Harley Benton TE-20 BK Standard Series 5-stars Reviews

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.

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.

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

Better than expected!

This arrived today and all I can say is...wow! For the price this guitar is amazing, it's easily on a par with my Squier tele.

Looks good, sounds good, perfect finish and no sharp frets. Good setup straight out of the box, just had to give it a quick retune and I was up and running.

Excellent value

I wanted a back up for my Fender Tele and having read some good reviews and seen some Youtube vids, decided to take the plunge with the TE-20.

The guitar looks the business and sounds very much like a Tele.

The pickups have their respective sounds down, although I will probably end up changing them.

The hardware is okay, but again it would be no problem to upgrade.

The frets are all level with no sharp overhangs.

In general, a very good Tele backup and well worth the very little money.

Pretty close to a genuine Telecaster

Five stars take into account the inexpensive price. It plays well, sounds as crystal clear as the real thing, it was well-packaged and there were no imperfections. If I had to nitpick for an objective review, minor issues were that (a) the bottom two strings did not line up with the pole pieces on the pickup, but were improved by adjusting the action and this did not affect the sound (b) the action was high on delivery, but has been adjusted satisfactorily without inducing buzzing and (c) using the free lead that came with the guitar, I was getting a lot of hum when the volume pot was at mid-range. However, the hum disappeared when I substituted a quality lead. Having made these minor adjustments, the guitar comes pretty close to a genuine Telecaster in looks, playability and quality. I especially appreciated that the fretboard was pretty smooth at the edges, the metal frets not protruding.

Nice even if you don't know the price

Before you run away with any ideas that this is going to be better than a true Fender, it's not. Is it going to be better than a Squier? That's a tougher question. It can't compete with a Classic Vibe for quality, that's for sure, but if you had a choice of the TE-20 and the Standard Telecaster or an Affinity - and you were paying for it yourself - the HB starts to look very attractive.

The TE-20 is a classic T guitar, with two single-coils and simple controls. The black finish is thick but smooth and it looks really nice, especially when you realise that the grubby look of the pick guard is caused by the double layer of polythene film that just needs peeling off.

The neck is a 'C' shape and nice to use. It's very slightly deeper than that of an Affinity, but it's good for beginners and more experienced players alike. The rosewood fingerboard is a little bit coarse but mostly it just needs some lemon oil to rub in. It's not as smooth as a Fender, but then if you are playing chords you won't notice. The fretwork on mine was good, with only a tiny bit of roughness on the edge of a couple of frets. I thought about getting a file out but didn't think it was worth the effort.

The tuners aren't the best. They do work, so if you are on a budget you don't have to replace them, but they are vague and don't have much feel to them. I' bought some OEM Wilkinson tuners (19 pounds and 20 minutes' work) to replace them and they made a world of difference. It's much easier to tune and you know that it's going to stay there - bum notes won't be the guitars fault!

I did replace the string trees with cheap roller guides (3 quid) but even that isn't necessary on a term-free guitar and they look out of place on a tele. The originals did look cheap though.

The strings were fine but you will probably want to replace them with branded items. The other hardware is fine. The pick ups work well and the PUP selector and the vol/tone controls work OK, while never feeling that nice.

The action was pretty good out-of-the-box. I lowered the action a bit at at the bridge and gave it a bit more neck relief, but it was always completely playable.

As for sounds, yes, it plays well. It sounds enough like a tele for most people and can be used to play most genres of music pretty well as the pickups seem to have plenty of 'go' in them. Most people won't gain an awful lot by upgrading them, and they are at least as good as the Squier Affinity at one third the price.

If you are a beginner, you can buy this safe in the knowledge that it will do everything you want a guitar to do, while risking very little cash.

If you are a bit more experienced and just have a bit of credit rattling around you PayPal account, this is a ridiculously good buy - good tone, nice feel and a good basis for modifications.

Seriously, I've had more expensive curries.

The best cheap guitar money can buy

Cheap, but very well made, the best cheap guitars on the market, very playable, sound is not bad at all, you just cannot go wrong with this and it looks cool too!

HB TE20

I needed a replacement Tele that wouldn't break the bank, having bought a couple of HB guitars already I know the quality, setup and sound is well above the price point and I wasnt wrong, great guitar plays well right out of the box and is being used in the studio as of this morning. Highly recommended.

Best value guitar on the planet, and possibly elsewhere,

This guitar is excellent value for money, it arrived well packaged, was well set-up and felt like a guitar in a completely different price bracket. The neck is typical Tele, the body finish is flawless, the hardware is good quality and most importantly the sound is great. The pickups, which I thought might have been the Achilles Heel of the guitar, performed well, punching well above their price bracket. The Achilles heel was the strings, which were binned and changed for Ernie's, but no great shakes there. I have 20 guitars in my collection, inc Gibson, Fenders, Charvel etc, but I like a well engineered cheap guitar, and this fits the bill. Recommended to all beginners, and intermediates. Semi-professionals and professionals will probably turn their noses up at this, but they won't know what they're missing......

Incredible for the money

An absolutely superb guitar for the money. The pickups sound great, the fret board is excellent and the finish is wonderful. Highly recommended for anyone looking for an inexpensive but great guitar to play.

An unexpected gem

I bought this guitar as I've always wanted to refinish a Tele in a Paisley finish like the old Fender 60's models. I initially planned to buy just a body, but after seeing lots of positive comments regarding Harley Benton guitars on the thefretboard.co.uk website, I decided to take the plunge on this model. I anticipated having to do a lot of work to get something that was playable. After all, it's only £48, how much can you expect for that kind of money?

The answer was "Quite a lot".

Out of the box this was very playable - I'd expected to have to do a full set up including fret dress and polish, but was surprised to find that they were fine... could do with a tiny polish, but nothing that couldn't wait. Overall finish was very good; no runs or blemishes on the paintwork, and the neck was comfortable with a smooth satin finish. Action was a little high, but 5 minutes with an allen key fixed that. Hardware is not branded, but seems comparable in quality to Wilkinson after-market parts that I recently fitted to another project guitar. I may replace the bridge, but only to get one with compensated saddles. Intonation was fine with the original, just want a little more accuracy.

I have three other Tele-style guitars (one Fender, the others copies) but this is my first with a top-loading as opposed to through-body stringing. To my surprise, it doesn't seem to make that much difference... it still sounds like a Tele with the necessary spank and twang on the bridge pickup, and a more mellow neck pickup.

I had a paying gig with my covers band the day after it arrived, and honestly would have been happy to take this out and play it in public without any further modifications... the only thing that stopped me was fear I might ding the finish and make my refinishing job harder.

So in conclusion - it's amazing what you can get in a guitar for so little money these days... if there had been this quality/cost of instrument available when I started leaning guitar 30 yrs ago, my first musical steps would have been a lot easier. Tempted to try one of their single cut models next, though I really should finish my Paisley Tele first!

Brilliant!

Bought this as a project guitar, and exceded expectations! Nothing needed to be changed on it, pickups for the price are brilliant, neck is warm and bold and the bridge is glassy and crystal clear with a real twang to it, in short, standard tele sound. The bridge and machine heads are very good quality. The only draw back was the neck needed to be adjusted slightly, it was far from unplayable straight out of the box but just to put it to my specifications really. I had already bought the replacement hardware for it so I decided to go ahead and change it and what a sound I can get out of it now, for £200 (guitar hardware and pickups) I now have a guitar that rivals any of the high end guitars I've player. I would recommend this guitar to anyone, no matter what your playing level.

A good guitar for the money.

The finish on the guitar was very good. The neck feels good and the sound according to me is as good as an affinity tele, just slightly different.

The guitar was not well set up so i did it myself. It was easy to do but one of the screws controlling the intonation broke when i was doing it. It is not a big thing to replace but it made the guitar seem a bit less sturdy.