Harley Benton TE-30 BE Standard Series Reviews

Best telecaster model for the price

Amazing to play, no imperfections. Just an amazing guitar.

Good for the money

Frets were scratchy and needed a polish a few imperfections in the finish other than that perfect you can’t go wrong for the price .

Where and for what do you use the product?

Recording- studio/bedroom/cafe

does the job, Good enough to hit the road.

Beautiful, poor lipstick pickup.

The main pro of this guitar for me is how beautiful it is! the pain finish is translucent and you can see the wood a bit. Lipstick pickup is poor, nothing close to a lipstick sound. Excellent mod platform! feels solid and heavy! Tuners are bad too, require upgrade. All else is good or standard!

Great vintage replica guitar

This guitar is amazing!

The ash body is very resonant and an absolute time-capsule to that vintage golden era of ash bodies made by a certain american guitar manufacturer!

The hardware is not the greatest part because come on, at this price you really cannot complain much. The neck has that baseball bat profile typical of the early 50's and both pickups sound decent.

Major upgrades would be the electronics (pots, switch and input jack) and the tuners. Maple neck is wonderful however the fretboard is very flat - it would be amazing if Harley Benton was able to to deliver at least a 9.5 inch radius fretboard. The greatest detail of the instrument is the wonderful blonde finish over the Ash.

Good fretboard, little string buzz

I use this guitar to record loops on my daw. I am satisfied with the guitar and ı really like the fingerboard. On this price really good product. On the other hand ı have to handle some string buzz and ground process.

great guitar for beginners

The guitar plays really nice and can be comparable to more expensive guitars. Would have liked the guitar to feature strings through body not a top loader, but otherwise a fantastic guitar. Highly recommended for as a starting guitar or a backup guitar.

DESPITE THE INEXPENSIVE PRICE OF THIS INSTRUMENT - THE QUALITY OF PERFORMANCE AND SOUND AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL!

Get what you pay for...ish

Guitar seems solid but the neckplate and bridge on mine had the chrome pitted...not great

Sound not bad but will be upgrading, tuners, pickups, neck plate and bridge ( the last 2 due to poor quality and not personal choice)

Setup was awful initially and will need some fret sorting to get the action somewhere near playable

Great Guitar

I'm a beginner, progressing from an acoustic. This is my first electric guitar bought to keep me busy in lockdown!. My comments are based on a novices perspective.

I bought this model based on the looks and the positive reviews on this site.

It arrived, well packaged in about a week. It really is a beauty. I'm really pleased. I find the build quality to be first rate. Gloss Finish to the body is immaculate, not a blemish.

The satin finish neck is lovely, again has an immaculate finish, easy to hold, frets all smooth, no sharp edges or rough ridges as others have commented.

I was amazed how easy it was to play having been used to the acoustic, which I now realise was not that good compared to this.

I also own a Yamaha BB424 Bass which is a decent instrument, I'd rate the construction quality as equal to the Yamaha. I don't think the hardware is quite in the same league though as others have commented. That said, all works well and feels robust enough.

To my ears it sounds great. The bridge pick up has a bright and twangy sound. Neck pick up a bit dull by comparison. Middle switch position gives a nice blend of sounds. So far, I tend to just use the bridge pick up.

If I had to make a suggestion or find any criticism at all, I'd rather have a solid opaque vintage white finish rather than the semi translucent finish which I think looks more 'classic'. My guitar has some varying shades in the wood which make it look a bit 'grey' in places. This is the draw back of buying blind on-line. For the price I'm certainly not complaining.

In summary, I'm really impressed with this Guitar and would definitely recommend.

I'd love to demo a more expensive brand to see what the extra money buys you, because for £99 I think you're getting a lot of guitar for the money.

Best £99 I ever spent!!

Love this guitar

Had this guitar for over a year. Pickups were unremarkable, so I replaced them. Touched up the frets, very minor truss rod adjustment. Didn't like the bridge or the saddles, so I replaced them. Love the maple neck and fretboard, feels comfortable and fast. Overall, quite a bargain. Wouldn't hesitate to buy again.

You get what you pay for

It's a great value guitar if you keep in mind how much you paid for it and are willing to put in some work to bring it up to scratch or have low standards in general.

I originally purchased it as a cheap guinea pig for practicing 'relic' work. It turned out to be worth keeping with a few changes and while it doesn't compare to a real Fender it's still fun to have around.

PROS

+ decent finish

+ nice chunky neck and body with good tone and sustain

+ plays decent

+ straight neck, surprisingly decent fret work

+ reasonable platform for basic modification

CONS

+ near useless tuners

+ non-standard design despite the 'Telecaster' look. For example if you wanted to swap out the neck, the routing is not compatible with a proper Fender neck. Fair enough, but then it's also not even compatible with other Harley Benton necks, having tried with both a TE-70 (fits with some effort but would need holes redrilled) and a Fusion-T neck (just forget about it).

MIXED

+ electronics are cheap but serviceable. Pots, pickup switch etc are not exactly the smoothest but at least don't sound crackly.

+ pickups are heavily microphonic. This is generally considered undesirable but I think can actually be a nice thing as long as you're not playing with heavy distortion to get some more natural playing sound. They do a decent enough job at imitating the Telecaster tone as long as you're going through a decent amp. If you're just playing at home or jamming out some blues in your garage, these do the job. If you're ever going to play live or record anything, or like to throw in anything more than a very mild overdrive, they need to be replaced.

+ tuners are junk as expected As long as you're not doing any string bending they're OK for the price though.

WHAT WOULD I CHANGE?

If you consider this as a cheap basis for modifying into a better insrument:

* better pickups (Fender Tex Mex are a great budget option here, I ended up with some Fralins when I decided I'd actually keep the guitar)

* replace the tuners with locking tuners (you may need to widen the tuner holes depending on which ones you buy)

* replace the nut with a Graph Tech nut

* copper tape shielding around the pickup cavities and under pickguard

* add string trees (genuine Fender roller trees are really cheap so don't skimp)

The price of the guitar just doubled but these are all pretty easy changes and you're left with a gig-worthy instrument instead of a collection of compromises.

one of the best budget electric guitars on the market

i ordered mine a couple of weeks ago and i am needless to say very satisfied with this product. very fast delivery too and very reliable tracking. it is my first electric guitar, other than the ones passed onto me by family. this one is a great start to telecasters.

so underatted

I've been playing for 20ish years now so I am pretty sure I can give a good view on a good guitar, The write ups and pictures dont do it justice. Fast delivery even though I live on the Isle of Man and an amazing guitar for all round build quality and sound. Harley benton guitars never stop amazing me, any youtube video that reviews this guitar is worth a watch as there isn't a single one i've found that doesn't sing its praises and quite right too!

A very smart deal

With feets on the coffetable i scroll through dozens of youtube vids to find a new tele model for my self.

I listen to the sound basically. When I hear it, it takes me 10 sek. to decide if I like it or not. From before I have a Fender strat 1979 and a US tele from 84. The strat must have thousands of playingours on it because I did play for a living late 80es. The tele was partly a gift from my dad so I am a bit scared to drag it around gigging everywhere. Emotional you know.

I found the Harley Benton 30 where a guy played it. I liked the sound immediately.

Now I used it for a while. I even record a little with it. The sound is just as good as my US tele. A touch sweeter in a way, a bit quackyer maybe, and I love that. The US tele i have are bigger in the high frequencies maybe but that is not necessary a plus. Depends on what you want.

I believed I would change something after a while but I will not. I keep the pickups, I like the way the guitar sounds.

But I have to dig up something that is not all good right ? To stay trustworthy in a way ? Well, the frets had a somewhat jagged surface. Like small cuts at the surface or something. Maybe they transport wire for them at donkeyback or something ,I dont know but they should be careful with the materials. So what do I do about that ? Nothing, but playing the living daylight out of this thing, and now the use have polish that away.

Next on the block is the tuners. I am used to Fender tuners and at least one of the like dropped a little when start tuning. Just a little. Now when I am used to them i manage to use them and it is all good.

This poor thing will be put to mercyless work. That is how I express love.

Looking for a change

I was looking for a new guitar. I bought this to test the waters and fell in love immediately. I did replace the pickups but otherwise everything is stock still.

1958

love it

fretboard a little flat

My first Tele!

The guitar is very good for begginer.I wrote this review

after same years.Always judge evrything begining of the price.I thing there is no cheaper tele with so good feeling

The guitar for the reason that i bought it was amazing.

For every begginer it is the one !!!

Amazing

Great feeling neck sounds great plugged in or acoustic highly recommended

Harley Benton TE-30 BE Standard Series Tele

I ordered a B stock on this one so I can not comment on a brand new item. However I will say that aside from a small mark on the top of the headstock, this appears to be brand new! So no complaints at all there! Looks, plays, feels and sounds great for the price. Frets were all crowned and dressed with no sharp edges. Quality is high for the price. Would recommend!