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.

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!

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

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.

The would have been nice to have part: The guitar is missing one strap button. The head-stock is different to the one in the pictures on the site. It has different font (not a better one) and on the back it has a RoHs made in china big stamp under the lacquer - not a sticker. I would have thought twice about getting it if this was seen in the pictures on the site. However these are not necessarily a deal breaker for me.
The really bad: The fretwork is appalling. Fret-board itself is covered in some kind of glue which needs cleaning. There are some stuck pieces of tape under some frets and between the nut and neck. Frets themselves are a whole different problem. They seem to be made by some soft metal which eats away when trying to do a bend, and they are either covered in corrosion or just haven't been polished at all. This makes bending the strings feel like rubbing them against sand paper.
The pickups: Even though I send an email beforehand, asking if anyone can test if the pickups are microphonic before shipping the guitar, it seems no one bothered with this. They seem to be microphonic indeed, both of them. Also they have a hum unlike I have seen before in any guitar so far.
All in all I am starting to wonder if all the positive feedback on this site is just added by Thomann employees to make products look good.I am thorn between returning the guitar so I can get my money back, or taking the financial hit and burning it, so at least there is no risk of anyone else getting it after I return it. I consider it to be an insult and, had it been shipped to a beginner guitarist, it would have probably made him quit playing altogether.

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.