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

Goddamn

It will give an erection to a corpse

Amazing

For the money I’m very happy. I also own a 1972 tele. And not much difference between the two. Very good service and helpful. Wow

Amazing guitar for unbelievable money

I have been playing for 30+ years and have owned around 40-50 guitars (I lost count) and still own 11, from cheap to custom shop models. This guitar is simply unbelievable for the money. It feels and plays like a guitar 5x or 10x the price. I was skeptical at first, having owned three Bentons prior to this and selling all of them super fast. First was a Harley Benton DC copy of an SG some 7 years ago - which was a "cardboard" disaster. Other two were Strat types, both failing because of pickups and electronics. Mind you, this was years ago and Harley Benton now makes much better instruments. This guitar is a keeper, but It does have it's downsides too.

THE GOOD

Construction quality is great, so is the paint and neck. Electronics are surprisingly good, pickups are simply great. True vintage tele tone both positions and sweet sweet sounds in middle position. PUPs are quite hot! Also very pick attack responsive and volume knob responsive. They sound amazing on my EL84 powered amps, not so much on the EL34 Marshall, where they can sound thin and brittle. EQ fiddling and a good equaliser pedal can fix that though. Pickups sound great through a TS9. Paint job is great, neck is very comfortable to play and very straight. I compared this guitar AB to a J&D tele with upgraded Dimarzio pickups and the difference is light years in favour of the Harley Benton. Coming from a J&D to this TE-52 is like a quantum leap in overall playing experience. I wasn't expecting I'd be saying the Roswells sound better (they sound more telecaster correct) than Dimarzios, but they absolutely do. The ash body looks great and gives the guitar that fast sound attack with crisp mids and highs and tight bass. The sustain is very good, but I imagine it will improve further if I swap the bridge, tuners and nut which is what I plan on doing in the near future.

THE NOT SO GOOD

Guitar is heavy as a mo..erfu..er! I may try to shave off some weight by making a belly carve and arm rest contours. As with almost any mass production guitar (PRS SE excluded), this guitar will require some intermediate luthier skills. Truss rod adjustment, nut adjustment or better nut swap, fret levelling and polishing, fret edge polishing, bridge adjustments are a must on this guitar. Frets are properly seated, but very harsh and uneven. Action way too high, truss rod too loose, nut slots high and uneven. It will take some work, but I can do all of this myself luckily with many years of experience and all the proper tools. But a luthier would easily charge what the guitar costs just for the work. If it makes any future buyers feel any better, my 1500 eur Gibson SG was no different in this aspect.

THE BAD

The only thing really bad (as mentioned by others) are the vintage style tuners, which go out of tune if you so much as look at them in a bad way. These will of course be replaced.

OVERALL

With some minimal luthier skills, new tuners and proper adjustments this guitar is far better than Squiers and can easily rival guitars at 10 times the price. Considering the price I cannot believe this guitar is as good as it is.

Harley Benton have really stepped up their game and I will be checking out some other more expensive HB models in the future...but first I need to sell some of my other guitars

Future Classic

In a few years we will be looking back saying how good these were and saying they don’t know how to make them like that anymore. Just get one. Blindfolded you can’t tell it from the current f£Nd3r. No issues. No problems. Action and frets good, no work needed, after 12 months use electrics are still standard and still good. Well pleased.

Wow

Did quite a bit of research into this guitar before buying. I noticed the people saying the machine heads were hit and miss and the frets could be a little rough, and the finish etc. so I was prepared for teething issues. My son has a Fender squier Tele so I had a benchmark for a budget telecaster

However…

I was blown away by the quality. Everything was as it should be. Playable straight out of the box (after a tune up). The action is spot on and the sound is very good.

Pushed it through my Fender amp clean and with drive , and it sounded great.

For the money, I was astounded at the quality of the build. Delighted with the guitar, it feels good in hand and sounds great, and dare I say it it is better than my son’s Fender.

TE-52

Harley Benton Telecaster love this Guitar

unbelievably great for this price !!!

Great TELE sound for just a few bucks.

it's amazing how they got it.

The guitar is beautiful, great feeling to hold it.

Out of the box, it has high string action, which was easily solved by adjusting the truss rod and adjusting the saddles.

I left the height of all strings at 1.25mm, the same as I leave on my fender strat.

The TE-52 is very soft to play. And it looks like you're playing a higher value instrument.

If you're in doubt, it's really worth buying.

it's very cheap, and you get a really great instrument.

PROS:

- Wonderful neck, looks roasted.

- Trully Tele sound

- Easy to adjust to low action

- Beautiful to see

- Great to play

- Neck with satin finish (great to play)

- incredible cost/quality ratio

- good sound plugged and even unplugged.

- really easy to bend.

CONS:

- just the tree strings, which is of low quality, and makes it out of tune. easy to solve.

I'm in love with this Tele.

So far I have ST-62 and TE-52. They sound a bit similar but distinctively different. TE-52 is a gorgeous guitar. The recent addition of caramelized maple neck makes it a bit fancy. It looks, feels and sounds as much more expensive guitar. It is my favorite now for the gigs and recording.

I can't believe the construction of this guitar!

This Tele is simply amazing. The neck joint is perfect and tight, the three-piece body is matched so well in the wood grain that it looks like a solid piece, and I love the thick neck. Frets needed leveling and dressing, but I do that on all of my Harley Bentons. This isn't just a great guitar for the price, it's a great guitar, period. I'm planning to put some Seymour Duncan Classic pickups in and see what a difference that makes. Not because I have to, but because I love tweaking my guitars. This one is amazing, if you don't have one, GET ONE!

A great buy, becoming a classic

The quality has certainly improved over the past couple of years. The frets needed a polish and the tuners are so-so but the Roswell pickups are pretty good. The body and neck are extremely good for the price you pay. Grab a bargain before everybody else does.

Well built! Good tones!

Great price for all this instruments offer, whether a beginner or someone searching for a new instrument to all to your collection. Setup was decent out the box. Tuners were a bit tight, but over the next month worked itself out and is fine now. The Roswell pickups are quite nice and the neck finish is really good, smooth and easy to play. overall a decent candidate for your next purchase or tele project.

Great guitar!

great guitar for the money. I love the color and feel of the neck. Very beautiful wood and varnish. A bit heavy, but a good guitar has to be tangible. The sound is good too, you can always change the pickups if you need. In general, it's super thanks.

unbelievable price

if you want a tele, you should try this

this brand know how to build a good guitar in a low price

Another great HB Guitar

Unbelievable for the price. Sounds great, great action. I love it.

Very Impressed!!!!!!!!Te-52 WooooooWWW!!!!

play great beautiful workhorse ........

Genuinely Amazed

After reading the previous reviews I took a chance on what I would have considered and very low price for guitar. (My collection is Gibson, Fender, Dean etc). From opening the box and seeing the gorgeous colour and grain of the ash body, to feeling the smooth finish on the neck I was amazed. Nice heavy guitar too.

I spent a while checking the intonation, connections, finish etc and I cannot fault it at all. Put some axe oil all over, tuned it and left it for a few hours. Came back and perfectly in tune plugged in through the marshall and was enthralled by the sound. I've had Telecasters in the past but this is the best playing one I've ever had.

I was very skeptical of the previous reviews but am now a convert and will back for more !!

guitars

very good guitar . for a very good price played very nice i am super happy with this guitar learnt a lot on this guitar

Tele heaven

This is as good as my mexican tele. Simple as that.

Nice heavy body, super smooth neck and fretboard.

Pickups are great, you get all the twangy sounds you would want.

All the knobs and switches feel great, tuners vintage style.

Quick restring and adjust action and you are good to go. I honestly can’t believe the quality for the price. Buy one now

отличный инструмент

мой 7ой инструмент от ''HARLEY BENTON'', купил так как хотел TELECASTER игал на многих TELECASTER других фирм и ценовых категорий, что могу сказать после года использования, это хороший инструмент но его мне пришлось немного доработать под себя, подстроить, по электронике ни чего не менял, достойная гитара

less is more

no wonder this guitar is a best seller. Good feeling under the fingers and nice tone. Neck PU is great, bridge one decent. maybe I'll replace it, maybe not. we'll see. the set up was good out of the box.

pros

- comfortable neck

- tele experience 100%

- neck PU

- balanced tone in any string

- balanced PU

- tone

cons

- pretty heavy (4,7 kg)