Harley Benton TE-90QM Trans Red 5-stars Reviews

Awesome guitar

Has some intonation issues, but looks premium, sounds versatile.

Harley Benton TE-90QM Trans Red

Normally I would say that you get what you pay for, but in this case you get WAY more than you pay for. This is a fantastic guitar for the price. Fit and finish is impeccable.

Frets are rolled, crowned and dressed. Plays, looks & sounds fantastic!

Amazing guitar... but need some adjustments

Out of the box it was not playable because some strings were buzzing on some frets. Little neck and bridge adjustment helped and now it's perfect instrument and sounds really cool! (key for neck adjustment unfortunatly not included!) Anyway I think the guitar is worth of its price.

Very Nice guitar for the price

Excellent quality for the price. Sounds good and feels good. Box arrived beat up. But the contents were in excellent shape and packed for protection. It travelled from Germany to Canada and was still in tune when it arrived. Absolutely beautiful guitar. Highly recommended. I can not think of another brand that compares for the price. For the same quality in another brand you will pay 3 times the price.

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

Another gem from Harley Benton

This is my second HB purchase, having previously reviewed my TE-40TBK.

The guitar arrived in good condition with a couple of (very) minor defects to the finish. The guitar is a deep red and the quilting quite stunning, nicely set off by the cream binding.

The fret board was very dry and required 4 treatments with lemon oil over 24 hours to rectify, but all frets were finished nicely and did not require any polishing. The neck was very flat with little relief and a lot of fret buzz that was quickly rectified with a couple of tweaks of the truss rod. Strings were changed to my normal regular slinkys.

The neck is really nice, slightly slimmer than the TE-40 with a very comfortable feel - a joy to play with the set up as above. The electronics all work well and the Wilkinson P90 sound great. I am a fan of P90s and have recently fitted a pair to the TE-40. I will not be changing the Wilkinsons, which seem to have slightly more output and bite, possibly being due to the plastic 'soap bar' covers as opposed to metal covers on pups in the TE-40.

Great sound, usable in all 3 switch positions, loads of sustain (mahogany sustain block and through the body stringing). The bridge is very solid and a joy to work with.

Currently my go to guitar and as long as you can carry out or arrange for a basic set up, for £150 - why wouldn't you?

awesome guitar

I am a working musician who needs guitars that are no-frills and of good quality, Harley Benton hits the mark every time. This guitar is GREAT for Reggae.

Great look and sound.

I bought his guitar purely because I had read so many positive reviews, and seen so many positive reviews on youtube videos.

I've had dozens of guitars over the years but never one with P90 pick ups, so was interested to see what they were like.

Straight out of the box, the guitar looked great. On closer inspection there were a couple of tiny flaws in the paintwork and binding, but most of my guitars are pretty beaten up so I'm not too bothered about 100% perfect aesthetics.

The neck was as dry as a bone, and the frets were protruding and quite sharp. I oiled the neck and left it for a few hours. I gently filed down the sharp fret ends and now these problems are gone.

The guitar has a good weight and feel to it when standing up with a strap. I am a solo guitar vocalist playing hotels and bars, all styles of music, with backing tracks.

In my first 3 hour gig with this guitar, I played everything from jazz, blues, funk, rock and even a bit of metal! The guitar sounded amazing and the action, although a little high for my liking, was low enough for me to fly up and down the (now smooth) neck, and I can lower this next time I change strings and put on a heavier gauge set.

The tone control is very responsive...the volume not so much. The tuners worked fine...I always stretch my strings aggressively before each set so I've never had tuning issues with any of my guitars (apart from a Squier HSS Strat that hated hot weather!).

I'll lower the action when I change to heavier gauge strings if need be.

To sum up, this guitar is great value, you can't go wrong.

It covers all the styles of music I play, feels good, looks good and at 170 odd euros is a bargain.

Pretty Guitar

This Guitar is fantastic although mine is dark in color it still looks great this is my second purchase and they have been a wonderful surprise for the money that alone gives me bragging rights straight out of the well packed box all I needed was a drum roll Ta Da thanks a million ....

Great guitar

Very nice neck on this guitar, looks good and sounds even better, very little setting up required to bring the action down to my liking. No one can believe it when I tell them the price