Harley Benton TE-80 NT Deluxe Series 5-stars Reviews

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.

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?

Disappointment turns to delight

First of all delivery. Order placed 09/01/15, delivered to the UK this morning, 14/01/15. Delivery tracking was first class.

Disappointment. For some reason I thought that this guitar was in kit form. I was looking forward to building it but it arrived already built. Delight in that I could play it straight away. It needed a bit of a set up. Neck was fine but intonation was out and the bridge saddles were set as high as they could go. I adjusted these quite low and there is no fret buzz anywhere. Neck is faster than my strat and plays great and I just can't believe the sound. Installation of electrics needs a bit of attention by QA as one of the wires had a dry joint on a pot. That was easily resoldered though.

Over all. A great buy and a great guitar.

Fantastic Value!

A cheapo version from Aldi cured my innate dislike of Teles. I was hooked but left wanting a string-thru' body and a top E string that didn't slip off the neck. I decided on either a Baja or a Madcat/Prinz, but found a Korean Fender LAT with a wonderful birdseye maple neck, and that should have been that. BUT I stumbled across rave US reviews of the HB TE-80 NT Deluxe - Americans were importing them and swapping pickguards to make Madcat clones. Its unbelievable that this weighty beast costs little more than the Aldi one, but is built and plays so like the Fender. Now for a new pickguard...

Nice Wild Cat Copy

Really nice finish on this guitar and looks a lot better than it should for the low price.

Set up was good out of the box.

No sharp fret ends and neck feels good.

Machine heads are good and hold tune well.

Plays real well and has great sustain. It is a heavy lump of wood to hang round your neck though.

The pickups are pretty good and have a really good clean tone. They really do not need upgrading but note this is a pretty good copy of a Wildcat ( I cannot justify the cost of a real one) and has Stratocaster type pickups.