others ever since I finished it.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!!!!

My kit came with routing issues

Good neck , good amount of features .

But my neck had routing issues that were pretty bad . QC failed me here and im gonna probably have to fix the body myself which is always annoying.

Overall the neck was perfect but the body left too much to be desired .

I got unlucky.

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 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.

good first instrument

better than average quality. would recommend

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..

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 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