Harley Benton TE-30 BE Standard Series Reviews

Really nice for this price

Neck is thick shape like les paul or custom shop fenders, i love it.Pickups not bad,i will load twang king.But very suprising me for this price really cool.

Good value, but heavy

I bought this guitar for my daughter, who is a beginner. As a guitar, it's well-made and everything a beginner needs, but it's very heavy, nearly as heavy as my Les Paul and much heavier than a typical Tele.

Really good cheap guitar

Bought this as I have never tried a telecaster before. Was looking specifically for one with a maple fret board and this was by far the cheapest about.

The finish is really nice. High gloss, but you can see the grain through the finish (not just loaded with paint). No massive blemishes or rough spots except one slight chip on the neck joint. The neck is smooth and lacks the sticky lacquer you'd expect from a guitar this price.

The sound over all is good. The bridge pickup is very snappy and unsurprisingly suits chicken pickin' style stuff really well. Can get a bit screechy at high gain. The neck pick up is woolly. Works really well clean or with light gain, but can become too compressed at high gain. The middle position with a bit of light drive sounds amazing.

Seems to hold tune well so far, and the volume and tone knobs again manage to avoid the usually hassle of cheap guitars in that they only work at either full on or full off. Very impressive guitar for the money.

The neck is a bit of a baseball bat, which will suit some more than others, and may make it a tough guitar for beginners. The action on this particular guitar was quite high, but again thats a matter or personal preference.

Brilliant for the money, I would recommend it to anyone looking for a cheap knock about guitar, or as a spare for a gigging tele.

harley benton telecaster

for the price is unbelievable and the sound is just great

An Excellent Take On A Classic

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 (also reviewed). 3 working days later they arrived.

On opening the box my first impressions were wow the TE-30 is beautiful, The body is made of 2 nicely figured pieces of ash that are center joined and stained a mid 50's vintage white which is flawless . This was areal surprise as I expected a multi piece body with possibly a veneer on the front.

The neck is nice piece of maple with a nice c section to it and nice a satin finish that feels nearly as good as my fender relic tele. The frets were a t little uneven so as it was going for a setup I decided to convert it to a esquire style tele.

The bridge plate felt a little cheap but the dimensions meant that I could swap it for a bridge I already had.(I change most of the hardware on my guitars). The tuners 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. I managed to make it sound even more mellow by rolling the tone off a little. The real joy is the bridge pickup, this little ceramic beauty so almost identical to the lap steel pickups that were used in early esquires and teles up to 1952 .

The guitar is now back from its setup and it's fantastic. The neck pick has been removed and a new pickguard mounted the wiring has also been changed over to the esquire wiring. This guitar rocks with the best of my collection.

Overall a fantastic guitar for the money and even better if you send a little money upgrading a couple of areas (though other than a fret level it doesn't need any real work).

Harley Benton TE-30 BE Standard Series

Normally a bass player, I was looking for something dirt cheap but that still looked good to play around on guitar-wise. The used market looked a little sparse, and anything for the same price as the TE-30 had very little going for it.

I was a little cynical about the potential quality of such a cheap Telecaster model, but, with it in my possession, I'm very impressed. The tonal range is a little lacking, but the build quality seems fine. The finish looks unique and nicely done and it sounds impressive for a cheap guitar.

At some point I may replace the pickups, I expect it'd create a rather nice, if inexpensive, telecaster copy.

Great student guitar...

I have bought two of these. The first had a beautiful Ash body that you could see through the translucent finish, with a great fitted neck. Everything about it said tele, the sound, feel, weight and the look. On the flip side the second one was a multi-part body that had a less impressive grain and the neck was not as good as the first. However, that’s not to say the second one was not good or worth the money. What it highlights is the possibility of the two extremes. In my case ( and having experience with the Harley Benton brand) I guess that I got one from each end of the quality spectrum. They are nice playing guitars and ideal for students. They were equally both playable from the box , overall they are a good buy, just be aware there could be differences.

Project guitar

I bought this guitar mainly for the price of this ash body tele. The set up was ok when I got it, but I had to fix some string buzz. After playing for a while it felt ok, easy to play at least and good acoustic sound. But I was not very impressed by the neck it was a bit big and odd. So I sanded it down a bit and now it's good. It's more of a Ibanez neck then a classic fender tele. I was never really impressed with this guitar (well for the price yes but otherwise no). So I decided to make it an project partcaster guitar. So now I have changed the bridge and made it an string true and changed the pickups (and I'm going to change the electronics to). So now this guitar is starting to grow on me. For this price I would recommend it.

Plays, Sounds and Looks Great

This guitar plays, sounds and looks great, with nice high gloss finish and great sounding pickups, not unlike "Wilkinson's" in tone. This guitar played fine right out of the box and took very little to set up to my taste.

It really is good looking, much better in the flesh that photos. I really like the blonde "shaker" style body colour and grain detail, topped off with a nice high gloss lacquer Finnish. The natural colour maple neck and fret board have nice, subtle grain effects, with a matt/satin finish that feels soooo silky smooth in the hands, and to crown that off, nice even frets, well dressed with no "razor blade" ends, like even some more expensive guitars can often have.

The factory set up, and particularly the intonation on this is guitar is excellent. With 4 perfect and 2 very close, it's better than normally possible with a three barrel tele bridge. amazing as normally you can only get 6 close or 3 perfect with 3 near.

not very good

This is a cheap tele copy in every way

Saddles, bridge tuners & wiring would have to be replaced to work properly

body is solid wood but doubt its ash neck is bearable with a bit of work

It sounds ok though

Pick a Squier over this !

Good Entry Level.

Let me say that, for the price, this has to be classed as good value for money. I was, hoping for a perfect set up and finish. I think that this was a bit optimistic at this entry level. Nevertheless, after a professional set up, the guitar was good and sounded great. The pickups and hardware are fine, and apart from a flaw on the back where the lacquer had sunk into a knot, the finish was perfect. If it's your lucky day, you might get a perfect one.