Harley Benton TE-90QM Trans Red Reviews

Better quality than Fender MIM

I threw this in on an order just for the hell of it. $17o USD WTH. Its amazing. Ive yet to find a flaw. Neck is perfect. I mean perfect. No sharp ends, rounded and frets are polished. Have a new MIM Fender Jaguar that is crap vs this. Im really blown away. Im not a name brand guy so i dont give a crap whats on the head stock. I'll buy another HB all day long

Only slightly disappointed

I wanted a chambered guitar with P90s on.

The pickups and chambered body are brilliant.

The neck finish really lets the guitar down.

Its seems that someone has painted the fret board with

MATT BLACK PAINT,,,, WHY.. It should have been left natural.

Its the same stuff that is inside the chambered body..

Other than that.. dumped the rubbish string trees, a change of nut to a Tusq and new Gotoh tuners, a set of 10 to 46 stings instead of the girlie nines and I have a good guitar..

Great!

This is not my first purchase of a harley benton guitar. I already bought jazz bass and les paul and was satisfied. It's also a great guitar - tuned, looks great, and sounds great. My fellow guitarists are thrilled. The neck is a little thick, but not a problem for me. Since the deck is very light, the balance of the guitar is not very good. I advise you to immediately get a wide leather belt to it - it will solve the problem.

Very different... love it.

About me:

Been playing for over 35 years, average at best. Mostly a 70s rockhead, Stones, CCR... I can play anything if you don’t mind it sounding like Chuck Berry….Ha Ha…

I have about 20 guitars (only 1 acoustic..) Some good - USA 72 Deluxe Tele, PRS SE Custom 24 Exotic Top, Ibanez S series, some not so good – the wife has a Hanna Montana Washburn… crazy woman…

I recently bought the HB CST24HB and TE-70 Paisley and loved them so much that I followed up by buying the CST-24T Black Flame and the TE-90QM Trans Red.

Review of the TE-90QM Trans Red:

Pros:

Versatile tone... The pickups may be the best part of the guitar...

Build quality is very good.

It has a chunky neck that is nice and bendy. The action is fine.

Very versatile guitar that handles cleans through to JCM800 very well.

This guitar looks great, it's not quite as figured as the web photo but still quite striking in appearance.

Cons:

Finger board was a bit dry... no big deal.

Not suited for real high gain... but we knew that.

Conclusion:

100% recommended.

A simple design that is very well put together. The finish was flawless, the neck although a chunky "C" is slick and fast. Good fretwork and a steal for the price. Also an excellent platform to build up with higher grade parts as I did.

UPDATE....after a string change I noticed the low E tuning machine was a bit off center, so I remove the screw to find a broken screw shaft in the wood. The factory tilted the tuner and put another screw beside the broken one. Poor quality control. Now I have to find a way to remove it without damaging the neck.

I have many high end Fender CS Telecasters and this is my 4th harley Benton - (im Hooked) - It did need a minor setup and now plays amazing and sounds great - keeper for sure

Great way to pick up alternate styles of guitars and trust they will be good

Very playable T style hollow body guitar.

Bought as a manageable hollow body for blues.

Finish and fittings: Overall, very good, hardware looks good. Fretboard not dry. Fret ends could be rounded off a little better, they're not sharp but you can feel them.

Frets need a polish, they look dull and scratch on bends and general playing.

Paint work is sloppy, there are a few bleeds into the binding and the headstock has some small streaks of the body colour under the lacquer.

There are a few minor scratches and nicks which shouldn't be there on a new guitar, but they are minor.

Binding around the F-holes is a little rough and unfinished at points.

Tone and volume knobs turn but feel a little scratchy.

Tuners are only ok. There is slippage and then jumps in the tuning process making it easy to overshoot. The pegs are small and close together and a little tricky even for my average-sized hands.

Add €10 the price and put on better tuners in the factory would be my suggestion.

In terms of tuning stability, it goes out of tune after every set of string bends. The cheap string trees are probably a culprit, and the nut may need some lubrication.

Pickup selector switch is very stiff.

The sound is good, somewhere between a solid and hollow body in terms of resonance.

Body is very lightweight. Maybe 3+ kg at most?

I bought it because I'm a lower-intermediate player and whilst I'd love a 'proper' hollow bodied guitar for blues, I find the size and weight of this more manageable.

Overall, recommended as a nice T variant in your sound collection.

Brilliant! Just brilliant!!!

I took a chance on this guitar having not found many reviews online. I really am so glad that I did take that chance.

This guitar is brilliant. I absolutely love it. The build quality is great, the fit and finish is great and it sounds amazing. What's more, it sounds amazing in every switch position.

The only thing this guitars needs is a quick fret polish when I change the strings next.

If you are thinking about buying one of these please do not hesitate. For this price, you are getting an extremely nice instrument. You will not be disappointed.

Borderline value-for-money

The guitar generally feels and sounds mediocre for its money. It has a quite comfortable low action and a general soft fretboard feel. The intonation was pretty much ok just right out of the box. Some tuner keys have a little bit of slack, but it's not an issue. The P90 pickups are satisfactory - provided that you are ok with the humming at high gain situations. The "f" holes are completely ornamental and don't add anything to the tone and feeling of the instrument.

Now the not-so-pleasant remarks: there's a general feeling that this instrument was assembled in a sloppy and uncaring way. The tuner keys have smudges on their back surface, the neck has some dents, some frets are dull and oxidized, and the controls are poorly assembled into the body. But the most annoying thing is the setting of the frets: I don't care if this is a "value-for-money" or "low-end" instrument or whatever - it's unacceptable to sell guitars with rough and sharp fret edges, forcing me to repair them the moment I get the instrument out of the box... For me it was the first - and likely the last - time I bought a guitar online, without playing the instrument beforehand.

Bottom line: the price is attractive and one could gamble ordering such an instrument online - but don't expect to be blown away by either the feeling or the sound...

A thing of great beauty

Let’s be honest, this is a cheap guitar right, you can’t expect too much from it, like a decent, comfortable, playable neck, smooth frets, tuners that stay in tune, pickups that work and, sound descent, a stunning finish that looks like a guitar costing many, many times more. You can’t have ALL that for this price can you.

Think again! I am simply blown away with this guitar. First of all, it’s beautiful, I mean, absolutely stunning to look at but then, it plays really nicely and It sounds great too.

The double f hole design may not be for purists, but to me at least, the tele thin line, always seemed a bit of an oddity with a classic f hole cut into the top bout of a flat top and its juxtaposition with the 50’s auto style chrome control panel / plastic pickguard configuration. Stylistically, with its carved, quilted maple top, P90’s and transparent red finish this beats any thin line I’ve ever seen in terms of aesthetic wow-factor.

I admit, I bought this guitar purely based on appearance and price, thinking that it would make a good platform to upgrade on, to make something quite unique and, it would still be a bargain.

So, what have I changed? - Absolutely nothing!

What would I change? - Absolutely nothing!

Am I happy with it? - Hell yes! It’s my new favourite guitar (and I have quite a few!)

Would I ever part with it? - Over my dead body!

HB TE-90QM P90 Red quilt top - Absolutely Fabulous.

Delivery to the UK in 3 days from order being placed.

Arrived in good condition.

For use in home studio/music room.

Inspection: serial number silk screened on back of headstock, made in Indonesia. No immediate problems noted, everything in good order. No sharp fret ends. However, the edges of the nut were a little rough/sharp, but easily smoothed over.

The book matching of the quilt top is a little off, about 3-5mm misaligned, but that's being picky, only noted on close inspection.

The finishing inside looks good, no paint bald patches. The binding around the f-holes and the body is smooth, no rough edges.

Looking at the back of the body it appears to be a 2 piece, maybe more, but it is hard to tell, the matching is very good. and at a quick glance it looks like a one piece. The Mahogany grain shows through the finish nicely, very even.

Playability - very good. Action a little high but good enough. Intonation spot on. Both pickups function well, switch and pots all working, no looseness, no problems. The neck has a smooth satin finish, very comfortable for my hands.

I've lowered the action to ~3/64 ths / ~1.2 mm @ 17th fret. No fret buzz at all, no choking out. Very good indeed. The bridge has no protruding screws and is very smooth and comfortable when playing. The truss rod works exceptionally well and is very sensitive to adjustments, presumably this is a feature of a dual-action truss rod. The allen key supplied wasn't the correct size, far too small, not sure what the correct size is, but I have many allen keys and the same one I use on my squiers and epiphone seems to work.

Stays in tune well. Machine heads/tuning pegs are smooth in use, no backlash.

In circuit measurement of pickups gave DCR Bridge PU ~10.2K, Neck PU ~7K which tallies well with Roswell specs for these pickups.

The bridge PU has a lot of push, and growls, very mid focused, perfect for a te style guitar, can twang very nicely too. Backing off the pots allows it's more nuanced balanced tones to come through. They're quite bright at full tone rotation, but that's better than being too dull. I would guess that the pots are 500K. Looking into the F-holes the pots appear to be larger than 16mm, possibly 20mm.

The Neck PU is warm and lush, perfect for smooth jazz, but has some twang when needed. There's a good balance between the two, so no adjustments needed to the pickup heights.

Acoustically it is only a little louder than a solid body. Good enough for some quiet practice.

***** for the setup and quality of this guitar. Truly amazing.

Flawless and amazing guitar

I have been playing guitar for about 40 years, and have a bunch of guitars of various quality and price, including an American 2006 Anniversary Telecaster, three Strats, two Gretsch's, etc. Love 'em all. But this one is simply amazing. Its appearance is what first caught my eye, but when I checked the reviews on YouTube, they were all talking about the excellent quality of HB guitars, in particular the neck and fretwork. Mine is no exception, the fretwork is outstanding. No fret sprout, perfectly finished edges, no buzz or flat spots. The tuners have been mentioned in many reviews as being a potential weakness, but mine feel very good. It arrived slightly out of tune, but tuned up no problem, and after a couple hours of wailing on it, it seems to hold tune very well. One thing I noticed...the spec calls for 9 – 42 strings, but these are at least 10's, possibly 11's. I checked them with a micrometer and got 10.5. I will be changing them to 9's for easier playability. I'm playing through a Vox AC15C1 and a Marshall DSL40 with a stereo flanger set very light, and the sound is huge and rich! The action is medium, I may bring it down a bit after I change the strings, we'll see. I love the sound of the P90 pups, it's different from my other guitars, which is one of the things I was after. Bright but not at all harsh.

The outer box was fairly beat up, and I was concerned about the guitar, but it was fine. The inner box and padding protected it well. It did take quite a long time to arrive from Germany to the west coast of the US, but that is to be expected, and I believe most of the delay was US Customs.

All in all, it's a beautiful instrument, and I think it would hold up well in comparison to guitars at three times the price.

How do they do this for only $180 US?

My rating is based on expectations for a guitar of this price. This guitar arrived at my house in the United States about 2 weeks after I ordered it (including 3 days on back order). It was double-boxed with a lot of bubble wrap. The quality is excellent and the guitar greatly exceeds my expectations of a $180 instrument. The beautiful finish is even across the front and back of the body. The binding is flush with the body and there are no missing areas. The f-holes are also bound. The neck is straight and the fret ends are smooth. The knobs are metal, not inexpensive plastic, and they dial up the volume and tone very smoothly. The output jack is in a jack plate, which is something that some, more expensive, semi-hollows don't have. The Roswell picks are brighter than other P90s, but that's not a criticism. The neck tone is smooth and the bridge can be loud and angry. Both pickups are well set in the body, with no ugly gaps. There are some minor issues. The guitar needs to be set up. That's understandable because it was shipped when the temperature in my area was 10F (-12C) and warmed up to 50F (10C) in two days. There is a small dent on the headstock, that happened early in manufacturing, because it's lacquered over. The tuners are good enough, but a little stiff. None of these takes away from the fact that this guitar is an extraordinary value.

Unbelievably good!

Much have been already written about this guitar. I have already 7 HB guitars and TE-90QM is the BEST! Perfect craftsmanship, sound of P90's is exceptional. This guitar would stand up against 1000 euro brand name guitar and would be still better. Buy it before its gone!

Great guitar (if you're a Luthier!)

I use my guitars at home, in my studio and also the occasional live show.

Like others in these reviews, the neck and frets on my guitar were appalling. I've worked on guitars for 20yrs and couldn't get this neck right after weeks of effort. I couldn't return the guitar as I live in Australia and it would've cost more than it's worth to ship it back.

Eventually I gave up and bought a new Chinese made Tele neck from Ebay, fitted it, and within 1hr the guitar was playing beautifully.

It's now a really excellent guitar and the Wilkinson Alnico P90 pickups are superb.

Plesently surprised

If your looking for something different in guitar sound you must try good ol' P90's. Sound half way between a single coil and a humbucker. The guitar it self felt like an old shoe to me and the satin neck is so nice in your hand, I have no idea why they don't make many necks like this? The finish is stunning and no one will believe how little you paid for it. Be a great project guitar if you are that way inclined? Mmm the only complaint I have with it is there were sharp fret ends as with a lot of cheap guitars for some reason?

lovely

Thought this would be a fun guitar to upgrade, but absolutely no upgrades were required, the Wilkinson pickups sound great! Within a few hours of receiving this guitar I was recording with it, no need for a setup.

Great Guitar

Absolutely love this guitar! I'm still an intermediate player but friends who are seasoned guitarists love it too!

Had a few small tasks to complete on arrival loose knobs etc but nothing major!!

Get it you won't be disappointed.

Lovely guitar for the price - cant go wrong

i have had this guitar about a week now,

it looks amazing, plays amazing right out the box, you really cant complain with the price tag, it was delivered to UK also within 3 working days, so that was amazing it itself.

sounds good acoustically (no amp) also sounds lovely clean and distorted, my only problem would be that it had quite alot of humming when you use high gain, but i wouldnt really use this guitar for metal performances exactly, more jazz, blues and soft rock.

overall very happy with it, i have had 2 harley bentons now, i aim to get more, defo worth the money.

Cool looking

This guitar looks great from far away, up close you can see some imperfections but it's not very bad. The sound is a bit sterile, I expected a bit more. Surprinsingly good tuners. Overall you get what you pay for. Not really at steal in this price range but well worth the money.