Harley Benton TE-52 NA Vintage Series Reviews

Very good guitar - great tone and sustain

I am over-the-moon with this guitar - it sounds and plays great.

Pros: Beautiful ash woodgrain. Long resonant sustain-plucking the A string on the 12th fret, unplugged can still be heard after 13 seconds.

Solid build. Good natural tone plugged in and unplugged. Satin finish on the neck feels great and the fret ends are nicely cut - no scratches. Frets were level with no deadspots. Stays in tune even after an hour of hard playing.

Cons: Frets were a bit rough when bending notes. After some playing they became smoother and after a fret polish it is now very smooth.

The guitar has a great foundation - neck, solid build, tone and sustain, and tuning stability. With a fret polish, this guitar now hangs with the high end guitars.

My opinion - Harley Benton TE-52 NA

I was pleasantly surprised at how great this guitar looked. The paintwork surface is very high quality. The guitar itself is pleasantly in the hands. Heavy enough. It can be seen that the guitar is not made of plywood but has honest three pieces of wood. By sound, there is an inherent nasal for Telecast. There are minor flaws, such as rough frets. But this is fixable. I gave the guitar to the master to tune.

I advise everyone to take this and other Harley Benton guitars. For such a price, you can forgive all the minor flaws. Overall a very beautiful tool.

Stunning guitar but with a couple of teething problems

I've had the TE-52NA for several months now, using it regularly for recording rhythm parts. It is a great guitar and outstanding value.

First of all the bad points...

When the guitar arrived it was difficult to bend strings due to the roughness of the frets. When I removed the strings three of the ferrules fell out of the back. However these were easily glued back in place. It was a bit of a pain masking off the fretboard for polishing the frets but the actual polish was done quickly and easily.

It's all good from here...

Once restrung I plugged it in and it played like a dream, no problem at all with the frets. The guitar was very well set up with a nice low action. Playability gets 5 stars. The Roswell pickups sound superb. The bridge pickup provides that classic T-type bright, biting twang and the neck pickup is lovely and warm. 5 stars for the pickups. The tuners are OKish but once tuned the guitar stays in tune. I haven't weighed the guitar but it is a heavy beast, as heavy as my Gibson Les Paul.

I have owned two Fender Telecasters in the past and this Harley Benton is just as good. The TE-52 plays great and sounds great and at this crazy price I have no hesitation in recommending it. Superb guitar!

For the money, it can't be beaten

This is a great guitar for the money.

The wood grain and bookmatching of the two pieces was excellent. I would've preferred as a gloss neck and fretboard for that classic feel but that's a personal preference. Holds tune and intonation well. I did switch out the pickups but to be honest the originals were absolutely fine. It sounded great straight out of the box.

You could use this as a cheap project to learn the basics of pickup changes, wiring upgrades etc or you can leave it as it is and you're still on to a winner.

No issues with shipping or damage or anything.

All in all, a fantastic shopping experience and a bargain product.

Nice sound, fine quality, looks like Fender Tele. I love it.

Great value!

Big bang for the buck! Solid build quality,Body and neck are decent.

Certainly not high quality hardware and electronics at this price point.I plan to slowly upgrade pickups , tuners, bridge, etc.Then again, maybe not! I am no expert by any means, but I love mine!

cons:heavy guitar for sure

overall, I believe a great value!

Great "T" style choice

Guitar get's 10's on everything except the nut. The nut slots were not spaced/cut properly and the high E was almost off the board. It was an easy fix with a new Tusq nut.

It's a bit heavy, but the tone is what you'd expect from a "T" type!

Just Awesome!

I've always liked 50's Telecasters, and after seeing the "In The Blues" review, wanted one of these. I like the thicker necks, and even though I love my Classic Vibe, the thinner neck is the only thing that disappoints me with that guitar. Shane and many reviewers here said that this one had a nice thick neck feel.

This one arrived faster than expected, and upon opening, it struck me as beautiful. The 3-piece body on mine is matched nicely. Man, is this thing heavy, though. 10-1/2 pounds on the scale. Make sure you have a nice wide and padded strap. The weight is all in the body, and it sits perfect while strapped.

First thing I did was feel the neck for thickness, and, unfortunately, this one doesn't feel as thick as I was expecting. It is a little thicker than my Classic Vibe, but not by much. It does have a very nice satin finish on it, that is very slick while playing, and the fret ends are not sharp (not yet anyway), although the bevel put on them is very shallow and further into the fretboard than I would like. Like other reviews have said, the frets themselves are rough, but I think that's just some of the finish from the neck. A few minutes with a fret eraser (or micromesh, or steel wool, etc.) takes care of that. I had to loosen the truss rod a bit to get a little relief in the neck for no fret buzz. the dual action truss rod worked well.

The hardware is not bad at all. The nickle-plated tuners are the vintage style, and work well. 2 were tight, but loosened after turning a few times. The bridge is decent, and I don't mind the 3-saddle. I had no problem with intonating the strings, and didn't have to touch the saddles to set the height yet. One nit-pick I have is that I wish the string ferrules had been recessed in to the back of the body, but they are straight and that is only a preference of mine.

All electronics work as they should, and although I haven't pulled the control plate yet, I know that the switch is one of the cheap pcb-type. It works well, but feels weak. The pickups are ok. The bridge pickup is the better of the 2, and is nice and bright. The tone pot takes care of any shrillness that some may experience. The neck pickup is kind of dark and muddy to me, but that's not my preferred sound. Both pickups are not microphonic, which is great. They take gain well and no squealing.

Just to summarize:

PROS:

Looks great

The neck feels great

No high/low frets and ends are not sharp (again, yet)

Everything works as it should with minimal setup (quality is good)

Price!!!

CONS:

Very heavy body

Neck pickup is dark and muddy

I'm very happy to have this one in my arsenal, and would recommend the TE-52 NA to anyone looking for a Telecaster-style guitar.

Was heavy as hell

I loved this guitar so much, the sound, the look of it, the feeling... But mine was way too heavy for my standards.

Ended selling it for what it cost me to a guy who loved it.

The neck is chunky and unfinished, and I'd probable end changing the pickups for something a bit more close to the 50 ones, but hey, is a cheap axe that plays and looks amazing, and probably my superheavy one was just a rarity.

This one made me sell 2 of my Fender Telecasters

I bought this guitar after hearing so much about Harley Benton guitars. It seemed like all the reviews were almost too god to be true so I had to check it out myself and ordered a Harley Benton TE-52 NA Vintage. My rating of this guitar is done considering the overall quality of the guitar related to the cost of it (value for the money).

My first impression unboxing the Harley Benton TE-52 NA Vintage was very good. I started by lifting it out of the box and noticed it is quite heavy to be a tele style guitar. I did not check the weight of the guitar on a scale, but compared with Fender Teles in my hands this one is quite a bit heavier.

The neck of this guitar is pretty thick with a c profile. I love the guitar necks of the 50's (baseball bats) and I will say that this one is close to that size. The neck is actually very similar to the Fender Baja Telecaster. The neck has a satin finish that makes it less sticky and it just feels great in my hands. The finish of this guitar was really perfect and in my opinion the natural looks better than Fenders butterscotch blonde. It was set up perfect right out of the box so I tuned it and plugged it in.

The sound of this one really impressed me. I have always liked the tele sound and this one give me a even more twangy sound than my other t-style guitars. I usually play this guitar with a clean tube amp and various effects from a Boss ME-80. I am able to dial in all the different sounds I want that way. I love the sounds I can get from this guitar both clean and with effects. After a few weeks I noticed that the output jack was coming loose. I just tightened the nut on it and after that it has been fine. The guitar plays really great and even unplugged this one really sings.

Pros:

Perfect finish

Great playability and sounds

Satin neck

Great sustain and sounds good even unplugged

Actually everything

Cons:

A bit heavy for a T-style guitar.

Loose output jack, but it takes 2 minutes to fix it.

As a wrap up I will say that this guitar is really fantastic. I Had to make some choices a few months ago because of lack of space for more guitars. I decided to keep my american teles, but among the 3 non american I would keep one. The guitars were the Harley Benton TE-52, a Fender Baja Telecaster and a Fender Player Telecaster. I spent several hours over 2 week period and the first one to be sold was the Fender Player. After lots of head to head testing and even recording of the Baja and the TE-52. I ended up keeping the Harley Benton TE-52. This Harley Benton actually made me sell 2 of my Fender Telecasters.

Would I recommend this guitar? Absolutely.

Would I buy it again? YESSSS!

Fret ends need some work, but great vintage pickups.

I am adding some more words after playing this guitar for a year. This guitar is awesome, sounding even better than 10 times more expensive Fender. It needed some minor upgrades, now I play my gigs on this guitar and the sound is vintage and great.

HB Vintage 52

Bought in 2019. This is a fine guitar with epic sound,, over all well finished. there are a few details to be sorted out but that's true of all guitars regardless of price. a quick and cheap bit of work by a luthier will turn this into an epic guitar. Roswell pickups are the real star here! i'm an experienced player who has owned Squire, Fender, Kramer, Taylor, Yahama over the years and countless others. BUY THIS MACHINE, it kills.

Really cool right out of the box but get a proper setup done anyway.

just perfect

purchased te 52 guitar absolutely superb build quality play ability at unbelievable price top quality hardware and pickups I could talk about these guitars all day and all there others fantastic. and excellent customer service. that good ive ordered the dlx strat now

still good value

high E string tuner was a bit faulty and at certain position makes a buzzing noise when the open string vibrates. Sides of a fretboard also look as if they were polished together with the frets

Can't be beaten for the price

I was a little sceptical as some have stated that his Tele may not be the best guitar for its price but I was proven wrong! It arrived pretty quick and in good condition. Immediately, I changed the strings etc on it and checked all of the action and frets which are pretty spot on. It does need a change of tuners because they stick a little but thats to be expected on a lower level price point. Overall very happy.

Quality plus

Excellent quality at any price.

Excellent Guitar

I was expecting a cheap Chinese made guitar, but I was also hoping to get something good based on all the reviews on YouTube. And so it was, it is a Chinese made guitar but an awesome one. It doesn't feel like a cheap guitar at all and the tonal quality is amazing. I was personally looking for a guitar that I can buy and upgrade to my taste and Telecasters are known for this. I can't see much of a reason to replace any of the pickups or any hardware at this stage, but certainly, there's a lot of versatility in this guitar. Plugged into a Marshall JTM45 and it brings that vintage sound and am loving it. I am very happy that I purchased this item and will recommend it to anyone.

Harley Benton TE-52 NA Vintage Serie

I cannot say enough about how good this is for the price add another £150 to it and thats what you would expect to pay. Playable out of the box well finished body and neck although frets need some work,machine heads good stays in tune and the sound is just like a telecaster, the pickups are Roswell and work well. All in all very happy with purchase. I will change out bridge to brass saddles as I know this improves the tele ring. Thanks

NIce one

This is a totally good guitar for its worth.

Overall rating

I just received the guitar, and my first impression was in awe, it looked beautiful and I would have no problem using it on stage.I tuned it and played it immediately, I was very impressed with the tone. I'm a weekend giger and play mostly jazzy blues, but we do play a few rocky tunes, I normally play a Nashville Gretech, so adding the te-52 to my tool box I feel that I've added a new and exciting sound to our band , thx Mann you guys are making a very good name for yourselves, keep uo the good work.