Harley Benton TE-30 BE Standard Series

I always wanted a telecaster, but somehow never got one. Since I couldn't spend a whole heap of money on one, I kept trying out guitars that went somewhere around 250 euro, but I never found them likable, they never sounded like a tele should. So, after reading lots of good reviews, and having purchased a Harley Benton strat before, I thought I'd give it a shot, thinking that if it turned out to be lousy, it'd be a good modding base, but how wrong was I. This guitar is simply unbelievable, especially for a mere 89EU. Upon inspection, I could find no flaws in the overall finish of the guitar - the color looks great, lighter than in the pictures, creamy, very sweet, the neck is of a satin finish and is extremely comfortable, the tuners are alright, the spin ratio seems good enough, though I see why some would want to upgrade, though I would rather suggest trying rolling string trees first. But as of now, it stays in tune. The pickup switch feels cheapish, but it does it's job fine and it's not something that would bother me since an "upgrade" is very very cheap. Now, these things that I mentioned are absolute nitpicks, as the guitar looks and plays amazing.

Firstly, the neck - many that reviewed this commented on how fat or wide the neck is, ala the baseball bat neck. While it is surely subjective, I find the neck to be very comfortable as I dislike very thin, flat ones. It's similar to the HB ST-62 strat, but a tad slinkier, and feels much much faster. The satin finish is very nice and helps with slides. As this is my first guitar with a satin neck, I am absolutely loving it! The fret job is great, no sharp ends, everything is rounded off and such, really extremely impressive for this price! The only bit that was wonky was that the frets themselves weren't fully polished, but that went away after playing for a couple of hours. The leveling is astonishing, considering the price, no buzz, nothing. Also, the action was great right out of the box. I must be lucky or something.

Electronics - I have no quarrel with them. I quite enjoy the pickups, the middle position is very chimy and full, the bridge is biting, snaps right back at You, just as a proper tele should, and the neck is heavenly. I also should mention that it must be properly shielded because it doesn't buzz anywhere nearly as much as I expected, considering it's single coils.

Body - it's a two piece, and let me tell You, it's damn heavy. I don't mind it since I'm used to an LP that weighs a ton, but even so I was surprised since it weighs exactly as much as the full blown LP! I'm used to the weight and have a good back, but I can see how this could be an issue for some, so beware - it is darn heavy!

Playability - honestly, it's one of the best playing guitars I've ever played and I've been playing for over 15 years and played a whole lot of guitars. I bought this on the basis that my HB ST-62 strat was surprisingly okay, since I wanted something that would lay around the house, but Jesus is this nicer that the strat! The neck is miles away and overall it just feels good.

You may choose not to believe me, it might sound like a bought review but I absolutely swear that it is not so, it's just a very very good guitar. Maybe I lucked out and got the best one, I don't know, but once I've picked it up and plugged in I couldn't stop playing for a couple of hours! Very comfy, and startlingly versatile.

Overall - I honestly can't believe that I payed only 89 euro for this, it's comfortable, sound great, looks great too!
Would I recommend?

YES.

You'd be a fool not to get one of these.

It's great.

Country, blues, jazz, soul, funk, RnB, rock. Great for slide too!

Sounds great and it sounds like a tele should. The pickups are great. I don't see a need to upgrade them. The finish is gorgeous. It is heavy. It may be ash, but it's not swamp ash.

It's a top loader too, for me that's a feature - the strings don't go through the body, but through the bridge. It feels slinkier. One of my favorite tele players, Jim Campilongo, plays a 59 tele that is a top loader.

After playing it for a month the frets' ends popped out of the fingerboard. Ouch. That means the neck has dried up and shrunk, thus exposing the frets out of the fretboard.
I imagine they are churning tons of these cheap guitars and don't care to properly wait to dry the wood. Fixing this here in Copenhagen will cost probably more than the guitar... Might be better to buy the files and do it myself...

The Pickguard Disaster.

I find the mother-of-pearl pickguard very time period inappropriate and kitsch. How did they overlooked this aesthetically is beyond me. A simple black or white pickguard would have been better for such a simple and classic guitar. To add insult to the injury, apparently the Harley Benton pick guards they sell don't fit Harley Benton guitars. I ordered some standard replacement for the actual brand tele and that didn't fit either. Don't waste money on that.

I painted mine with a black permanent non water soluble marker. It's absolutely gorgeous now. Since I play daily I've had to touch it up a couple of times, I don't mind at all, it takes me 10 seconds.


The Tuners

I also changed the tuners, thought the ones it came with were totally functional, even if not the greatest. I put the cheapest klusons with oval peg heads, just so it looks more like a classic tele. Honestly, other than the looks the cheap tuners weren't an essential upgrade - could have kept the original ones.

What I'd love to see on Harley Benton guitars in general (This is my 2nd one) is staggered tuners so they don't have to use these ridiculous looking string trees. I hope they are listening.

I don't use the string tree for the D and G strings - I bend behind the nut.


The Jack and The Nut

The jack is the worst. It's cheap and it comes off, you have to tighten it all the time. That and the nut will be my next upgrade. The nut is cut poorly, with the B string cut closer to the G string than it should be.

The jack on my fusion Hb is also pretty bad, I hope Thomann listens...

The guitar also will need to be shielded.

The neck is nice and chunky and very comfortable.
The neck joint is absolutely outstanding.

The electronics are totally fine - the pots feel smooth and I love the tapper on both the volume and tone - bravo Harley Benton!

Even with the frets popping out, this was a great purchase. I love playing this guitar, it sounds as good as any great tele I've ever played at a fraction of the price tag.

This tele is more real than a lot of the cheap F brand teles you can buy for 2/3 times the money. So if you care more about the tone than what the logo on the headstock says then this is a no brainer.

I've been a professional musician since the late 1990s