Harley Benton TE-70RW Deluxe Series

I don?t think that you can ever go wrong with a Tele. It?s the original, simplicity itself, totally effective, versatile beyond belief, the ultimate everyman?s guitar. Everybody looks cool rocking on a Tele, whether you?re Keith Richards, Joe Strummer, Prince, Jeff Beck, Marty Stuart, or Joe Blow. Everybody needs at least one! In point of fact this is my 3rd.

Thomann offers several Harley Benton Tele knock-offs, though the Te-70 was the obvious choice for me. Here's a little inside tip: If you're going to get a Harley Benton guitar that?s a knock off of a particular make or model, then go for their ?top of the line.?

The guitar took exactly one week to reach me where I reside in North Carolina USA.

First impression out of the box: This is a righteous tele, very handsome, looks expensive, good fit and finish, made my wife go, "Ohhh," and "Ahhh," light in weight, body thinner than a Fender Tele, balanced and perfectly proportioned, a hefty handful of a neck (though comfortable), nice clean fretwork, good nut height, very straight neck, beautiful and attractive rosewood grain all around, hardware is both solid looking and feeling, warm pickups (raucous brown bridge pup and a sweet snappy neck pup with the middle position a delightful thing as well), decent tuners that won't need to be replaced, irresistibly makes me want to play early Zeppelin riffs, bluesy Robben Ford licks, and twangy countrified double-stop type stuff.

The entire guitar ? the front and back of the body, the fretboard, and the headstock ? is this warm, brownish, luscious, rosewood color. It immediately brought to mind a line from Eddie Murphy?s movie Coming to America: ?Sexual Chocolate!? To extend the metaphor, the cream binding front and back looks like vanilla icing. Let?s face it, this guitar just looks delicious!

Giving it a critical looking over: I could immediately tell that the body was thinner than that on my Fender Standard Tele. The Te-70 is also quite light. Any of you who appreciate and desire a light guitar, this one is definitely for you. Though I personally prefer a thicker guitar, I can live with a slightly slimmer profile on this one.

The fretboard has a tight grain with a pleasing color and general appearance. The binding is flawless, as is the paint job, the hardware, and the pickguard. The guitar has a well fitted, tight neck joint that feels very stable.

The fret work is smooth, no sharp ends, no high frets, and no buzzing whatsoever. Without any difficulty I was able to set the action quite low, which is my preference. With an adjustment of the nut I?ll be able to go even lower still.

The headstock itself is a fanciful and tasteful take on the iconic Tele profile which doesn?t stray too far from its inspiration to make it look weird, as some unfortunately do. I even think that the ?Harley Benton Deluxe Series? and ?Tone, Quality, Sound? lettering has class.

Though the photos of the Te-70 on Thomann?s website show a guitar without a skunk stripe on the back of the neck, my guitar does have one. Since I prefer the look of a skunk stripe, it?s a bonus for me.

The volume and tone knobs look nice and spin freely, with no binding, crackling, or other undesirable effects. Mini-pots and a box switch here, as was to be expected.

When looking inside the control rout you can see that the rosewood veneer is very thin indeed, appearing no thicker than a slim sheet of cardboard.

So how does it play? Whether a guitar ?plays well? is a very subjective thing, depending upon an individual players preference in regard to neck width/depth/carve, neck radius, string action, sting gauge, fret size, and that kind of thing. I do suppose that there are some specs that cast the widest possible net in this regard and enjoy near universal appeal. The Te-70 is inclined more towards that camp. There?s nothing offensive about the way it plays and it just feels like a good Tele neck to me. I would say it's a C shaped neck.


How does it sound?

The bridge pickup has a warm, raspy, authoritative snarl, as I think any good Tele bridge pickup should. It rocks hard if you want it to. Just dig in and there's plenty of grind and oomph there. It not only has warmth and just the right amount of grunt, but also a very good amount of clarity. It sparkles, plinks, and sustains just like a Tele set up with single coils and a brass barreled bridge should. If you play classic rock type material, then the Te-70 will fit the bill very nicely.

The middle position has a little less bite, as is to be expected. It may actually be my favorite position for playing lead on this guitar.

The neck position obviously provides the most bass heavy and rounded tone. When utilized for leads it is pleasantly articulate and snappy.

Both the middle and neck positions have that characteristically lovely and irresistible glassiness to them. When you hear that sound there?s no mistaking that this a Tele, and in this case a quite good one.

The Te-70 is extremely enjoyable to play bluesy licks on at lower gain settings, particularly in the neck and middle position. To me it just nails that sound.

General criticisms. The pickup selector switch is a little stiff in its movement. It makes it somewhat difficult when you want to change positions on the fly. This is probably an easy fix without having to replacing it entirely, because it works perfectly fine otherwise.

There is a dark spot on the wood (actually, a part of the wood) underneath the poly on the top edge of the headstock. Being a die hard old school Eddie Van Halen fan, it reminds me of the cigarette burns on the headstocks of his guitars. If it was on the bottom edge it wouldn't be so bad, but being on the top you actually look down on it while you're playing. Though it is technically not a defect, but merely the result of the natural grain of the wood (and some would argue a thing that gives the guitar ?character?) it is annoying and might be a deal breaker to some people.

Also, the tuner for the high E string had its screw put in cockeyed during assembly at the factory, hence the entire thing is slightly swiveled out of alignment.

Thomann gave me a price adjustment for both of these issues, so I'm a satisfied customer.

Summary: The Te-70 plays and sounds well enough out of the box that I could perfectly understand someone not wanting to touch a thing on it. Yet it is inexpensive enough and built with such a solid foundation that it can also make an ideal modding platform. Keep it stock, or hot rod the thing, it?s your choice. Either way, I don't think that you can go wrong with this guitar.

I?ve yet to get a real lemon from Thomann. This is my fourth Harley Benton guitar and each one has been from quite good to great. Despite a couple of minor issues, this guitar is a winner too. For anyone who is looking for an inexpensive, elegant looking Tele clone that plays and sounds terrific, I definitely recommend the Harley Benton Te-70 Rosewood Deluxe Series.