Harley Benton TE-70 Black Paisley 4-stars Reviews

Harley Benton TE-70 Black Paisley

My second Harley Benton guitar. You wont be disappointed for the price, looks lovely. Single coil guitars are really not my thing BUT i felt i needed one to add to my collection.

The Harley Benton HB JA-60 OW i bought before this guitar was so good straight out the box, it needed no set up nothing.

This guitar did need work. The nut was tight & needed filing, it also had a couple of high frets. The set up cost me £35 witch is standard. I also put some new Wilkinson tuning pegs on it BUT that was my choice as i had a spare set at home.

All in all for the money it's a very nice guitar. With any new guitar you got to be prepared for it needing a set up or once over by a good luthier.

It's a great guitar for the money!

its ok

first of all, it looks gorgeous, very handsome guitar, it's in very good shape, nothing unfinished or sharp-edged, it's in a very good structural condition, it came almost in tune, string heights are very good, the neck is a bit chunky, keyboard feeling is okay,

soundwise; it's bit dull and deaf, I think its desperately needed for a pickup swap. then it may be something really great I don't know

Buy with confidence

Been playing 20 odd years & owned plenty of bad and good guitars - This is a great high quality budget guitar. It's not equal to a £1000 fender as some would have you believe but easily worth twice the price.

Pros

Great look, plays great, comfortable weight, neck is thick, tuners do the job well,plenty of twang in the bridge and neck is warm. Well set up out the box. Beautiful cleans and bluesy grit. Nut cut well although plastic.

Cons

Frets needed a very light polish. Pick ups are noisy under high gain, I play stoner rock so I quite like this and won't be changing pups. Slight scratch on fret board across first fret...you have to look to notice though (otherwise flawless).

If you want a guitar that's fun and comfortable to play without breaking the bank then go for it. As a beginner guitar it's amazing...if you want to mod guitars or practice luthier skills it's a great purchase.

Good, but not perfect

I'll admit that I was originally persuaded to buy this purely based on the finish. Some people would call that shallow, but I was after a cheap Tele copy and why not get a pretty one?

When it arrived, I was struck by the following:

Pro: the finish was flawless

Pro: it's no lightweight - it feels solid and hefty, and ready to put up with the rigours of life

Neutral: it has a very hefty neck. My main guitar is a Fender Strat Plus, and the TE-70's neck is nowhere near as slim. It's a lot more vintage spec than that. It's also finished in a very pale colour - I think a more vintage tint might suit it more?

Con: mine arrived with the nut cut incredibly high. The 1st fret action was higher than the 7th fret action when I capo-ed at the 1st fret, and it was glued in far too firmly for me to remove it and sand down the underside, so I had to get a set of nut files and do each string's slot individually.

Con: the pickups don't seem that well matched. The bridge was far too bright for me to get a balanced sound that worked for bridge and neck. I've swapped them out for a Fender Yosemite set now and it's so much better.

Now the issues have been resolved, I've got a guitar that sounds great, looks great and plays great.

Great for the price.

This is the second Harley Benton electric guitar I've had, and it's broadly similar to the previous. Which is to say - it's a decent guitar in its' own right, but for the price it's amazing.

The patterned body looks great, as does the neck. The frets were reasonably well finished. A quick polish would help but I'd expect the same from a guitar several times the price. I haven't had any issues wth tuning stability, which can be an issue for cheaper guitars.

The Roswell pick-ups are perhaps the weakest part of the guitar. While the tone is fine and they have the authentic chime and quack of a tele neck and bridge, the bridge in particular was very microphonic, picking up the slightest knock against the body. I replaced them with a set of (also cheap) Wilkinsons and this issue is solved.

In all a good guitar at a very competitive price, and with a little extra work it can be made great.

Great value guitar, spoilt by poorly finished frets

Great looking and sounding guitar. Tremendous value. Only downside is that the frets have an incredibly rough surface. This really spoils a great value package.

More pros than cons

Had this guitar a few weeks and have been playing it constantly. There is a lot to be said about this little axe.

Firstly the cons. There are a couple, The frets aren't particularly well finished and they are a little scratchy. I had seen this in previous reviews and had already expected it to be the case. Also there was a ding on the head stock. I'm not overly concerned as I tend to knock bits off my guitars but I would have preferred a non damaged guitar. The tuners are serviceable. Keeps reasonable tune but I was always going to replace these anyway. There is a slight bit of router burn on the neck. Not particularly noticeable and does not effect playing but I want to be honest with a review.

Ok so the pros. This guitar looks great. The paisley effect and finish is really nice. Well balanced and not heavy at all. It came pretty much set up and mostly in tune which was nice. Pickups are perfectly fine I may or may not swap them out. Neck is really comfortable and well finished. Not too sticky gloss which is good.

Overall this is a great guitar for the price. Having read reviews of Harley Benton I thought I would take a punt on this and I'm very happy with it. I think with a few extra £s spent on upgrading some of the hard ware it will play like a guitar twice it's value.

great guitar for the price.

Time will tell. So far so good. Need to set it up because action is very high for my liking but as was expected. I added Harley Benton black locking tuners and brass tone and volume knobs.

Looks great. Neck and frets perfect. What more could you ask for? A better nut would seal the deal for me.

GOOD QUALITY TELECASTER

Bought this guitar and was surprised with the original telecaster sound,good sustain chunky neck that i like everything was positive for the price a little bit more care could have been taken by the quality control department because the fret ends were very unfinished and sharp and a few high spots (a few hours work sorted that out),

all in all i can reccomend this guitar at this price

Looks great but needs a bit of setup out of the box

According to the many review videos on youtube, I expected the guitar to be in more playable condition out of the box. Frets are rough and action was quite high(neck was straight as an arrow, but I expected to need a truss rod adjustment). Still an amazing value and I don't mind doing a little tweaking. Just be aware that these guitars MAY need some attention in order to be as good as possible(something you might need to pay for if you don't work on your own guitars). Though this guitar was not a "B" stock, it did come with a couple of minor finish flaws that probably should have made it a "B" stock with a modest discount. I plan on adding a middle pickup so that should be interesting.

Good for the price

This is great build quality for the price. I prefer slim modern C necks so this model didn't work so nicely for me. I prefer slightly higher quality guitars than this but for the price it is decent quality and the pickups were pretty good as well giving classic telecaster tones.

Great value for money

Love this guitar, the paisley finish may not suit everyone. The guitar played fairly well straight out of the box but need a little tweak to the truss rod, now it plays really well. Neck is smooth and action is low. Pups are good for the money and sounds pretty good. Punches above it’s weight in terms of value

Great Tele buy - Highly recommended

Overall it's exactly what you expect from a Tele guitar in terms of sound and feel.

Pros:

- Price

- Overall build quality

- Good playability, comfortable neck and nice setup out of the box.

- Good sound from build and these stock pickups.

- Efficient hardware (tuners, bridge).

- Good finish, paint job.

cons:

- Slightly not accurate fret work which i had to trim here and there for better and more accurate setup.

Solid little Guitar

I love the guitar. The neck is a tiny bit thicker than i was used to and the low E had a nasty buzz but a solid set up has made it imminently playable. I use it in Praise band every week unless we're doing an acoustic set. The fit and finish is pretty much perfect on the body and other than some rough frets, the neck isn't too shabby either. I'm a 35 year guitar player and can't imagine having access to guitars at this price point when I started learning in jr high school in the 80's.

Solid guitar

Works well, good finish, great neck, good bang for buck

HB TE-70 BP

Zeer mooi gitaartje.

Frets en fretboard zijn onberispelijk en zo is de finish.

Spijtig genoeg is er 1 negatief punt . . . de gitaararm staat lichtjes uit de haak tov de body maar wonderwel doet dit niets af aan de intonatie want die is perfect ! ! !

Al bij al goede Telecaster voor weinig geld.

Very good product.

I am very satisfied with the quality of product related with the good price.

Excellent base for a project guitar

After having mine for over 1 year and a half, and owning a bunch of more expensive instruments, I still pick it up when I want a simple, no nonsense guitar that can go from mellow, jazzy tones, to crunchy rock rhythm at the flick of a switch. It looks really good if you like the paisley detailing, and apart from a few flaws (expected at this incredible prince point), it punches way above its weight.

My TE-70 still came with Wilkinson pickups, which were incredibly microphonic (hence the 3 stars for sound). Because I like to use high gain amps and pedals, I've replaced the more offending bridge pickup almost immediately - an easy enough job (if you know what you're doing) because of the easy access to the controls. I still kept the Wilkinson neck pickup, which I'll probably end up replacing at some point.

I've also replaced the original tuners with new Klusons. The originals did the job, but could be a bit sticky and jumpy - the Klusons are buttery smooth and look the part.

The fret edges also needed some filing, as some of them were uncomfortably sharp - not enough to hurt, just enough to feel cheap.

In all, if you're looking for a really inexpensive TE model guitar, enjoy the exquisite paisley finish, and won't shy away from doing some mods, this might be perfect for you.

This a great telecaster found a few sharpe frets but they can be sorted out quickly. My guitar teacher can't believe the quality for the price you get with harley benton guitars hes already brought a few strats allready for his students.

I almost love it

There are only a couple things about this gtr that I don't love.

It it looks good enough (not great), sounds very good.............they feel and pliability is not quite what I'm used to. As with other inexpensive guitars the fret ends need dressed badly. Frets in general need leveled, dressed and polished (fret buzz with comfortable action). And the neck is crazy thick. Like twice as thick as any other T style I own or have played. It's playable but so weird or uncomfortable it makes you not want to pick it up and play.