Harley Benton TE-70 Black Paisley Reviews

What a find

Great Tele, very 50's style neck big bat width, top hardware, great finish, only a hour or so on my bench setting up to my own taste, Awesome addition to my collection, if this was in a Local Guitar Store it would be double or triple the value..

Beautiful instrument

I have owned this guitar for a month now.

It came perfectly set up. Playable right out of the box. Some of the higher frets ( above 15th ) had a bit of a scratchy sound when bending the strings, but after a week or so of playing this guitar non stop they disappeared completely. The tuners are easy to tune, they don't slide at all. At the start, aggressive bending caused detuning on the g and b strings but it is not an issue now.

The sound quality is just nuts. There is no better way of putting it. The low end is super warm in the first and second positions, yet all the high notes come through perfectly.

Then the glorious twangy 3rd position. So vibrant, such a nice chime. I cannot understand how does this guitar sound so good.

The middle position is so rich, it sounds like an acoustic guitar straight out of the amp.

The design is flawless, although it's admittedly darker than I expected it. But it's clearly visible from far away too.

The neck is super comfy , has a nice modern feeling, but it is still a bit thicker than my other guitars. Easy to maneuver. The coated maple fretboard is spotless, and is all around a joy to play on.

I would 10/10 recommend this guitar for everyone who lacks a T style guitar , beginner or advanced player.

The guitar came with a 3m cable as well.

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 Tele

I own several Fender teles including american standard, japanese and mexican. I have owned other copy teles. This HB TE70 compares very favourably with the real thing. In some respects it is superior, it is better balanced and the intonation is very good. There are no fret or finish faults. The pickups do not need replacing. Excellent value.

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 Guitar

Really loving the sound of this guitar, my only feedback would be the plastic protective layer that was on the lipstick pickup was difficult to remove but not impossible, Would recommend this brand to my friends, looking forward to trying some more Harley Benton Guitars. They have opened the door to great gear that anyone can afford

TE-70 Black Paisley Twang in the game

This is my third Harley Benton and I'm in awe of how this company can produce this quality instrument for this kind of prices.

This TE-70 Black Paisley came out of the box ready to go and after adjusting the action to my liking it was feeling and sounding great. I will use this for jamming in my home studio and recording some songs. A great addition to the club.

Love this guitar

Plenty of more in depth reviews on this great instrument. You can get a proper Tele sound for little money. Highly recommended

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.

beautiful guitar. Sanded the neck plays wonderfully.

Tele twang for not a lot of money!

Got this guitar about 2 years ago and I still really like it. As many years ago Harley Benton guitars were quite notorious for being unplayable pieces of junk, I was quite hesitant despite the numerous praising Youtube reviews. Still I decided to

pull the trigger and I am really happy I did! After plugging it into my Vox AC4/hw I realised why the combination of Voxes and Teles are often described as match made in heaven! I especially like the bridge pickup, which despite being a bit microphonic, as some other reviews stated, has a really nice twangy sound. As a blind person I really don\t care about the looks, but some of my sighted friends have told me that they cannot believe so inexpensive guitar can look so great.

The only little problem is that getting it in tune can sometimes be quite a hard task, but once it is in tune it stays there. Even after some hard neck bending, which is often associated with the Teles. So I'll probably buy some locking tuners for that. Yeah, I know they won't increase the tuning stability so much, but when the tuners are about to be changed anyway, why not make the restringing a bit more quicker and comfortable.

Great Value

This guitar looks absolutely stunning. The finish of the body was very good and the polished neck was good but did have a couple of very small blobs in the varnish which didn’t interfere with the playing. The pickups sound like old style Telecaster pickups and are very good. The knobs looked and felt good quality and the Wilkinson bridge works well. The only criticism I would level at the guitar is the tuners which have a slack spot in the middle when turning one way to the other. However the guitar does stay in tune and if you found them annoying they could be easily changed.

Overall this is a very good instrument and represents cracking value for money and if your thinking of buying one then don’t be put off by the low price. You won’t be disappointed.

Nice Telecaster

Very nice guitar. Required minimal setup. Will more that likely upgrade some parts

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

Top for your money

The guitar was delivered 10 days before the post office. The shipping box was slightly dented below, but this did not affect the guitar itself. It was surprising that the box in which the guitar was not sealed with tape, and because of this the guitar literally fell out of the box. There are some minor remarks on the quality of the guitar on the paintwork of the deck in the form of scuffs on the ribs. The fingerboard responds well to the anchor, the potentiometers do not make noise, the 3-position switch also works well. In general, the guitar has very good sound, like the original fender sound and comfortable fingerboard. Loved the sound of the pickup. Full compliance price-quality. I definitely recommend it, as this is one of the best options on the market.

Awesome Period, forget the price!

The body style is great, the paisley is awesome, but down the to the nitty gritty....

That damn neck is just as good or better then an American Fender, and yes, I know.

Everything else rocks.

More than worth the price!

Great guitar

So much guitar for your money. This is awesome to play, sounds very Telecaster, just a great product!