Harley Benton TE-70 Black Paisley Reviews

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8 years ago

Telemagic

My wife bought me this for xmas after I showed her the guitar online back in October, to be honest I am not a big tele lover but the Black Paisley just looked so good. As I didn't know about this until Xmas morning it came as a bit of a shock to find a box that was very recognisable and I was so delighted once I opened it to find the Black Paisley Tele ready and waiting to be added to the collection. Its my first Tele and having played a few Fender tele's in the past this one was soooo good, the quality of the guitar would make you think its twice the price and the hardware and fittings are fantastic, so I am now learning to twang along with a few Country tunes to add to song list...

8 years ago

Thick neck

Did I mention the neck is chunky? The fret ends are sharp also. The guitar looks great with the 70's paisley design.

8 years ago

Paisley Telecaster

I was attracted to this tele by it`s relatively unusual paintjob, black paisley. When I looked up the specs and saw bass-wood body I thought I`d better leave it. I used to have bass-wood in my `beginner-guitars` years ago. Browsed on and found Fender Telecaster James Burton`s Artist Series Paisley Flame with bass-wood body for more than 2 grand. What`s good enough for James is good enough with me.

Inspected the Harley Benton (what a crappy name) on arrival and it was not perfect. There is a small laquer runner up in front where you can see it if you want and a few areas haven`t been buffed properly. Played through an American Fender Tweed Blues Deville 4x10 from `94 and the Roswell pickups were not pulling my socks off, not really here nor there, though I must admit I didn`t spend much time. Surprisingly good intonation out of the box and a very chunky feel of the neck although it`s a bit rough around the edges. It`s not an American Fender. The tuners are so-so but hold the tuning alright. The strings are new and need to stretch and are okay for a start. Mind you this guitar went by quality control in August if one wants to believe the little hanging tag and strings didn`t have much time to corrode. If you are into pimping then please note that the routing under the hood is for a single neck-pu only. The pods are on the cheap side, so is the bridge-plate which is seemingly slightly bent and on one side not entirely flush with the body. This Telecaster weighs in at 3.75kgs, not really a lightweight either but resonance compares quite okay with my American Standard Strat when played unplugged. It is easy to lower the strings at the riders for better action. With the small Allen-key provided in the set one can achieve pretty good results without buzzing.

A couple of days later I played this tele through my Vox ac 10 and the Roswells are coming to sound like egg-slicers, but it is the setting of the amp and the sound can be regulated reasonably well with the tone pod, just roll back. Different experience altogether. The Roswells are not

really made for each other though, having the pu selector in the mid position doesn`t blow me away but in general I guess you get your country-twang at the bridge. Then again the Vox ac 10 is a little wonder-box and I put the sound receiving down to that fact. I have already asked for a return form but don`t know yet will I. There is a certain charm to the TE-70 Paisley and I do have a few pus and pods to fool around with. I have enough of guitars really but all considered this may stay after all. Most people I know bring a cheapo to the jam rather than their American Fenders. Price is more than kinda acceptable for what you get.

Nov. 30th, 2017.... the pickups sound terrible.... played the tele last night through a small solid state amp jamming with friends in a pub.... gruesome... no matter which way one turns the switch or knobs the pus seem to be not compatible with the sound of other instruments... they have to be replaced...

05/01/18 ....I did replace the bridge pu with a very cheap Chinese twin rail hot (supposed to have 16k)humbucker bought on ebay which is giving the instrument a lot of punch and changes the original high-pitched sound to more mids and bass which is much better than before, however now she is missing the country twang a bit. I have a set of custom shop nocasters which I will put into this tele in the coming months. I`ll keep you posted. Here one more thing, the original telecaster ashtray can be fitted over the bridge although the pick-guard would have to be slightly altered to make fit 100%.

13/03/18 ... The Nocasters are in along with 250k pots from Goeldo. Nice looking and sounding guitar for Country, Blues and Rock now. Might at some stage even change the switch to fender or similar.

8 years ago

Beautiful Tele

Nice finish, body and neck ok but poor fret work, needs a leveling job. Sounds ok some noise maybe shielding will solve the problem.

9 years ago

Great, but not perfect

My son was eying this up for ages, and finally, with the help of a birthday contribution, got me to get it for him. The reviews were all very positive, and for the price - what can you say?!

He loves it. It sits next to him. His previous guitar is now neglected and forlorn.

The good:

It looks lovely. Maple neck, skunk stripe. Nice hardware - Wilkinson bridge and pickups, and sealed tuners. Nice paisley finish, if that's your thing. Sounds like a tele - authentic sounding bridge pickup.

It came nicely set up. Needed a twist of the truss rod, and was good to go, good low action, no buzz, good strings. Fret ends not perfect, but good.

The not so good:

The finish, to me, is a little meh. Not the deep gloss I was expecting, and that it needs to really bring up the paisley. But only one minor paint flaw, barely visible. Neither a big deal. But the rave reviews perhaps unreasonably raise your expectations.

Tuning stability hasn't been great. Still sorting that - nut lubrication for starters; lots of winds on the tuning pegs for high strings (the main culprits). Lubricated the nut, its a bit better. May need restringing. We'll see.

The bridge pickup is very microphonic. That's a feature of many teles, some Fenders included, and possibly gives it the authentic character to the sound, but on high gain every click and clunk is picked up. But the main problem is the feedback, which kicks in unpleasantly and uncontrollably past a certain volume.

Investigating that, if you press on the neck end of the bridge plate it suppresses the squeal. The bridge screws are confined to the lower end, (and were actually quite loose, though tightening didn't help), and it may be the headstock end of the bridge plate is not making contact with the body. The internet has many such examples.

So it may mean modifying the bridge with two screws at the headstock edge, but not after I've tried some wax, or thin foam, or something similar to suppress vibration at that edge. But he won't let me near it - yet...

Again, the internet suggests this is a common problem with this model.

Conclusion? Sounds great, pity about the microphonic squeal, which may be fixable. Not perfectly finished, but for the price very good indeed. A satisfied son, a satisfied dad.

9 years ago

A lot of guitar for your money.

I was in the market for a cheap telecaster and was considering going for a Squier, for the classic look, but having had good experiences with Harley Benton instruments in the past, the Black Paisley caught my eye, so I bought it and am pleased that I did.

The good:

- fit and finish is good - no sharp fret ends and the finish was consistent on the body and the neck, which has a vintage tinted gloss finish.

- the Wilkinson pickups have a pleasant amount of output and effectively capture the sound of a telecaster - the bridge pickup is suitably twangy with a more mellow neck pickup.

- the tuners do their job and I haven't felt compelled to change them.

- the action at the nut didn't require any attention.

- truss rod is responsive and does what it's supposed to do.

- the paisley pattern looks striking.

The bad:

- the bridge pickup was very microphonic, so I changed it for a Wilkinson vintage-voiced pickup from eBay for £16 and this improved this a little.

- the bridge itself on mine wasn't making full contact with the body at the neck end, causing the whole assembly to become microphonic - a common problem with telecasters it seems.

- I removed the bridge, which was a little bent, lifting up at little on the treble side, so I bent it back into shape as best I could and then drilled two small holes in front of the bridge pickup to screw it to the body, resolving the problem.

To summarise, even though I had to do a little work on it, it was still worthwhile and I've been able to set it up to my tastes. Sounds and looks great, so I'd recommend giving it a try - might just have been my bad luck with the bridge.

9 years ago