Harley Benton TE-40 TBK Deluxe Series 4-stars Reviews

TE-40 Great Bang for the buck

Comfortable to play love the neck but it is heavy great value I made many mods and would do it again.

For it's price totally worth it. Good: playability excellent, finish amazing, looks superb. Bad: Tuners suck, bridge pick up not the best.

Great Guitar for the Money

I was very surprised when I received this guitar. I own and have been playing Gibsons, Fenders, Kramer, Ibanez, Charvel, Shecter, and others for 30 years. This guitar needed substantial fret work to make it playable without buzz. I leveled, crowned, and dressed the frets on this guiitar and now it is perfect. A great value. Really great playing neck and pleasantly surprised by the clarity of the Roswell Alnico 5 Vintage pickups.

Harley Benton TE-40 TBK Deluxe Series review

Great cheap guitar.

I've used it as a backup for a lot of shows.

The bridge pickup has a strange placing, it's very far away from the bridge. I changed the bridge pickup with a brighter one and the sound improved drastically.

Great as a backup or just to use for different tunings.

Over all build quality is good. I had work on fret ends because they were sharp. Cheap tuner, but they keep guitar in tune. Neck profile and satin finish is really good.

For that price will be hard to get better guitar.

When you do some work on it yourself, it's a really good instrument...

But if you just leave it as it came home to you, you'll be sorely disappointed:

- It came with 0.10 D'addario strings, first three of which were rusty

- 6th string kept buzzing against the first fret, so truss rod and string height adjustments were necessary for 0.10 strings

- fretboard came with a lot of some whitey substance throughout it (possibly glue from those not-so-smooth frets), needed to clean it all up with rags, some wood cleaner and then with Lemon Oil)

- screws on 6.5mm jack needed tightening

- for thicker strings nut replacement seems very much necessary

That's about it for the bad stuff, now onto the good:

- tuning seems to be holding well

- pickups have a really great and punchy tone, even agressive if you want it to

- body is quite light and a bit thinner than I was expecting

- neck is smooth

- headstock, volume knobs, pickup switch, strap holders, body finish - these look, feel and are great just the way they are

So, how would I sum up my first electric guitar? After some of the work it plays fantastic, which is all I need as a beginner.

Excellent guitar for the price!

I needed a Tele sound for a couple of spots on an album and this guitar was perfect. I don't know how well it would hold up on the road, but for light studio use this guitar is an incredible bargain. The only downside is that it may require a setup when it arrives - the intonation of mine is lacking when playing up the fretboard.

Overall, much better quality than I had expected. I'll be holding on to it.

Just got the HB TE-40 for my friend, it's the first Harley Benton to pass by my hand. Here are some thoughts.

Pros

- Neck is comfortable, not as thin as Fender modern C, which is a plus.

- TOM Bridge is much more solid than I thought, saddle notches are the right size, contrary to some SC models I've seen.

- Tuners are much better than expected

- Humbuckers are very decent, but heavy distortion is not handled as well as the other sound types (very good for cleans and rock)

- Binding is quite nice and without blemishes

- Pots are very smooth and switch is solid

- Fretwork is unexpectedly good, leveled and rounded

- Nut is slotted perfectly and is the right height

Cons

- Came with some aesthetic defects:

Two black paint spots on the neck wood

One ding on the lower part of the guitar

Jack plate is not screwed all the way in

One pickup tape was ungluing

- Although frets are very well leveled and rounded, they need to be polished to allow for smooth bends

All in all, great for the price, easily worth 400eur if sold under known name brand. Had worse for that price!

Unbelievable for 129 euro

I will start off by saying what an amazing guitar this is!!!

I currently only have one guitar to compare it with which is a Yamaha pacifica 112V but that guitar costs twice as much as this one but I still prefer the Harley Benton. I haven't touched the Yamaha since my Harley Benton arrived!.

The finish is just beautiful, with the grain showing through the lacquer and I honestly couldn't find a single blemish or scratch. The Wilkinson pickups do a very good job and sound great through my THR10. Frets are very well made and the setup was very good out of the box, the action was very low and I still got no fret buzz. The only con I could find is that one of the tuners was not mounted perfectly straight, but for this price I don't even care.

I really do highly recommend this guitar and at this price I think it's a steal

Light, but no lightweight

This is the HB 'Super Tele' in the style of another manufacturer. Once again it played well from the off and a few tweaks later managed to be just how I liked it with no fret buzz or choking.

The big shock with this one is that the Basswood body is extremely light. It actually weighs less than the HB Semi version. In action this isn't such a problem, as the twin Wilkinson Humbuckers guarantee a full sound.

An obvious upgrade for this would be to invest in a solid wood body, but that's not really needed as this guitar is more than adequate as it comes. As a gig spare or as something different, it is unlikely to disappoint.

TE-40 TBK Deluxe series Tele.

A good guitar. It seemed to be well made, and the sound was good. I sold mine, as it wasn't for my taste.

Still would say that they are a very good guitar for the money.

Great quality guitar. Worth more than you pay for it.

As soon as I un boxed the guitar and picked it up, I knew that it felt more expensive than it actually is. The colour scheme is what attracted me to it first. It looks great. It sounds great. It is a perfect all round guitar. I was skeptical at first as I am predominantly a metal guitarist, but I was totally surprised by the tone from the Wilkinson pickups. Even put through a high saturated gain through an amp, the chords are still defined.

The clean tones that can be achieved from this guitar are honestly some of the best that I've ever heard. I can't wait to send it off for a full set up, as it will be replacing my second gig Guitar.

There don't seem to be any issues so far. I was concerned about the feel of the neck when I bought it. It is comparable to a mix of an Ibanez RG series neck and a fender squire neck.

I honestly don't know how they can sell a Guitar of this caliber at such a low, low price. But, I'm not complaining!

Incredible value for money

I purchased this for my son's first electric guitar. It was either this or a Squier. The Harley Benton had the unique look in the Telecaster model. This is my first HB purchase and I'm very happy with its price and quality.It's a little heavy, but built sturdy. The setup out of the box was pretty spot on. I just lower the bridge a touch to suit my taste. Neck is straight. Frets are level. Electronics are secure and clean. Sure it's not a Fender, but it is incredible value for money.

LOL cant believe it for the price

Got to say i was expecting the worst with this purchase, but i am actually very happy for the money. great build quality /finish, set up OK out of the box (but could def be improved) i purposely bought some Luther tools to sort out any ruff frets, but this guitar does not need it, really nice for the price, its not a fender, but the low price leaves you free to swap out the pickups and pots for your perfect choice.Great sustain, its not nasty plywood.

So i do intend to change the pick ups as the ones included are to muddy for me, but i am used to single coil anyway (fender strat) and i might even put a TronicalTune on, all for under £500

nice neck, nice finger board, nice body, only down side for me is the lack of fender micro tilt neck adjustment feature.

other than that you really cant go wrong for the money, its not a typical tele sound though due to the humbuckers

for the price,, probably one of the best you can get

I've bought couple of HB guitars for my band mates or me (in this price range or rather starting from this price)... just to check them out. For their price you can not go wrong...

This is by far the best of all other HBs. Fretwork was OK, electronics OK (on the 130 EUR LP for instance everything is horribly bad)

In the 100-120 EUR range this and a Jackson JS11 is the best choice...

Great looking guitar

I've purchased recently several Harley Benton guitars. They are amazing for the price, specially the vintage series. Sometimes they need some setup: adjust intonation, action, pickups... This one arrived perfectly out of the box. It plays and feels great. It is lightweight and very comfortable to play.

The finish is flawless, it looks amazing. The only downsize are the pickups, they are not too bad but they do sound noticeable worse than other HB guitars like the L-450PLUS or S-600 VI which are also more expensive. It takes very well heavy distortion and has a nice fat clean sound but it sound too flat and muddy in general but I can't complain for the price. Very happy with the purchase.

Harley Benton TE-40 TBK Deluxe review

I bought this guitar just to knock about on as it's so cheap, however, it's price doesn't mean it's bad. To start with it looks great all that black and gold looks cool. How the strings come through the body over the bridge is great, it adds to the look and is a bit different from most tele's. It's well made and doesn't feel like it only cost 80 odd quid. As for the sound, well, it definitely punches above it's weight. Most cheap guitars sound really tinny and you don't get much variation. However, and this may be due to the Wilkinson pickups, it sounds great. You can get that classic tele sound and also when put thru distortion it sounds really raunchy. Unlike a lot of teles, which don't handle high gain too well. Definite steal at this price and would recommend to beginners, people in grungy or indie bands and want something they don't have to be to priceless with. Great guitar!