Harley Benton TE-52 NA Vintage Series

Back in a day if you wanted to get a good guitar you had to pay a lot of money for it, at least for a decent one. But nowadays even the cheaper ones can be great instruments and solid workhorses but some imperfections are to be found. Here's my thoughts of the Harley Benton TE-52 NA:

Pros;
The Harley Benton TE-52 NA is a beautiful guitar and it plays magnificently, right out of the box! It was set up nicely, finish is good (expect for a few things, I'll come to that later) and to my surprise it sounds pretty good with its Roswell -pickups. The guitar sounds surprisingly good acoustically as well. However the most important thing to me is the feel of the guitar and I have to say it feels like a way more expensive guitar. The neck is profiled as C-shaped - It has a nice grip to it but it's not too chunky. The feel of the neck reminds me of the Fender player series (at least how i remember them, tried one about a year ago). The neck joint is perfect.
I've noticed some people complaining about the weight of the guitar that it's too heavy. I weighed it 4,3 kg. To me it's not a problem though because Ive been using a Les Paul guitar for years that weights like a ton so I've got used to it by now. I actually prefer heftier guitars, has a nice solid feeling to it.

Cons;
As I mentioned earlier not everything is perfect - The nut is clearly painted on from the sides. It seems that the neck got its treatment after the nut was installed. It can't be unseen so it's a big visual distraction. There are also some scratches on the bridge and almost like a start of a hole for a tuner in the back of the head in wrong position. The tuners works fine but are a little bit stiff. When I changed the strings (I believe they where d'addario's 10 string set) to Ernie Ball's 10 string set I noticed some tuning issues with the high end e-string. I believe the problem is in the nut and in the string trees. The string trees makes some "creaking" noise when tuning and bending so it's a little annoying. Also the frets feels quite rough so they need some work for sure (the fret ends are fine though).

In the end this guitar is really nice but needs some work and few upgrades. Some lack of quality control is expected in this price range but still in my opinion you will get more than you pay for and this is a perfect modding platform where you can create a beast of a guitar!

Olen katsellus Squiereitä ja tilasin tämän kokeilumielessä, koska oli saanut hyvät arvostelut. Tämä on ensimmäinen telecasterini. Nyt kitara ollut vajaat pari viikkoa käytössä, ja on taatusti hintansa arvoinen.

Hyvä kaula, johon en keksi muuta korjattavaa kuin nauhojen hiominen. Kaula on paksumpi kuin Squierissa ja ohkaisempi kuin USA Fendereissä.

Body kaunis, kiiltäväksi lakattu ja painava. Pleksi on hiukan veistetyn oloinen, mutta senhän voi helposti vaihtaa jos häiritsee.

Control plate on kiinnitetty siten että taaempi ruuvi on vain puoleksi puussa, joten se on kiinni periaatteessa vain etumaisella ruuvilla.

Virittimissä ei ainakaan minun kappaleessani ole valittamista, vaan ne toimivat ja kitara pysyy vireessä.

Vaihdoin kielet paksumpiin 10-46 sarjaan, jonka jälkeen intonaatiota en saanut tarkasti kohdilleen. Se johtunee tallan tyypistä eikä laatuongelmasta.

Sähkötöissä ei ongelmia vaan toimii kuten pitääkin. Omalla kohdallani menee tosin kaikki uusiksi, koska tykkään tuunailla.

Mikit hyvät, joten niitä ei mielestäni tarvitse vaihtaa. Kokeilin vaihtaa mikit toisiin, malliin GFS Tele 63 Alnico5, mutta todennäköisesti palautan kitaran omat Wilkinsonit takaisin.

Ainoat negatiiviinen ominaisuus, jota ei helposti pysty korjaamaan, on kaulan ja bodyn sovitus. Välille jää pienet raot.

Kitara on suoraan pakkauksestakin kiva soittaa ja soi hyvin. Jos tämä katoaisi tms. hankkisin erittäin todennäköisesti samanlaisen tilalle.

Bought this as a project to learn to know guitar and setup a bit better. Chose this because of the woods used and for colourless finish.

Everything was changed except pups, bridge plate and control plate.
Guitar and neck was stripped into the wood. Ash looks beautiful when wirebrushed.
Nut sides was probably cut with an axe, wasn't really pretty but worked. Neck cavity was cut badly so there was an angled gap between neck end and body. Aesthetically doesn't matter because it was hidden under the pick guard but sound doesn't transfer to body that well so had to route it better. Because of this i had to fill the neck holes and drill them again.
I would've lowered the stock action but it wasn't possible because saddles wouln't go lower so it needed a shim. There actually was a thin piece of wood but it didn't do much. Not really sure did it even belong there.
This one was routed for only single coils.
Frets was terribly gritty so bending strings scratched them but If i remember right there was no buzzing. Couple of sharp ends. Leveled, crowned and polished.
Tuners felt terrible but they did work. Don't know how they keep tune.
Pups sounds fine to me with new electronics.
Would've returned it if it was kept stock because of problems with the bridge and neck cavity.

If you can do a bit of DIY this can make a fine guitar. I recommend changing electronics, saddles to compensated brass or the whole bridge, nut, string tree, tuners and do fretwork if needed.
When kept stock check that essentials work and be prepared to change strings and polish frets.

Bought 12/2018. New stock seems to come with a different headstock decal so maybe factory has changed to better. QC has failed a bit with this one.

So all in all great guitar if you don't mind "getting your hands dirty". Worth it for the woods alone.

Looks beautiful, no problem with tuners, switch and knobs are smooth, pickups are great, but best of all... the neck is awsome! If you like a chunckier neck, get this one. I polished the frets and rounded the fretboard edges and it plays like the best of 'em.

Any negatives that there might be are things that all guitars have (both cheap and expensive). It's a bit heavy, but I don't mind at all because it feels great with a strap. It will require a fret polish and a setup (read the first line). Factory strings are bad, no biggie. Also, keep in mind when buying (any guitar) in wintertime, the woods will shrink, and you will need to address fret sprout. Out of the box this didn't have it, but it will happen if you don't live in a humidor. Also, like someone else mentioned, the skunk stripe doesn't shrink equally with the neck, so I also felt the tiniest edge between those woods, but I have no problem taking fine grade sandpaper to it. Again, these are not really negatives, but rather attributes on all new guitars. Even if you pay your tech or luthier to do all this work, you will still end up with easily the best budget tele-style there is - no competition.