I was never a Les Paul or Telecaster fan, but after watching a guitar Max video on the Harley Benton Les Paul, I discovered the Harley Benton Pro Line Tele with a list of features and stunnibgly georgous appointments, puts it firmly on the levcel of a Paul Reed Smith. The guitar was fantastic, right out of the box, needing very minor intonation adjustments, was only a half step out of tune. It comes with a Sapele body which is similar to, but nicer than mahogany, atithe the sapele, a deep rich red-brown, the face painted gloss black, with a reveal in the cut that shows the sapele, a lighter brown binding, maple neck with ebony fretboard and jumbo nickel steel frets, locking tuners, 2 Humbucker pick-ups, a push-pull pot, 3 way switch. When I opened up the electronics cavity, I was pleased to find beefy full size pots. I typically modify my guitars, but the only mods I have made are replacing the nut with brass and changing the tone capacitor, otherwise I am leaving it alone because the pick-ups sound great As a result of some trouble on Thoman's end with my credit card, I had to reorder 3 times and accidentally ordered the model without the tremolo, so I ordered another one with a tremolo, thinking that if it wasn't as good, I would return it, but nope, the second was of the same superior quality, so I gave the one without the tremolo to my brother who loves it. Allk the hardwars is superb and the tremolo is a high quality Wilkinson. I have owned this guitar for a couple years and My feeling is the same as when I bopught it. I also bought another Harley Benton VT Seroies Telecaster which is also an absolutely fantastic guitar. I also bought a pair of Harley Benton 10 AC Pro Pedal board Power units and the quality is superb. Be forewarned, theThomann customer service is as bad a their products are great and the Harley Benton products are priced far lower than their quality.
I have had one of this exact model for just over two years. I was impressed with it from the off and it is all that you say. However, after the honeymoon was over I saw little things that could be improved cheaply enough and judged that it was a good enough instrument to really deserve some investment. Thus I have replaced the pickups, a good fret level & crown, adjusted the nut slots, changed the tone cap for an orange drop and (as a bonus) fitted a pushpull-switch for out-of-phase. All for the better. Though it was, as you say, good from the start it can now stand proud next to Teles several times the overall cost I feel.
That's cool - I have yet to do anything with mine. My frets were perfect (not all HB's are though - I've bought 2 more since this one and they've both required a fair amount of fret work). I have cracked the cavities on all 3 and I have to say the electronics (other than the actual pickups really) are pretty cheap. Thin wire, cheap small pots, and the odd cold solder joint. I've got no idea what pickups I'd like to put in it - I should go hunting for recommendations. My worry long term about these is the necks - I've heard of some twisting so I want to see what that's about. I'm leaving mine out in the open so they'll get as dry as any guitar could, so I should get a sense for it soon.
@@dangraves6358 I put an Iron Gear Steel Foundry pair in mine. The issue I had with the stocks was that they weren't well matched as a pair - the neck was dull and the bridge was bright. The swap fixed that, balanced better plus they are a bit more open and detailed. I hadn't heard that about the necks twisting, seems like a great neck but I'll be watching for that now. Cheers.
I got one of these guitars, and I love it. It has a full feeling neck, not baseball bat big, but full, not Slim Taper type. I did replace pick ups with S.D. Tele Stacked Humbuckers and CTS Pots and SwitchCraft switch. Now it is a Tele that matches against anything.
2017/2018 I bought five Harley Bentons. One had to go back, the rest I still have and play regularly. The quality and value for money is remarkable. The tones are fully respectable. For example. My first Harley Benton, an HB35+, was reasonable OOTB. I did a fret levelling and got it playing at .005" low side and .004" high side. It was playing 6 and 5 before. I stayed with the stock Wilkinson pickups for four years. This year I treated it to IronGear Blues Engine pickups. WoW !!! Just WoW !!
The quality of inexpensive guitars in general is great these days. And there's many reasons to buy them. Student guitar. Gig guitar. Experimenting with different guitar styles. Guitar modding.
I just recently got a TE-62 CC IS and a JA-60 from Thomann. They are fantastic value for money. I spent 4-5 hours yesterday doing a full fret job and setup on the JA-60 and it now feels like a guitar that would cost 4 times the price. 😍
@@leeharris5135 Well, you shouldn’t have to do a full fret level/crown on a new guitar. But I get it if you just wanted it perfect. None of my HB’s have needed fret leveling, luckily. Although they’ve had a bit high action, and some rough feeling fret surfaces. Luckily I’m quite good with high grit sandpaper/buffing pads.
It's strange but I bought one of these last year and I just didn't take to it. I eventually gave it to one of my friends as I just wasn't playing it. Last month I bought a Harley Benton T-20 and I love it. I changed out the machine heads, the pots and the pickups (Tex Mex) and I think it's great. It's my go to Open G Tuned guitar.
I think the newer HB Paisley teles got the “caramelised” treatment. Basically a slight darkened tint to the lacquer. It’s not really roasted as far as I understand. HB do have roasted necks tho, but that’s on the more high end, stainless steel fretted stuff.
@@Ari_Calamari Ive heard mixed reports on the so called higher end fusion HBs,but have read initially they come with alot of flaws but eventually they get better,they do look nice though
@@leftbehind4030 I think there might be a certain bias since people are more likely to post about their guitar online if there’s something wrong with it, than if it’s good. Although some of the QC problems are definitely true, I think the percentage of the guitars that came out flawed is less than online posts might have you believe. I have worked on a couple of them for friends(fret sprout issues mostly), and they have some flaws here and there, but are generally good. But I have heard some horror stories, but usually Thomann is quite good with customer service.
It's got a few funky spots to it which are cool. I do find it weird though that it's actually a maple cap with a skunk stripe. I've found most maple necks are one piece and have the skunk stripe for the truss, but this is actually a cap and a stripe. I'm assuming it's to keep manufacturing processes to a minimum.
Sorry to bombard your comment section with comments. I’m just interested in this stuff. Really nice video, love the video quality. You have a pleasant vibe to your living room. Anyways dropped you a sub. Hope to see you talk more about guitar related stuff. Btw, some HBs get checked at Thomann, and you get a quality check note. I have three Benton’s and two got the Thomann QC check note. The last one was on back order for a long time, so they just sent it right out without checking it, I think. 😅 Funny enough, that was the best set up one out of the box.
Thanks! It's nice to have the space to engage with folks about music. I'm a stay at home expat dad so I rarely get to talk to grown ups, let alone ones interested in music and such, so keep em coming. I've had quality cards in everything that I bought from them thus far, and I while I can't say they're perfect I can say that in regards to the point I was trying to make in this video that they're close enough. I've never received anything unplayable to this point. Also thanks for the motivation - I've got a couple more things here that I think I'll make some videos about. It's a fair amount of fun, this TH-cam thing...
For God's sake go out a buy one!!! Amazing! especially for the silly price! I have (too many Teles!) and have paid more for a set of Tele P/ups than this guitar cost me! Made in China? who gives a crap! Sounds and plays as a Tele should. Great action and sound.Worth buying just for the Paisley body!! Love it!
l since I moved to the UK from Toronto, another brand that I swear by is JHS Vintage which is based here in the UK, bit higher on the quality in terms of Wilkinson Hardware , Alder bodies etc but still we couldn't get these guitars back in the 80's that cheap,
I'll have to check out the JHS stuff - we came from just outside of Toronto to Belgium so all this was new to me - so many new brands and the prices are great.
@@dangraves6358 same with me, I come from just in the suburbs of Toronto, those two are Vintages in that photo, V6P American Alder Body Maple Neck with Rosewood, 3 P90's the other is v100 Mahogany Body Wilkinson Double Coil Paf 's great guitars, but if they had guitars like this back in the 80's with this type of quality, , this TE-70 looks great, but I love a heavy guitar, personal choice,
Most of the inexpensive brands come out strong but QC drops off. Harley Benton has continued to produce entry priced guitars that punch way above their price point. I am thinking of buying a shell pink Tele as a modding platform.
I was thinking the same thing, kind of - see I've always wanted a b-bender, and at this price I wouldn't think twice about routing out the back of one of these to put one in. Hell, the b-bender unit itself would probably cost 5 or 6 times the cost of the guitar. They have PRS knock-offs in kit form for 89 euro as well...that would officially be the cheapest guitar I've ever purchased. Regarding QC, I've seen some misses in recent ones I've been sent. I've had to level a few frets and fix a bunch of fret sprout - but again, compared to what I personally started out on, I still have to say it's an amazing time to start picking up music!
Couple of questions. Is the neck satin or or gloss? Does it sound like a tele? I see a lot of vids about folks who buy these only to drop new "expensive" p'ups (one put SD's in because he gigs with it) to get a tele sound. Some also add new wiring.
It sounds like a tele - the roswell pickups in it are actually pretty nice. There's lots of videos of guys playing it if you want to check out the stock sound of it - but I bought it to try and learn country licks and it fits the bill just fine. The neck is glossy, but not super glossy - if you wanted it to play faster I'd just take some steel wool to the back of the neck and smooth it out, but it's fast enough for me as is. If you wanted to clean up the sound to make it more "tele", I'd change the pots - they are small generic pots - throwing some nicer pots in and a quality cap would do a lot and cost a lot less than putting new pickups in it. In the end, it's great out of the box - it works and gives you a functioning, good sounding instrument with no barriers to playing it, and at the same time gives you a great launching off point to start modding if that's what you're into.
The strat in this video has the glossiest neck I've ever seen/played. It took a lot of getting used to but I've had it for over 22 years now and I love it. I've had a few other guitars with satin necks and I love them too. I once got a Jackson RR3 from a guy and he took a razor blade to the back of the neck and it was super fast. I have felt necks though where it seems like they tried too hard to make it satin and missed the mark and it just felt weird. I also have another instrument with an unfinished neck and once you get all your hand-gunk into the wood of the neck they feel amazing.
I´ve taken the gloss off a neck of a guitar with a green scotchbrite pad and it´s a massive improvement for that guitar. But I guess it could be overdone on some guitars, I don´t have experience with that personally. I have the Harley Benton TE62-CC LPB out for delivery next week, so I´ll find out for that one shortly :)
The unique view I felt I had which was what lead me to create this video was the ease of playability of the instrument. To save folks the trouble of having to listen to a mic'd up Line6 Amplifi (not to mention my sub par playing), I suggest in the video that if you're looking for tone comparisons you should look at other videos. The point here is that beginners have access to comfortable instruments to play at extremely reasonable prices. But thanks for the engagement.
I was never a Les Paul or Telecaster fan, but after watching a guitar Max video on the Harley Benton Les Paul, I discovered the Harley Benton Pro Line Tele with a list of features and stunnibgly georgous appointments, puts it firmly on the levcel of a Paul Reed Smith.
The guitar was fantastic, right out of the box, needing very minor intonation adjustments, was only a half step out of tune.
It comes with a Sapele body which is similar to, but nicer than mahogany, atithe the sapele, a deep rich red-brown, the face painted gloss black, with a reveal in the cut that shows the sapele, a lighter brown binding, maple neck with ebony fretboard and jumbo nickel steel frets, locking tuners, 2 Humbucker pick-ups, a push-pull pot, 3 way switch. When I opened up the electronics cavity, I was pleased to find beefy full size pots. I typically modify my guitars, but the only mods I have made are replacing the nut with brass and changing the tone capacitor, otherwise I am leaving it alone because the pick-ups sound great
As a result of some trouble on Thoman's end with my credit card, I had to reorder 3 times and accidentally ordered the model without the tremolo, so I ordered another one with a tremolo, thinking that if it wasn't as good, I would return it, but nope, the second was of the same superior quality, so I gave the one without the tremolo to my brother who loves it. Allk the hardwars is superb and the tremolo is a high quality Wilkinson.
I have owned this guitar for a couple years and My feeling is the same as when I bopught it. I also bought another Harley Benton VT Seroies Telecaster which is also an absolutely fantastic guitar.
I also bought a pair of Harley Benton 10 AC Pro Pedal board Power units and the quality is superb.
Be forewarned, theThomann customer service is as bad a their products are great and the Harley Benton products are priced far lower than their quality.
I have had one of this exact model for just over two years. I was impressed with it from the off and it is all that you say. However, after the honeymoon was over I saw little things that could be improved cheaply enough and judged that it was a good enough instrument to really deserve some investment. Thus I have replaced the pickups, a good fret level & crown, adjusted the nut slots, changed the tone cap for an orange drop and (as a bonus) fitted a pushpull-switch for out-of-phase. All for the better. Though it was, as you say, good from the start it can now stand proud next to Teles several times the overall cost I feel.
That's cool - I have yet to do anything with mine. My frets were perfect (not all HB's are though - I've bought 2 more since this one and they've both required a fair amount of fret work). I have cracked the cavities on all 3 and I have to say the electronics (other than the actual pickups really) are pretty cheap. Thin wire, cheap small pots, and the odd cold solder joint. I've got no idea what pickups I'd like to put in it - I should go hunting for recommendations. My worry long term about these is the necks - I've heard of some twisting so I want to see what that's about. I'm leaving mine out in the open so they'll get as dry as any guitar could, so I should get a sense for it soon.
@@dangraves6358 I put an Iron Gear Steel Foundry pair in mine. The issue I had with the stocks was that they weren't well matched as a pair - the neck was dull and the bridge was bright. The swap fixed that, balanced better plus they are a bit more open and detailed. I hadn't heard that about the necks twisting, seems like a great neck but I'll be watching for that now. Cheers.
I got one of these guitars, and I love it. It has a full feeling neck, not baseball bat big, but full, not Slim Taper type. I did replace pick ups with S.D. Tele Stacked Humbuckers and CTS Pots and SwitchCraft switch. Now it is a Tele that matches against anything.
2017/2018 I bought five Harley Bentons.
One had to go back, the rest I still have and play regularly.
The quality and value for money is remarkable.
The tones are fully respectable.
For example. My first Harley Benton, an HB35+, was reasonable OOTB.
I did a fret levelling and got it playing at .005" low side and .004" high side.
It was playing 6 and 5 before.
I stayed with the stock Wilkinson pickups for four years.
This year I treated it to IronGear Blues Engine pickups.
WoW !!! Just WoW !!
The quality of inexpensive guitars in general is great these days. And there's many reasons to buy them. Student guitar. Gig guitar. Experimenting with different guitar styles. Guitar modding.
I think this one would be great for modding - humbucker in in the neck position is likely my first mod.
I just recently got a TE-62 CC IS and a JA-60 from Thomann. They are fantastic value for money. I spent 4-5 hours yesterday doing a full fret job and setup on the JA-60 and it now feels like a guitar that would cost 4 times the price. 😍
The JA-60 even has a bound neck! It's truly a great time to be a guitarist.
@@dangraves6358 definitely! I bought an Epiphone Muse Les Paul a few days ago too and the JA-60 isn’t too far behind it quality-wise. Amazing!
@@leeharris5135 Well, you shouldn’t have to do a full fret level/crown on a new guitar. But I get it if you just wanted it perfect. None of my HB’s have needed fret leveling, luckily. Although they’ve had a bit high action, and some rough feeling fret surfaces. Luckily I’m quite good with high grit sandpaper/buffing pads.
It's strange but I bought one of these last year and I just didn't take to it. I eventually gave it to one of my friends as I just wasn't playing it. Last month I bought a Harley Benton T-20 and I love it. I changed out the machine heads, the pots and the pickups (Tex Mex) and I think it's great. It's my go to Open G Tuned guitar.
Your maple fretboard has some nice character to it compared to mine but yep I like mine.
I think the newer HB Paisley teles got the “caramelised” treatment. Basically a slight darkened tint to the lacquer. It’s not really roasted as far as I understand. HB do have roasted necks tho, but that’s on the more high end, stainless steel fretted stuff.
@@Ari_Calamari Ive heard mixed reports on the so called higher end fusion HBs,but have read initially they come with alot of flaws but eventually they get better,they do look nice though
@@leftbehind4030 I think there might be a certain bias since people are more likely to post about their guitar online if there’s something wrong with it, than if it’s good.
Although some of the QC problems are definitely true, I think the percentage of the guitars that came out flawed is less than online posts might have you believe.
I have worked on a couple of them for friends(fret sprout issues mostly),
and they have some flaws here and there, but are generally good.
But I have heard some horror stories, but usually Thomann is quite good with customer service.
It's got a few funky spots to it which are cool. I do find it weird though that it's actually a maple cap with a skunk stripe. I've found most maple necks are one piece and have the skunk stripe for the truss, but this is actually a cap and a stripe. I'm assuming it's to keep manufacturing processes to a minimum.
@@Ari_Calamari Such an excellent point. I worked in customer service for a good while and people just don't get vocal enough when things go right.
Sorry to bombard your comment section with comments. I’m just interested in this stuff.
Really nice video, love the video quality. You have a pleasant vibe to your living room.
Anyways dropped you a sub. Hope to see you talk more about guitar related stuff.
Btw, some HBs get checked at Thomann, and you get a quality check note.
I have three Benton’s and two got the Thomann QC check note. The last one was on back order for a long time, so they just sent it right out without checking it, I think. 😅
Funny enough, that was the best set up one out of the box.
Thanks! It's nice to have the space to engage with folks about music. I'm a stay at home expat dad so I rarely get to talk to grown ups, let alone ones interested in music and such, so keep em coming.
I've had quality cards in everything that I bought from them thus far, and I while I can't say they're perfect I can say that in regards to the point I was trying to make in this video that they're close enough. I've never received anything unplayable to this point.
Also thanks for the motivation - I've got a couple more things here that I think I'll make some videos about. It's a fair amount of fun, this TH-cam thing...
For God's sake go out a buy one!!! Amazing! especially for the silly price! I have (too many Teles!) and have paid more for a set of Tele P/ups than this guitar cost me! Made in China? who gives a crap! Sounds and plays as a Tele should. Great action and sound.Worth buying just for the Paisley body!! Love it!
Most of the HB electrics are made in Indonesia 😎
@@Ari_Calamari That is incorrect.
l since I moved to the UK from Toronto, another brand that I swear by is JHS Vintage which is based here in the UK, bit higher on the quality in terms of Wilkinson Hardware , Alder bodies etc but still we couldn't get these guitars back in the 80's that cheap,
I'll have to check out the JHS stuff - we came from just outside of Toronto to Belgium so all this was new to me - so many new brands and the prices are great.
@@dangraves6358 same with me, I come from just in the suburbs of Toronto, those two are Vintages in that photo, V6P American Alder Body Maple Neck with Rosewood, 3 P90's the other is v100 Mahogany Body Wilkinson Double Coil Paf 's great guitars, but if they had guitars like this back in the 80's with this type of quality, , this TE-70 looks great, but I love a heavy guitar, personal choice,
Most of the inexpensive brands come out strong but QC drops off. Harley Benton has continued to produce entry priced guitars that punch way above their price point. I am thinking of buying a shell pink Tele as a modding platform.
I was thinking the same thing, kind of - see I've always wanted a b-bender, and at this price I wouldn't think twice about routing out the back of one of these to put one in. Hell, the b-bender unit itself would probably cost 5 or 6 times the cost of the guitar. They have PRS knock-offs in kit form for 89 euro as well...that would officially be the cheapest guitar I've ever purchased.
Regarding QC, I've seen some misses in recent ones I've been sent. I've had to level a few frets and fix a bunch of fret sprout - but again, compared to what I personally started out on, I still have to say it's an amazing time to start picking up music!
Couple of questions. Is the neck satin or or gloss? Does it sound like a tele? I see a lot of vids about folks who buy these only to drop new "expensive" p'ups (one put SD's in because he gigs with it) to get a tele sound. Some also add new wiring.
It sounds like a tele - the roswell pickups in it are actually pretty nice. There's lots of videos of guys playing it if you want to check out the stock sound of it - but I bought it to try and learn country licks and it fits the bill just fine.
The neck is glossy, but not super glossy - if you wanted it to play faster I'd just take some steel wool to the back of the neck and smooth it out, but it's fast enough for me as is.
If you wanted to clean up the sound to make it more "tele", I'd change the pots - they are small generic pots - throwing some nicer pots in and a quality cap would do a lot and cost a lot less than putting new pickups in it.
In the end, it's great out of the box - it works and gives you a functioning, good sounding instrument with no barriers to playing it, and at the same time gives you a great launching off point to start modding if that's what you're into.
Dan, another question. Why did you pick the TE 70 over the other HB t-styles, like the TE 62?
Funny enough, the Paisley - I just love the look of it. I've wanted the Fender pink paisley for years and then I saw this.
Absolutely wort it with high gloss maple neck. but the other models with dry as a desert caramelized satin neck ,, No way.
Why are you leaving this Dry as Desert comment everywhere? Who hurt you?
@@robbiedingles 😅Right? Like who hates satin necks. I get liking gloss necks… But hating satin ones? Weird.
@@Ari_Calamari Exactly 😁
The strat in this video has the glossiest neck I've ever seen/played. It took a lot of getting used to but I've had it for over 22 years now and I love it. I've had a few other guitars with satin necks and I love them too. I once got a Jackson RR3 from a guy and he took a razor blade to the back of the neck and it was super fast. I have felt necks though where it seems like they tried too hard to make it satin and missed the mark and it just felt weird. I also have another instrument with an unfinished neck and once you get all your hand-gunk into the wood of the neck they feel amazing.
I´ve taken the gloss off a neck of a guitar with a green scotchbrite pad and it´s a massive improvement for that guitar.
But I guess it could be overdone on some guitars, I don´t have experience with that personally.
I have the Harley Benton TE62-CC LPB out for delivery next week, so I´ll find out for that one shortly :)
JET makes the best cheap guitars. Period.
I sent it back, it was horrible
Много говоришь, но, не поиграл не разу на камеру! Обзор, не обзор!
The unique view I felt I had which was what lead me to create this video was the ease of playability of the instrument. To save folks the trouble of having to listen to a mic'd up Line6 Amplifi (not to mention my sub par playing), I suggest in the video that if you're looking for tone comparisons you should look at other videos. The point here is that beginners have access to comfortable instruments to play at extremely reasonable prices.
But thanks for the engagement.