Harley Benton TE-20MN CA Standard Series Reviews

Cheap awesome guitar

Such a cheap guitar, but surprisingly good. The build quality is excellent, great to play on, and really good looking. The fretboard is more flat than on my Fender Telecaster, but really nice to play on. The only downsides are the strings and the pickups, the pickups are below average, but usable - the strings are crap and you should change them immediately. Bridge pickup is really too bright and the neck pickup too dark. Combining the pickups, using the middle position, felt the best. I recommend buying a new pickup set, doesn´t have to be expensive, and new strings and then you get an excellent guitar for such a low price. I highly recommend this product.

A great guitar for moding

Bought this as a moding patient and overall the guitar is great. Sounded nice without need to change anything and came intonated however middle position on the switch didnt work

Good for the price, but not quite a keeper

This guitar is red and inexpensive. My justification right there. But just about every feature of the guitar is 2nd rate. Cheap quality tuners. Bridge isn't the heavy brass barrels needed. The frets aren't filed on the sides. The neck and bridge need set up work. The pickups aren't powerful enough. The switch and pots on the controls are cheap and not really smooth responsive. So this is only worthwhile as a beginner's guitar. Makes me wish that I had gone up a notch on the model. I only bought this low on the totem pole due to some positive You Tube reviews.

Good value Tele clone

This guitar is good value for a player who doesn't mind spending a few hours setting it up. Out of the box the fret ends were sharp, the action was a bit high, the intonation was a bit off and the strings were slightly rusty. I recrowned the frets, polished them and took off the sharp ends. Lowered the action at the bridge saddles, put on a decent set of strings and intonated them. Once set up the guitar plays well. The neck is straight and the truss rod did not need adjusting. The tuners are budget but work smoothly and the guitar stays in tune. The tone is not bad with the twangy Tele vibes we all like. The finish of the body is great - very pretty cherry red metallic with no blemishes. Pots are smooth with no crackles. Knobs are solid chromed metal. 3-way switch works fine. I like this guitar and am having a lot of fun with it but corners have to be cut in order to keep the price down. In this case, the frets need quite some work. The setting up is not difficult - you just need a triangular file, some masking tape, a few grades of fine sandpaper and a few YouTube videos - all part of the fun!

Amazing simple guitar or mod platform

I bought this to mod extensively but was amazed at what you get for the price.

Electronics are cheap but functional. Bridge pickup is actually pretty good as-is.

There were a couple of expected flaws: the fret ends were a bit sharp, I had to file them. The control plate didn't align perfectly with the cavity, I'll have to fix that.

What surprised me most is the profile and feel of the neck. It's like a very soft V, not very chunky, and with nicely beveled edges fretboard edges. It's so comfortable and silky.

For the price point it's a great instrument. Especially if you are a beginner and you don't wanna spend much is a good choice.

In terms of looks it is a beautiful guitar, the color looks really nice.

As a telecaster with single coil pickups is a little noisy when you add distortion, so if you want to achieve heavier sounds maybe this is not the right instrument.

A very basic telecaster, but it works and sounds alright

This is a very basic instrument, but it is a good thing for this money.

It is put together fine and there are no manufacturing defects on this one either - great stuff for so little money. All the knobs work, no weird, unwanted noises and it quacks just like a telecaster should. The fret ends could have been finished better and the neck seemed quite dry. It also needed a slight truss rod and intonation adjustment, but that is to be expected.

The pickups sound quite nice. Sure, they are really cheap, but they do the job and deliver the stereotypical classic sound that you would want from this type of guitar. The noise levels in the single pickup positions are also acceptable and overall - I think this is a nice introduction to telecaster guitars for people who just want to find out what it is all about.

Best guitar ever!

It's red, it plays well, it keeps in tune, and it's better than my Fender Tele, by far!! Highly recommended as a beginner's guitar or anyone that's been playing guitar for 50 years!

Harley Benton TE-20MN CA

For the price you can't beat it. Unlike cheaper selling guitars the frets are smooth and you can just see the care in quality the minute you pick it up. I was surprised how very close the set up is after opening. Action bang on and intonation very close. Sounds great when plugged in. I see some guys change the tuners but the die cast tuners from the factory work perfect and the guitar stays in tune .

Bargain T style guitar

Absolutely stunning looking guitar. Feels and plays far better than it should at this price.

It's good

I don't know if I got lucky, but the built quality was great. The pickups are not good. Muddy and miss harmonics. For the price I can't complain.

Harley Benton TE-20MN CA Quality

Just received in london today. The guitar is beautiful, I really like the neck, body, micro of guitar. Only 1 negative thing is : the frets very bad quality.

I just need to polish my frets with 1500, 2000, 3000 papers it will be fine.

Lots of fun with this guitar

The feel of the guitar it's perfect, the sound and the quality for this price range it's unbelievable. I've had it for a while now and the intonation it's is consistent with the tuning pegs that came with. I dropped it once and though the show was over but NOT. So I'm writing this to let you know that my show continues.

The hype is real

Even though the TE-20 is the entry point to Harley Benton guitars, it is made very well. I would say the quality of this one is similar to that of a affinity tele. However, this guitar feels and plays a little better.

My guitar arrived in perfect condition with no noticeable defects. I did need to adjust the neck a tiny bit and I plan on leveling/polishing the frets as well as replacing the tuners. Otherwise very nice guitar

Unreal

I like the look, feel, sound, action, intonation, as much as my Fender custom shop tele…… as a clean jazz & country player …… all 3 positions sound like a high dollar custom shop model. Set up perfect, low action, perfect intonation, switch is real solid. I had to file the low e string saddle down as it was cutting into my right hand …… otherwise perfect. I just ordered strings …… it’s 20 buckets more than a 10 pack of strings lol………

Nice guitar for the money

Its a great guitar for the money, i also have the te 52 and theres no comparison between the two. This one feels more raw, neck profile feels like a baseball bat. Pickups sound ok. No issues with tuning or intonation.

Shockingly Good

I've been playing for a while now and I'm a bit of a collector of cheap guitars (I have some nicer ones too such as a PRS SE). I wanted a tele to add to my collection.

Make no mistake, this is a cheap guitar. The tuning posts are somewhat loose, the fretts need a polish and the frett ends are of a mixed finish as you work your way up the neck.

THIS BEING SAID. If you are a beginner, the setup out of the box was really nice. The neck feels a bit wider to me than other teles, and I find its low finish/unfinished nature quite easy to play on/fast compared to laquered necks.

IF YOU'VE BEEN PLAYING FOR A WHILE - buy some cheap fine steel wool, some fret guards and your favourite pack of strings. Spend an hour or two polishing the frets. Raise the pickup height. Congratulations, you've got yourself a guitar which plays absolutely beautifully for this price point.

I will say the pickups seem fairly low output and I'll consider replacing them down the line. To be honest though, it doesn't matter. It still sounds nice when you crank the amp. For the price, something has to give somewhere.

Way nicer feeling, playing and sounding than Squiers which cost more than twice as much. I won't give it 5 stars because at the end of the day it's a cheap guitar, but it seems you get way more than you pay for here and I am extremely impressed.

Blown Away

This guitar is simply outstanding. It sounds and plays absolutely perfect. I bought this as a base for mods but after receiving will keep it as is. Superior in every way to guitars I have costing 3x s as much. I love it.

Great Value

Great value, much better than I thought it would be. I have had many Telecaster copies before but without doubt this is the best one. I thought that if I got it and put better pick ups and pots in it I would end up with a very good guitar, but no need, the original pick-ups and pots are fine, so I have been Gigging it stock and well pleased.

Unbelievable for the money

Serious guitar for the money