Harley Benton TE-70RW Deluxe Series Reviews

Generally good

Sounds good, twangy, tele-like. Impressed with the Roswell pickups.

Rosewood finish is very dark, looks black except under bright lighting.

Tuners work but with some hesitancy.

Frets themselves are very tarnished and in need of a good polish.

Few cosmetic blemishes, nothing too bad, some paint scrapes, some darker spots on the fretboard which look like they were filled.

Fretboard itself is very dark almost black.

Overall the guitar is good value for the price-point.

Great old school tele

This is a nice old fashioned telecaster clone. The binding on the body and traditional telecaster bridge with brass saddles are lovely. The fit and finish is smooth. There are no rough fret ends. The action required a modest adjustment, but otherwise this guitar arrived looking great and ready to play. Superb value for money. Much nicer than any comparable Squier telecaster in the same price bracket.

Pickups are a little weak but the telecaster tone is definitely there - bell like chime in the neck pickup and a great rhythm sound in the bridge, especially into an amp with a light crunch tone. Highly recommended.

Not good

Thick neck high action bad pick ups.

Finally an affordable Telecaster I want to keep for myself

Couldn't be happier. When I received the guitar, the first thing I checked was string height above first free (nut setting). Perfect. String height overall was too high, but it was impossible to lower. The low E saddle was bottomed out. (PROPS for compensated brass saddles!!) I could see the neck angle was off, so I took off the neck and saw they already put in a couple of shims, but it was not enough. I added a shim and it fixed the string height and neck angle. A quick setup check revealed no high frets, and after replacing the string trees with roller trees and stringing it up with 9's, I was almost good to go. The neck needed some more relief, so I adjusted the truss rod. I was going to replace the tuners with locking tuners because I'm horrible at stringing, but the stock tuners work so well I don't want to change them. Now it's a badass Telecaster style guitar. I don't care about aesthetics, but it is beautiful.

Such value for money

This guitar is not perfect; very few are. So there's a little noise from the volume knob in certain positions. There are some nicks above the nut, the truss rod hole is untidy.

All that said, this is incredible value. It's a convincing veneer and really looks stunning. I can't fault the aesthetics of this instrument. It's beautiful.

The fret ends are a little rough below the 12th fret, but that's not unusual for a budget guitar. The rest of the frets are well finished and the neck is gun barrel straight.

If you're contemplating buying one of these have no fear. Unless you get super unlucky you are getting some of the best value for money you're going to find anywhere.

Very good and stable

I've tried a lot of Chinese guitars over the years. Most of those guitars were suffering from some cheap parts (particularly tuners, pots or switches) and sometimes very poor overall quality control (finish defects, fretwork, etc). Honestly my opinions of Chinese manufacturers were not very positive. This changed about 4 years ago when I saw a Dean Dimebag signature model made in China (the one with explosion graphics). Then last year when I tried another Chinese guitar (a Yamaha RGX-520 FZ), I started to think that China is going pro on electric guitars business... This HB Deluxe Tele is not different from those good Chinese guitars, if not better, considering price/quality ratio.

Pros:

- Price. You get a good guitar, cheaper than most of Fender SQ Tele models.

- Very nice grainy maple neck with glossy finish. Very fast & comfortable neck. İt is not meaty nor super slim, right in the middle, just like the original.

- Overall finish is almost perfect. I really liked the matching headstock too. Very good QC.

- String-thru body with good quality ferrules. Sustain is good and whole guitar is sonically very responsive.

- Bridge pickup. It is very microphonic and catches a lot of noise all around, but that's my personal choice. I like it dirty.. It almost acts like a P90 and I really love it. Pretty melodious for good old school rock or some country style finger-picking.

- Durable. Although tuners look cheap they are working well and guitar stays in tune perfectly; not once out of tune for about 2 hours of constant playing on stage.

- Double binding on the body (front and back). Looks absolutely gorgeous from every angle..

Cons:

- Fret sprout. Interestingly, only lower ends of the frets are sharp. Not sure there is a QC issue here; it might be the wood itself. If you ask me, fingerboard (or whole neck) probably shrunk from low humidity and left the fret ends open on one side. It is not a big deal for me, I have filed them little bit and they are now sitting with nice ends.

- Not sure about the authenticity of Wilkinson bridge, it feels very cheap.. I will probably change it. I may keep the saddles 'though, they are good quality.

I bought this one mainly for gigging purposes and it already proved itself. Maybe not a recording piece, but it is reliable guitar with nice looks and good playability. And with this price, I think it is a steal!

Harley Benton 70 RW Deluxe

Was dubious at first having had Chinese guitars in the past but i didn’t need to be I currently own a fender telecaster supreme with noiseless pickups .Which for some reason has started making crackling sounds whenever i touch the pick guard .Not being a pro guitar player only a hobby player this harley benton to me is equally as good i prefer the sound of these pickups to the Fender .And on the eye as pretty as not sure if it is real veneer or photo though,I am thinking of selling the Fender and buying more of these at a fraction of the price . All of the fittings seem like quality to me the only thing i would replace is maybe the string trees to roller ones because the ones on there look like there under stress and thats all i can find wrong .Also it arrived to Australia in quick time even though i was supposed to be given delivery notice it was delivered on a Saturday it was stating it was still in customs

Great guitar for the price

Came out of the box playing great and had 0 dead frets. Though there are some cosmetic defects and the neck-body join could be a bit better, for the price you really can't beat this thing.

Great deal for your budget

Telecaster is a must have guitar) Was looking for the low budget option and finally, after reading all those review and feedbacks (guys, thank you for writing them), decided to take this one.

Not disappointed at all.

Pros. Arrived in the mentioned terms in a good pack. Assembled with the good quality. No scrathes, no loose parts. The only thing to adjust — to lower strings.

Cons. Moderate strings. It's not about the guitar, though.

Definitely recommended.

Excellent guitar for the money

I absolutely love this HB tele. It plays better than a Mexican Fender and many Squiers, so for the price it's at this is an absolute bargain.

The hardware is pretty good quality though I switched out the pickups pretty quickly for a huge improvement in sound. The beautiful thing about these HB guitars is that they are cheap, the neck is excellent, the body is good, and then you just go to town on hardware whenever you feel like upgrading.

My favorite Harley Benton Electric

I've waited a bit before rating this guitar as I'm so pleased with it. I had to come up with at least some suggestions for improvement. First off, it is a beautiful guitar with excellent sound characteristics and a fit and finish that is second to none in T-guitars in almost any price range you can imagine. However, the tuners were a little below expectations. They would jump between flat/sharp with not much room for fine control. So, I've dumped the tuners and purchased Gotoh locking tuners. Problem solved. I would also have liked to see a little more radius on the fret board. Perhaps not 9.5", but how about 10.5" or 12"? 14" is a little too flat for those of us who barre the fretboard as frequently as fast single note riffs.

I'm about as happy as can be, however. This is a fine guitar and exceeded my expectations in almost every way, except for those minor points I've raise. I'd buy another one in a heartbeat.

Very good but

Everything that is on the guitar is great, quality and look but the pickups are not very good for high gain they ring when pushed,its expected but simply just beware,other than that would recommend.

Great Tele style gutar

One week ago i received this one and it is real beauty. That was the first impression when i unpacked box. Hardware used in guitar is great in combination with dark body and it is good quality.

The guitar was made very good but in my case i had to adjust action, what i did very fast with provided tools. Frats also need a bit of polishing

(that were only "cons" which i find)

The sound from pickups is great, with good sustain.

I personaly liked most, the sound from bridge pickup, crystal clear and a bit sharp.

What i would do to make this great product evem better, i wold use 4 way switch, and add mode with both pickups out of phase.

Anyhow, i realy like guitar, i like how it feels in hands and despite small imperfections i would reccomend her withouth hesitations.

Great guitar for the money !!!

I like the sound, and the looks of it ! Great black-red finish !

Very good Guitar

The guitar really impressed me. I found it really worth it for the price. It is not a perfect built guitar, but the sound is really good, specially for a 149 Euro guitar. I highly recommend it!

Great Quality Guitar except for the tuning machines

I had purchased a Harley Benton CLD-41SE (acoustic guitar) previously and it was flawless with great tuning machines.

The TE-70RW I Just received was beautiful and manufactured with excellent quality throughout except for the tuning machines which exhibited gaps in their screw mechanism and inability to stay in tune. The actual symptom is that when you turn the peg, you get a few degrees of rotation before you start to feel movement on the strings. I plan to upgrade the tuning machines. So, all and all, a very nice looking and sounding high quality guitar except for the tuning machines which are easily upgradeable.

Yeah didn't expect this.

I heard alot about harley benton guitars but this blows all my expectations out of the water. The setup, finish, looks and sound are great.

I have guitars that are 4 times up to 6 times more expensive but man is this one my favorite.

For the price this is a quality instrument

HARLEY BENTON TE-70RW DELUXE

For the money you can't go wrong. looks fantastic plays good,

Harley Benton TE-70RW Deluxe Series

The guitar I received was excellent. The outer shipping box was trashed by the shipping companies. The inter shipping box was in excellent shape with no damage. There was a large amount of bubble / pillow wrap around the inter box.

The guitar was well packaged. When I took the guitar out of the box it looked great. So far, I have looked it over closely and I have played it. I can find no problems. The sound is good and rosewood finish is beautiful. I like the neck and the action. There?s no static with the control knobs. They function as they should.

I own several guitars (Fender, Gretsch, Ibanez, Epies). This is my first Harley Benton, but it will not be my last one. I hope your experience will be as good as mine. I live in Texas, USA