2 things that drew my attention to this model. Filtertron style pickups - chambered ash body. I think there is room for a 'higher end' model - with triple 'filtertrons', graphite nut and jumbo stainless frets - stuff that HB is already doing on their other 'premium' models.
Filtertron’s are humbuckers with around the same amount of windings as a singlecoil, so they retain the sparkle of single coils because it doesn’t get lost in the wire.
Bought this guitar 2 months ago from Thomann. Had the same problem with the E string being stuck at fret. Fixed very easily by myself with sand paper, some frets are bit longer and thats why the strings get stuck behind it. Other than that, this guitar feels absolutely great in the hand and the sound of those pickups is really good. Buy it, try it...i think you will like it.
I bough the sunburst version of this guitar after seeing your unboxing video some time ago. Over all the guitar represents great value, I paid around £150 (UK) for it) but there were a few flaws: The nut was poorly cut and very high meaning it was difficult to get the lower frets to play in tune, the freting was poor and the heights uneven accross the fingerboard - These issues were corrected by a local luthier for £50. Another issue was the screws for adjusting the height of the pickups - these are very cheap and the head got mashed up at my first attempt at any adjustment; it seems that using a small philips head screw for this job means there is not enough connection between the screw and screw driver - I replaced these with Gretch screws which cost around £8 (these use a flat headed screw driver) and have had no issues since. On reflection I still think the guitar represents great value but would have been happier if the asking price had been a little higher (£200? £225 maybe) an I hadn't had the issues straight out of the box. Aside from the issues above, the only thing I'd change about ther guitar is the bridge pick up, I found it quite difficult to get the pickups balanced - switching from the bridge to the neck pickup on a clean tone resulted in a big volume jump - after replacing the screws I lowered the neck pickup and things are a lot smoother now so I'd suggest a hotter bridge unit for better balance and it would allow the neck pickup to perform better too.
I have this model and love it. The sounds are great and the neck is as good as my Fender. Satin smooth and well rounded. I have 10's on mine and i tried to make the string hook over the PUP screw but it would not without extreme effort. They might want to send it out with 10's instead of 9's? The bad is the plastic pickguard. It is thin, one ply so i ordered a 4 ply tortiose from the eBay. I replaced the nut and put roller tree's on it also. No tuning issues even with inexpensive tuners. It is interesting, after reading the comments, that there is such a well defined divide with this model in terms of love and hate. Put me down for love. It is my favorite of the three Bentons in the Deluxe series that i own. SC-Custom and TE-70 Black Paisley are also in my colletion. These are no joke either.
thanks for the review. I love mine. very versatile and with a little boost or compression, the cleans are awesome. crunch and distortion are great all the time.
Those Roswell Filtertron copies sound good to be fair. I've seen them for sale for roughly £25-£30 each which isn't bad, so I'm tempted to buy a set for my Cabronita and sell the TV Jones Classics that I stupidly paid around £120 each for. Fair play to Roswell for not just giving the dc resistance info, which is what most companies do, because dc resistance means nothing by itself, they give the inductance too, although I'm not sure if they say which gauge wire they wound the pickups with, but you can't expect that for the price of the pickups. I'd say that the main difference between these pickups and genuine Filtertrons will be the magnets because Filtertrons had the bigger & thicker alnico 5 bar magnets, and I can't see Roswell going to that trouble and extra cost so I imagine they'd use a regular bar magnet. I may be wrong though, but regardless of that, if you want a tone nearer to Filtertrons you can always buy some of the thicker magnets for a couple of quid each. 👍
I just got one of these. I bought a B Stock guitar (they were out of main stock). I like it a lot, the Roswell Filtertron pickups sound great and do interesting things when compressed. I'm not sure what got this guitar listed as B Stock. It did have sharp fret ends (which can happen on any guitar when the neck wood shrinks slightly and is simple to fix) and had quite a high action. I can't see anything wrong with the shape or finish of the neck or the body. The pick guard is horrible, it's poorly shaped and the four screws are right on the edge of the guard. Not like the guitar demoed above which has a correctly 'Cabronita' shaped and drilled guard. Its going to be a hassle to fix on my guitar because one of the weight relief cavities is a 'smugglers' cavity underneath the pick guard and there is empty space where the 'correct' guard screws should go. Incidentally if you just strum the guitar and listen to it unplugged while sliding the unscrewed pick guard back and forth over the cavity there is a very obvious change in tone from dark, to bright with the pick guard off completely. I haven't tried it to see if is audible in the amplified sound. It leads to interesting possibilities for tuning the tone by drilling holes in the pick guard. In effect giving the guitar a sound hole. The second cavity is the control cavity, which has just been made far larger than it needs to be for the Volume and Tone controls, which are both 16mm diameter linear pots. I shall change those for 23mm diameter 500K log pots and the volume and tone control sweeps should get more gradual instead of being on/off. The simple L shaped bridge is drilled for either through body or top loading. When top loaded the strings have to run through a bottom set of holes and up through the centre slot of the die cast zinc saddles. The intonation screws for the saddles go through an upper row of holes directly above the string holes. I swapped out the zinc saddles for some bent steel Strat saddles, which really improved the sound. I also have some brass block saddles on order, to try. The guitar does have rear mounted ferrules and through holes for through body stringing but, the ferrules are 1/4 inch in 7mm holes, so they fall out when you remove the strings. Also instead of drilling a shallow hole to fit each ferrule and then 3mm holes which match the holes in the bottom of the bridge plate, the manufacturers drilled 7mm holes all the way through the guitar and then mounted the bridge plate so the small holes in the plate just overlap the forward edge of the 7mm holes. This makes it a bit tricky to thread the strings through for rear loading. The body really is nicely figured solid ash, which looks great in the blonde finish. The two piece body on mine is joined just above the top edge of the bridge and pickups. It has been very carefully grain matched so the join is hard to see. Finally on my guitar the economy tuners are unusually stiff and have a lot of play between the button and the worm gear shaft. I've already changed them for Vanson locking tuners. This guitar offers great value for money for a Cabronita styled guitar, even if it isn't perfect straight out of the box. I think it well worth the various upgrades I have and shall be making.
I've been eye balling this one for a while . So thanks again for making me spend money Henning .. haha I have a HB-35 , 4 Bantamps and a few Joyo pedals .. So wtf , Why not another .. haha. Serious note , appreciate all you do here .
No shit ! I have bought 8 HB'S, $88 $157 $208 $211 $215 $248 $416 $466. Ranging from a lap steel for $88 to the sc custom fr emg $466. All are just fantastic guitars and I cannot say any are "better" than the next. I paid $157 for this particular model and I love it , the filtertrons are better than the ones in my gretsch and yes the neck (all 7 of mine have really bitchin necks) is almost magical. It is amazing how low of a price Thomann can make and sell quality guitars for simply by cutting out the middle men 🎸🤘🍻 Great video again
Ordered mine today. Already thinking about replacing the neck for a reversed tele-neck because I like the reversed look, but I don't like the shape of their headstocks. The tuners seem to be ok, but not great, so that will be solved too then. If it's possible to replace the neck of course, otherwise I only will replace the tuners.
The reason the High E-string pops out is that the bridge is 54mm instead of the standard 52.5mm in string spacing, which the holes in the body are actually drilled for. The bridge is simply slightly too big... weird
That’s really the only thing keeping me from purchasing a baritone, or one of the seven string, HB guitars is the risk of getting one that needs to be sent back, and having to pay shipping costs. It’s not an inexpensive instrument, especially if you have to ship it back again (like a friend of mine did). Well, that and medical bills eating up all my money. Love our super efficient for profit medical system. Thank you for reviewing another HB instrument, Henning. I’m tempted to pull the trigger on buying one more with every review. Hope the visit to the U.S. has treated you well! Looking forward to the NAMM content.
I bought one of these guitars and thought the pickups sounded a bit odd. I examined the wiring and sure enough whoever wired the guitar had it all wrong. Rewired and it sounded waaaaaaaay better.
This sounds like an isolated incident. Good to hear you found and fixed the problem, and also didn't just swap out the pickups. This Tele sounds excellent to me. I like it because it doesn't sound like most others 👍
4:18 When I looked on the Thomann site I got the impression there is a Vintage White (VW) version and there is a Natural (NT) version. However, on the site the VW-page shows a NT picture and the NT-page shows no picture. So something seems to be mixed up, and for months already (august 2018). Other TE90FLT-review videos show another color, called Vintage White. So, you have the NT there, not the VW.
Dude your awesome, straight shooter no PC bullshit. I wish the HB were more readily available in the US. I lived in Germany 3 years awesome place and people. Rock on.
A Tele without that ugly ashtray bridge pick up, yay ! Filtertrons are originally humbuckers that were independently, while during the same time period than in Gibson, developed in Gretsch company. They were developed by Ray Butts on the suggestion by guitarist Chet Atkins who wanted to get rid of the hum. The basic idea is the same but there are structural differences to Gibson style humbucker and they have lower output than the Gibson style humbucker. Their sound is described bright, said to be closer to single coil. Obviously Chet Atkins is known for the Gretsch Country Gentleman / Chet Atkins model.
I’ve always heard the argument about whether Ray Butts or Seth Lover made the first humbucking guitar pickup. I saw a documentary on Les Paul a while back and his “log” he built in 1931. He built the pickups and they were stacked coil humbuckers over 20 years before Butts or Lover. His 54 LP Custom that was his main guitar through the 50’s and 60’s had a cavity he routed between the p90s with a cover and had a dummy coil for each pickup. After watching its amazing just how far ahead Les Paul was of everyone.
Completely agree with the clarification on, "best." We have different abilities to sense different frequencies, and we perceive what we hear in different ways also. Then personal taste influences all of it. I have a Kramer from 1986 that I ordered loaded with Duncans, and people are amazed by the tone, and this was not a top line Kramer. I think I paid around $500 for it, including hardshell case. On my basses I get complements on my tone from metalists, old school rock fans, and blues musicians I occasionally jam with, and it doesn't matter if I'm playing my all original '83 Fender American P bass, or the handmade custom bass I own with EMG PJ-X pickups loaded. My uncle also has a 335 copy he bought for next to nothing at a yard sale a few years ago and I played it for the first time three weeks ago. I didn't understand why he had a smirk on his face... until I hit my first chord. Not only could I play extremely pleasing tones for up-tempo jazz, but we ran it through his metal rig and it sounded amazing! For rhythms and leads! His smile broadened an he asked me, "not bad for twenty-five bucks?" I couldn't say a word. I just kept playing. I think you are more likely to get a quality piece of equipment from an instrument maker, regardless of company size, that can afford to use quality components and materials, has skilled personnel doing the work, and has stringent quality control, but, that doesn't mean a lesser cost item can't be a great sounding instrument or component. And buying something from a perceived high end brand guarantees nothing. Look at the quality problems with Gibson in recent years, or BC Rich in prior years. In the early 1980's Ibanez was perceived by most to be a cheaper instrument, but they used better and better components, kept quality standards high, and kept consistently producing high quality instruments without charging premium prices. Now Ibanez is perceived as one of the more coveted instrument large scale manufacturers on the market, and still offer relatively high quality instruments at the lower end of their pricing scale. In the current market, consumers are expecting more for their money, and companies either deliver or they will be forced out by those that can and do deliver consistently quality instruments, regardless of price. So expect to see less expensive instruments and components that do sound great, to your ears or to someone else's ears, more often than even a decade ago. It's a good time to be playing guitar or bass.
Just ordered it on Saturday in left handed version, looking forward! That annoying thing with high E happened to me with Harley Benton JA-60 (Jazzmaster) as well.
Sevus Henning!! Lass Dir mal n dickes Danke da für Deine geilen reviews und videos!! Mit meinen fuffzich Jahren fang ich noch das Gitarrespielen an!!! hahahaaa- aaaaber mit Deiner Hilfe, und youtube gehts laangsaaaam voran! Mach genausooo weiter !! For the english-speaking: He's awesome!! Grüsse aus Pforzheim
It was all looking really nice until the sticky string thing. Frets can be fixed but I do wonder if the pickup screw problem is a small design fault. Great and fair review as always, thank you 😉
I have same feature with string being caught by upper frets on my Gibson Flying V. It's not big deal on budget instrument, but if anyone want to buy Gibson, think twice and go for PRS SE. Really.
@@bullseye11b good. I am struggling hard because i cant make up my mind between the te90flt, the fusion-t hard tail and the cst24T. I dont need vibrato bar, the cst24 seems a bit cheap in some aspects, and the humbs of the fusion-t appear to sound very dull. The 90 has no coil split option but tits hh seem to do a good job. What is your thinking about my dilemma, sir, please? And, NO, I wont buy the 3. 😊
Kinda of a weird fadey thing ..... 648mm which is about two and a half trouts that's fish scale .....you gotta love this guy ! ....and he has a Robot lawn mower, mowing his lawn, sweet
I got my eye on this one. I think the reverse headstock is a very nice touch. It makes the design really nice. This is a oddball opinion here (but I'm an oddball), I think Thomann ought to offer this guitar in an unfinished body. It's so natural colored and close to bare wood. Make it available in an unfinished version so people can take a blow torch to it, stain it, etc. Oh well... never happen...
nice review! just realized they put the volume knob way closer to the strings compared to the Fender Cabronita or other teles. Unfortunately thats a no-go for me, cause I need some space for my strumming style.
I’m freakin sold on these Harley Benton guitars! I love how your sitting in front of 60k+ of amplifiers playing a 200 dollar guitar and it sounds freaking awesome through all of em!!!
Its a takeoff on fenders carbonita tele one of the great teles the world has seen ! Because of the filtertron pickups a Gretsch standard its what makes there guitars sound unique.
@@lvgeorge People talk a lot about TV Jones Filtertrons, but they are very expensive. You can buy Gretsch Filtertrons HS for half the price. They have Alnico magnets, and must be seen as ´the real thing´. The cheaper models are called Black Tops, and then they sell some Chinese ones called Electromatic, but they are standard HB´ers, and does not have the right sound. I think the HS´s comes at about $70 each. I think the difference between Filtertrons and standard humbuggers are that the Filtertrons have fewer winding and stronger magnets. That is why they have more treble and less resistance, but still a decent output.
Jay Leonard J also does an excellent review of this guitar. He didn't go into the "metal tone zone" area, so I'm curious about the pickups. Are they considered low output?
Can you find after market parts for this guitar in case you need to change something? Also would you recommend this guitar or the Squier standad tele? Many thanks
Yes most all parts are interchangeable. I dont own this model yet but it seems to be more fitting to my style of play than a squire. But everyones different.
it s very cool review with all the amps , it s fun ! it will be better ,if you do a other video like that , to show what amp it play , like you do with the joyo ( if it s not too boring ) have a good day !
Nice! How many pieces is that body ? It looks like it's one piece from here (maybe 2). On thomann they say it's chambered, i'm guessing it's chambered under the pick guard, unless it's a sandwiched body (wouldn't think so)
No Tely Syle - Fender La Cabronita style - (Cabron - Mistvieh) HB hat eine extrem günstige Version des Models gezaubert. Das Orginal kostet je nachdem ab 500€/( 5000 €) Customshop. Nachteil der HB sie ist schwer da nutzen die kammern wenig und sie hat fast immer Mängel. Bei Les Paul änhlichen HB gitarren wurden diese Mängel sehr schnell abgestellt.
Hallo Henning, ich möchte meine alte Aria CS-250 Cardinal Series aus den 80ern mit Locking-Tunern aufrüsten. Die, die ich auf Thomann gesehen haben, werden aber entweder nur mit einer Schraube oder mit zwei parallel gegenüberliegenden Schrauben befestigt. Die Schrauben an den momentanen Tunern sind jedoch schräg versetzt. Was wäre da nun besser? Die mit zwei Schrauben gegenüber, oder die mit der einzelnen Schraube? Freundliche Grüße Arved
Hello Henning, very interesting video. At 6:20 you say, that the Joyo Atomic has a safety feature, that switches off the speaker output. When exactly is this function active? I got this amp a few weeks ago and had the problem for two or three times, that the amp was muted and didn´t put out any tone. Without recognizable reason for me. Maybe that it happend, when i plugged in my speaker, when the amp already was turned on (or maybe when i turned the amp off or on by the switch on my plug board). I couldn´t find anything about this safety function in the manual. Maybe you can explain it to me? I think it´s the solution for my problem. kind regards Ronny
How are the Tuners? Does it keep in tune well? If not, what do you suggest for an upgrade to the tuners? And Wow, what a collection of gear you have in your Rack! That must have took a lot of time and dedication on your part! Thumbs UP!
The stock tuners on most HB guitars are ok, they're not terrible, but there not the smoothest either. You can get away with not replacing them. Stays in tune fairly well once you've got it right, but getting it there is a little work sometimes.
Yeah, sometimes that still happens. Did you give it back right away? I would have it replaced and hope for a better one, you can do that twice actually, but maybe that just goes for Germany because it's to costly sending back and forth to another country?!? I don't know.
J'M la TSF Lee Lucas Of course you have to expect quite some variance in this price range, it's still a bit of a gamble. But a while ago I tried several guitars in the 350-450 Euro range (Ibanez, G&L, LTD) and all weren't better quality-wise than any Benton. The Ibanez FR365 was the worst, truly appalling manufacturing and very poor sound, had it replaced and the second one also was crap!
I really like your Harley Benton reviews even more than your other reviews... I have to admit that I use Harley Benton guitars and basses for all of my recordings (which can or will be able to be found on my channel) and I really enjoy them... And with a lot of gain you pretty much can't tell a difference anyways :D Have a nice day everyone!
On a completely different subject, I love the interior of your music room. Is the rest of your house as beautiful as this room? You should do a video tour of your house sometime.
And there also is a much older video where he showed all the studio related rooms, (which is practically the whole house, minus kitchen, bath and bedrooms), search on the channel page, for 'studio tour' or something like that.
Man ! I hope i could like take the pickguard off. I mean it look great and it's like the coolest looking guitar I've seen but it would be loads better if there wasn't that black pickguard. Is there a way to remove it ?
I don't know if this reply is still in time ...but if you remove the pickguard there is a big hole underneath, that's the 'weight relief', same with the oversized cavity on the back.
The fretboard is glued on ,,,you would not be able to install the truss rod. The skunk stripe is for eye appeal. But serves no necessity to installing the truss rod.
i wish harley benton also made 8 strings in this more traditional models as well. like michael kelly guitars.. Henning .. i have an idea... bring it up with thomann that they should concider making 7 and 8 strings of other models as well... im sure they would sell great :D also with tremolos ;)
Das Intro hat mir gefallen, eine Harley Benton an einem Gitarrenständer, der ungefähr das gleiche kostet, oder ist dieser Design-Stänger sogar teurer? Höhö, ich hab Ständer geschrieben.
Ach so, ich dachte du wolltest es wissen, damals waren es nämlich um die 300 Euro... Aber du hattest absolut Recht, inzwischen kosten die Dinger bei Musik-Produktiv tatsächlich exakt dasselbe wie die Gitarre! (hab grad nachgeschaut)
Hope they don't replace it on all the guitars, I think the new one is actually worse, the old one looks crap on some models but on Fender type guitars I really like it.
Good review using lots of amps, dirty and clean ,,with a common sense aproach and an unbiased opinon ,one of the better reviews on you tube ...could do without the bad language though .......its not cool ...
2 things that drew my attention to this model. Filtertron style pickups - chambered ash body. I think there is room for a 'higher end' model - with triple 'filtertrons', graphite nut and jumbo stainless frets - stuff that HB is already doing on their other 'premium' models.
Filtertron’s are humbuckers with around the same amount of windings as a singlecoil, so they retain the sparkle of single coils because it doesn’t get lost in the wire.
Bought this guitar 2 months ago from Thomann. Had the same problem with the E string being stuck at fret. Fixed very easily by myself with sand paper, some frets are bit longer and thats why the strings get stuck behind it. Other than that, this guitar feels absolutely great in the hand and the sound of those pickups is really good. Buy it, try it...i think you will like it.
I have the same issue on mine haha
I bough the sunburst version of this guitar after seeing your unboxing video some time ago.
Over all the guitar represents great value, I paid around £150 (UK) for it) but there were a few flaws: The nut was poorly cut and very high meaning it was difficult to get the lower frets to play in tune, the freting was poor and the heights uneven accross the fingerboard - These issues were corrected by a local luthier for £50.
Another issue was the screws for adjusting the height of the pickups - these are very cheap and the head got mashed up at my first attempt at any adjustment; it seems that using a small philips head screw for this job means there is not enough connection between the screw and screw driver - I replaced these with Gretch screws which cost around £8 (these use a flat headed screw driver) and have had no issues since.
On reflection I still think the guitar represents great value but would have been happier if the asking price had been a little higher (£200? £225 maybe) an I hadn't had the issues straight out of the box.
Aside from the issues above, the only thing I'd change about ther guitar is the bridge pick up, I found it quite difficult to get the pickups balanced - switching from the bridge to the neck pickup on a clean tone resulted in a big volume jump - after replacing the screws I lowered the neck pickup and things are a lot smoother now so I'd suggest a hotter bridge unit for better balance and it would allow the neck pickup to perform better too.
i love everything about this guitar but the reverse headstock kills it
I have this model and love it. The sounds are great and the neck is as good as my Fender. Satin smooth and well rounded. I have 10's on mine and i tried to make the string hook over the PUP screw but it would not without extreme effort. They might want to send it out with 10's instead of 9's? The bad is the plastic pickguard. It is thin, one ply so i ordered a 4 ply tortiose from the eBay. I replaced the nut and put roller tree's on it also. No tuning issues even with inexpensive tuners.
It is interesting, after reading the comments, that there is such a well defined divide with this model in terms of love and hate. Put me down for love. It is my favorite of the three Bentons in the Deluxe series that i own. SC-Custom and TE-70 Black Paisley are also in my colletion. These are no joke either.
Two trouts, that's a fish scale. Man I love your reviews.
Btw. Roswell Pickups are Korean made. Not Chinese.
Those Filtertron clones do a better job than the cheap stock Gretsch ones.
Loved the demo and the guitar and I love your enthusiasm. Keep on rocking my friend.
I'm so glad I found Freddy Krueger's youtube channel
I giggled a bit when I read this 😁
i nearly fell of the chair laughing ! hahaha
Lol
That's what's called a wall of sound , I think . Great review, cheers ! Got mine a year ago and still in love ....
Yes, another Harley Benton guitar review ;-)
We need more!
I'm about to buy a used but mint sunburst finish TE90 FLT. This was very helpful in confirming my decision! Stupidly good for the money.
thanks for the review.
I love mine. very versatile and with a little boost or compression, the cleans are awesome. crunch and distortion are great all the time.
Those Roswell Filtertron copies sound good to be fair. I've seen them for sale for roughly £25-£30 each which isn't bad, so I'm tempted to buy a set for my Cabronita and sell the TV Jones Classics that I stupidly paid around £120 each for.
Fair play to Roswell for not just giving the dc resistance info, which is what most companies do, because dc resistance means nothing by itself, they give the inductance too, although I'm not sure if they say which gauge wire they wound the pickups with, but you can't expect that for the price of the pickups.
I'd say that the main difference between these pickups and genuine Filtertrons will be the magnets because Filtertrons had the bigger & thicker alnico 5 bar magnets, and I can't see Roswell going to that trouble and extra cost so I imagine they'd use a regular bar magnet.
I may be wrong though, but regardless of that, if you want a tone nearer to Filtertrons you can always buy some of the thicker magnets for a couple of quid each. 👍
I saw them checked with a meter and the neck is 4K and bridge is 4.8K which is pretty close to the Gretsch filtertrons.
I just got one of these. I bought a B Stock guitar (they were out of main stock). I like it a lot, the Roswell Filtertron pickups sound great and do interesting things when compressed. I'm not sure what got this guitar listed as B Stock. It did have sharp fret ends (which can happen on any guitar when the neck wood shrinks slightly and is simple to fix) and had quite a high action. I can't see anything wrong with the shape or finish of the neck or the body.
The pick guard is horrible, it's poorly shaped and the four screws are right on the edge of the guard. Not like the guitar demoed above which has a correctly 'Cabronita' shaped and drilled guard. Its going to be a hassle to fix on my guitar because one of the weight relief cavities is a 'smugglers' cavity underneath the pick guard and there is empty space where the 'correct' guard screws should go.
Incidentally if you just strum the guitar and listen to it unplugged while sliding the unscrewed pick guard back and forth over the cavity there is a very obvious change in tone from dark, to bright with the pick guard off completely. I haven't tried it to see if is audible in the amplified sound. It leads to interesting possibilities for tuning the tone by drilling holes in the pick guard. In effect giving the guitar a sound hole.
The second cavity is the control cavity, which has just been made far larger than it needs to be for the Volume and Tone controls, which are both 16mm diameter linear pots. I shall change those for 23mm diameter 500K log pots and the volume and tone control sweeps should get more gradual instead of being on/off.
The simple L shaped bridge is drilled for either through body or top loading. When top loaded the strings have to run through a bottom set of holes and up through the centre slot of the die cast zinc saddles. The intonation screws for the saddles go through an upper row of holes directly above the string holes. I swapped out the zinc saddles for some bent steel Strat saddles, which really improved the sound. I also have some brass block saddles on order, to try. The guitar does have rear mounted ferrules and through holes for through body stringing but, the ferrules are 1/4 inch in 7mm holes, so they fall out when you remove the strings. Also instead of drilling a shallow hole to fit each ferrule and then 3mm holes which match the holes in the bottom of the bridge plate, the manufacturers drilled 7mm holes all the way through the guitar and then mounted the bridge plate so the small holes in the plate just overlap the forward edge of the 7mm holes. This makes it a bit tricky to thread the strings through for rear loading.
The body really is nicely figured solid ash, which looks great in the blonde finish. The two piece body on mine is joined just above the top edge of the bridge and pickups. It has been very carefully grain matched so the join is hard to see.
Finally on my guitar the economy tuners are unusually stiff and have a lot of play between the button and the worm gear shaft. I've already changed them for Vanson locking tuners.
This guitar offers great value for money for a Cabronita styled guitar, even if it isn't perfect straight out of the box. I think it well worth the various upgrades I have and shall be making.
I've been eye balling this one for a while . So thanks again for making me spend money Henning .. haha I have a HB-35 , 4 Bantamps and a few Joyo pedals .. So wtf , Why not another .. haha. Serious note , appreciate all you do here .
No shit ! I have bought 8 HB'S, $88 $157 $208 $211 $215 $248 $416 $466. Ranging from a lap steel for $88 to the sc custom fr emg $466. All are just fantastic guitars and I cannot say any are "better" than the next. I paid $157 for this particular model and I love it , the filtertrons are better than the ones in my gretsch and yes the neck (all 7 of mine have really bitchin necks) is almost magical. It is amazing how low of a price Thomann can make and sell quality guitars for simply by cutting out the middle men 🎸🤘🍻
Great video again
Man you really deserve more viewers 👍
Ordered mine today. Already thinking about replacing the neck for a reversed tele-neck because I like the reversed look, but I don't like the shape of their headstocks. The tuners seem to be ok, but not great, so that will be solved too then. If it's possible to replace the neck of course, otherwise I only will replace the tuners.
I have one. I swapped out the tuners for fender locking tuners. Perfect guitar.
The reason the High E-string pops out is that the bridge is 54mm instead of the standard 52.5mm in string spacing, which the holes in the body are actually drilled for. The bridge is simply slightly too big... weird
That’s really the only thing keeping me from purchasing a baritone, or one of the seven string, HB guitars is the risk of getting one that needs to be sent back, and having to pay shipping costs. It’s not an inexpensive instrument, especially if you have to ship it back again (like a friend of mine did).
Well, that and medical bills eating up all my money. Love our super efficient for profit medical system.
Thank you for reviewing another HB instrument, Henning. I’m tempted to pull the trigger on buying one more with every review.
Hope the visit to the U.S. has treated you well! Looking forward to the NAMM content.
Thomann sends you a voucher to send the guitar back, you don't pay...
I bought one of these guitars and thought the pickups sounded a bit odd. I examined the wiring and sure enough whoever wired the guitar had it all wrong. Rewired and it sounded waaaaaaaay better.
This sounds like an isolated incident. Good to hear you found and fixed the problem, and also didn't just swap out the pickups. This Tele sounds excellent to me. I like it because it doesn't sound like most others 👍
4:18 When I looked on the Thomann site I got the impression there is a Vintage White (VW) version and there is a Natural (NT) version. However, on the site the VW-page shows a NT picture and the NT-page shows no picture. So something seems to be mixed up, and for months already (august 2018). Other TE90FLT-review videos show another color, called Vintage White. So, you have the NT there, not the VW.
compare the left hander (deluxe, but that doesn't matter): www.thomann.de/de/harley_benton_te_90flt_lh_vw_deluxe_series.htm
So it's a jizz guitar
Zenny no, jazz...
Dude your awesome, straight shooter no PC bullshit. I wish the HB were more readily available in the US. I lived in Germany 3 years awesome place and people. Rock on.
A Tele without that ugly ashtray bridge pick up, yay !
Filtertrons are originally humbuckers that were independently, while during the same time period than in Gibson, developed in Gretsch company. They were developed by Ray Butts on the suggestion by guitarist Chet Atkins who wanted to get rid of the hum. The basic idea is the same but there are structural differences to Gibson style humbucker and they have lower output than the Gibson style humbucker. Their sound is described bright, said to be closer to single coil. Obviously Chet Atkins is known for the Gretsch Country Gentleman / Chet Atkins model.
I’ve always heard the argument about whether Ray Butts or Seth Lover made the first humbucking guitar pickup. I saw a documentary on Les Paul a while back and his “log” he built in 1931. He built the pickups and they were stacked coil humbuckers over 20 years before Butts or Lover. His 54 LP Custom that was his main guitar through the 50’s and 60’s had a cavity he routed between the p90s with a cover and had a dummy coil for each pickup. After watching its amazing just how far ahead Les Paul was of everyone.
I really like the tones of this guitar.
Thanks Henning........... Bought one in sunburst just waiting for it to arrive.
What's your take on ESP guitars? Never heard you mention them.
Crazy how this is my best playing/sounding guitar and also my cheapest
Really?! You don't have any problems with that string catching then?
Na never happened on mine. It's the lowest action guitar I have without any buzzing too. I could have been lucky I guess
The best sounding? What other guitars do you own?
Completely agree with the clarification on, "best." We have different abilities to sense different frequencies, and we perceive what we hear in different ways also. Then personal taste influences all of it.
I have a Kramer from 1986 that I ordered loaded with Duncans, and people are amazed by the tone, and this was not a top line Kramer. I think I paid around $500 for it, including hardshell case.
On my basses I get complements on my tone from metalists, old school rock fans, and blues musicians I occasionally jam with, and it doesn't matter if I'm playing my all original '83 Fender American P bass, or the handmade custom bass I own with EMG PJ-X pickups loaded.
My uncle also has a 335 copy he bought for next to nothing at a yard sale a few years ago and I played it for the first time three weeks ago. I didn't understand why he had a smirk on his face... until I hit my first chord. Not only could I play extremely pleasing tones for up-tempo jazz, but we ran it through his metal rig and it sounded amazing! For rhythms and leads! His smile broadened an he asked me, "not bad for twenty-five bucks?" I couldn't say a word. I just kept playing.
I think you are more likely to get a quality piece of equipment from an instrument maker, regardless of company size, that can afford to use quality components and materials, has skilled personnel doing the work, and has stringent quality control, but, that doesn't mean a lesser cost item can't be a great sounding instrument or component. And buying something from a perceived high end brand guarantees nothing. Look at the quality problems with Gibson in recent years, or BC Rich in prior years.
In the early 1980's Ibanez was perceived by most to be a cheaper instrument, but they used better and better components, kept quality standards high, and kept consistently producing high quality instruments without charging premium prices. Now Ibanez is perceived as one of the more coveted instrument large scale manufacturers on the market, and still offer relatively high quality instruments at the lower end of their pricing scale.
In the current market, consumers are expecting more for their money, and companies either deliver or they will be forced out by those that can and do deliver consistently quality instruments, regardless of price. So expect to see less expensive instruments and components that do sound great, to your ears or to someone else's ears, more often than even a decade ago. It's a good time to be playing guitar or bass.
Same here love it!
From all the harley benton guitars and basses I'm gonna get me this Tele and the Jb75 MN
Just ordered it on Saturday in left handed version, looking forward! That annoying thing with high E happened to me with Harley Benton JA-60 (Jazzmaster) as well.
Nice guitar... but why o why the upside-down headstock? 😟
Sevus Henning!! Lass Dir mal n dickes Danke da für Deine geilen reviews und videos!! Mit meinen fuffzich Jahren fang ich noch das Gitarrespielen an!!! hahahaaa- aaaaber mit Deiner Hilfe, und youtube gehts laangsaaaam voran! Mach genausooo weiter !! For the english-speaking: He's awesome!! Grüsse aus Pforzheim
@13:30 Who doesn't want to sound like that!
I don't.
Not really the sound you'd want in a jazz band
It was all looking really nice until the sticky string thing. Frets can be fixed but I do wonder if the pickup screw problem is a small design fault. Great and fair review as always, thank you 😉
imho, the best benton of the harley benton group! :D
I have same feature with string being caught by upper frets on my Gibson Flying V. It's not big deal on budget instrument, but if anyone want to buy Gibson, think twice and go for PRS SE. Really.
Just bought one lefthanded. Can’t wait for it to come in the mail.
Hi! Did you like it? It´s 2022 now and I want to buy one... LH.
@@CoYoTdeLiMa yes absolutely. It’s a wonderful guitar. It still works well.
@@bullseye11b good. I am struggling hard because i cant make up my mind between the te90flt, the fusion-t hard tail and the cst24T. I dont need vibrato bar, the cst24 seems a bit cheap in some aspects, and the humbs of the fusion-t appear to sound very dull. The 90 has no coil split option but tits hh seem to do a good job. What is your thinking about my dilemma, sir, please? And, NO, I wont buy the 3. 😊
>>> Thomann should sell those pickups as a stand alone item.
People would love to buy sets of those for sure!!!!!
Check out "MUSIC STORE"
I believe they do
Great playing. Just ordered one of these. My 5th HB. I think I should get and invite to the staff party.
This Guitar Looks breath-taking
I'd like to leave it out in the sun for a bit so it got a bit darker, and at the price you pay it wouldn't be a terrible idea.
Kinda of a weird fadey thing ..... 648mm which is about two and a half trouts that's fish scale .....you gotta love this guy ! ....and he has a Robot lawn mower, mowing his lawn, sweet
do regular humbuckers fit in there too? or are the dimensions different on these filtertrons?
I got my eye on this one. I think the reverse headstock is a very nice touch. It makes the design really nice.
This is a oddball opinion here (but I'm an oddball), I think Thomann ought to offer this guitar in an unfinished body. It's so natural colored and close to bare wood. Make it available in an unfinished version so people can take a blow torch to it, stain it, etc. Oh well... never happen...
nice review! just realized they put the volume knob way closer to the strings compared to the Fender Cabronita or other teles. Unfortunately thats a no-go for me, cause I need some space for my strumming style.
I’m freakin sold on these Harley Benton guitars! I love how your sitting in front of 60k+ of amplifiers playing a 200 dollar guitar and it sounds freaking awesome through all of em!!!
Which again shows us that neither guitar nor amp are as important as your hands...
@@harryhirsch3637 Amps are pretty important actually. Try playing through a Gorilla or a Line 6 Spider. Amps are easily 80-90% of your tone.
@@yargnad fingers are...
Okay, FLT = FilterTron, VW = Vintage White, I love system.
Its a takeoff on fenders carbonita tele one of the great teles the world has seen !
Because of the filtertron pickups a Gretsch standard its what makes there guitars sound unique.
How would you suggest upgrading this guitar to make it sound more like the real thing, ie. a Pickup Upgrade, Gretsch standard? Thanks!
@@lvgeorge People talk a lot about TV Jones Filtertrons, but they are very expensive. You can buy Gretsch Filtertrons HS for half the price. They have
Alnico magnets, and must be seen as ´the real thing´. The cheaper models are called Black Tops, and then they sell some Chinese ones called Electromatic, but
they are standard HB´ers, and does not have the right sound. I think the HS´s comes at about $70 each. I think the difference between Filtertrons and standard
humbuggers are that the Filtertrons have fewer winding and stronger magnets. That is why they have more treble and less resistance, but still a decent output.
I was drinking coffee when I ended up spitting, bursting in laughter when you said, "Volkswagen". Great playing, great review, great man!
Harley bentons are freakin solid. I have the JA60 and the 6 string rick copy on the way. The jazzmaster is great. Getting this tele style next
These pickups don't sound like TV Jones, but I am having a hard time placing what they actually sound like.
I like how the sound the string makes when it got caught the first few times is in key :P
Jay Leonard J also does an excellent review of this guitar. He didn't go into the "metal tone zone" area, so I'm curious about the pickups. Are they considered low output?
Yes, Filtertron style pickups are lower output than most humbuckers. Much preferred to get more dynamics from your picking and volume control.
"What are filtertrons? I don't know!! Humbuckers that are different than other humbuckers, and they sound different" Love it!
Hi. Thinking about buying this guitar.
I really love the final song, with the landescape. Can you tell me the title?
Greetings from Barcelona.
Mine has never snagged the screw on the p/up. Great guitar btw
Hi, are the pickups alnico 2 or alnico 5?
Because I saw that Roswell does both, with the same product code I read in the guitar specs
Will a Fender Neck fit well into that Body ?
Kevin McVann Try it out...
Yes!
Weight ❓❓❓
Can you find after market parts for this guitar in case you need to
change something? Also would you recommend this guitar or the Squier
standad tele? Many thanks
Yes most all parts are interchangeable. I dont own this model yet but it seems to be more fitting to my style of play than a squire. But everyones different.
it s very cool review with all the amps , it s fun !
it will be better ,if you do a other video like that , to show what amp it play , like you do with the joyo ( if it s not too boring )
have a good day !
Nice! How many pieces is that body ? It looks like it's one piece from here (maybe 2). On thomann they say it's chambered, i'm guessing it's chambered under the pick guard, unless it's a sandwiched body (wouldn't think so)
Is very similar to HB Te 90 flt blast apart from finish. This one is similar weight?
Can you do some reviews of some of the in house thomann studio gear. That would be class.
How can a T-style be chambered? Do they laminate sheets of ash until its 45mm thick? How is it hollowed out?
Harry Hirsch under the pickguard is hollowed our.
Sounds a bit acdc like ... Love it !
No Tely Syle - Fender La Cabronita style - (Cabron - Mistvieh) HB hat eine extrem günstige Version des Models gezaubert. Das Orginal kostet je nachdem ab 500€/( 5000 €) Customshop. Nachteil der HB sie ist schwer da nutzen die kammern wenig und sie hat fast immer Mängel. Bei Les Paul änhlichen HB gitarren wurden diese Mängel sehr schnell abgestellt.
It's still called a Fender Cabronita 'Telecaster' usually.
Hab's nachgeschlagen, bei 4 von 5 Treffern stand das dabei.
Hallo Henning,
ich möchte meine alte Aria CS-250 Cardinal Series aus den 80ern mit Locking-Tunern aufrüsten. Die, die ich auf Thomann gesehen haben, werden aber entweder nur mit einer Schraube oder mit zwei parallel gegenüberliegenden Schrauben befestigt. Die Schrauben an den momentanen Tunern sind jedoch schräg versetzt. Was wäre da nun besser? Die mit zwei Schrauben gegenüber, oder die mit der einzelnen Schraube?
Freundliche Grüße
Arved
Hello Henning,
very interesting video. At 6:20 you say, that the Joyo Atomic has a safety feature, that switches off the speaker output. When exactly is this function active? I got this amp a few weeks ago and had the problem for two or three times, that the amp was muted and didn´t put out any tone. Without recognizable reason for me. Maybe that it happend, when i plugged in my speaker, when the amp already was turned on (or maybe when i turned the amp off or on by the switch on my plug board). I couldn´t find anything about this safety function in the manual. Maybe you can explain it to me? I think it´s the solution for my problem.
kind regards
Ronny
Hmm... I plan on buying the amp, also would like to know about this.
Can you fit a normal sized humbucker in case u want to replace it ?
Henning what is you Top 5 for guitars, amps/preamp, pedals, reviews others youtuber channels of 2017. Further what can we aspect in 2018 guitar world.
How are the Tuners? Does it keep in tune well? If not, what do you suggest for an upgrade to the tuners? And Wow, what a collection of gear you have in your Rack! That must have took a lot of time and dedication on your part! Thumbs UP!
The stock tuners on most HB guitars are ok, they're not terrible, but there not the smoothest either. You can get away with not replacing them. Stays in tune fairly well once you've got it right, but getting it there is a little work sometimes.
It's 194 now, did they change anything?
Hello, I bought this guitar and I had to send it back because the frets were very bad.
Yeah, sometimes that still happens.
Did you give it back right away?
I would have it replaced and hope for a better one, you can do that twice actually,
but maybe that just goes for Germany because it's to costly sending back and forth
to another country?!? I don't know.
yes I returned it right away.
And I asked for a refund.
I am disgusted.
I am not surprised.That has to be the worst guitar I have ever seen Henning review.
You've already said that.
J'M la TSF
Lee Lucas
Of course you have to expect quite some variance in this price range, it's still a bit of a gamble.
But a while ago I tried several guitars in the 350-450 Euro range (Ibanez, G&L, LTD) and all
weren't better quality-wise than any Benton.
The Ibanez FR365 was the worst, truly appalling manufacturing and very poor sound,
had it replaced and the second one also was crap!
I really like your Harley Benton reviews even more than your other reviews...
I have to admit that I use Harley Benton guitars and basses for all of my recordings (which can or will be able to be found on my channel) and I really enjoy them...
And with a lot of gain you pretty much can't tell a difference anyways :D
Have a nice day everyone!
On a completely different subject, I love the interior of your music room. Is the rest of your house as beautiful as this room? You should do a video tour of your house sometime.
He kind of did during the video on all of his guitars.
And there also is a much older video where he showed all the studio related rooms, (which is practically the whole house, minus kitchen, bath and bedrooms),
search on the channel page, for 'studio tour' or something like that.
hey Henning, will you be doing the new Blast Series of these tele's? they look awesome! :)
yes
Very cool guitar!
Sounds great. Just wondering, would there be any specific benefit to the reversed headstock, or is that just for cosmetics
cosmetics
some would argue that the tuning and restring process feels a little bit more natural that way, but thats probably perspective
Yes It Is fantastic !!
Any Guitar would sound Great with that Set up
oh boy... that is SO not true! A bad guitar will reveal itself immediately with that setup, that's the point!
Man ! I hope i could like take the pickguard off. I mean it look great and it's like the coolest looking guitar I've seen but it would be loads better if there wasn't that black pickguard. Is there a way to remove it ?
I don't know if this reply is still in time ...but if you remove the pickguard there is a big hole underneath, that's the 'weight relief', same with the oversized cavity on the back.
THAT GUITAR SOUNDS GREAT ON HIGH GAIN !! :)
can you tell me how it sounds playin
g sort of metal style?
The fretboard is glued on ,,,you would not be able to install the truss rod. The skunk stripe is for eye appeal. But serves no necessity to installing the truss rod.
i wish harley benton also made 8 strings in this more traditional models as well. like michael kelly guitars.. Henning .. i have an idea... bring it up with thomann that they should concider making 7 and 8 strings of other models as well... im sure they would sell great :D also with tremolos ;)
doesn't sound bad, like it
Vintage White?
Yes, and FLT for Filtertrons.
Das Intro hat mir gefallen, eine Harley Benton an einem Gitarrenständer, der ungefähr das gleiche kostet, oder ist dieser Design-Stänger sogar teurer?
Höhö, ich hab Ständer geschrieben.
Ich glaub inzwischen kosten die etwas weniger aber ursprünglich war es beinah das doppelte von der Klampfe!
Ich wollte ja ursprünglich schreiben, dass die Ständer teurer sind.
Ach so, ich dachte du wolltest es wissen, damals waren es nämlich um die 300 Euro...
Aber du hattest absolut Recht, inzwischen kosten die Dinger bei Musik-Produktiv
tatsächlich exakt dasselbe wie die Gitarre! (hab grad nachgeschaut)
Das ist purer Zufall, dass die Dinger jetzt den gleichen Preis haben. Ich wusste das nicht.
This or the TE-70 deluxe?
Henning, how is the fretwork on these inexpensive guitars? Thanks
It varies, sometimes great, sometimes not, that's just how it always is on cheaper guitars.
When are they updating the logo with the one we saw at guitcon on your signature guitar?
Hope they don't replace it on all the guitars, I think the new one is actually worse,
the old one looks crap on some models but on Fender type guitars I really like it.
Good review using lots of amps, dirty and clean ,,with a common sense aproach and an unbiased opinon ,one of the better reviews on you tube ...could do without the bad language though .......its not cool ...
Go watch Glen Fricker, SMG Studios, TH-cam channel...
You’ll really enjoy it, and he’d absolutely love hearing from you. :)
was that strait out box with out a set up or was it all set up first
Straight out of the box
Henning what is the blue cab in the background?
Coffee Cabs Latte-... review here on the channel
great guitar! thats why i own it. ;-)
What is the radius?
As soon as you said "648 millimeter" I immediately thought of trouts! Still funny - at least for me... Haha