Harley Benton TE-70RW Deluxe Series

I've tried a lot of Chinese guitars over the years. Most of those guitars were suffering from some cheap parts (particularly tuners, pots or switches) and sometimes very poor overall quality control (finish defects, fretwork, etc). Honestly my opinions of Chinese manufacturers were not very positive. This changed about 4 years ago when I saw a Dean Dimebag signature model made in China (the one with explosion graphics). Then last year when I tried another Chinese guitar (a Yamaha RGX-520 FZ), I started to think that China is going pro on electric guitars business... This HB Deluxe Tele is not different from those good Chinese guitars, if not better, considering price/quality ratio.

Pros:
- Price. You get a good guitar, cheaper than most of Fender SQ Tele models.
- Very nice grainy maple neck with glossy finish. Very fast & comfortable neck. İt is not meaty nor super slim, right in the middle, just like the original.
- Overall finish is almost perfect. I really liked the matching headstock too. Very good QC.
- String-thru body with good quality ferrules. Sustain is good and whole guitar is sonically very responsive.
- Bridge pickup. It is very microphonic and catches a lot of noise all around, but that's my personal choice. I like it dirty.. It almost acts like a P90 and I really love it. Pretty melodious for good old school rock or some country style finger-picking.
- Durable. Although tuners look cheap they are working well and guitar stays in tune perfectly; not once out of tune for about 2 hours of constant playing on stage.
- Double binding on the body (front and back). Looks absolutely gorgeous from every angle..

Cons:
- Fret sprout. Interestingly, only lower ends of the frets are sharp. Not sure there is a QC issue here; it might be the wood itself. If you ask me, fingerboard (or whole neck) probably shrunk from low humidity and left the fret ends open on one side. It is not a big deal for me, I have filed them little bit and they are now sitting with nice ends.
- Not sure about the authenticity of Wilkinson bridge, it feels very cheap.. I will probably change it. I may keep the saddles 'though, they are good quality.

I bought this one mainly for gigging purposes and it already proved itself. Maybe not a recording piece, but it is reliable guitar with nice looks and good playability. And with this price, I think it is a steal!

Where do I start with this thing? Let’s start three guitars ago. The one I kept is the fourth one of these guitars I have had. I sent the first three back for the same reasons. The knobs were not perpendicular to the guitar’s surface and not correctable. Either the pots or the knobs themselves were installed wrongly. I was very aware of what to expect with HB guitars. I watched every review I could find, especially on the TE-70 as I was particularly keen on having a T-type guitar. I was happy to accept some minor finishing flaws, etc. I’d seen what others had reported but I really think that the basics should be right. Receiving a guitar with knobs which wouldn’t rotate cleanly and ground into the surface didn’t seem reasonable, even accepting the price and what I knew about HBs, which was quite a lot. I did plenty of research

I am quite capable of correcting such things if they are correctable but these weren’t. Support agents suggested that I could simply move them on the shafts. You can’t. That was the first and most obvious option I tried. I also investigated to see whether I could make any adjustments to the pots, straighten them in the cavity or shim them so that they sat level. I couldn’t. In two separate cases support offered to send me a replacement pot which I was to solder in. Really? I’m not experienced at that. Questions about what happens if I mess it up or the guitar is damaged remain unanswered. I appreciate the willingness to help but that’s a bit much. In both cases the guitars were accepted for return and the folks I spoke to were helpful and responsive, so I can’t complain about the support in general but I don’t think it is reasonable to have to deal with misaligned controls every time I use them even at this price. The basic assembly should be right. Even so, I’m happy to deal with imperfections if I can correct them or they don’t affect playability but I couldn’t fix this and it did.

I then waited for a later batch to arrive at Thomann to see if the fault was rectified as I really wanted that T-type guitar. I’d bought two other guitars with it and they were fine. I contacted support again and explained the situation. This time a vary helpful chap was kind enough to have one specially checked and shipped, which I appreciate greatly. This fourth one was still not perfect on receipt, I have to say. The knobs are definitely better but they still don’t track perfectly. However, the problem is very minor on this one so I decided to keep it and accept that it probably wouldn’t get any better, given the special attention this one had had. Other guitars I have received since also display this problem, although only to a small degree. It’s still disappointing. What made things worse was that having decided to keep it I was changing the strings and the high ‘E’ tuner’s retaining screw pulled straight out of the headstock while turning the tuning knob. Seriously annoying! However that was something that I could fix and returns are time-consuming and frustrating, especially after already having returned three, so I filled the old hole, re-drilled it and it is now fine. A neat repair if I do say so myself but do be aware that these guitars can come with problems. None of the reviews I saw, and I watched a lot, ever reported issues like these.

So, ultimately, I am happy with the one I have. It now plays and works well, after the usual fretboard clean and polish. It makes all of the right T-type sounds and that is what I was hoping for. I am grateful to Thomann’s support staff for persisting and that made all the difference but things still should have been better, it must be said. I must also say that I now have eight HB guitars and one in the post and have not had to return any of the others, so this is hopefully rare. It seems a shame, though, after seeing so many glowing reviews of these specific guitars to have had this experience and it clearly wasn’t just one guitar.

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.

I bought a TE-70 deluxe just to mess around with, little did I know I'd be gigging it weeks later with a new set of AVRI 58s installed.

I'll start from the beginning:
I saw these guitars all over the internet and always liked the look of them. A rosewood top guitar for £135 total? Surely not!
Well I decided to take the plunge and buy one.

Straight out of the box, the setup was immaculate with a medium-low action and perfect intonation. Tuners fell okay and usable, but I absolutely love the option for through body stringing or top loading. The neck feels wide like a Gibson neck, and the fretboard radius flat enough for smooth bending.

The pickups sounded decent, but were unfortunately micro-phonic which wasn't ideal for my gain habits. After investing in some new pickups, the guitar is now a polished gem, a guitar that people have to look twice at (in a good way).

The only issue that my guitar had after several performances was that my not-so-delicate friend managed to pull the top strat button off the guitar, resulting in it not being able to be put back in, but a larger screw solved that problem.

Would I recommend this guitar? YES.

The harley benton guitars seem to be getting great reviews so I pulled the trigger on this TE-70. The delivery was quite slow from Thomann which was disappointing (12 days from day of order) to Ireland. I'm hoping it's just to do with the current events and doesn't usually happen, but even still 12 days seems quite long...

When it finally arrived I have to say this guitar really impressed me, especially for the price. Keep in mind I am a beginner so I may be more easily impressed than someone more experienced than myself. The guitar had no marks/scratches etc and frets all smooth, although it was a little dusty so i had to give it a wipe down first. The RW finish is really nice and looks great in direct light where you can really see the pattern. For 149euro it feels a LOT more expensive, even the tone/vol nobs feel heavy and smooth which is really nice.

In terms of set up the action seemed to be a little high (even for a beginner). Not too much of a worry since that can be adjusted. Intonation was pretty much spot on. It also holds tune well which is something i was a bit worried about. Strings feel great too.

The roswell pickups do an amazing job and make this thing sound wonderful. I don't have any other tstyle guitars to compare with but to my ears it sounds great! No complaints there.

Overall for the money this is an amazing guitar, just wish it was set up a little better, still can't complain. Great job Harley Benton!

Great service and prompt delivery as always, guitar was well packaged.
This guitar looks much better in the flesh, so to speak, the pictures on the site look good but once you unpack it from box looks even better, you wouldn't expect this kid of finish for the price.
Handling- this guitar feels comfortable, not too light or heavy, just as a tele should be.
Sound- The pick ups blend well together, especially middle position when playing rythmn, bridge pick up has plenty of bite when overdriven, without getting too muddy, and neck has plenty bass, just back off tone control a little to find your sound.
Set up- Set up out of box needed tweaked a little, tightened tuners, lowered action a little, bt neck relief was fine and control plate and knobs were very secure, appears to hold tune well so far.

A beautiful looking, great sounding telecaster, rosewood veneer is flawless and a real eyecatcher.

I ordered one after seeing and reading good feedback about it.
I didn't know what to expect but I have to say, it's not disappointing. The guitar is a very little lighter than a standard telecaster, well balanced and well finished. Looking through it I didn't see any flaws. Body well finished, frets are good, neck is straight and the Wilkinson bridge plate is more than satisfying.
Tuners could be upgraded if you plan playing concerts but are enough anywhere else. The neck is a little thicker than a Fender and "C" shaped.
I managed to get a very low action and intonation is on point! It's a beautiful guitar and plays well. Could not expect better at this price point. Fully satisfying.

I would make few mods to get it to my tastes : Change pickups for something with just a tad more punch and bass. Maybe tuners but for now they are enough. Oil the fingerboard a little dry and maybe satin the back of the neck a little sticky to my taste. Maybe I wish they used the same Fender's pickguard screws placement , so I could easily change it.

I strongly recommend this guitar ... actually, to anyone willing on a Telecaster (with super low budget). This one will not go back !