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

really nice tele copy

Lovely looking guitar, natural finish looks great.

Quality strings.

Nice sound from both pickups.

Action slightly higher than my preference but I believe this is normal for a tele style guitar.

Feels great in the hand, tunes well.

Only minor, minor issue is a slightly larger than normal gap where the neck joins the body, but this is very minor.

This is the 4th different tele copy I've owned. All of the others were around the same price, none of them looked, felt, or sounded as nice.

For this price there's nothing better.

Awesome guitar with a few minor flaws

First off, I'm very happy with my purchase, it plays very well after a quick setup (string height, intonation, nut adjustment).

I've read how some got almost perfect guitars, I was not so lucky it seems. Finish on mine was full of bubbles, scratches, blemishes. Neck has a small 0,5mm gap at body joint, bottom screws are in crooked, edges of joint have very little cracks and chips, but no biggie. Body is a 3 piece, can't really tell from the top side, but side & back you can clearly see the lines, content with this. Guitar is buzzing a bit, will rewire it tomorrow as I suspect something is wrong with the grounding.

Ok now for the good stuff... OH MY GOD, what a great playing guitar. Neck is pure joy, not too fat not too thin, perfect. Pickups are great, I don't see myself changing them. Tuners and bridge work great too and will not change anything.

Overall great axe, sounds amazing. I might have gotten a lemon when it comes to the finish but still very happy. Buy it, seriously, it's an amazing value and it will make you smile.

Unbelievable guitar for the price

I bought this guitar for a student of mine because the price was right for a beginner. When it arrived my jaw dropped. You could easily pay 3 or 4 times more for this guitar and still be happy with the quality. Setup was great out of the box too. Highly recommended. Looks the business too.

A very good guitar.

I am very pleased with the TE-52. It is an excellent Telecaster style guitar. Never mind that it is 'cheap', this is an excellent guitar full stop. I've owned many Tele's over the years, both Fender models, Squier models, and various other brands. It's my favourite guitar style. This natural Tele sounds great with its Wilkinson pickups, good woods and hardware. It plays and sounds like 'the real thing'.

I was happy with everything about the guitar, except the nut. It wasn't cut well. The action was too high at the lower frets, causing the notes / chords played down near the nut, to go sharp. I took the guitar to my favourite guitar shop, and the luthier there put in a new high quality nut. It's now one of my favourite guitars. I have trouble putting it down I enjoy it so much.

For anyone looking for a natural style Tele, at a great price, I really recommend that you consider this guitar.

With lots of cheaper guitars, often they are bought with the intention of replacing parts to improve them. This guitar is fine just as it is. The hardware is good. The pickups sound great. I may be tempted to upgrade the wiring and pots at some stage, as this guitar is 'worth' doing up to keep. I certainly will be keeping mine.

06.03.2016 update:

This has become my go to guitar. The more I play this guitar, the more pleased I am with it. It is a seriously good instrument. Aside from the issue I had with mine with the nut - which was easily remedied, this guitar plays flawlessly. I can only heartily recommend this model Tele to anyone looking for this particular style. It's excellent.

Solid and chunky

Having played several of its cousins by the celebrated USA manufacturer, I have to say that this one is a treat.

There is so much weight in the body and the neck is perfect.

The Wilkinson pickups do a passable job and the only real weak point is perhaps the pickup selector switch which does feel a little flimsy.

Still, it's not as if you can't get replacements for every part of this model easily and cheaply, so it's a small price to pay.

Compared to the USA or even the Mexican models by the Famous guitar manufacturer, it certainly is a small price to pay.

I was looking for something to make me play like I would play a Tele and this does just that.

Top marks.

Great value for the money spend

have this tele for a week now.

after a fast delivery i was pleasantly surprise when unpacking to what a light and nice looking guitar i found in the box.

at first check:

intonation was spot on.

nut is cut correctly

neck to body pocket is a tight fit

alignment neck to bridge correct

fret?s where in good state, none are sticking out the side no leveling needed

neck relief correct, truss rod turns freely

original strings where mildly rusted and sounded dead

neck had not been buffed, looked dull, finish felt like sand paper

pickup selector works correctly

pickups sound good

volume works correctly

tone did not work correctly

jack works correctly

some tuning pegs turn hard and all have a bit of play, but keep in tune

soldering connections by them self where good

following needed to be done:

buffed the neck, the nice wood grain came out well, feels very smooth now

tone pot was solders incorrectly, normally center lug holds capacitor to ground and lead go?s to lug three; it was vice versa, ones corrected tone worked as expected

pot?s where also inverted, normally pot(A)(log) for volume pot(B)(lin) for tone, originally mounted (B) for volume (A) for tone.

new strings(original ones broke after about 15 minutes)

neck mounting holes in body where to tight(no free play at all), as it was i was mounting the neck plate to the body before actually trying to mount the neck to the body.

after opening these mounting holes slightly up i could mount the neck as expected

neck cutout in scratch plate had to open?d up a tiny bit, was a to tight

personal preference:

lowered action

adjusted neck relief

adjusted pickup height

to resume

overal fit and finish is good, no treads where strip?t, screw?s where all tight and none over tight

guitar weight 3,6kg(nice), body made out of four blocks, woodgrain decently matched

lacquer not to thick

body resonates well, good sustain

pots lack a bit of sensitivity

string ferrules drilled crooked

neck medium C shaped

guitar well balanced

best ¤129,00 i have ever spend

Excellent Tele, bargain at the price.

I was hoping for a cheap Tele which I could perhaps customise a little, maybe changing the neck pickup for a humbucker for a better jazz tone, that sort of thing. So I wasn't expecting too much by way of quality. Sure it looks the part but who knows.

But I'm blown away by the quality. It's every inch the Telecaster and the two Wilkinson pickups provide the full range of sounds from bridgy twang to a fairly smooth neck sound. The controls are good quality and smooth and the three-way gives a good clean selection.

It has a very comfortable neck for playing and the action is low but there's no buzzing. The set-up, the intonation, the action, all done really well. The frets are set really well with no rough edges and it feels good to play. The natural sustain is excellent and the strings are reasonably decent. It's exactly as heavy as an original and feels well-balanced, so it's comfortable to play. Oh, and it looks good too. It had come all the way from Germany to Spain but when I took it out... it was perfectly in tune! So the tuners work fine.

I've only played it for around five or six hours but if there's a downside to this guitar, I haven't found it yet. I don't know of any other tele that comes close to this even at a much higher price. Recommended.

guitar looks // sound // and feels great really nice to play great price nice tele finish looks cool this is my 6th h.b guitar there all good guitars im going to order the hb jazz next

My Brother might have to prise it from my hands

Bought him this for Christmas (Don't tell him), love at first sight, love at first feel, this guitar is gorgeous. Forget the guidance on writing a good review, this guitar played from the box, caused quite a few jaws to drop just by looking at her, dedicated lovers of the brand just sighed and held her close whilst wondering at her honey voice (et al), the way she was built and the sheer magnificence that is, "Harley Benton TE-52 NA Vintage Series". I got the swamp ash strat, but I still look longingly at the sultry Blonde Telecaster sitting quietly in the corner. All joking aside a superb guitar.

excellent, cheap guitar

Excellent guitar does just what you need, Tuners could be slightly better.

But we have changed these out for some Fender locking ones.

This was the 3rd or 4th Harley Benton purchased and no doubt we will add another at some point.

The best surprise of the year!

I brought this on a whim and was instantly blown away by how good this guitar is for so little money! Needless to say my mexican tele is now sold and this has taken its place! There is an overall a great feel to the whole guitar, neck has an amazing playability factor and action is very very good, the body is solid and the neck joint is solid too, no buzzing or dead frets, the tuning pegs actually work, the bridge is great all the electrics work like they should it really is my go to do it all guitar. Classic tele sound in spades! The best buy I've brought in years and will be buying many more very soon!

Very nice guitar

I love this Harley Benton TE-52 its exactly what I wanted, it has a really nice bright sound which I couldn't achieve with my other guitars. If you want quality at a very reasonable price this tele is a bargain.

Great!!! Please buy it!!!

Let's be honest: It's not the best guitar in the world, obviously. The tuning machines on mine were really crappy, for instance. Other than that, it's awesome! It sounds really good, the build quality is great (It's a heavy son of a gun, though...). The wood is great, the paint job is gorgeous, the pickups are Wilkinson...

It doesn't sound like a Fender, but come on! It's 129 freaking euros! It's got to get 5 stars! If you buy 170? worth of pickups, tuning machines, pot, etc., you got yourself an awesome guitar, that will sound just like a fender! And for 300?!!! It's crazy!

The best value for the money!

Harley Benton TE-52NA

The only ting that's cheap about this is the price. Construction is solid , had to file one or two of the frets as they were protruding ,but I've seen similar on Fender guitar . Sounds and plays just like a telecaster should,

I've used it for clean and overdriven/distorted sounds and it sounded great. I've played it solidly for blocks of up three hours and it was quit e comfortable maybe a little on the heavy side , no flaws in the finish. Neck has a satin finish and its probably not as good in my opinion as the TE-80 which I also recently acquired. The pickups sound good ,I honestly expected them to be the weakest link , but I'm quite satisfied with them.

I can't think of anything out of the box that in my opinion warrants an upgrade!

Excellent t-style guitar

Wow! What a surprisingly good guitar!

I confess I had my doubts about getting such a cheap guitar, but I must say I'm REALLY impressed by it.

The neck is a lovely satin finish & is pleasingly chunky in the hand. There were a few imperfections in the finish, but a quick wipe with fine sanding paper fixed them easily. Fretwork is fine and after a quick setup to lower the action it plays great.

The body is made of three pieces of Ash & is reassuringly weighty.

The electrics are good. The Wilkinson pickups are bright and clear, the tone and volume controls are responsive and crackle free. There IS some hum, but that's to be expected from single coils.

My only criticism is that the strings fitted seemed to mainly consist of rust and dirt, but as I prefer 10s to the stock 9s I was replacing them anyway.

To sum up: fancy trying a T-style guitar but don't feel the need to pay the premium for a "name", take a punt on this: you won't be disappointed.

Uh! too heavy for the ash, but plays well, best in this price range, will be much better with upgraded electronics and tuners, if you put kluson bridge (just 16euro for great quality) it will be even better. Pickups are medium quality.

Too thick poly finish, first what I done with it, stripped down this from ash and refinish it with tru oil, so now it has open pores and will dry faster, because it is too heavy, so it's not even dryed before finish had done.

Neck is good too, action is high as any other new guitar, I done leveling and polishing of frets, put tusq nut, shimmed neck. Now it plays, sounds and looks very well and a lot of fun in modding.

Great guitar for modding.

Very good for little money

Harley Benton have done it again, a very well made guitar for a small price. First off the weight, really heavy to pick up but once you've strapped it on you barely notice it. The pickups are top notch though the bridge pup is quite harsh even at its lowest setting but you do get the classic twang associated with this style. The neck is niceand solid, didn't like the 'c' shape on my mexican strat so a bit apprehensive about this but it feels good in your hand. One change I have made are the saddles, I changed mine from the steel to brass, not convinced it makes a difference in sound but they look better in my eyes, maybe do the tuners at some point in the future as I'm not a fan of the sloyted ones HB use.

Overall a very capable instrument, could be a touch heavy for some people but I find it reassuringly hefty. Maybe the p/ups could be upgraded if you were gigging it regularly but for a guitar of this price you couldn't go wrong.

A Excellent Guitar For The Money

As i mentioned in my other review I wanted a couple of tele's I could use for a halloween gig, nothing silly priced as they would properly end up trashed so I ordered the TE-30 and The TE 52. 3 working days later they arrived.

On opening the box my first impressions were wow the TE-52 is beautiful, The body is made of 2 nicely figured pieces of ash that are center joined and stained a mid 50's vintage butterscotch which is flawless . This was areal surprise as I expected a multi piece body with possibly a veneer on the front.

The neck is maple with a nice c section to it and nice a satin finish that feels nearly as good as my relic tele. The fret however were quite uneven but I always budget in a professional setup so this was not a problem.

The bridge is a nice sturdy wilkinson ashtray bridge. The tuners are wilkinson vintage kluson style and were quite good so I kept them(may change them further down the journey). The control plate also was quite responsive but I always upgrade the pots and wiring.

The pickups surprised me the they are both ceramic pickups and I have to say they do a good job of getting the classic Tele sound, the neck pickup is clear and articulate but not thin. The let down is the bridge pickup, this ceramic pickup doesn't really have what it takes. Its a nice sound but some of the telecaster natural brightness is lost with this pickup

The guitar is now back from its setup and it's fantastic, I changed the bridge pickup for a wilkinson WVOB that costs about £30 and the sound transformed. This guitar is now my go to telecaster leaving my relic 52 abandoned in its case

Incredible guitar!

I bought this guitar because i read that some people say that is really impressive.

and really that's it !

Unboxing your new telecaster, you have just to deal with a little setup with trussrod, octaves , and height of strings, but i also have to perfom those operations on my Fender Baja (from the custom shop! crazy!!)

The guitar looks very pretty, the wood and color is good looking, plastics are ok, the Wilkinson logo on pickups its a sticker, be careful or you loose it! :D

controls seems sturdy and knobs really responds well.

the neck is the impressive part of the guitar.

satin finish (that i love) give a lovely feeling with this gear, well finished, frets are ok.

the hardware in general is ok, tuners do the work good, maybe the saddles could be in brass instead of the chrome one, but vibrations go thru the body without problems.

The body...the weight is really high, its a guitar not for small guys, use straplock and large straps!

the nut is plastic, maybe in a future i replace with a bone one.

the sound is really impressive, maybe you pay five times more another branded guitar without reach the same good vibrations!

if you like the tele and the color you cannot be wrong, be careful for the weight and remember that you need a gigbag!

This guitar is pure awesomnes! Worth a lot more money than it`s sold for... really. Finnish on it is like mirror... you can literally see your reflection in it. Hardware is also good.. no complaints about it. There is absolutely no need to upgrade it to better tuners or bridge... even intonation is as it should be out of the box. Action is also nice and low out of the box. I only lowered high and low E string just a bit (one turn of allen key really) because I prefer it that way. Neck is beautifuly finnished, all frets are leveled and crowned. Oh and guitar is heavy. I mean HEAVY... which is only a good thing because it`s really sturdy.

This is my 1st Harley Benton and Telecaster guitar (i also have 2 epiphone LP`s) and definitely not my last one! I really love the tone of it (soo versatile) and it`s worth buying it.

Rock on!