Harley Benton TE-20MN CA Standard Series 4-stars 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.

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)

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.

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.

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

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...