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

Great copy of a truely loved classic

I have been playing this guitar for one evening, to get an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of this product.

Strengths

Alnico pickups sound the part, the sound is close to that of another great copy like the Squire Classic Vibe. The neck is very nicely stained or coloured so it looks like real old maple. The body is nicely put together. Electronics work well (no issues). Tuning stability is great, very little to complain about regarding the tuning stability.

Weaknesses

The nut slots may have been a little small and the string was not resting properly in the nut (causing some intonation issues on the first three frets). After playing for a few hours, the strings seated themselves correctly in the nut (so the intonation problem corrected itself). The neck where it joins the head is typical asian (not as well formed as the Big F), not a problem possibly stronger that the American guitars. The frets are very rough (only a concern for players who bend alot, nothing a fret polish can sort out). Action is a little higher than I like (I will drop it soon).

Overall

For the money this is amazing. Very usable guitar with a little work can be great. I can definitely recommend it.

Not bad for the price

I purchased this guitar a year or so ago, so I have had some time to play it and develop an informed opinion. As usual, it shipped quickly and arrived well packed. The first thing I noticed when I pulled it out of the box was how heavy it was. It easily rivals my LP or my T-60 in terms of weight. This isn't really a bad thing, just something to be aware of.

Moving on to looks. The neck has a nice, smooth satin finish. I prefer these to glossy necks. There is also some nice flame in the maple depending on how the light hits it. The body is three pieces of ash. Two of them are well matched, one of them stands out pretty noticeably. I am a hobby player and only really play for myself, so the looks are not super important for me. That being said, it still would have been nice to have it looks consistent.

My guitar shipped with the Wilkinson alnico pickups. They are probably the best sounding stock pickups I have ever gotten on any of my "cheap" guitars. I may end up replacing them at some point in the future, but for the time being they will stay in. When I had the pickguard off, I noticed that the neck was routed for a humbucker (for anyone interested in modding).

Overall, this guitar fills the spot of a traditional tele style in my collection quite well. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to a beginner looking for a solid guitar to start with.

Fat neck T-style

Yes the neck is too fat for my taste but those of you who love it will be happy! The neck feels smooth, satin finish.

Tuners could be better in my opinion. My guitar had an issue with the b-string nut slot causing sitar like sound when strummed open.

String ferules at the back are misaligned on my exemplar. Frets were unpolished but all leveled without any fret buzz. Action was at about 2mm so very good!

The pickups sound ok. They dont sound harsh because they are Alnico. I was always happy with Wilkinson pickups!

My TE-52NA weighs 3,6kg

Great guitar not just for the price

Its great but the only thing i dont like is the pickup switch is flimsy and the strings are rusty

Nice guitar - after a setup

APPERANCE - The HB TE-52 NA is my first Telecaster syle guitar. It arrived in good shape (Pacific Northwest of the US). When I took it out of the box I immediately noticed a black smudge on the wood which had been lacquered over. Everything else looked very good.

PLAYABILITY ? The tone of the guitar exceeds my expectations for the low price. I especially like the sound of the neck pickup. The pickup selector and tuners also work well. After a few days of playing, the sharp edges of the frets became very noticeable and my hand was getting cut. I also found several frets that were too high and causing some fret buzz. I decided to do a fret leveling, and edge dressing and polished, set action and intonnation. There are a lot of good how-to videos on youtube. It was a pretty easy project and now I really enjoy playing this guitar. It has become my favorite.

Overall ? I am happy with guitar and would recommend it if you are willing to put a just few hours in to set it up properly and know you saved a lot of money.

Great Guitar

The guitar arrived well packaged and quickly.

What a beautiful looking guitar well finished and unmarked.

A two piece body and high gloss finish.

Plenty of positive and the tone.

Not so good was the fret ends and a couple of high frets.

Once I had dressed the fret ends and levelled the neck a quick polish all round and re string a fantastic guitar appeared.

It was so good I ordered another.

Too sum up : how they can offer a guitar of this quality for the price charged is a great feat on its own a small amount of work will achieve a fantastic looking and playing instrument.

Highly recommended.

AndyU

Amazing quality for the price...... and then some !!

Out of the box the build quality appears pretty much flawless. Body finish is immaculate mirror gloss? no visible dents, scratches or scuffs etc. If these are either two or three piece ash, I can't see any join ? it looks like one piece of wood.. Nice chunky but comfy neck and all hardware seems to do its job well. Fret job feels good with no sharp edges that I can feel at all and nut seems well cut. This IS a heavy guitar, but not an issue as I'm just a home player . this guitar just feels amazingly solid. All the classic TE tones are here and the Wilkinson p/ups definitely seem worth the extra bit of money.

A couple of very minor issues. Fitted strings show some oxidation and feel a little rough.Frets look and feel like they could do with a bit of a better dress or maybe even just polishing up will fix this . Some grime or gunk on frets which may be the cause and greyish blob of what I guess is polishing compound on the fingerboard which looks like it will pick or polish off. Also control knobs seated at very slightly different heights and volume a little bit off being true parallel to body. The very highest black dot fret marker is a bit smudged around the edges which again may well polish out.These are very very minor and wouldn't normally even notice them. Any of the above issues I'm sure could be found on guitars 2 or 3 times the price.

Who should by this ?

I have a few mid lower range electrics ?92 Squier Strat MIJ , Epiphone LP Special, Yamaha and promised myself my next guitar would be a ?proper? TE. However, when I heard about HB guitars and what you get for a very low price I changed my thinking. I'm an occasional home player who likes to have variety of guitars for different moods and tones etc. I don't gig and whilst this may not be the sort of guitar that would survive years of touring without some upgrading, it does what I need it to and does it very very well. Seriously when you look at what you get for the money, its amazing how HB are doing this. Forget the name on the headstock, based on feel, tone and build alone you would think you're playing something a lot more expensive . I've never played a ?real? TE or vintage or custom shop model so can't say what they?re like but it's hard to see how the big manufacturers justify some of their prices when you see what you get with this HB.

Get one !!!

Great guitar

Not a guitar expert by any means, this was my first electric guitar - for the money I really cannot fault it - set up seemed quite nice out of the box, did not require any frets to be tidied or anything like that. Plays great. Feels much more expensive than the price, nice sound. Really can't complain about this instrument.

vintage series H.B. telecaster

As a telecaster type guitar, features are few, but as you open the box and lift

out your new guitar , you can't help appreciate its build quality and weight,a proper

instrument ! Mine required a major polish of the neck, frets and fingerboard - rough

overspray, and heavily tarnished frets, otherwise very nicely finished.

Plugging it in is the best bit ! This sounds.... like a Telecaster