Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit T-Style

PROS.

1. Technically, this kit allows you to follow an IKEA-like manual and put together a guitar, functionally identical to a cheap guitars of well-known-brands-we-won?t-mention-here for a fraction of their price.

2. The body and the neck are done surprisingly well for a price, they fit together better than I saw on some? ahem? much more expensive guitars. Frets don?t try to cut you to death. Neck is not bent to a propeller shape. Slots in the body for neck and pickups are precise enough.

3. Other parts are inexpensive yet mostly funcional. I planned to replace everything except body and neck, but left tuning machines, bridge and some other things be: they are okay to the level when ?good enough? turns into ?just good?.

CONS.

1. Frets require some work. Frets are unpolished (which is not a problem) and sometimes are slightly uneven (which IS a problem). So if you need a low action without buzzing, fret leveling is in order, and fret leveling is not a task for a complete newbie.

Nut is a regular plastic thing, and it is not set to a proper height. To get a proper action and proper tone, you should cut it to the right height, which requires some minimal understanding of the task, some skills and at least some tools. So, again, not a task for a complete newbie.

2. There?s no shielding and a kit manual never mentions that shielding is required, which could become a problem for a newbie. You?ll need to shield a guitar with foil or graphite, otherwise it will work like a good old radio antenna, buzzing left and right.

3. Build quality is not perfect when it comes to a small things. All screw holes, including holes for neck bolts, are hand-drilled sloppily, which means random depth and direction of each and every hole. If you suffer from serious case of perfectionism, just like me, it?s easier to seal and redrill those holes. Otherwise you probably can ignore it: screws still hold it together, so it?s okay. Tip: always use a wax on screws, it helps.

Fingerboard of my guitar had a small splotch of some brownish substance that tried (with questionable success) to mask a small dent in a wood. It didn?t affect playability, but it wasn?t nice to look at form close distances, so it had to be fixed.

Tone control in my kit wasn?t working. It wasn?t a problem for me, as I just replaced all electronics. But such things could be a problem for some kiddo, who doesn?t know how to solder wires yet. Be ready to rewire the guitar properly.


CONCLUSION.

In general, this kit is a good base for amateur guitar builds and experiments. Reshape the body, paint it wild, cut the head as you please, add pickups of your dreams... Kit has no critical flaws and allows you to build a really good ?semi-custom? guitar for a ridiculously low price if you are ready to put some work in it.

Kit is ?technically functional? even right after screwdriver assembly and basic tuning, but don?t expect much from it. Fifteen minutes of intense screwdriving will turn a kit into an electromechanical tool, which in a dim light could be considered an electric guitar. But it won?t rise to its full potential without additional efforts.

After 4 months of build, I can write a few things. I'm intermediate guitar player, mainly playing alone/with friends just for fun. This was my first build and first tele.

First, if you're wondering if it's any good or if you can put it together, but you would like to try it.... Just buy and try it. It's great fun, quite well built, easy to assemble, and it sounds quite good.



Build quality
At first glance, you can see that the neck is made a level above the body. The frets are well measured, with no sharp edges. The whole neck is very smooth, it fits well in the hand. A plus for me was that you can give your own shape to the headstock.

The body consisted of 3 pieces, and I didn't like it enough to cover it with clear varnish. The body was already primed and quite smooth, but not as much as the neck. This is both a plus and a minus. Plus - you can go straight to painting. Minus - it seems to me that priming does not fill the pores decently. Therefore, when you cover with nitro varnish small holes come out. For me this was a plus, because I wanted to achieve a relic-style finish over time. However, if one wanted a perfectly smooth finish one would probably have to wipe off the primer, fill the pores, prime and then only paint (unless one knows better, I am a beginner in woodworking).

As I mentioned the body one mesh lower than the neck. Holes made with a hole saw have large splinters. This can be easily corrected with sandpaper. I also experienced one splinter in the primer, which was a bit harder to paint afterwards. This did not interfere with the installation. That's why 4/5.

Painting took me several days to apply several coats of nitro varnish, after each coat I waited for it to dry (I wasn't in the hurry, maybe you can do it faster). As I want to achieve a relic-style finish over time, I didn't buy an expensive varnish specifically for the guitar, but found a universal varnish at a local store. I did not protect it with an additional coat for the time being.

Just screwing the whole thing together took me 1-2 hours. All screw holes were well measured (I saw that in some egemlars people complained about this). I also decided to drill the body so that the strings could pass through (the bridge allows this solution as well, but also has holes if someone doesn't want to drill the body). The cables connected easily, but it was necessary to slightly bend the handle in the cable of the bridge pickup for it to work.

Setup and sound
As a beginner, setting up the string action and truss nod proved quite difficult and I had to try several times, but eventually I learned. It was problematic to set the strings because of the bridge (you can set 2 strings at a time, not each one individually), but this is typical of tele. It also seems to me that the zero fret (the nut) is not of the best quality and some light sawing may be necessary to set the string action. Other than that, the guitar tunes on all frets and that's the most important thing.


As for the sound - it depends on what your expectations are. The average pickups cost as much as the kit itself, so your expectations should be low, but they exceeded mine. Both pickups sound quite good (I especially like the neck pickup), but I have to admit that compared to the more expensive ones they are a bit muddled. I don't like the middle position - it sounds strange and 'plastic', although with some effect it can be interesting in the funk. Tuners are good, and hold the tune quite well. I play mainly jazz/ blues/ blues-rock and for this the pickups hold the overdrive quite well (those are single coils not humbuckers, so playing metal would sound quite specific). That's why sound 4/5.

It doesn't prevent you from having fun playing both alone and in a small band with friends. When I gave it to my guitarist friends to play and asked for a quote, the closest shot was 3x the actual price, the others were even more expensive.

All in all, it is not perfect equipment, matching guitars for hundreds or thousands. But I've been playing it about an hour a day since I put it together, and I have the enthusiasm to learn to play better again. It sounds quite good, tunes and holds tune, and can be played with pleasure.

In the long run, you can treat it as a project and replace the pickups, the note, and the bridge, tuners and so on.... But you can also have a lot of pleasure without these modifications.

Thanks if you have read so far and have fun if you decide to do so!

An overview of how the building of my Harley Benton telecaster kit went.

Step 1: Neck
I started with checking if the frets were level. They were playable but still needed some levelling. They were also very scratchy and the top was barely crownded.
I levelled, crowned and polished the frets.
Then I cut the headstock into shape, sanded it smooth and covered it with 6 coats of clearspray.

Step 2: Body
The body was very ruff and had a lot of dings and even a few holes in it.
I sanded it until it was perfectly smooth. Then I filled the holes, scratches, dings and woodgrain with wood filler and sanded everything smooth again. Next I applied 2 layers of primer and sanded everything smooth. After this I filled al the remaining holes and scratches again with woodfiller, after this, again I sanded everything smooth. Next I spraypainted the body with 6 layers of turquoise lacker and 3 layers of satin clearcoat.

Step 3: assembly
The tuners and string trees went in perfectly with no problem. The neck fitted perfectly in the neck pocked. The bridge, output jack cover, strap buttons and the plate with the switch and knobs also fitted perfectly.
The pickguard however not so much. The holes in the body didn't align with the holes in the pickguard. I drilled new holes in the body and now it fits. The pickguard does touch the plate with the pickup selector, this is not supposed to happen.

Step 4: setup
The tuners hold tune but are a bit difficult to tune with, they are a bit jumpy.
The bridge is easy to intonate but impossible to intonate 100% perfect because of it's design, but that was to be expected.
The nut of the guitar is cut to high, because of this the action is always high and the first few frets will sound out of tune. I am going to fix the nut later.
I had to adjust the pickup height a lot.

The result:
- Even with a 9-42 set of strings this guitar is very loud acoustically. It resonates more than any guitar I have ever played.
- The pickups sound remarkably good for such a cheap kit. I dont think I will change them anytime soon.
- The guitar plays very nicely, I expect it to play even better once I lowered the nut slots.
- The guitar holds tune good enough.
- The pickup selector is wobly and stiff. The volume knob is pressed against the metal plate it's atached to, this makes it imposible to operate it with 1 finger. It has to much friction. The tone knob works perfectly.

Conclusion:
The kit I got has a very good neck and body but the hardware is lacking. The hardware is functional, you could keep it, but I am probably going to upgrade it.
I have a feeling once I upgraded it this is going to be my favourite guitar.
Score:
Body and neck 9,5/10
Hardware 5/10
Pickups 8/10
Total 7,5/10


UPDATE:
I placed straplocks, upgraded the stringtrees and the nut to graptech, changed the tuners to harley benton locking tuners, placed compensated bridge sadles and placed a fender 4-way tele switch (I discovered that the original switch used the same pickup configuration in both position 1 and 2). I also maneged to fix the hard to turn volume knob.

After these upgrades this guitar is fenomenal. It holds tune very well and is very smooth to tune, it has sustain for ages, with the 4-way switch you have a lot of tonal options and it plays like butter.
It is my favourite guitar at the moment.

Score with upgrades:
Body and neck 9,5/10
Hardware 9/10
Pickups 8/10
Total 9/10

Брал, чтобы в коллекции появился Телекастер. Разница между этим комплектом и уже готовым телеком от HB составляла 600рублей, и если вы не хотите заморачиваться с кастомизацией, то лучше выбрать уже целый. Однако, в пользу DIY играет дерево корпуса - это индонезийский палисандр. Телекастеры из красного дерева это, как минимум, не обычно.
Из плюсов: цена, нестандартные материалы(корпус: палисандр, накладка: амарант); достаточно нестыдная фурнитура(не ждите чуда за эти деньги), приличный звук.
Минусы: надо заморачиваться со столярными работами; выпиливать голову, сверлить корпус для сквозной протяжки струн; наколки под саморезы для крепления пикгарда нанесены неточно, сам пикагрд надо подрезать в районе крепления грифа, струны сразу отнести на кухню - резать коржи, желе и другие мягкие продукты.
Но это, прямо скажем, мелочи.
Что в итоге? По факту вы получаете очень нестандартный телекастер из неплохой древесины за смешные деньги и фурнитурой, которую можно со временем поменять на более дорогую. Но даже в варианте из коробки это будет инструмент по уровню превосходящий SQUIER AFFINITY, а ценой в 4 раза дешевле.

Firstly, I am not a gigging guitarist. I play mainly in the bedroom and occasionally at local Jams. I use a Boss Katana amp with an ME-80 and a few other pedals.
I’ve wanted to do a self build for a while now, but was sceptical about a) whether I would be able to do a half decent job, & b) more importantly, whether the materials supplied would be any good.
When it arrived I was immediately impressed that the body was (externally) very smooth and had a nice grain. ( The workmanship on the pickup pocket routing and the control switch routing was pretty poor really, but at least is out of sight). The neck looked really good and the fret edge finish was way smoother than I was expecting for the price.

First off, I checked the neck for straightness and found that it was convex in shape by quite a bit. Easy enough to adjust with the supplied truss rod adjuster. The frets themselves were actually quite smooth at the edges, but after checking with fret rockers, seven or eight of them needed to be filed down a bit.

Now I’m no woodworker or electronic wizard so this area really concerned me. The headstock shape I chose to cut with a jig saw. On reflection a hand saw with a fine blade may have been more useful. That said, after about 3 hours hand sanding with 5 different grades of sandpaper made it nice and smooth.
The electrics were easy to connect with the supplied connectors but I first lined all the cavity’s with copper self adhesive tape.
One major flaw is that the tone pot does not work. Or, if it does, it really isn’t noticeable. (This is something I have seen in other reviews). For me it isn’t a big issue, I have plenty of pedals and effects that can overcome this.

From the outset, I wanted the finish to remain a natural (ish) wood Finish. So I was really happy that the grain on the guitar body was looking very good out of the box. I applied four coats of mid oak wood wax. This deepened the colour somewhat and I am really pleased with the finish.

The tuners seem to be of a pretty good standard, but a couple of the pre drilled holes were slightly off. The string trees look and feel a bit cheap. Most of the supplied screws and holes were ok. The neck fitted the body really well and the strings, when put on, were aligned straight down the neck. The nut is plastic I think, but experience has told me to file the back edge of the slots, just a little bit and apply some lead pencil to the slots. Once the strings had stretched a little and bedded in, it holds its tune really well.

My biggest and best surprise, was when I plugged it in. I think the sound of this build is superb for the money. I have owned far worse guitars that have cost me hundreds of pounds. The pick ups needed a small tweak to get the volume balance right, but other than that, I am really pleased with the volume and general tone of the guitar.

For £75 (from my experience) I doubt if you will find much better. Really chuffed!

I am an experienced guitar player, but never have built a guitar. I have always wanted to so this kit, even with shipping to the US (I bought two) was very reasonable.

I purchased this guitar because I am also into 3d printing, and the company Prusa 3d released the "Prusa Caster" which is based on this kit. The general idea is that you 3d print the body of the guitar parts instead of using the wood body. Everything else is used (neck, tuners, all electronics, etc.).

I did not do anything fancy with this guitar other than assemble it, but used the 3d printed parts (which are glued and took about 80 hours of printing). The only issue that I ran into is that one of the heads of the screws broke, even while I was using a hand screwdriver. I had to use a left handed drill bit to remove the screw. The screw quality seems to be low. Definitely take your time screwing in and don't be in a hurry. Luckily, there were enough spare screws that it didn't matter.

After the assembly, I did notice the top string was buzzing and I spent quite a bit of time adjusting the neck and then setting the string height on the bridge, and then adjusting the intonation also on the bridge. It took me about an hour to get everything to a point that I would consider "good enough".

I noticed that other reviewers mention the need to adjust the nut and fret. I think that is a good idea and wish I had read the reviews first so I knew to check this. I may look into this adjustment for the future.

Conclusion: I am used to playing $1000+ guitars. This is definitely not as good out of the box, so make sure you have realistic expectations. If you are a skilled guitar builder I think you could do a lot to make this a great guitar. I have no complaints about the sound or pick up, they sound as good as a real Fender Strat in my opinion. The best part about this guitar kit is you can say you built it and have the proud feeling of doing that, and make it whatever you want.

I ordered this along with a JA kit and two concert Uke kits. This was my first attempt at a kit but I have gotten comfortable setting up guitars and I'm fairly handy and have some tools. This Tele was going to be a Christmas gift for my son after I finished.

I thought the quality of the kit was fine. The neck was really nice. Great profile for me and smooth. The body had a couple of small dings which I repaired with wood filler. Routing was fine. Neck to body fit was kind of meh as I expected it to be a bit tighter but it ended up fine.

I hydro-dipped the guitar body which turned out just awesome. I cut the headstock in a modified tele shape and fashioned my own logos. I wanted to get the color of the neck a bit darker but there was so much sealer on the wood I couldn't get it sanded down enough so just basically went with the natural maple color which is fine.

I think the hardware was all adequate other than maybe the plastic nut which seemed very "plasticky" and looked too high. Despite the hardware seeming ok, I replaced almost everything. Nut, locking tuners, Alnico V pickups, brass compensated bridge saddles and the pots. The included white pickguard looked good but I went with a clear one instead to show the paint swirl underneath. Had to relocate the pickguard mounting holes but that was easy. The clear turned out great. Be careful of the screws as they seem to be made from Chinesium which strips easily.

Took quite a bit of work to get it set up and playable. Ended up having to shim the neck a bit to get the action and intonation to cooperate but it is now very nice and stable.

The end result was fantastic and my son loves it. I also have a HB TE52 which is much heavier with a chunkier neck. This one has a somewhat different tone which is hard to describe. It sounds great and is very playable. I would recommend this is you want a cool project and want to create something truly unique. I wouldn't recommend it if you are trying to save money though :) There are other kit providers out there. I haven't tried them but I would think this Harley Benton compares favorably, particularly at this price.

Pros:
Price (Obviously)
Wood - I loved the feel of the neck and decided to leave it as it was. Didn't have any issues with the frets or the nut. I used a water based stain to colour it after a lot of sanding as it comes with a sealed finish I had to sand off first. If I'd left it alone it would have been fine as a natural finish but I wanted a specific colour and look. The body had 3 different sections but it looked decent.
Playability - Needed a setup but once I was happy it really does feel smoothe and I love the feel of the back of the neck it's just right for me.
Headstock - Ability to shape it as desired. I admit I had a luthier pal do that for me I don't have the heavy equipment for that it was worth a tenner.
Weight - Feels solid without being too heavy.
Pickups - even though I am replacing them the stock ones aren't that bad at all especially for a beginner.
Controls - no issues at all nice and sturdy without being too stiff. Not planning on replacing those any time soon. The jack socket is rigid too (as are the strap buttons.)

Pro tip - don't do it in the order of the manual. Test the neck and body fit first before trying to apply any finish. Then take it apart again and work them separately when building and finishing before putting it back together.

Cons:

Tuners - had to go I replaced them with Wilkinson ones and now they are great.
Screw holes - not 100% but workable - the wood is quite soft too if you need to adjust.

Overal it's ridiculous what you get for the price. I've now got an aged looking Tele in the colour I want with some upgrades that has cost me less than around £200 even with the finishing items and tools I bought such as a soldering iron and new pickups and tuners. Could never get this anywhere else for even double that at the very least.

Also it's taught me more about how to set up a guitar - I couldn't even play some strings when I first put it together but I've learned how to adjust the saddles etc. Even the intonation out of the box is as close as dammit.

I got lucky here. I've taken 2 stars off because I am comparing it to a much more expensive instrument and the tuners are really poor but in reality I'd rather this instrument now after changing those anyway.

Cheers Thomann.

It's hard to review this kit because as a finished guitar it has some flaws: notably the body is too light and the guitar headstock pulls towards the ground on a strap. This can ruin the feel of a guitar and it's such a dopey thing to lose out on. Also, the pickup selector switch is ridiculously stiff - a point that others have noted in their reviews. And that's all the bad points summed up in one go.

I set up guitars for my business and I bought this kit to see just how good it is given the amount of great feedback it gets. I also wanted to see just how good a guitar this could be with the addition of a really good set up (including precision fret-levelling) and some quality pickups.

The good points start from the moment you order the kit. First off, the price. It's cheap for a decent-sounding electric guitar but it's ridiculously cheap for a great learning experience in a box for your son, daughter, husband, wife friend etc that also ends up with a playable guitar.

Next the box when it arrives. Neat, well organised, everything in compartments.

Then the discovery that the kit has printed instructions!?! That's a first! And the good stuff keeps coming - namely:

? Clean, well-cut body
? Excellent neck with remarkably few uneven frets and no sharp edges. Pretty rosewood
? Everything there, nothing missing
? Snap together connectors so no soldering needed
? All holes where they should be
? Perfect neck body fit

The guitar is a doddle to put together and the whole thing could be done in under an hour easily. In my case, I cut a Fender-style headstock, put on my own brand logo and lacquered the neck with some vintage amber. I put some waterbased ink stain on the body and finished it off with Tru-oil. Very very easy. However, I found that the basswood not only doesn't take the stain very well it also doesn't seem to have a very pronounced grain, making the end result look like a slightly flat and dull colour but to be honest, I didn't expect much more for the price.

I also installed Tone Rider pickups before putting the guitar together which did require a tiny bit of soldering as I added the HB 'snap together' connectors to the Tone Riders. Because of that, I didn't test out the stock pickups but I've no reason to doubt they're perfectly acceptable, given everyone else's comments.

Joining neck and body together is extremely easy. I performed a precision fret levelling and full set up on this guitar to get the best possible action from it but before I did, I tried it out in 'out of the box' configuration i.e. after only adjusting the bridge saddle heights - which anyone can do. The result was impressive - a very playable guitar with a pretty good action.

I didn't need to use the instructions but I did read them and they ARE very well-written with some really concise general set up advice - another real plus, Thomann.

Once together, does the guitar work for me? No - because the neck-heaviness is something I can't personally live with. Is it a superb package for anyone wanting to get into guitar building or to have a playable guitar for very little money - hell, yes.

There's no doubt about it, building a guitar from a kit leaves you feeling very attached to it which is great. Because of that, this guitar would have definitely been a 'keeper' for me - if only it wasn't head-heavy. If Thomann could get the manufacturer to measure the balance and add the necessary weight at the body end (even if cost a couple of quid more) it would make such a difference.

So sadly I'm left with a guitar I probably won't play unless I can find a way to add some lead shot to the body to cure the neck dive. As I didn't need the experience of putting the kit together it's real value was to learn that it's not something I'm going to do again.

Having said that, I still give it 5* because for a young person or a newcomer to the guitar it's a superb learning experience - one that's worth far more than the £57 price tag.

SUMMARY: Very impressed with the HB TC-style kit. I?ve been able to take a £70 guitar kit, spend £36 on a vintage bridge plus ashtray cover then build myself a lovely custom copy of a 1962 Vintage Tele. Extremely rewarding, including all the research to decide what I wanted to do with the kit. Plenty of guidance on fitting bridge, painting etc., available on YouTube etc.

My objective was to replicate a Surf Green 1962 vintage Telecaster with the chrome ashtray cover I?d seen on the ?net. Firstly, I carefully measured the kit body to ensure the Vintage T-Style bridge (available from Thomann) would fit without affecting the scale length/intonation. I used a scale cardboard template for this and guidance from the Internet. Turned out everything would still be fine even though I needed to re-drill the bridge mounting holes slightly further forward. The ashtray chrome cover is also available from Thomann, best idea is to order as a job lot with the kit!
Colour: Fiat Smooth Mint is an almost exact match for Surf Green; I easily got it mixed into an aerosol by a local auto body shop supplies.
The kit itself was very good quality, neck perfect. Personally, I?m not keen on the stock Tele headstock shape and use my own based on the Fender Swinger which is easier to cut with a fretsaw. I carefully measured/drilled for the new bridge, fitted a set of brass compensated string trees and intonation/action height was spot-on once tuned and adjusted. Important to do this before any painting etc. was started.
All the body holes (pick guard, jack plug mount) were then filled with cocktail sticks/wood glue and filler as I like to start afresh with new holes. Some tend not to line up too well in these kits but its not a problem if you fill/redrill. I won?t go into detail of painting, its lots of rubbing down, priming, painting, lacquering and polishing. Personally, I like to see a little of the wood grain showing through so didn?t go mad with grain filler. I was very happy with the smooth, high gloss finish. All parts were then mock fitted to the body; pick guard gaps carefully aligned in relation to the bridge, I found I needed to relocate the holes to get the fit perfect so was pleased I had filled them before painting. The control plate fitted perfectly into the pick guard cut-out but again the holes were in a slightly different place.
All the electronics were fine, guitar played noiselessly with kit strings etc. Acid test was to compare my guitar with the one I saw on the ?net ? I had reproduced it pretty well exactly and was really pleased with the result.