Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit TL T-Style

I had a great deal of fun putting this instrument together. It was also an educational experience, as I got to see under the hood on a guitar at last.
The only real hard work on the guitar is shaping the headstock. But if you like the macho feel of the headstock that comes with the guitar, even that would be surmountable by leaving it as it is.

The process of assembly was well illustrated and I had no problems at all with it. The quality of the kit far exceeded my expectations. The neck was perfectly made with no rough fret edges and the frets only needed a light polish to perfection. The neck joint was a perfect fit to the body and the finished guitar needed no adjustment to the truss rod at all. Superb feel to that neck too. It plays just as well as some of my other guitars that cost considerably more. I would have preferred six height adjusters, but purists would argue a true Tele should only have three, anyway. I had no problems adjusting the intonation and height of the strings on the finished guitar and it played well without any buzzes or drop outs across the entire fretboard.

I watched several YouTube videos on painting the guitar, before starting the assembly and ended up with a finish that while not perfect is only noticeably flawed if you examine it right up close (Saharan dust settled on the final coat while drying it outside). I could have spent more time sanding to ensure a professional finish, but I like its idiosyncratic look anyway. So, I now have what I couldn't find a cheap deep purple Semi-Hollow Telecaster!

The fact that the electrics simply click together, rather than need soldering, is certainly a plus for those who may not have a soldering iron handy or any experience of using one.

The only down side is that the pickups, while offering that Tele twang, are a little noisy when feeding a high gain amp. But for those seeking an authentic 60s rock sound, that wouldn't matter, I guess, since that was part of that classic rock sound.

I may well replace the pick ups one day, but meanwhile I have been enjoying playing it since I built it.

An easy build- my first
Good clear instructions
Needed several rounds of sanding as I was applying oil.
Finishing very good generally, slight roughness around jack and F hole- sorted with sanding

Lightweight
Hardware is good enough to start, might change eventually, and the pups

Good fun. I have no woodwork experience and found it easy, if I can do it, anyone can

Edit:- Have had it for a few weeks. It's still 5 stars for all the reasons mentioned. I brought it for a set-up as I do with all my guitars. The tech noted no bad fretwork, he just polished the frets. He deepened the nut slots slightly (this needs doing on nearly all my guitars). He put a shim in the neck pocket for slightly better action. He said that the intonation was very easy to adjust and tuning stability was good. He was also very impressed with the pickups. Lastly, the only short term to medium term change he recommended was a better jack socket.

Hope that's useful. Still 5 stars for me. Taking a break before my next kit which will probably be a CST-24 or a SC kit. Will most likely stain the next one. Get one, you'll enjoy it and will learn lots- I'm no longer afraid of taking a guitar apart, fitting or changing tuners etc. I draw the line at replacing a nut.

I was a bit apprehensive about trying to build this kit. But even with my basic woodworking skills, I managed to shape the neck to a nice "tele" shape that looks great. I used higher quality spray paint cans for the finish, but even so, the quality is quite nice. If you want an absolutely perfect finish, it's necessary to do some more sanding and filling on the body - in my case, I just left it as it was. Multiple coats of dark Jade green paint, sanded smooth and then several coats of clear matte acrylic lacquer. The only minor problem with the kit was on the back side of the body - the pieces of wood were not completely pressed together, and I didn't notice until I started painting. So there's a minor gap in the paint.

Project undertaken as an introduction into how to better understand, modify and maintain guitars.

Shaping the headstock by hand was more straightforward than I’d imagined. Instruction manual also straightforward. 11-49 gauge strings (with wound 3rd) sound better than the stock 9s and 10s. Low action, including a little relief in the neck, with no evidence of buzzing or fretting. PUPs sound balanced once set up. Was fully expecting I’d upgrade straight away. With a little compression, drive & reverb it actually sounds really impressive. Also, added an inexpensive ‘Chigsby’ vibrato! Too early to comment on tuning stability as the construction is still settling in, though it appears fine and the intonation seems spot on.

The only minor issues, which took a few minutes to resolve, were some rough fret edges and tops of Allen screws into the saddles.

Overall, a very playable and great sounding TL-T, with which I would gig and record as things stand.