Harley Benton TE-52 NA Vintage Series Reviews

Nice!

A little bit on the heavy side but a good guitar

Thank you again, Tomann.

I received the guitar I ordered safely.

It arrived at my house in Japan in just 3 days as scheduled since it was shipped.

If you buy a guitar in stock, you can buy it in any country in the world as if you were shopping in your own country.

This is my second purchase of a guitar at this shop, but I was able to buy it with confidence.

And as for the guitar review, the TE52 is also great value!

If you buy a guitar of this quality at a Japanese shop, it will be even more expensive. It will be cheaper even if you add up the international shipping charges.

The neck feels a little heavy, but the finish is good and there is no graininess on the frets.

If the edges of the fingerboard are a little rounder, I think it's easier to play like a high-end guitar, but it's not bad.

I'm glad that the paint on the body was also glossy and finished very beautifully.

It can't be helped because I buy it online, but the grain of the body and the grain of the neck depend on luck. My TE52 has a big knot in the middle of the body, which is a bit disappointing, but it's a cheap guitar, so it can't be helped.

I like this guitar. I think it's a guitar that can be used enough for beginners' practice.

Thank you again, Tomann.

Great Sound Guitar

I didn't change anything to get a great sound!

Fabulous Value, Snappy Telecaster

The Harley Benton TE-52 NA is a fabulous value for beginners, novice players and Gigging professionals. The guitar looks and feels like a vintage instrument made by the guitar gods, the guitar is perfect for Country Licks, Blues standards and Three Chord Rock. The Classic two Roswell pickups give the TE-52NA a wide range of perfect balance of snappy cleans and overdriven tones. With a price point that won't hurt your wallet especially for working musicians where every dollar counts.

A proper Tele

I actually got this in 2015, and didn't get round to doing a review, so this probably won't be much help to anyone, but apart from the pickups (mine came with Wilkinsons) I don't imagine much has changed.

As many reviewers have noted, these are very heavy guitars: I haven't bothered to weigh it, but trust me-it's heavy. It is also absolutely beautiful, the finish is high gloss on the body, and a sort of satin vintage tint to the neck.

I have my reservations about HB quality control, I have three, and have had to do a bit to them all, (but never anything major, or damage etc). The neck fit on mine is great. I had to do the usual stuff, truss rod, action, intonation etc, but none of it was miles out. The nut was ok ish, but I had a bit of an issue with the high E slipping off the neck sometimes. I have seen others mention this on youtube reviews, I think John Robson mentioned the string spacing at the bridge being to do with it when he had a FLT 90. I prefer heavier strings than were supplied, and changing these and fitting a Tusq nut sorted that for me. The tone pot was loose on arrival. The original saddles have been replaced with compensated brass ones, and I have fitted roller string trees. Oddly, mine arrived with only one string tree. The tuners were pretty cheap, but actually worked ok, if a bit stiff, but it stayed in tune pretty well. One of the tuner buttons broke about six months ago however, so I have replaced them for split post Wilkinsons.

With a little work and a fret polish it is now a really lovely guitar. It looks great, sounds like a Tele should, and plays beautifully. Oh, and it's cheap as chips.

Very good quality and yet extremely affordable

This guitar is just as good as any Fender Telecaster you migh t think of. The build quality is superb, intnation was bang on right out of the box. My only nit-picky grip is that the fret wires need a little polishing. Satisfaction guaranteed!!

TE-52 NA

In general, the tool is normal. But there are a couple of little things about the technique, it's:

1. The upper threshold, the strings get stuck in it after each band.

2. The frets are not polished and the strings slide badly on them.

There is also a shoal on cosmetics, at the first inspection of the guitar, I immediately noticed that the varnish on the back of the neck was falling off, but I thought that I could live with it. But in the future, the varnish continued to fall off in other places. I wrote about this situation in support, but still have not received a response.

Everyone who likes this guitar has great taste.

This is the best guitar I have ever played, it looks amazing. Everyone who likes this guitar has great taste. Authentic cutie.

Best bang for buck... even it was more expensive!

I'm a beginner to intermediate level, and this guitar (alongside a more expensive SC-550 II), were my first Harley Benton purchases. Amazing quality for what you pay, even if it was twice the price. I managed to get one of the first "caramelized fretboard" ones and while don't have experience with the previous version, this one looks great (even compared to other brands). It was also my first T-style guitar, and can't believe how I hadn't had one before. I'm basically running the bridge pickup all the time... SPANKY! :D

Oh, and basically didn't do any setup out of the box =o

Worth the price

A relatively familiar take on the TE style guitar, leaving little room for innovation I suppose but at least you can feel confident in what you should expect.

Again, for the price this is a great experience on part with guitars that cost twice as much for much larger brand names.

Mine arrived and it looked even better than the pictures alluded to.

My only complaint is the strings it was sent with are clearly aged as if they had set it up and let it sit in a show room, a small detail but otherwise fantastic, I can deal with paying the $8 for strings if I can know the instrument will arrive like this.

No Frills T-Style Guitar…

Great sounding T-Style Guitars with that “Twang” sound, No frills Guitar that does that T-Style Thing!

Great looking, great price, great sounds & a brilliant service.

Perfect guitar if we ignore the heavy weight at 4.4 kg

Pros:

- Good looks

- Good sound

- Good playability

- Expensive looking

Cons

- Weighs 4.4 kg and hence doesn't inspire me as much to play it.

I bought a TE-62 SFG instead and I love it. I wish they also had a TE-62 in this color.

Wow…

I am speechless and blown away. I have been playing for 21 years and this is the best guitar i have played for under 200. I recommend it to any level of player looking for a tele style guitar. The neck alone is worth more than what the entire guitar costs. The pickups have that signature twang tone that this shape is famous for. The only thing I recommend replacing is the tuners and the bridge saddles, but other than that this guitar is really great. I just ordered the te-62 charcoal frost and can’t wait to play it and compare the two.

A honorable tribute to the 50's classic

I had literally no expectations from this guitar, I always wanted a T-Model and since 2015 I left all my gear back home, and didn't have a chance to play any Electric Guitar, until the day this beauty arrived at my place.

The neck: never in my life, not even my 2006 Fender Standard Telecaster had a neck so smooth, the frets required some polishing and the nut screams "please replace me!", but after some setting up, I can't just stop playing it. Never gets sticky, the more you play, the smoother it gets.

The body: if you read the reviews, it's not a myth: it is a heavy guitar. However, it also gives this guitar character, it functions as a solid foundation for modding and I'm pretty sure with some care this instrument can last for months.

The electronics: Pick-ups are ok, no hum and minimal feedback when adding overdrives. Not a good option if you're looking for shredding solos, chugging, etc. Potentiometers, switch and plug definitely could use a replacement. Try using the default for the first 3 - 6 months, and then look for an upgrade.

They could definitely use a Serial Number, I would love to track the guys who carved and built my specific guitar, because after 5 years of no playing, I got such a solid instrument I'm very happy I kept trying and learning guitar.

Great guitar, Great Feeling Neck, Great Price

This is a great guitar for around $200 US. The neck is pretty substantial and has a satin finish, unlike a lot of budget guitars. I like the pickups, but will probably end up swapping them out eventually. The build quality is great, especially for the price. The frets are nice and level and no sharp ends, but they are not polished. (I took some steel wool to them and they feel much better now). My biggest complaint is that the body is super heavy. The guitar weighs close to 10 lbs. Besides the weight, this guitar is gig ready.

Goddamn

It will give an erection to a corpse

Solid guitar

Solid guitar for the price. Perfect for upgrading which is what I did. Wilkinson tuners, brass saddles, Fender switch, Fender Tex Mex pickups.

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.