Harley Benton TE-40 TBK Deluxe Series Reviews

Great guitar for starting out.

Bought this guitar thinking it wouldn't be good at all. But I was pleasantly surprised by the build quality and sound of this guitar.

It looks lovely too. The Wilkinson pups are nice and sparkly.

And the neck is nice and smooth.

For the price, it's a really good guitar.

beautiful twist on the Tele

Beautiful looking guitar

Excellent finish

High quality D'Addario strings - a personal favourite

Sounds great, nice twist on the Tele style guitar

Thinner and more streamlined than my other tele-style guitar, lighter also.

Nice sustain

Fretboard a bit dry, will sort that easily when I do my first string replacement

Very happy overall

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 guitar, Great look, Great buy..

Just recieved this along with my HB ST62 and must admit I'm really impressed with both. A fantastic buy at under £240.

Not much to say really but WOW what a good looked in real life, better than pictures by a long way.

Everything about it is fab not a bad word against it. (The tonal range is not as good as the ST, but that's understandable). In fact, if your after two guitars, these are the babies, forget the L.P. and be a bit different, even for a pro, a pickup change to your desired choice and you have it, all for not much ££, ¤¤, $$. Really, (in my opinion only) the days of having to spend 1k plus to get a really good guitar/sound is way gone.

For the adventurous out there and with the gift of YouTube there's no need.

Cons - nothing

Pros- everything.

Just buy it....see for yourself.

bang for the buck

I feel like I should give two separate notes - firstly in terms of value for money and secondly - ultimately as a guitar. This guitar definitely excels in the former not necessarily the latter. So I'm giving it max in total , because it's a very good value, but only 3 in quality, because after all - it's £100 range guitar and has it's flaws.

The guitar came approximately set up. It was playable out of the box, but in order to reach it's full potential it required intonation correction and slight action regulation.

Pros:

1) Build quality & finishing - basically 3 times more expensive guitars are often made worse. Slim and comfortable to play neck & head, well finished body.

2) Wilkinson pickups are surprisingly good. The guitar sounds really nice.

3) Electric work is done properly, good screening, no humming, switch and knobs work just fine.

Cons:

1) Actions is a bit higher than I'd like. Can't really lower it without experiencing fret buzzing.

2) There's something fishy about the bridge, I'm really unsure how it's suppose to keep firmly saddles with set intonation in place, at least one (supporting G-string )is ever slightly moving after longer playing which is a bit irritating. My other Harley Benton (SC-550) has tune-o-matic with some sort of a gill to keep saddle screws in place.

Overall it's a decent guitar and I'm genuinely surprised you can buy a guitar for this money with such playability factor.

Beautiful guitar

The guitar is striking with the translucent black finish. The overall construction and finish is excellent. I did have to level the frets above the 12th fret and the nut slots were filed a tad too high resulting in slightly sharp notes in the 1st and 2nd fret area (open chords had some dissonance). Once I leveled the frets, deepened the slots and did a setup she was ready to roll. The Wilkinson humbuckers sound very good and the tuners are smooth and tight.The guitar is also very light with a low profile body. For the money this guitar cannot be touched.

Best bang for the buck!

I am a guitar pickup maker and needed a guitar to do pickups testing.

Pros:

+ The quality is very good considering its low price tag.

+ Fret job is done nicely, no sharp edges or uneven frets.

+ Finishing is quite pretty.

Cons:

- No logo emboss/etch on its neck plate (not a big deal actually).

- Wilkinson pickups are decent but you can always upgrade them.

- Just needed to lower the bridge a bit and it's all good.

I mess around with guitar for living. I know good stuff when I see one and this is it, the best cheap guitar i'd ever have!

Great tele for a great price

First off this guitar plays great and looks like it cost 5 times what I paid for it. Intonation was a bit off, requiring a few truss rod adjustments and bridge tweaks. Frets are smooth and the neck plays really nice. Comparable to my Fender MIM telecaster. Pickups are a little lacking, but I planned on swapping those anyways.

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!

TE-40

You just can't go wrong with HB guitars within this price range. Mine had OK setup right out of the box and D'Addario string set is a nice bonus. Neck feels really smooth, the pickups produce good fat tone with low noise, they've got pretty high gain, I don't even have to turn Hi-Z mode in my interface on. In conclusion, a friend of mine already wants to sell his DLX American Strat and get a HB one.

From Russia with love =)

Fantastic!

A Tele shaped guitar with Wilkinson humbuchers, what's not to like!

No setup out of the box it sounds and plays great, I will tweak it a little, but that's just me.

Great neck, smooth fret ends and good finish, feels 5x the price.

Basswood body and maple neck ring great unplugged, and, for you people that sneer at basswood, Musicman guitars use basswood and you pay 10x the price for them.

Looks great, plays great and sounds great, therefore value for the money it's off the spectrum!!

You can't go wrong with this guitar

This guitar did not meet my expectations, it exceeded them by some distance. In the photo's it looked nice, but in the flesh it really is a fantastic looking guitar. Once again HB have delivered a product that bears little relationship to its price point. Sure, some of the components are not top of the line, but more than adequate for the job. Out of the box the guitar was in tune, action set up was great. I had to adjust the intonation on the 2nd and 4th strings, but the rest were in good shape. No sharp fret ends, the neck relief fine. There's a slight mark (indentation) on the fretboard around the 19th/21st frets, but otherwise no problems. From the first moment I strummed the guitar, unplugged, it sounded good acoustically helped no doubt by the thru body strings. The sustain is great. Plugged in it can sound really dirty and nasty or clean. It's getting most of my playing time currently. Really pleased with this purchase.

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.

How do they do it..!!!

Another great priced addition to a studio inviroment... This great looking Tele style guitar sits and sounds well with the real thing..!! We have many guitars in the studio and this one is picked up the most for its looks... AAA

Unbelievable

Was looking for a nice Tele style guitar, and this Harley Benton deluxe is the business.

Unbelievable quality for the price, after a quick setup and tune this baby just rocked, great selection of tones, very hard to find faults, looks stunning plays very well. You can go far wrong.

Great For Rock

Had this a while now and can still not believe the value. It is a very usable guitar for almost a toy price.

Finish is perfect and it looks very good.

Set up is just about perfect for me. I have been playing about 45 years now (although I'm still rubbish) and do all work including re fretting myself but I have not yet made any adjustments to this guitar. I do not remember buying a new guitar, including Fenders, from a bulk internet supplier and not having to do something to it pretty much straight away.

Machine heads are good and hold tune well.

The pickups are really good for use with overdrive pedals at domestic volume levels. You can get a really good rock/crunchy blues tone. The downside of this is the clean tone is a bit muddy, not terrible by any means but not as impressive.

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

I ordered this guitar as a xmas gift so I haven't had much of a play with it.

I am a beginner learning to play using rocksmith. I Tested this out and it worked perfectly.

I have also taken the guitar to someone else that plays and let them test it through a fender amp.

The guitar sounded very good , nice and crisp but heavy when you want it.

The overall set up of the guitar was good it didn't seem like anything needed altering.

The paint finish is beautiful, very shiny black but in the right light you can see the wood grain through the finish. Although it does show up fingerprints badly.

The knobs and switches feel satisfactory, Could be better but could be a lot worse.

All in all I feel the guitar is very good, not just for the price but good full stop.

It feels just as good as my charvel Sk-3, and Ibanez RG321 That cost a lot more than this one.

MIght look at getting one of these in the future to add to my others.

A no brainer

I really fancied one of these as cheap G&L ASAT Classic substitute .I already knew Harley Benton make great guitars for the price but this one really does rock .Light weight which is important to me the whole guitar handles and balances well .The neck is very good with Fender quality contouring on the head stock heel ,a good sign some actually cares about the product .Body is contoured and smooth .One odd thing though .The heel pocket is not as deep as Fender which raises to the fret board about 3mm higher than usual .It looks odd at first but as it still plays sweetly its no issue .The neck looks standard 22 fret F spec and is a very good item ,probably worth the whole price of the guitar .Nice board radius and fret ends were good not sharp .

Soundwise it really hits the spot for me .I am not a humbucker expert but it does the hot blues ,hot rock ,quiet jazz ,rocking rhythm and a good sharp country sound with ease .The minipots are 500K which is a plus as so many cheaper HH guitars come with 250K pots .The humbuckers are four wire so coil splitting will be an easy mod .

and at its price this guitar is just a no brainer and would still be at twice the price .I play through a Yamaha THR 10C and a Ibanez TSR5 with an Eminnence 108 speaker fitted.Sometimes I also run the TSA5 through a 4X10 cab at jam sessions .