Harley Benton TE-20HH SBK Standard Series Reviews

Shipping to Canada

Had to try a Harley Benton out so ordered a TE-20HH SBK as it was cheapest in stock and wanted to test getting it to Canada.....all went well guitar arrived in about 10 days....was contacted by a customs broker and payed duty online....total cost 129+ 93 shipping+22 duty + 11 pick up fee =255 cad....well boxed....not a blemish on it anywhere....playable right out of the box....had a friend who is a Telecaster nut (owns 5 fenders) try it out...and he was blown away with the quality , sound and playability ....had have it for a couple of months now ...and still impressed

based on this experience just ordered the model I wanted from the start

a CTS-24T P90 Black Flame....here's hoping things work out on this one

Hats off to HB

Decent beginner T HH guitar

In brief

Looks: very nice. Matt black is very eye catching

Quality: Apart from some minor pokey frets generally very good

Sounds: Not bad. A little muddy and lacking in range but remember the price

Tuning: ok, the tuners do what you would expect for the money, reasonable accuracy, a little play and overshoot, but nothing major.

Overall, a very decent beginner guitar for the money. Don't expect 'magic for the price but with a few upgrades it could be a very decent guitar

Wow, just wow this made me like Tele’s

This is an unbelievable guitar that has a dark side. The neck is my favorite part but the satin finish comes a close second. If your not a fan of bright shrill pickups you will love love this. Clear, smooth, and warm are the best words to describe this double hum-bucking Tele.

You have to buy one

Superb quality, sound and playability, I have guitars that cost 10times this and you really would struggle to tell ….. spent 10 minutes adjusting the action, only because I like a very low action and that was it , played great straight out of the box….. unbelievable for the price !

Black Magic

Was taken by its matt finish and smart looks. As with all HB products, this is well made and does it’s job well. And the price is a complete bargain. For something a bit different, this fits the bill. Magic!

Michael Campos

Everything received in good order in my office - Chile.

thanks! Excellent service!

Snatched from me in a second.

I ordered this for myself as a backup guitar for heavy riffs. When my friend saw it and tried I couldn't get it back from him. This ended up as a present 'cos my friend's birthday was coming soon. The best present I ever gave to anybody.

Absolutely Insane Quality

I bought this guitar as a back up I figured for the price I couldn't go wrong. Man that was truth and then some. for 100 bucks this guitar punches far above it weight class. Everything came in great and the thing was flawless. The only thing that was lack luster was the pick ups, but you can easily swap those out and still be under 400 or 500 bucks

good

very good guitar for this price

Plays great

Great tele … plays great out of the box, better after a little set up… really fun guitar

How do they do it..?

Just took delivery of this guitar and all I can say really is 'wow!'. Its very nice, well put together, sounds great, no sharp fret edges, nothing out of place, machine-heads all in a neat row, pots nice and firm - also the vol pot is not an 'on-off' type found on many guitars, cheap or otherwise, it actually brings the volume down nice and steady, tone pot is also quite usable.

I think the only negative I've sort of found so far would be to note that the body thickness is around 38-mm which is rather slim, however, given the price and indeed the pup configuration this is not a great issue tonally and I will not mark it against in my conclusion.

The neck feels great btw. Oh, and strung through the back... I wish they would do that with the TE 30 model, which I also own and rate as the nicest guitar I possess, only let down in a small way by having no through-body stringing.

The PUP's have some growl - this is not your standard 'tele' but that's obvious by the pup; this is a rock guitar through and through - the all-black finish screams 'rock' and so the the tones.

Finally the guitar has arrived pretty well set-up, I've lowered the saddles a tad and not a buzz to be heard anywhere!

Pros - great guitar irrespective of the price... take the price into account and really...!?

Cons - None. I've paid 5 x times the money for less satisfaction on many occasions. If HB keep up this level of product they will soon either cause certain other budget brands to seriously up-their-game, or just give up.

A Sleek Style Tele for an Affordable Price

The Harley Benton TE-20HH is a full matte black telecaster with two passive humbuckers.

For less than £100, this telecaster makes a nice edition to the collection. The build quality of the body and neck won’t be as perfect as any custom fender guitar, but it’s also leagues better than any off brand guitar for a similar price. It find that nice balance in between, with the body of the guitar being nicely contoured and finished. My only gripe would be with at neck. The whole neck and fingerboard has also been painted in the matte black finish. While the smooth finish on the back of the neck is quite nice, I found the fingerboard to be a bit harder to work with, as the paint covers the natural feel of the wood, and is harder for me to play. This doesn’t couple well with some rougher frets, although still playable and fine.

The humbuckers are my least favourite thing on the guitar, as a guitarist who focuses on distortion and metal. When put through high gains and distortion, the humbuckers become more fuzzy and static making it harsher sounding in more of a negative way, but some people may prefer this, and it’s not as bad when playing chord progression. However, if you want to use the guitar through clean settings then it’s pretty good. Because the humbuckers remain simple, then so do the clean sounds. This creates a gentle sound not akin to traditional tele pickups, but still nice nonetheless. If you want to sound good like this, then a pinch of reverb, delay and chorus works perfectly. (If your amp or pedals can do that)

But now for the other more individual reasons I myself like the guitar. Firstly while I don’t like the painted fretboard, I do absolutely adore matte black finish guitars with a minimalist design. The guitar in person looks just as good as it does in the review videos online, and it matches my personal style, similar to that of my Ibanez grg121dx. The matte finish can also be customised if you have an artistic mind, which was one of the reasons I thought about picking up this guitar, because this also moves into the second reason why I like it. It’s a good project guitar. Double humbuckers connected to one volume and tone pot with a five way selector switch are easy to switch out if you want. The hardware such as the bridge, machine heads and pickguard can all be switched out if you have the right parts and want to upgrade. Therefore, this makes the guitar good for either stripping down and rebuilding to test, or to even upgrade as you go. Especially for the low price cost, which is honestly great for what you get.

Overall, I believe for the low price point I would recommend this guitar if it’s your style and you like the initial impressions of it as it is reliable and cheap, while also playing and looking nice.

Played well out of the box.

Good Finish without any blemishes.

Neck is very confortable (not very thin) and it holds the tuning well (Eb Standard).

Nice mod base if you wish to do so.

Excelent Value for the money.

Looks can be decieving

Bought this guitar purely for the look of it, when I got it, I plugged it in and immediate buzzing! Turns out it was NOT wired correctly, has to fix that myself. QC might want to do a more thorough check on these guitars, electrics and all before they send them out! buyer beware

Perfect for project and tinkering

Remember, this is under 90 Euros. Do not expect like a Squier Classic Vibe series. If you are someone who loves to customize a telecaster, this is definitely the guitar for you. The matte finish is stunning complimented with the pickguard. The frets do not need any work. At least the one I received. Polished and no fret buzz. My suggestion for upgrades in order of priority is 1) Nut and strings. 2) Pickups. Really, the pots and hardware is optional. I play mostly clean and low gain so I do not really need 500K pots.

As everybody says!

Absolutely amazing! The odd review mentions sharp frets, cant say I have them. Faultless guitar, delivered 2 days before due date.

Pickups are too hot, but great feel

When it arrived the neck looked like a banana, but after a proper setup it plays great, although both pickups are incredibly hot and almost unusable clean. However the build quality is great and I can see it as a fantastic base for a mod project.

Not a Tele knockoff

This is a great guitar, a couple of simple tweaks after it arrived and it plays like a dream. This is not a cheap Fender/Squire knockoff guitar this is its own beast. The modern C neck and 12" (as opposed to classic C neck and 9.5 radius) gives this neck a much faster sleeker feeling than a comparable "name brand" guitar.

I'll refrain from reviewing the electronics as I plan to replace them anyway, but they appear adequate in all respects.

The fit and finish of this guitar is impeccable for what this fiddle costs, a similar squire is $249.99 (6/30/21) and doesn't include a matching neck finish or modern neck.

Pros: Great beginner rock or metal guitar that can grow with you for many many years. An extremely solid instrument that feels far more expensive than it is.

Cons: About the only drawback for this instrument for me personally is that I live in the USA so it costs me $65 to get this shipped, but even the sting of that was lessened by it arriving so quickly (ordered on a Sunday night, it arrived Thursday afternoon).

Great guitar, great company. This is my second Harley Benton guitar (the other is a SC-Custom II Active White) and its probably not gonna be my last.

Hope that this helps someone out there.

They don't get much better

I didn't expect much, just simply a play around mod/experiment guitar. Boy was I ever shocked, plays excellent and the sound is absolutely the best I have ever heard. The pickups sound better than all of the high priced ones you all know about. So if you are looking for a telecaster on a budget you won't go wrong here.

ALL AROUND A GREAT GUITAR

guitar played good right out of the box, can't really say there are any cons about the guitar, the action was a little high for my preference but you tweak pretty much every guitar to your personal feel so that's not a con, the quality is beyond the price, all around it's

a great guitar