Harley Benton TE-80 NT Deluxe Series Reviews

MadCat on a budget

The TE-80 NT is a very pretty guitar, let's get this straight. It looks hot! It also plays very well, like a far more expensive guitar. My only gripe is that the mother-of-bacon pickguard is a little naff, but it's easily changed if you want to hunt around for a replacement, or cut your own. As it is, the pickguard is growing on me. Regardless, this guitar has the tele-twang, but also has the Strat-like quack when you use both PU's or the neck only, thanks to it's use of strat pickups. And the Wilkinsons fitted to this guitar are excellent! I had to give the frets a bit of a polish with some steel wool, but to be honest I would have done that anyway as part of my setup process regardless of their condition. You cannot go wrong buying this guitar!

TE-80 TELECASTER.

excellent guitar at a fantastic price.

the looks, build & sound are great.

apart from the frets needing a polish, i can't find a single fault.

the set up was perfect for me. ( straight out of the box ).

Worth Buying... Good Guitar !!!

i bought a few electric guitar before like jackson or ibanez. but this guitar finish is amazing compare to the other one. for its prize am stunned. i really love the wilkinson pick up as well. its match what i wanted. its clear n precise for my style. the only little detail thats bad is the metal fret. its a bit rough. its not smooth when u do pitch bending. but i think it will be ok if i lubricate it. but for its price i dont mind at all. this harley benton was totally worth buying and i ll come again to buy them. i would easily recommend it to beginner as it is so accessible n easy to play with.

Not perfect but great for the money although communication could be better

Like most I bought this guitar for its proximity to Prince's Madcat - no other company seems to offer anything like it and, if they did, it would probably be twice as expensive

So the good:

- It was affordable

- It looks great on the stand (although the pickguards aren't my preference but they can be replaced easily)

- Youtube and written reviews suggest its a very good guitar for the cost.

-It arrived quickly and safely to the UK even over a busy Xmas/New Year period

The not so good:

- Its not perfect quality by any means -

1) the stain on the fretboard has small areas of natural wood where its been missed

2) the pickup switch knob had sharp 'tags' from the molding

3) the switch itself wobbles up and down slightly

4) one of the machine heads was much looser than the others and the decorative stickers on them have fallen off already

5) the frets were unbelievably rough (and still are in places) which really grated against the strings when playing

6) the screws holding the knobs and switches in are wonky and sit up at an angle where they've not been put in straight

Having said all of that, based on the guitar itself, I think I would definitely order another

Guitar looks beautiful, sounds great and has great sustain. Guitar stays in tune. Electronic is very good and can produce sound as this guitar should have. The full C-neck is perfect in my opinion. The guitar sounds something between tele and strat. Even though the guitar needs some user setup, overall the guitar is very good value for the money. I would recommend this guitar to everybody because you get product of a higher class for less money.

All good apart from the neck.

Seriously a lot of guitar for the money, I only bought this as I needed a body to marry to a Hohner Prinz neck.

Good hardware, there's enough positives about the Wilkinson pickups written elsewhere, I can't add any more.

The neck however was awful, razor sharp fret edges, not unexpected on a guitar at this price point but a serious let down nevertheless.

I was amazed when i received this guitar , the quality and work that was put into it, i had a few friends telling me if you buy a cheap guitar its not going to sound great , but i have to admit i was kind of put off because of the price , but when i plugged it in and played it i proved them all wrong this guitar is amazing , so if your a beginner or a pro , i highly recommend having a look at the Harley Benton range before splashing out loads of money on a guitar that maybe would not sound just as good ...

Almost Perfect

Let me start off by saying that I'm a guitar technician/instructor, and repair, setup, teach with and play guitars almost every day.

First, the good:

This thing plays and feels great!

The Setup was good right out of the box and perfect after some tweaking.

Sounds great as well.

Now the bad:

When I first plugged it in, Nothing, no sound.

I Opened up the control panel and started looking around. everything looked fine but after poking around it turns out the switch is bad, seems to be one of the lungs was not making contact.

I bent and moved It around and it started working.

It is one of the cheap import type switches which I expected and was already planning on replacing with a 4 way switch, but for a beginner or someone without repair experience it might not be such an easy fix.

The finish is beautiful but there are a couple of small flaws on the top, a little black spot just under the control panel and a larger (approx 3mm) light spot (Maybe a drop of glue?) behind the bridge. Nothing major but worth mentioning.

The frets felt a little rough and needed a bit of Polishing.

Overall, it's an awesome guitar for the price and I would definitely buy it again, but there is room for improvement.

Thanks!

Impressed

Guitar arrived today safe and sound, fast delivery will have to change the strings but that's not a complaint just my personal preference. Action slightly high for me but again that's just my preference overall very pleased.. Only problem now is what to buy next...........

Truly an excellent guitar! Exceeded my expectations!

I ordered this in the US...received it from Germany within 8 days ....Fast Shipping..... Have had the guitar for over a month now and have been truly impressed. Such an amazing value. I currently own 6 guitars.... my main gigging guitars (before I purchased this) were my Custom Les Paul and a Fender Tele.... they have pretty much been sidelined and are sitting on the guitar stands behind me because of this guitar. I absolutely love it. I have put Schaller strap-locks on it and am ordering locking tuners. The body on this guitar is beautiful, the binding and finish are perfect, not sure how they sell it for the price, but so glad I bought one. I am currently running it through a Boss pedal board (various mix of boss pedals) with an Orange Amp..... it is extremely versatile... I used to have to switch between my Les Paul and Tele depending on whether the song was "acoustic" or "crunchy"....this guitar handles both with ease..... can't say enough good things about this guitar 8) What a true bargain.

So much mojo...

I can't believe this guitar was $205 shipped to America. It's beautiful. It looks and feels like an $800 guitar. The Wilkinson pickups are killer! The strings were very high off the neck upon arrival, but after some tweaking, it's great! Buy this guitar! I'm probably going to buy another Harley Benton or two before it's all said and done.

Oh! I was surprised to see the leopard print pickguard (very similar to the one Prince used) in the box!

Im Soooooo happy!

the shipping took a little while as they were out of stock and im in the states , but the wait was WELL worth it!

shes beautiful ! the finish is awesome and the action is low!

BONUS!! A MADCAT STYLE pick guard !!! just like Prince's axe!

i am sooooo happy right now!

A Worthy Tribute

Prince was on of the greatest musicians of our time - so even if you bought this just to hang on the wall, at this price it'd be worth it. But even better if you play it - it's a great guitar. Ok so the hardware could be better - cheap bridge,tuners & electronics - but they all do the job. The pickups sound great though - they're strat pickups - neck sounds particularly good. Bridge is not bad as strat bridge pickups go but a bit weak sounding in comparison to the neck. You can get some great funky sounds out of it and it sings too. Covers a lot of ground. The body is pretty heavy but resonates well and it looks amazing. The pickguard doesn't look great, but there are a few custom made replacements available if you're going for the madcat look. The neck is routed for a humbucker and bridge for single coil. The neck is chunky with a satin finish, mine could have done with a fret dress but was fine with a medium action. The main thing though is it plays and sounds great- really fun to play.

It's also a great modding platform and if you're willing to spend a bit on it you'll have an amazing guitar. Play some funk on it for the man. At this price you can even throw it over your head after you've melted everyone's face!

Amazing for the price, at least decent at any price

I'd been chasing a Mad Cat type guitar for a short while and decided to give one of these a try before buying the real thing. Based on the price and reviews I didnt see how I could lose.

Feels like a well made guitar. Sounds like a well made guitar. Everyone that's played it doesnt believe how little I paid for it.

My tech looked at it and suggested replacing the bridge and the nut. The pickups, tuners, and neck if I wanted to get fancy. Even if I did all of that, I'd have only a few hundred invested in it and it would play like a MIA or better.

Critiques: The original pickups sound almost identical to the BL USA's in the Mad Cat, but they are more feedback prone

Some of the saddles had manufacturing defects and wouldnt sit flat. VERY minimal, no one else noticed it but my tech,

Neck and fredboard arrived VERY dry, took multiple days of oiling.

I played it live and it was amazing. I will continue to do so.

That said, I now have an actual MadCat as well, and you can see and feel the quality difference by a wide margin. But hear it? Not so much.

This guitar has made me a Harley Benton fan. Going to try the 335 copy next.

Looks great but not sure

Out of the box this guitar is stunning to look at. Never quite got to grips with the setup on it though. Whatever I did I got fret buzz. The bridge doesn't look particularly centred so maybe the neck is off and just a bit duff. Anyway it sits looking beautiful in my lounge and is OK to pick up and fiddle on. Maybe I just got a bad one.

Great guitar, bargain price

I ordered this on the strength of the good reviews and I was not disappointed. It's a beauty. I have several guitars from Fender and Gibson, and the HB definitely holds its own in any company. Great sound from the Wilkinson pickups, stays in tune, and the set up, already good straight from the box, only needed a slight tweak on the bridge to get the action nice and low the way I like it. .Very nicely put together and finished too. If you're in the market for a Tele, and you can get over the 'headstock snobbery issues' , get yourself one of these. It's a absolute steal.

A cracking guitar

Having had guitars since the sixties, first a Fifties Fender Strat, then various acoustic guitars, some German makes Hoyer and Framus, and then back to Strats, a Squier JV series and a squier Korean made E series. I then went onto an Ibanez George Benson semi acoustic, and a Yamaha Pacifica so I have a fair bit of experience with guitars.

I ordered the HB TE-80 as much out of curiosity as anything else after having read so many reviews from experienced guitarists which were positive.

I was going to settle for the lower priced Telecaster models, but when I saw this one had Wilkinson pick ups as well as a maple neck, I thought I would pay the extra. (I did source the Wilkinson pick ups elsewhere and found that they would cost me about £45 on their own).

Super fast delivery three days from Germany to London fantastic, really really well packed with reams of bubble wrap inside the box. The guitar couldn't have been better protected. Out of the box, slip back into tune and play...

The guitar is really well finished, mine is blemish free I haven't taken the film off of the control plate or the scratch plates yet, but the neck finish is silky smooth, not glossy varnish smooth, but a really nice feel.

I had a good session with the guitar for a couple of hours and checked the tuning and intonation and everything was still in spot on.

Brilliant action and a really nice tone, perfect shape of neck if your into rocking bar chords. My only minor criticism would be that the strings needed cleaning, perhaps the guitar has been in the warehouse for a bit. But that is being picky I am really pleased and after having had guitars delivered and received damaged from suppliers within the UK I was more than pleasantly surprised.

At this price, get one and you'll be shocked at the quality and service for such a low priced guitar and if you want anything else at the same time 'Bundle it up' and they knock more money off. I really don't know how they do it.

Not QUITE an Anderson Madcat ...

I'd been thinking about getting one of these for some time, always been a bit of a Prince nut, and spurred on by the total lack of bad reviews I bit the bullet and ordered. I'm glad I did ... This is probably the best bang for your buck that I've ever seen, and just so you know, I'm a trained luthier. I did 3 years at MANchester College of Arts and Technology so I sort of know what I'm talking about.

I have to say that ideally I'd like to sit down with 10 of 20 of these and compare them. A bit of internet research seems to indicate that Harley Benton Guitars are made by Saein Guitars who market as Shine but I also have a Harley Benton MS-60 Mustang-ish copy and they don't feel like the same factory to me but really that's just a guess.

The body on this thing is great ... a bit on the heavy side but it is a solid Ash 2 piece with a maple veneer on the top with a Walnut centre stripe. The neck is more C than D. Maple with a skunk stripe but it is a 2 piece (separate fretboard) though this makes no difference at all to the tone or playability and from more than 2 feet away you couldn't tell. The frets are fairly level and even (I had a bit of a buzz on the top E string at the 10th fret but a single tap with my fretting hammer cured it completely.

The pickups are Wilkinson Strat type alnico V's which I've never used before, good output, really chimey and give a Stratty-ish quack with the selector switch in the centre position. I have to say at this point that if you want a traditional Tele sound then don't buy this guitar, it is what it is, and that's more of a Tele/Strat hybrid than a Tele.

The pots are little 16mm things and I can't see the impedance marked on them but I suspect 500k (I will measure the values when I restring it) and the cap is the cheapest green poly that money can buy. Cap makes no difference at all other than altering the rate of treble cut when the tone control is turned but I am going to try some full size 250k pots because I'm a bit analy retentive. No one will be able to hear the difference at the moment but in a years time they may be less crackly and a bit warmer sounding but unless you buy 2 guitars and set one up with 500k and one with 250k no one would be able to remember any difference.

I own a 59 Gretsch, a 62 Danelectro, an ex Jo Strummer/Kate Korris mid 70's SG, a late 50's Burns Vista sonic and a late 50's Framus Grand Star as well as assorted far eastern hacks .... and since I got this guitar it's the only one I've played.

Wouldn't buy again...

Unlike my Harley Benton Rosewood telecaster, this one needs a lot of work to be playable. The frets are uneven and flat on the tops. Surprisingly, the Wilkinson pickups really sound poor. Not my usual experience with Wilkinson. Expect to upgrade the tuners and the bridge as well. One big negative, the neck pocket is to large to accommodate a replacement neck. It was also uneven in the pocket as well and needed some spot sanding. Nice looking and heavy, there's potential locked away in it, but you have to put some work into it first

Better out of the box than my Fender.

I bought this guitar because I had an original Hohner years ago and sold it for reasons long forgotten.

The Harley Benton looks fantastic and the sound is beautiful. I am going to record with this for our very next track as the three positions give me three very distinct and usable sounds.

Finish is flawless on mine, frets are good and generally she feels great in the hands.

The only small issue was that the action was, although quite playable, a little too high for me but every guitar I have ever bought needs that adjustment.

I may even buy another one?