Harley Benton TE-52 NA Vintage Series 5-stars Reviews

I was pleasantly surprised with the beauty of the construction of this Tele-style guitar. For the price, my expectations were low and was not prepared for the quality of this instrument . As a professional musician, I scoffed at "knock-offs", MIMs and Asian built guitars, but this TE-52 is making me eat my words.

It needed little tweaking other than lowering the action and setting the intonation. The sound was perfect and way above my expectations, even having that country twang, or a nice thick rock sound.

The only gripe I have is that it is very chunky and slinging that solid

weight over my shoulders is a tough task after a couple of hours. Highly recommended!

Guitar

Got this guitar, and am very happy. I am loving it. I will buy from them again. Ooo yea the guitar was the te 52 vintage series

damn good!

i played it every now and then because the action was perfect for me, sound was awesome. I like it, I like it. The tuner was a bit easy to get untune..maybe because it's new..but overall i will highly recommend it.

Super Tele

Initial thoughts....I couldn't believe the quality of finish on this guitar. It is super. Wonderful grain with no blemishes whatsover. There is a sound comparison on YT with a Tele that is ten times more expensive... check it out... you will be surprised. No big deal but some might find the action a tad on the high side but for me it is fine. Again there are simple Tutorials on YT on how to adjust the action to suit your requirements. A great sounding and looking guitar delivered from Germany to England for £115...are you kidding me??? Many thanks.

Wow! Really, just wow!

WOW! Seriously, wow!

I read about "heavy", well yes it is a slab of Ash and that has weight, but no more than my Les Paul or similar, and it sits perfectly balanced. I can only presume it would be similar with a strap and standing... the office isnt ready for that spectacle :) (I can see the body is made from 3 pieces of timber).

The ash wood used for the body has a lovely grain - luck of the draw I know, but seriously it is a handsome looking guitar. The finish isn't too orange, just a really nice gloss.

The fit and finish are first rate, no gaps, a snugger fitting neck in to pocket you would hard pressed to find, no wonky bits, just a very well finished instrument.

The neck isn't that chunky at all, less so than a Les Paul or a ES series, and about on par with my 12" radius Strat neck. The satin finish is pleasant on the hand, far nicer than a thick gloss, and the fretboard feels good too. Very slick.

I have no sharp frets, they all appear clean and bright, and no choking on bends. No need for any work at all. Amazingly the strings are all clean and bright, no warble at all... I will change them to 10s though as is my preference.

Yes the action was a bit high when it came out of the box, but 5 mins with a hex key and all is perfect.

Intonation is pretty darn good out of the box, although I will put some compensated brass saddles in just to get things a little more accurate.

The neck is true, and when I put some 10's on I will swap the plastic nut for a bone nut/tusq xl to help tuning stability. I'll no doubt give the truss rod a tweak once it settles with the 10s, but I can see no reason why the action won't remain as good and low as it now is.

The vintage style tuners work really well, not the same standard as the Road Worn 60s ones on my Strat, but seriously they have fine enough adjustment to do the job, smooth in operation and have held tuning so far.

I can't comment on the pickups (Roswell branded), nor the volume and tone pots, as I have no amp at the office, but let's be honest, that is 10 mins with a soldering iron and £15 if the pots/cap needed switching out.

All the chrome is highly polished and looks great... not a corroded screw in sight.

So, to summarise, I am absolutely amazed, this guitar was shipped to me for £115... take off shipping, take off Retailer mark up, take of freight costs from China, etc... ow in the world can they make such a playable and well finished instrument for so very little...? Well I guess that is a question of consumer ethics.

I wasn't expecting a lot, I got an awesome guitar, seriously blown away.

If you want a cheap guitar to leave at the office, if you are buying your first guitar, if you just fancy a bit of fun and fancy taking a punt... do it!

It isn't a £1000 guitar, but I have seen plenty of £300 to £500 guitars that weren't a patch on this.

Wow, just wow!

Sharpened telecaster.

It 's been more than a year since I bought it . The quality of the guitar for this money is not better to find . The wood of the body and neck is Super . The weak point of the guitar is the pickups . Weak at the exit for me . Timbral normal . Replaced the neck with a humbucker , with a single cutoff . I also changed the bridge to a modern Gotoh . And the internal wiring on a silver - plated cable . Now the sound is very cool . This Telecaster is now focused on modern music .

This thing is a steal!

I have been thinking about adding a new guitar to the collection & I didn't have a T-style. For the price, I thought I had nothing to lose giving this a go, because at the worst I could use it as a base to add to (new pickups, bridge etc). However, I am amazed at how good it is for the money. The finish is flawless (the satin neck feels worn-in & is really comfortable), it plays brilliantly, and it sounds absolutely superb - no need to replace the Roswell pickups which give exactly the sound I was looking for in a vintage T-style.

No negatives at this price point: you don't get a single/double piece of wood for the body, but I would not expect to. I would personally prefer a slightly more VOS type finish rather than high gloss for a vintage style instrument, but that's just taste. Overall I will definitely be buying another Harley Benton.

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.

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.

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

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