Harley Benton TE-20MN BM Standard Series

I've bought this guitar because I adore the looks and sound of a telecaster.
I've owned an Epiphone SG (made in 2006) before. It was much more expensive than HB TE20. However, this tele is made much better. Epiphone SG had so many flaws, but I don't think this is the place I need to nag about it.
What I loved about this guitar:
1. This guitar came set up so well, that I don't even know what to add. The frets are polished, fret ends are smooth (we will see what's going to happen after our Northern winter). Even stock strings aren't terrible.
2. The body is well made, no "pickholders" like original Fenders have between the neck pocket and neck. All the plates and knobs feel good, the bridge is reliable and doesn't give any problems.
3. It stays in tune well. I didn't have any problems with tuning it up, which was a big surprise. Most people say that these 89 euro guitars have bad tuners, but honestly, I didn't experience any problems with it. Maybe I'm just lucky?
4. The neck. Oh God, I love this neck! It is chunky and awesome. It is super smooth and not sticky! It feels just right!!! Mind that I'm used to SG neck and jazz bass neck. Adjusting to this chunky thing wasn't a problem. With my big hands it's perfect.
What I didn't like:
1. The sound. I think it's the only point I didn't like. Although the sound met my expectations. I knew it won't have the sound I want, so I've ordered Fender Vintera 50's pickup set together with this guitar. They are 79 euros, so I'm guessing it will work. Anyway, the bridge pickup sounds so bland. It sounds incredibly boring! I couldn't get anything with the help of my amp and effects. It's just so dull. It actually sounds as if you are just playing into a mic, which is kinda strange. The neck pickup sounds quite OK. I mean it's not ideal, but it's way better than the neck pickup. You can actually get some interesting sounds out of it. In 2nd position the guitar sound quite unbalanced. Bridge pickup overpowers the neck one, so you are left with a bridge sound + a little of this dull neck sound. Again, as I said before, I was expecting it to be bad, so no surprise here.
What I have to say as a reviewer:
Because this guitar is so well made and costs so little, I was looking for "the catch" in this guitar.
1. The tiny dots on top of the fretboard aren't consistently round. Some are oval, some have a little paint sticking out. (I know it's something you won't even notice, but I was trying hard to find "the catch"!
2. The edge of the pickguard on the top isn't perfectly smooth when you trace your finger along it. There are some tiny waves and I don't think I will try to fix that.
3. The paintjob behind the bridge isn't ideal. It looks as if it has little navy spots there. I think it looks cool though. The blue colour itself is amazing though.
Summary:
I love this guitar. It is amazing. I was thinking it won't be as good as it is. Feels amazing, super well-made, stays in tune. It's a perfect guitar to start playing or just having fun with it!
The sound is not great, but I was planning to change them anyway. I got a set of Fender Vintera 50's, so if you are interested, I'll leave a review there as well. If you just want to play at home or start learning, the sound won't be a problem anyway.
I'm extremely happy with this guitar, if you have any doubts - trust me, it's a good buy. Especially for that price!

After recently moving to Europe and getting more into music, i found thomann looking for an electric drum set. I bought the Millenium MPS-850, and was (and still am) very impressed. The quality and price made me very happy with Thomann.

After that, I wanted a bass, so I bought a Harley benton PB-20 SBK. I did a bunch of research and was very happy with my purchase.

I have wanted to get into guitar, and really like midwest emo/math rock, so i decided to get this Tele style guitar. The internet had lots of good reviews for this TE-20, so i decided to go for it.

This guitar is top quality, and i am really in love with it. The feel, sound, and looks are amazing. This guitar sounds great, and i love playing it through the amp and pedal sims in logic pro. It sounds and feels like my freind’s fender, and if it didn’t say Harley Benton, I would seriously say it was a fender.

Mine had no sharp frets, no fret buzz, no finish imperfections, really a top quality instrument. I replaced the strap buttons with the Harley benton locking ones, which i would recommend doing. I also put on a fun purple pickgaurd i got from Amazon.

Overall, this Guitar is amazing, and really lives up to the Thomann/Harley Benton name. This is so cheap, I don’t know how they do it. If you want to try out a Tele, or just start on guitar, this would be my recommendation.

...and the hype is definitely warranted! I'd been hearing about Harley Benton guitars for a while and had been ignoring the hype. I've heard people rant and rave before about how amazing something is only to be disappointed by the reality so I was rather sceptical.

To be honest, I wanted to hold off before reviewing -- firstly because I really wanted to give myself time to play the guitar but also due to some shipping issues which meant I did not receive the guitar before Christmas -- I didn't want my irritation at the delivery issues (UPS) to cloud my judgement of the product, the brand or Thomann. However, in fairness (and humble apologies) to Thomann, this wasn't really their fault.

That aside the guitar exceeded my expectations. I have a Fender MiM stratocaster and I'm not going to lie and say this rivals it in terms of sound or quality, but the HB is definitely worth shouting about and not far behind. I'd compare the build quality to that of the Epiphone Les Paul and SG guitars which I've owned and played a few of. Anyone familiar with Epiphone will truly appreciate that compliment -- the feel and finish of this guitar really blew me away, my dad was very impressed, too.

As is tradition, here's a list of some pros and cons:

Pros:

1. Neck feels really nice, not too chunky but not too thin, either. Frets are well fitted, absolutely no sprouting.

2. The selector swith and pots actually feel better than I'd expected. I've seen a few budget tele's where these looked and felt really cheap but these have a bit of heft to them, pretty nice.

3. I really like the bridge, it feels more comfortable to mute the strings than on my Fender strat. My plan was to eventually replace this, I might not.

4. The paint job was better than expected, it has a slight metalic sheen to it that isn't too garish but looks really nice.

5. Amazingly, the action and intonation were almost spot on, if this thing had been tuned I could have played it right out of the box and it would have sounded fine.

Cons:

1. Tuners aren't the best, more than expected at this price point. They're still more than adequate, don't get me wrong, they hold tune perfectly well for me. It's a hard-tail bridge, anyway, so if you string it properly you'll have no problems with them. I will probably upgrade these at some point but it's not a pressing matter.

2. The pickups are good, and you can get a nice twang, that spanky sound you want from a tele, but they're not amazing. I'll probaby change these at some point but they're still great and I'm having lot's of fun with them.

3. Not sure it's even really a con, but frets needed a good polish as there as a bit of drag/scratching, nothing major at all and something I'd fully expect. Once I'd polished them this thing was an absolute pleasure to play.

4. Another one I'm not sure is a con, but strings weren't too great. Personally I never expect a new guitar to have the best strings and in fairness the supplied strings were actually better than most, they weren't rusted or tarnished and fairly playable...I just like a different gauge!

Lastly - I've seen/read many reviews claiming these guitars are particularly heavy but this is about the same weight as the Fender strat, perhaps even a bit lighter.

So, in summary; I decided to take a chance and spent £79 on a Telecaster copy and I honestly wasn't expecting what I got. Looking at this, holding it, my dad, not knowing the price, guessed it was a £200-300 guitar -- when I told him the price he was gobsmacked.

So, yeah...I'll probably be buying more Harley Bentons, I did also receive one of their acoustic guitars, the D-120CE VS, which was also fantastic value for the money and I'll be writing an epic review for it.

Yeah, I think it's safe to say I'm pretty much on the Harley Benton hype train, these guitars are honestly quite splendid for the price.

Much obliged!