Harley Benton TE-20 BK Standard Series Reviews

Boom!!

I thought I made a mistake of buying it coz the strings weren't that good. But you replaced the stock strings, you will know the guitar was really made well.

Surprisingly well built for low price

I bought this guitar to play indie style music but didn't have too much money. I'll say straight off the bat, its great for the money. The pickups sound great, particularly the neck position and will provide sounds that'll cover rock, indie, pop, funk and ambient. For obvious reasons, this guitar isn't designed for heavier music so hard rock, metal and beyond isn't really achievable with the lower output pickups which comes from the guitar's classic design and specs. However, for cleaner genres, the guitar works significantly well.

Pros:

- Neck feels smooth, no chippings.

- No issues with finish.

- Frets and fret board feel great.

Cons:

- Can sometimes wave in and out of tune (bear in mind that I pick hard which may contribute to this issue).

- Toggle switch has been bent (presumably during shipping).

Decent guitar;

Only negatives are its a little heavy and had 3 slightly high frets but easy enough to fix.

Such a good guitar

When I made the decision to purchase this guitar I was very hesitant about the quality and sound at such a low price. I pulled the trigger and wow, glad I did. The quality was so good out of the box I was blown away. Not a blemish anywhere on the guitar. The neck felt good, the weight was right for me and the overall feel was very good. Plugged in was the highlight for me. While no fender in sound, the pickups were so good I will not be changing them out. I can achieve any sound I want with tweaks to the volume,tone and amp here and there. It has the twang of a tele as with the looks.

I have changed the strings to Ernie ball 10s and levelled up a few frets and that's it. I don't feel I need to go any further.

All in all a great guitar for the budget conscious or regular noodler like myself.

I intend to buy another to see if I jagged a good one or not.

My recommendation is to buy it buy it

Great sound, great workmanship

For the money, you can't beat this guitar! While the fretboard was incredibly dry (to be expected), the rest of the guitar feels and plays so smoothly. One of the best features on this guitar is the capped frets! At this price point, I can't think of another manufacturer that caps them. The tone on this can't be beat. I has all the biting twang you could want from a TE copy!

Good Tele

Plays and sounds nice.

Good value Tele

Great Tele for the price. I put Wilkinson style tilted brass saddles to make the intonation better.

Great quality guitar

Very pleased with the guitar. Well packaged, quickly delivered, no faults or damage. Neck very well finished, body routing very clean, electrics tidy and reasonable quality. Light and easy to play. At this price these are really great guitars for beginners to intermediate. I preferred a black pickguard so purchased a generic replacement and fitted this. Nice guitar to keep knocking around the lounge for whenever you fancy a play.

Highly recommend. I also have the TE-30 and the TE-52. All of these are likewise excellent.

Phenomenal!

A lot of people refer to these guitars as ?really good for the price.? They would be really good for a much higher price. At these prices, they are phenomenal. My only regret is that they are coming out with one in metallic blue, and I?m going to wish I had bought that one instead. Especially if you?re just starting out, don?t waste money on a high end guitar - buy one of these and enjoy!

Pros:

Excellent tone and sustain.

Characteristic twangy sound.

Well built.

Amazing value!

Cons:

I had to file the fret ends a little.

The tuning machines aren?t great (because great tuning machines cost as much as the guitar does).

Absolutely amazing sounds & quality

One of the cleanest sounding guitars I have owned.

Very pleasant to play as the neck feels Satin

Accurate tuning, never loses it's tune.

First guitar and very satisfied

As the title says, this is my first guitar and the guitar I'm currently learning on.

Especially for the price, it sounds good, didn't require a whole lot of work to make sound good, and is easy to play. It's resonant without an amp. Friends in the know say that it's of better quality and sounds better than other guitars that they have bought for a higher price.

However, it does need a restring and the nut on mine wasn't the best. Those are very minor complaints though.

100% would recommend the guitar to someone else learning to play. Can't go wrong with it really.

very nice

very nice guitar will buy again and would recommend

Best 80? ever spent on a guitar

This is probably my favorite guitar, out of around 20. (none of them very expensive, obviously). But the Tele shape, the weight, the neck and even the sound has become a standard for me. Great buy!!!!

TE 20

Wow this was setup better than my squire tele

sounds great only thing I may change are the tuners but they work ok. but this was the cheapest. I am very happy with this guitar.

Amazing guitar for the price

It is fantastic how cheap does not mean unplayable anymore. For almost the price of a dinner you get a perfectly playable instrument to learn, tweak around or have a spare replacement guitar (I have it as a replacement for my danelectro and for alternate tunings and mods). The quality of the bridge is not so good (mine rattles a bit) and the lower E string might not be really well sitted on the slot (makes strange buzzing noises that are not very loud). Overall I advice every person to own one of these.

great guitar for the price

looks good -realy cheap price

sound pretty good the bridge pickup is better than the neck

comfortable for playing

i did set it up for my taste

less good things:

sharp edge frets -didn't cut my finger but was not made good enough

fixed it my self

Superb guitar for the money

I bought this guitar so I had something cheap to play that was in E standard (my other guitars are in C or B standard, as that's what I usually play/write in.) I only wanted something cheap that I could pick up and mess around with when I wanted to play in E.

As such I opted for a cheap guitar in a shape I?d always wanted, hence me plumping for the HB TE-20. I knew that I wasn?t going to be getting the best guitar in the world but I have been blown away by the quality and playability of the instrument for the price paid.

The craftsmanship, build quality and finish are perfect on my model (I?m aware that this might not be the same for everyone and your mileage may vary!) I was fully prepared for there to be some imperfections but thus far I haven?t found any.

PROS:

? PRICE! Seriously, for this price simply getting a usable, working instrument is amazing!

? Build quality. Aside from the standard need to intonate, adjust string height to suit my taste and so on, this was perfectly playable and comfortable straight out of the box after it was tuned. No sharp fret ends either!

? Tuning stability. I?ve had no issues with tuning stability, which was one of the things I was mostly concerned with prior to purchase.

? This is the perfect platform to upgrade, play around and tinker to your heart?s content.

CONS: (I feel a bit harsh listing the below as cons as, at this price, the ?issues? are all to be expected)

? Pickups. Although there?s nothing wrong with them, they are definitely an area where money has been saved. They actually provide a rather satisfying single coil bark when a bit of gain is put on.

? Tuners. Although there hasn?t been any real tuning stability issues so far, the G string peg is a little temperamental. It has the habit (that all cheap tuners seem to have) where you?ll turn it and there?ll be no change in pitch until you hit a certain spot, the string will have a little ?twang? and it will drop / raise in pitch

? Bridge. The height adjustment ?screws? on the individual saddles are a bit rough, meaning when resting my palm across them when muting resulted in a bit of discomfort. This was easily remedied by simply lightly filing and then sanding the tops to smooth and round them off.

I now plan on using this guitar as a platform for upgrades and to tinker around with. At the price I paid I?m not concerned or worried about the possibility of slightly messing anything up or learning with it. I plan on upgrading things like the bridge for a 6 saddle once, the pickups for higher outputs (possibly a hotrail in the bridge), locking tuners, new black scratch plate and I think I?ll also sand the headstock and paint black to go for an all-black finish.

I?m immensely happy with the guitar I bought and using it as a modding platform going forward.

Can't be any good for under £70

Think again!

Bought just to see the difference between this and a £150 guitar. If you know how to setup a guitar then 30 mins of your time turns it into a £150+ guitar.

Truss rod needed 1/2 turn to put a slight forward bow on the neck. This also got rid of the fret buss and allowed the action to be lowered to an acceptable level.

Pickups are ok and bright.

Finish is very good.

Nut seems to be plastic but works fine although need filing down slightly, or replacing.

The neck is an absolute joy to play. It's smooth and just seems to fit my hand perfectly.

You can sit this on your leg with no neck dive, perfectly balanced.

Anyone who does not own a TE style HB, seriously get one. Bang for Buck you wont get better.

I am so surprised how good this guitar is.

Cheap but good quality telecaster

For the price paid this is an excellent product. It plays well straight out of the box.

My first Tele.......................

As this is my very first Tele, I opted for the basic HB TE-20 and it is a fine guitar, no, a great guitar for ¤66. It has the classic tele sound and is very playable right out the box, The build quality is just fine, I am very happy and will upgrade to a higher level soon. the hardware is a little so,so but that I can live with for now. This is my fourth HB and more to come.

Marvelous guitar for young and old beginners for sure. Stop talking, get one and play!!!! Feels marvelous under the hand!!

Jan Strydom

Tel Aviv