Harley Benton TE-70RW Deluxe Series

Ok, another stunning review for a very inexpensive Harley Benton electric guitar... I am a hobby guitarist, drummer, pianist, and I do all my jamming at home in the basement man cave. I've read all the reviews like YOU have too, probably, because I just couldn't believe all the great things said about the incredibly inexpensive Harley Benton line of guitars. I finally had to "Jump In The Fire" ;) and I purchased this Tele copy, the TE-70RW Deluxe. I also bought a B stock Nashville Line Nylon solid body but that's not the focus of this review.
The TE70-RW has the following traits, in my opinion:
Pros: super inexpensive, flawless fit/finish, arrived with ZERO damage from Germany to Kentucky, U.S.A. in 9 days, good setup on arrival, NOT microphonic, NOT high action, NOT a returned item re-sold to me, the guitar for the $ paid is an OUTSTANDING value. Out of the box & wiped down then plugged in it sounds great. sounds every bit as nice as my Made In Mexico Deluxe Roadhouse Stratocaster and sounds better than the Fender Baja Tele my friend brought over to have on hand for immediate comparison. The Roswell pickups are fine, nothing special but NOTHING at all wrong with them.

Cons: the guts of the guitar are obviously 'cheap' but by no means are they LOW quality, the strings and fret board was 'dirty' and I had to do an extensive wipe down on the guitar. I would love to have a little higher quality fret board wood but that would increase the price.

Bottom Line: You can not beat the quality for the price paid. The CONS that I listed have nothing to do with the guitar tone, playability, or 'function'. I would not expect this guitar to be a 'gigging' axe for a professional but for the normal everyday guy/gal who just loves to play... it is A O.K.

If you are considering a Harley Benton guitar, any model, but are scared of the low LOW LOWWWWWW cost you are just like many Americans and other guitarists from countries outside the 'immediate' are of Thomann Music and that's understandable. Unless you've already done business with Thomann you just don't know if you can trust the reviews online and all that.... Well, there's only ONE way to find out and that is to bite the bullet and give them a chance.

You will not be disappointed.
I had ordered a Ritchie Kotzen signature Telecaster just a couple of days before this purchase. It's made in Japan and is at the top of Fender's 'non custom shop' food chain. I cancelled the order for the Fender and bought 2 Harley Benton's for 1/3 of the price I would've given for the Kotzen model Tele.

I'm extremely glad I did cancel that order. I have Tele sound, tone, feel, and more for a lot less money. Couldn't be happier with Thomann and Harley Benton.

So, this has caused me a problem or a dilemma at least. To be honest I bought this for one reason, to strip it for parts for my other Tele’s and so far it’s much, much better than expected, way too good to use as a donor guitar for parts. I now need to get parts in a different was as it’s erm,.....better than most of my other Tele’s.

The action is too high, way too high but I know that this is down to personal preference and entirely subjective yet needs adjustment. The tuners are ok, it depends on your perspective, they’re not amazing compared to a Schaller locking fender set yet for the money, I don’t get how they can do this, it’s surprising how good they are. The bridge tuner rattles too much at the moment but a setup may fix this.

Overall my neighbours were expecting to see something far from playable yet they didn’t believe that this was supposed to be a donor parts item. Me? I’m keeping this as is, I’ll change the bridge pickups as they rattle too much but overall, this is like modern magic. I wouldn’t expect anything playable at this budget but I am wrong , surprised, and actually really impressed.

Now I need to explain that I have a new guitar and no parts as expected, thanks Thomann, please send new tuners so I can avoid having to justify another guitar.

A quick update----
The tuners turned out to be awful. Dead spots everywhere, slipping, too much dead movement, they rapidly became as bad as the set on my Affinity. So I've made a few mods. I added a set of HB locking tuners, added Göldo string trees, cleaned and lemon oiled the neck twice, graphited the nut slots, and then swapped the strings for a set of Ernie Ball 9's. Now, it holds a note as well as my PRS.

The TE70 is a great base to make some basic changes, adding less than €100 in parts for such good results is worth it. It's still only cost around the same price as my affinity Tele but the results are much better. Next time I buy another HB I will make the same changes out of the box.

Finally, if a female can do all this work in a few hours, surely a chap can do it quicker ;)

I am like a lot of the folks here purchasing a Harley Benton; I read the great reviews here, watched the tests on You Tube and I was compelled to pull the trigger and purchase a guitar to see what all the fuss was about.
I decided on the TE-70RW Deluxe Series Rosewood Tele as I loved the look of the photos, love Teles, and am a huge George Harrison fan.
I have not had one unpleasant moment with this guitar (other than my old fingers do not move as they once did). The finish is absolutely beautiful with the headstock matching the Rosewood Veneer body. The double binding is beautiful and dark fretboard are the perfect compliments to the appearance of the instrument. The frets were in good shape, nothing sharp, and the action was set almost as low out of the box as my Gretsch 6128 (which was professionally set up). The tuners are ok and hold tune; there may be a small amount of play as you tighten/loosen but I have experienced more wiggle in much more expensive Guitars than this one. The pickups are what you would expect for a Tele...neck smooth and sweet, bridge with the Tele twang. Absolutely no issues with the guitar to this point, it is very fun to play and comfortable (fairly heavy, but not LP heavy).
The Guitar travelled from Germany to my home in Michigan in a matter of 4 days damage free. The client support at Thomann were helpful and provided good communication throughout the process.
I understand now what the fuss was about; I have had many guitars produced by the "Elite" makers and I honestly believe I have gotten the biggest bang for the buck with the Harley Benton that I have ever experienced with guitars. I am beyond the years of gigging but I would absolutely gig with this guitar.
I will be a Thomann customer and a Harley Benton fan going forward; Give this guitar a try, you will be glad you did.

This guitar genuinely baffled me. I thought it being a budget friendly guitar it'd have a lot of issues, and it's sincerely brilliant. I own a lot of guitars and have played a hell of a lot as I'm a guitar teacher and was a music student at uni.

The look of this thing is beautiful, the matching headstock is stunning too

The sound is fantastic, pickups have great clarity - I thought I'd have to switch them out ASAP but I think I'll just keep them in

The only upgrade I think I'd make would be some locking tuners (and maybe a bone nut)

However, the playability of the guitar when it arrived was bad, very bad, with an extremely high action. However after getting it a proper set up it plays like butter, just had to lower the action and adjust the truss rod (do not try this on your own if you don't know what you're doing as you might damage the guitar badly - get it done by a professional)

Don't get me wrong, it doesn't play exactly like my US fender Tele, but it's pretty god damn close and cost £1360 less, it plays better than my Mexican fender strat - don't ask how, as I don't know how either

Will definitely need to get it set up
The neck is slightly sticky with the gloss finish it has, but it's easy enough to work around and doesn't hinder playing

Blows squier out of the water, and on par with Mexican fender at least if not better ( admittedly I may have just gotten really lucky as at this price point there could be issues, but if so you can just send it back)

I'm trying my luck and buying the £88 black strat they do now to see how it holds up, but it probably won't be as good.

Try this guitar

I always wanted telecaster but I did not want to go for expensive models before trying one first. I tuned it and checked neck and intonation and intonation was good and neck was ½ turn too loose but nothing serious. Strings were way too high but nothing small allen key cant handle.
The craftmanship is a very good and this guitar is so beautiful to hold and to look at it. Only flaw I can find is dry fretboard. Like it's little scratchy. It should be oiled right away. After two oilings, it's good.

The neck is SMOOTH. Frets and edges of neck are well rounded and pleasant to hold. Neck is around 2,3 cm thick on a first fret, which is considered a thick neck. Up to 22,9 mm is still medimum thicknes. I am just giving you measurements I measured. Nut seems to be made out of plastic. No hate for it but change to tusq might be a first mod on this guitar.

Tuners are bad but guitar stays in tune and their change is a second mod for this guitar. Speaking of tuners, they seems to be little heavy. The balance is ok but the guitar is a bit „top heavy“. This depends on you playing posititon. If you hold a guitar higher it might neck dive. I hold it on navel height and it does not neck dive

This Roswell Alnico 5 magnets delivers a typical single coil sound but they have this mid output that you won't expect from some Telecasters. Sound is more warmer and rounded than clean sound we got used to listening to Fenders. Both neck and bridge pickups are more concentrated on mid and low freq rather than highs. Ofc with no hum. Best playing positions for me is middle aka both both pick ups. Mid position really sounds like proper single coil guitar. To conclude, this guitar has it's own sounds. (changing pickups is not a hard job if you dont like 'em). I find my best sound 2 mm on low E and around 1.5 mm on high E.

The quality is much higher than the price suggest. Being cheap does not mean low quality.
Lot of cheaper guitars suffers of premature fret wear but after 12 months of extensive play, they don't seems to be willing to give up any time soon.
I am giving this guitar 8/10. It's based on playability and sound. Dry fretboard is kinda something that affects playability, but it can be easly fixed. Bad tuners and plastic nut is not something I considered.

I played various guitars, like Gibson SG, Epiphone and Greco Les Pauls, and some cheaper strats. This telecaster is perhaps the first one I have bought brand new, and never regretted that.

I had been choosing between Black Paisley and Rosewood, and finally picked the latter. I like its noble appearance and prefer dark rosewood fretboard to maple.

Before buying, I checked if any musicians use it on stage, and listened to its real sound. The pickups sounding great for the price and consistent with the idea of the telecaster, although they differ from Fender.

Comparing to Squires from local shops, I like HB more, thanks to the deluxe series finishing, even putting aside nearly twice higher Squires price.

The guitar was perfectly packaged and came in ideal condition. It was absolutely playable just out of the box, but the strings were a little higher, than I used to, like 2mm on 12th. I have a lack of experience with this kind of setup, so went to a local guitar workshop to polish the frets and adjust the neck and bridge. I think, this operation is pretty normal for any new guitar, and frets finishing wasn't bad, I have just made sure it's the best possible.

Now I play and record it for half a year, and I think it will take me years to outgrow it, if ever. If your primary goal to express and embody your musical ideas, this is a perfect instrument, pleasant and enjoyable.