Harley Benton TE-20 BK Standard Series 4-stars Reviews

Great for the price

After fret leveling and polishing, the guitar plays great, which is not a difficult task. The tuners are stiff, but they are able to tune the guitar going back and forth, and once in tune, they stay that way without any issues.

Made of fucking plastic

It sounds good but I accidentally dropped it from 2 inches ON A CARPET and the glass thing on it shattered

I am almost a total beginner, at least in the world of the electric guitar, so I wanted some starter pack to see where does it take me. So here we go.

The pack arrived fast enough, well packaged in pristine condition. Thumbs up here.

The guitar itself (the rest of the pack I will review elsewhere) was ok. The volume know was a little bent. I managed to straighten it with a little force. No major issue here, but not a great start.

The setup is a tad bit too high for me. especially the action on the first fret is high. It goes out of tune when pressed a bit harder.

The fretboard itself and the neck is really nice. probably the best part of the guitar.

Tuners are ok. It stays in tune so it works.

The intonation is good as well. Only the lower E is a bit sharper. But it is manageable. Considering it is a 3 saddle bridge it is actually good.

The sound is really nice (unplugged) and the cheap basic combo does not do any justice. There is some buzz, which is ok. and some scratchy sounds here and there which are hard to pinpoint. I wouldn't blame guitar but who knows.

Pickups are cheap as you would expect on the cheapest guitar out there. the bridge sounds nice though. The neck pickup is perhaps too quiet, I also notice the volume difference between the wound and plain strings. But I'm no expert here. Maybe this is completely normal however it bothers me a little. Especially on low volumes, I can't really hear the plain strings on neck pickup.

However, I really like the quaky sound of the bridge pickup. I think it sounds very nice.

All in all, I like the instrument. My only reservation is the high action on the first fret. I tried to take out the nut and lower it. But it seems to be glued or stuck there, so before I mess with it I'm actually considering returning it.

Set that apart it is really nice instrument especially for the price.

1st tele

thx 4 giving a reasonably priced way to try a tele

Great value guitar

I wanted to explore the world pf Telecasters. I ordered this guitar to see if it was for me. The quality of the guitar was above average. The guitar needed a setup, but it played great out of the box. Because of the guitar, I have ordered another Harley Benton ( HB-70RW Deluxe).

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.

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

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.

Great value for a beginner

I bought this as a gift for my nephew but checked it over when it arrived and could not believe the value for money. It was perfectly playable out of the box and the boy is progressing nicely with it. Incredible value

Great Guitar

Great overall guitar.

Pickups aren't bad but since the guitar is so cheap you can replace them easily.

Price to performance this product punches way above its weight.

For 79 Euro you get an easily playable beginner/Intermediate guitar.Very light and easily transported for buskers.

Pick guard feels a bit cheap but other than that a solid guitar and pick guard is easily replaceable.

intention was perfect on arrival.

No real complaints overall solid guitar.

Classic looks & good sound

This is not the first Benton tele I try and once again it's a good simple looking and good sounding guitar with a decent action/setup that you can easily customize and improve and comes with a small price. Of course you could change the ceramic single coils (especially the neck for me) and improve the sound but it already sounds pretty good as it is.

good guitar but needs help

this guitar is a great guitar, the strings that come with it need changing and the intonation and pickup levels need adjusting as with any new guitar but after that it is a fine guitar for beginners intermediate and professionals, sounds great clean, over driven or distorted really cant go wrong for under £90

Great for the money

This guitar plays as well as either of my two more expensive guitars.

The body finish is perfect, the frets even enough and I love the feel of the neck.

I could only fault the pickups really, but even then, on a £50 guitar I'm being picky.

As others have said, I really can't believe what you get for the money. I would recommend this guitar to any beginner and even to an intermediate player who just fancied something tele shaped.

Unbelievable.

This guitar cost less than £60.00, I bought it to modify it to a 70's Tele Special 'lookalike', it really does look the part and with a Wilkinson 'humbucker' at the neck, a Fender scratch plate and a 3 way toggle switch with witch hat volume and tone knobs it sounds pretty good as well.

Tele twang on a budget

If you're looking for a decent starter guitar that won't put you off playing for life, or a cheapo back-up, this is ideal

It's a classic, no frills design and HB have kept the iconic features, including the lipstick pick-up. As with all the HB guitars I've used, this is built well - hardware is solid and functional. The frets are nicely dressed and you certainly won't cut fingers to ribbons on any sharp edges. My only negative criticism is that the white, one ply scratch plate was poorly finished, with some little plastic "hairs" coming off the edges. Two minutes with a bit of fine sandpaper and that was rectified.

It's got a nice clangy twang when you plug it in...no one's going to be fooled into thinking it's a "real" Fender, but for a shade over £50, you really can't go wrong. I would imagine it could sound even better if you swapped out the pick-ups, but it doesn't sound too shabby as it is. Action was nice and low, with just a little buzz on the top 'E'. I raised the saddle a fraction and it was gone.

The great advantage of a guitar like this is that you haven't got to fight against a cheapo tremelo system to get it into tune - it's the ultimate, basic "beater" guitar. Sounds good, easy to play with a nice, skinny neck and decent construction.

Needed a complete set up

Out of the box the guitar was pretty unplayable. I lowered the action at the bridge end as much as I could and still had no luck. The intonation was pretty difficult to get right as well. I bought a wilkinson brass saddle bridge for £15 and decided to give that a go, what a difference it made! Some of the frets around the 12 the fret needed some attention.

Pickups obviously are not fender standard, but hold there own, and give some pretty authentic tele tones.

The tone pot is pretty unwresponsive but you can change those easily and cheap enough.

After all the tinkering which only actually took about an hour, the guitar is a pretty decent player. If anyone has any complaints about this guitar, just ask yourself what do you want for £50?! Brilliant base for modding, and is cheap enough to not worry about the consequences if it goes wrong. Now I just have to stop looking at all the impressive and cheap Harley Benton guitars.

Good for experimenting

My main guitar is set up for drop tuning so I bought this one to be able to fiddle around in standard tuning (and occasionally in Drop D). I would say it is perfect to be used as a backup guitar or for somebody just starting out.

It needs a set up for sure, as the action is pretty high and the intonation seems a bit off. The sound is alright, if somebody is quite anal about that then they could just change the pickups, that would improve it greatly.

It's really not as bad as some people says, but bear in mind that you probably would not be using this for studio recordings or world tours. Great for experimenting, backup or to practice on.