Harley Benton TE-20MN CA Standard Series Reviews

Good for the price

Only issue I've had so far is that the frets weren't perfectly smooth. I had to file down a bit on the side since my bottom E string sometimes got stuck after a heavy bend, but since then I've had no issues. The rest of the frets wore smooth after a few months of playing.

Solid guitar

This is a very good guitar for only €89, no sharp frets, amazingly the fretboard has been rolled on the edges. I haven't seen that on any of my guitars that i have bought from anywhere. Frets themselves aren't great. Action is too high, when i tried to lower them the fret buzz was annoying so i had to raise them back up, that's something i'll deal with later on.

All in all i'm very happy with this guitar and the colour and finish is beautiful. There is a slight bend in the jack plate which causes it to be lifted off of the body but only like a millimetre or so.

The TE-20 sounds and feels really nice and at the price i really recommend it as a purchase if you want something for modding. Speaking of which the Guitar is routed for a humbucker in the neck position , which i think i will be putting in there. The metallic candy apple finish is sweet and looks black when looking at it from an angle.

What a great guitar, gig bag and service!

My fine TE-20 and the perfect, inexpensive gig-bag was delivered in less than 5 days to my doorstep! Wonderful instrument, plays, feels and sounds perfect! It needed some tuning and plays great, right out of the box. Impressed with the packaging and shipping info as well! Thank you for the truss-rod tool, cool guitar cord, AND for the awesome service! Danke schön! L.S., Nevada

Great Guitar!

I've had this guitar now for almost half a year and I love it. When I first got it was almost near perfect. The frets were not sharp at all and everything about the guitar was pretty awesome. The pickups were a bit noisy and muddy sadly, but given that this was a sub 100 dollar guitar, you can't really complain about it.

I bought this mostly to build a super tele if you will on the cheap. I was also going to do some wear and tear on the body and neck of the guitar, but once the guitar got here, I didn't want to do that anymore. The red just pops and is complimented by the pickguard. I would rather have it wear through years of playing now than to artificially do it.

The mods that I've done on this guitar so far have totaled over 4 times as much as the guitar is worth and I love it. The original set of tuners were good but I wanted locking tuners, and the nut I wanted to replace with something better as it was plastic. This is the mods list for the guitar so far:

Hipshot Locking Tuners

Graphtech String Tree

Graphtech Nut XL

DiMarzio Straplocks

Wilkinson Tele Bridge

EMG T System

If you do plan on replacing the pickups you'll most likely need to widen the hole for the pickups on the pickguard if you plan on changing it over to EMG's. The original bridge does not fit an EMG pickup at all and the guitar body needs to be dremeled/cut away a little bit for the pickup to sit right in the body and also fit the Wilkinson bridge. I plan on doing a more outrageous mod later on though as I want to send my guitar into Evertune for a bridge to be fitted in there.

The TLDR:

Pros:

-Great mod platform

-No fret ends

-Holds tune

-Is amazing out of the box

Cons:

-The original pickups are a little muddy and on the dirty channel have a lot of feedback

-Changing the pickups required widening the hole on the neck position of the pickguard (At least with EMG's, and original bridge will not fit an EMG in there)

Great guitar for the price

The fretboard is very flat compared to a Fender, but the fretwork is good and the action can be set very low. The strings were very rusty and had to be replaced after a couple of days. The pickups are not noisy. The tuners are just OK. A great guitar for the price, especially if you don't mind the flatter fretboard.

As far as features go for a telecaster: this is a exactly what you would expect from a standard telecaster set-up.

The sound is quite nice from the box, although the pick-ups miss a bit of mid-range punch. What I don't like, is that the bridge pick-up is very microphonic and a bit harsh (even for a tele). For this reason, I will first try to solve this by treating them with wax myself, or perhaps change the pickups...

I was really surprised with the finish and build quality. The guitar looks great! The fret board wood has a nice structure in it, which I like a lot. The fret ends could be slightly smoother, but I have felt much worse guitar necks on more expensive guitars. A bit of polishing and carefully sanding will make it perfect. The set-up from the box is ok, I might lower the action a bit, but in general very playable.

This is a very nice instrument to start with, or to modify a bit to your own liking.

Impressive

Had this guitar a few weeks now, it’s a fantastic guitar for the price.

I had been looking to buy a Tele for quite a long time, just couldn’t make my mind up, then saw a couple of reviews for this.

Glad I decided to wait, the finish is fantastic, the neck smooth and very playable, can’t fault this guitar. May change strings, but for a home player that’s about it. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you purchase this guitar.

great bang for your buck

Man, this guitar feels soooooo goood, it plays like butter, I was sceptic about it at first, but when it arrived, it was perfectly set up, in tune, ready to rock. The only flaw is the neck pickup, it sounds very muddy. Change that, and you are ready for a Bruce Springsteen tribute band.

amazed

Been around now for 74 years and still gigging.Currently own a Ric 12 string,Deusenberg Double Cat and a HB XT22. I've just bought one of those new fangled Fender Tonemaster twin amps so what better to exploit the fender tube sound than a Telecaster,though a HB rather than the real thing.

Here's my findings.... this £75,yes £75 guitar has a flawless finish,not a mark,blemish anywhere.

The guitar had obviously been set up for notation,action etc and was pretty good for me.

Here are the pros

1) well constructed

2) Perfectly finished

3) Tuners are ok

4)Great Tele sound

5)Hardware is good for a budget guitar

6)Action was playable out of the box

Cons

1) Frets needed polishing

2) Strings were rubbish

3)Fret ends were sharp and needed filing smooth

4)Bridge height adjustment screws nearly cut my hand so needed shortening

So,after an hour or so resolving the issues I have a £75 guitar that plays,looks and sounds great and I'm frankly amazed at what can be had for so little money!

My advice is ...if you are considering if this is a worthwhile spend,don't hesitate..buy one!

very good guitar for the price,, if you are just geting into the guitar you wont buy better pickups ore not the best but thay are ok you get the telly twang and the neck is very good and the paint work is second to none im not saying its as good as a fender but it is very close put some realy nice pickups in it and you have a guitar for life,, i have fender guitars strat tellys and the harley benton guitars ar as good take it from me iv been playing for years but if you wont a better guitar without paying fender price jump up the range a bit with harley benton,, thay are on a par with fender but this guitar is a fantastic first guitar and if you get the harley benton tube 15 amp as well you can get out and gig strat away for under £300 pounds,, are well keep playing and you will get there in the end dont forget you only get what you put into it

Nothing Better

Looks like a tele. Feels like a tele. Sounds like a tele. My only concern is that certain areas needed a little clean up like the nut and pickguard but those can be cleaned up very easily. Would recommend.

Overall amazing product! But i found one flaw.

I found this guitar very pleasant to play, good tone, smooth fretboard, classic neck.

I give this product 4.5 star because there is a crack on a bottom(

This is an excellent guitar for the price. It was very well set up and looks great. It is lovely to play and the neck feels good. The neck pick up doesn’t sound that interesting to my ears, but the bridge pickup gives me just the sort of telecaster twang I was looking for.

Great guitar for the price

I've been playing guitar as a hobby for over 35 years but somehow Telecasters were never on my radar- I don't know why but they didn't really appeal to me. My opinion changed a few months ago when I played a Tele for the first time and quickly realised that I had to have one.

Given that I already own several guitars, I didn't want to spend a fortune. My instinct was to go for a Squier Affinity, however I kept reading good things about Harley Benton so I decided to give this a try.

I'm so glad I did, because in my opinion this is actually better. It feels a bit more substantial (especially at the neck), and it has the classic 3 saddle bridge (with Squier you only get this on the top of the range Classic Vibe models). It's also a lot cheaper!

The metallic red finish looks really good, and I love the maple fretboard. It feels good to play and there are no rough edges. In terms of sound, it performs well. The neck pick-up has a nice warm tone while the bridge pickup has a lot of bite and produces some great 'crunch' sounds.

The guitar was received surprisingly well set-up: the intonation was perfect, the action reasonably low (most cheaper guitars have very high & badly cut nuts, but this looked really good) and there was no need for truss rod adjustments.

Tuning stability was great for the first few weeks. Now it needs daily tweaking but I suspect that this might be due to the ageing stock strings which feel very flimsy indeed.

The only issue I had was that the pickup selector stopped working on first use. Removing the control panel, I noticed that the rear of the switch was covered in a powder-like substance. Blowing this away solved the problem.

For the price I'd say this is a very good buy indeed. Obviously it's not in the same league as a Fender, but for an amateur like myself with multiple guitars it's an excellent choice.

Hard to believe

After I've been watching/reading reviews of this and many other HB electric models for a good while, I finally decided i had to try one. No compromise, I've choosen one of the most unexpensive models out of my wish list. Make it or brake it.

Guitar arrived in time and in perfect conditions.

Red finish is really nice looking, no apparent problems. Modern C neck is nicely shaped and definitely inspiring to play. And, most of all, the guitar is immediately playable out of the box, great set up and very good action. It plays incredibly in tune, trying six strings chords all over the neck. Way beyond any possible expectations.

Sound is nice, a bit on the midrangey side. But it's full enough with a nice output to it.

I honestly think this is gonna irreversibly change the market, I couldnt almost believe i was playing a 89 Euros guitar. Fantastic work.

Wish, we had that 40 years ago

Oooookay,

so my Candy Apple Red and Metallic Blue TM20 arrived today. Outer cardboard box was slightly knackered, but inner boxes were okay, except for the styrofoam neck rests, who gave their structural integrity to protect the guitar inside.

No more plastic fillers, but only crushed paper, which I like. Try folded cardboard for the neck rests, you might get rid of those plastic pieces, too.

Have not received any goodies with the guitars, no stickers, no picks, nothing.

From the first looks, the guitars might even come from different factories. The metallic blue guitar is significantly heavier than the red guitar. Haven't had them on the scales - yet - but I'd say the difference is at least 1 kg.

Paintwork is more than acceptable. The blue is a tad lighter than expected, but the red one is that kind of deep "Oooh Yeah!" red that gives me an instant ... cough. Let's leave it there.

The blue one actually has a three ply scratchguard, so that's a pro. The chrome bridge looks better in reality than on the photos. I will check intonation and - yes, it's a Tele, you won't be able to intonate it properly - if it's okay, the chrome bridges may even stay.

Can't say anything about playability yet, as the guitars need to settle down a bit and adjust to the climate here, but so far I'm not disappointed.

Well, there are niggles, though. The neck for instance is cheap. Feels good, but it's not, what you would expect from a proper Tele neck. A maple fretboard Tele neck is hewn from one piece of maple, the truss is set in from the back, hence the prominent skunk stripe. With this neck, they just slapped a maple fretboard on. I know, it is possibly cheaper to use the same neck blanks for all of the HB Teles and then just use different fretboards, but, well, it's not THAT important, but I just noticed it.

Both guitars have a nice first feel. The neck is definitively NOT Tele,, it is wider and flatter than the usual Tele neck. Fret sprout is absent and the narrow thin frets are looking okay -n even though they are not polished. Switches and potentiometers feel solid. Tuners feel and look cheap, but they might do their job.

The red guitar has some issues with the strings not lining up properly, the strings are shifted about 2 mm to the bass side, but this might as well be dealt with by adjusting the bridge, there is enough travel there and then it might even align better with the pickups. The strings are not THAT far off, it's more a bit of a niggle.

Oh dear, the blue guitar REALLY is a heavy one. Don't want to wear that for a long gig ....

Both guitars fell off the production line and passed QC at the 15th of July 2019. Both were checked by Alan.

So, what is my verdict after just ogling over the new TE20 from Harley Benton?

Hardware is better than expected. Triple ply pickguards may stay. Chrome bridge is not too bad, but will be changed to a proper string-through-body part later. Not as soon as expected, but at a later stage.

Paintwork is as good as any Fender.Impressive.

I wish we had guitars of that quality at that price when I was younger. Now I'm in my mid 50's, but when I started guitars, we have had proper sh!t for ridiculous money, you have it good, you don't know how bad we've had it.

Am I happy? If the rest - playability, sound - is up to par, I could not be more happy. Buy the red one - the blue one is too heavy - help yourself to a 5-way super switch and some better pots, caps - without looking at those, they can't be good - and tuners, and you will have a modern Tele. Drop in some better pups if you have to and for way less than 200 €/£/$ you will have a fine, gigworthy instrument. If you ask me "Buy a TE20 HB, pimp it up and put the difference between that and a MiM into gear, lessons, beer?" my answer will always be "Fuck, yeah!"

Good guitar for that price

Hello i can say overall guitiar is quite ok for the money... finish beautifull , with some adjustments - lowering action , neck sanding, frets polishing it is ok... but i will change all electronick... pots , pickups, switch...

Excellent base for mods (and good enough by itself)

The TE-20 has long been thought of as a great base for mods, but the TE-20 MN CA takes it to another level with an amazing finish. The Candy Apple finish is stunning offset by a really nicely finished maple neck.

Playable out of the box, tuners are ok, nut is ok, but the value overall is stunning. As someone who owns a Squier tele bullet FSR at double the cost, I was absolutely stunned at how good this is at the price point, certainly as good if not better as the Squier and heading towards MiM.

Next on the want this is the blue metallic :)