Harley Benton TE-52 NA Vintage Series 4-stars Reviews

Surprised how good the quality is for the money.

I bought this guitar as a birthday present for my father. He's a bass player so I purchased this guitar for him as the price range is reasonable enough and the Harley Benton reputation is one that reflects value for money which is definitely fair to say. I was astonished to find that the fit and finish of the instrument is flawless. I plugged it into my Marshall DSL40c and the tone was far better than I anticipated, harmonics seem to easily scream from it which I did not expect at all. The neck has a comfortable, thick C shape reminiscent of a 50's tele and the pickups have a decent voice for the price. The only downside for me is that it's a bit heavy in terms of weight but its a big slab of ash so it's to be expected I suppose. I cant state enough how much of a bargain this guitar is. Very impressed.

Magic Affordable Telecaster

Guys, I bought this guitar in addition to the one I already own. I have a Kramer Striker and wanted another guitar with singles.

I really liked the clear sound of the telecaster. Very intense. With overdrive, it sounds good, with a classic germanium fuzz, the sound just blew your brains out. With distortion, the sound turned out to be a little simpler, but here, probably, you need to choose a different distortion. For the price, this guitar is just a gift.

What a value!

Pros: Build quality, sound, action.

Cons: Heavy. A little too heavy for my liking.

Good guitar

Very beautiful guitar with nice sound. Fret edges was too sharp, but I fixed that. There was a little fret buzz on third string but after good set up everything's OK now. My recommendation is QC improvement.

Excellent price/quality!

Bought this after seeing several reviews on Youtube an I never owned a Tele before. I have to say I absolutely love it! A lot of guitar for the price... Limited features, but hey, it's a Tele, it's supposed to be basic! Great sound, the Roswell pickups really stand out. I upgraded the saddles and the nut, but I'm leaving the rest as it is. Great guitar!

Excellent mod platform

Yes, it feels like a more expensive guitar. Fret job was a bit rough, but is fixable. looks great, feels solid. Neck is a bit slim for me for a tele, but nice and comfortable. Pickups are weak, the only mod I will do to this guy.

Very Good T Style Guitar at a Great Price

Overall I am very satisfied with my TE-52. It looks great, plays great, and sounds great. I only had two minor issues with it.

Issue 1 is a very minor issue. It needed a little setup. But, that is to be expected. It was more a matter of personal preference than playability. For most people, the setup right out of the box would have been fine.

Issue 2 was not major either, but it drove me crazy. When playing with higher gain you can hear a ringing noise after you blunt the strings. If you listen closely, you can actually hear it on the Rock Audio Example on the TE-52's page. Luckily, my son is an aspiring luthier and easily replaced the springs on the pickup adjustment screws with bits of tubing (either nylon or silicone, I don't remember). That solved the problem. It did alter the tone ever so slightly, but the ringing is gone and the bridge pickup still twangs nicely with a little overdrive and snarls angrily with a little more distortion.

I am enjoying this guitar.

Happy with my TE-52

So, first new e-guitar purchase for me since my Peavey T-60 in 1979. I wanted something different and decided on the Tele style with single-coils. I mainly just entertain myself but also play e-guitar in church band. Definitely an acoustic guy playing and electric.

Overall, I am happy with the purchase. It arrived in Virginia Beach from Germany really fast - shipped Monday and arrived Wednesday. It was very well packed. Fit and finish is excellent. The neck is nice. The pickups and controls are good. I like the way it sounds - 3 distinctive tones from the three settings. Volume and tone knobs are solid and provide good adjustments. I've been making some GarageBand recordings that sound really pretty good.

I think the finish on the body is a little glossy for my taste but nothing I would change. It is a heavy guitar but not quite as heavy as my peavey. Beefy neck but I like it.

The tuning machines were rather poor quality - very loose and didn't grab right away. I replaced these with an inexpensive set which is much better. The nut was not good - third fret up on the lower strings were out of tune. With a new nut, string trees and tuners (~$40) I'm good to go. Would buy it again.

i didnt need to consider a u.s. brand anymore

i had a couple different options from the big f, but i needed an ash body, classic bridge, classic tuners, butterscotch finish and i cost down. This one takes the cake. I already modified mine to have the classic brass saddles. everything looks great.

So the only thing i dont like is the pickups, they sound clean but lack the punch i was looking for its great for rock and all. i will change it. Also the weight its a tad heavy not because its ash but maybe just a different type of ash used. Total score was 4 because the shipping cost is a bit more expensive now due to ups services. It did arrive faster than a guitar i ordered a month before this one.

Nice telecaster

A very good guitar with a nice sound, a bit heavy but it's ok. Some small imperfections.

For the price I would totally recommend it!

Incredible guitar regardless of price

I ordered this TE-52 and two other Harley Bentons. I had watched many reviews online about these guitars and thought i would give them a shot. Due to the Covid 19 outbreak it took forever to get here but they finally arrived today. I couldn't believe my eyes when I unboxed this guitar. The fit and finish are flawless. The chunky satin neck feels awesome in my hands. I expected the weakness of this guitar would be the pickups. But not the case at all. It sounds amazing! Just like a Tele should. I can's be happier with my purchase. Easily smokes any Squier I have owned, and it's not even close. A quick tune and a minor tweak to the high E string and this thing is good to go.

AMAZED!

very good guitar for the price

For the price, the sound is very good. I am blown away.

Overall great. minor finish issues.

I got this guitar because I needed a tele but I didn't have alot of money. this guitar is amazing it sounds very good. there's a guitar store I go to monthly and every time I go I play the fender player telecaster and tbh this sounds just as good! there are some small finish issues next to the bridge and one of the tuners appears to be scratched but everything else is good!

Harley Benton TE-52 NA Vintage Series

For the price this was a well put together guitar which sounded good. Mine needed some fret level & crowning work plus a good setup though. I didn't keep it for long because I didn't like the feel of the neck on it. Nothing wrong with it, but just too fat & chunky for me personally.

Excellent guitar for the price .

3piece body is ... .

For the price, the sound and looks are fine. Very good. However, you might want to think about how to connect the wood grain of the three-piece body. The wood grain is oriented differently at the edges, which spoils the appearance of the product.

Great quality and price

The guitar looks like an instrument way above its price point with a high gloss body and satin comfortable neck. Strings are ok but i changed them to 10's and lowered the action as was although totally playable, much better when lowered. It sounds great on all settings and its got real weight to it. For the price it really is the business. Nuff said.

Sounds awesopme, very heavy.

As i saw a lot of reviews and talkings about this model on YT and internet i can confirm it sounds really like a true telecaster should.

neck pickup is round and almost jazzy, bridge pickup is snarly and extremely agressive and clangy. Love it!

the body finish is perfect, the neck is in satin and feels good. the frets came sounded on the edges ,maybe a little roughly but functionally perfect. the wood figuring was so-so , but i saw worst.

Cons: it weights a lot for a tele, but i like heavy guitars and neck dives are just a no-thing.

I really wanted to give 5 stars but...

I will start by saying the TE-52 is, in my opinion, the best bang for the buck "T-style" guitar out there! The features you get for the price you pay is unbeatable!

However, mine showed up with obvious issues. First, the input jack nut was obviously loose when shipped and at some point during shipping it came off allowing the jack to fall into the body. Also, there were two deep scrapes in the finish caused by the nut bouncing around inside the bag.

The guitar was packaged in a guitar box that was placed inside a shipping box, the packing materials used to secure the one box inside the other was insufficient. The guitar box inside was moving freely within the shipping box. This allowed for what appears to be two major impacts to the guitar itself. The most notable being a 1.5cm ding at the very top of the headstock and two very small stress cracks at the neck joint. Honestly, I am only adding these things in hope that changes will be made for better protection in shipping & to attest the durability of these guitars!

The guitar plays & sounds great & built like a tank!

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.