Harley Benton TE-40 TBK Deluxe Series

I wasn't in the market for a guitar, but at this price...

I ended up with a small and unexpected lump of money burning a hole in my pocket, so I thought I'd treat myself. I've bought guitars before and ended up chasing a deal and loosing sight of the guitar I actually wanted, ultimately buying the one I didn't want because it was shiny and came with discount. This time, I wanted to read the reviews, make an informed decision, stick to it, and buy the guitar I wanted.

I want to share with you my buying experience, without the 'honeymoon period' of a new guitar fogging up the context. I feel some reviews are composed by starry eyed people who want to share the enthusiasm they feel for thier new guitar with you. That's not a bad thing, but I'll make an effort to be as objective as I can to help you make your own decision.

I'll start by trying to help manage your expectations (always excellent Thomann customer service and support aside). This is a guitar for around £100, don't forget.

Guitars at this end of the market have flaws and imperfections. If they didn't, they wouldn't be at this end of the market. Don't get me wrong, this is nicely finished for the price, but there are some imperfections. None of them are obvious and you really have to look for them, but all of the things you touch are great. The neck is nice and smooth, but offers enough resistance to give your palm good feedback. It's quite thick and chunky. That could be an issue for small hands, but I quite like it. The frets are good. No rough edges, no sharp points. It's not perfect, but it cost around £100. If you want hand luthiered quality, there's no other option but to spend 10 times this amount. The body is quite heavy and thick, but not overly so. The body is also well contoured and very conformable. It's very easy to pick up and play. Good marks for design (even if it's heavily inspired by another, more famous guitar manufacturer).

Despite what you might read, guitars do not come set up out of the box. Not at this price, anyway. They might come roughly correct, but you still tune it up before you play it, don't you? I mean, it's a guitar. It's not going to be strung like a hen house, is it? You will have to make alterations to some settings to taylor it to your taste and to get the intonation exactly right. Such set up changes are usually quite simple, so try it for yourself and you'll be very pleased that you did. My guitar was nearly there, but not quite. That's normal at this price, so to expect otherwise is not fair on Thomann.

Plugging it in to my Peavey Envoy 110, I am quite impressed. This sounds great - not just for the price, but great full stop. Very versatile. Good clean tone. From bright and shiny to muddy and dark, these pick ups hold their own. On the lead channel, they cope well too. Strong rocky tones and punchy enough to produce some sinister metal sounds. To make a comparison, it's quite like my LTD Viper. A guitar that cost three times the amount of this! The pots feel nice and weighted. My only criticism is that the selector switch feels a little cheap, but who cares? It still works! Anyway, I've read that these pick ups will accept a 5 way switch, so upgrade it if it bothers you.

All in all, this a great little guitar. If the finish was slightly better (and it had Squire/fender on the headstock), you'd play more than double the price and be okay with it. It's that good. There are a few rough edges, and the 'gold' hardware will probably look 'bronze' by Christmas, but don't let that spoil things. Good enough for studio work, better at being a quality front room guitar that gets passed around on social gatherings, but stays in tune when all is quiet.

Very usable, very cheap and very good. If you want a great value guitar, buy this and have enough money left over to tell your friends about it in the pub afterwards. If you want a Fender, buy a Fender and turn the heating down.

EDIT :

OK, so, a year or so on, I might have got a little carried away describing the sounds this guitar makes. The pick-ups have become somewhat frustrating. Very high output and kind of flat sounding. Not too bad, but not nearly as good as my LTD Viper, as claimed earlier. They're are two different animals, so comparison is unfair.

It is lasting well, though. Still plays well and looks good. The hardware doesn't look as bright as it once did, but what do you expect for £100? No complaints at all.

I still tell people about this guitar because I'm still amazed that you can buy a guitar this good for the price. It's simply unbelievable.

Things have moved on since the 1990's cheap guitar...

First impressions out of the box the guitar looked great , A quick look over the cosmetic appearance and again it looks great with no obvious flaws. A quick strum tells me it's not to far out of tune and again with all 3 of my harley bentons the action is high , so a quick look down the neck tells me it pretty straight and like it should be . Now I get to lowering the action because it's pretty high and almost un-playable for me unless I was playing with a slide....... so I drop the bridge down by eye and bam it's perfect and just the way I like it with no fret buzz or choking of any kind..... this is the best harley benton yet in terms of easy setup , so now a quick retune and this is where I find fault , the tuners are total rubbish and you have to turn them so far before they make a change it crazy...... They definately have to go in the bin because I would not even use them as emergency tuners they are that bad , I'm guessing they are made by the same company that made the tuners on the two CST24's I brought but they a not by a long way the same quality , I have ordered some new tuners and some roller string tree's to replace them...... no big deal really but I kind of expected them to be a bit better than they are , apart from the tuners the rest of the guitar is great. The frets need a polish or at least some playing to smooth them out a bit as with the other guitars they are a little rough but I expected that as the other two were as well , again no big deal and at this price point i'm more than happy overall. The roswell pups are great I really like them and they have good bite which I like and then clean up well when the volume is reduced, I think they may be the same pups as in the CST24's and if they are I'm going to coil split them as I love the split sound on the CST24's . The neck joint is perfectly fitted and has no gaps and the binding looks great and would be hard for anyone to fault , again i'm very pleased with the level of finishing and attention to detail for such a budget guitar. You have to hand it to the Germans for their legendary attention to detail and quality control proving once again low price does not have to mean low quality. Thomann's Harley Benton brand stands head and shoulders above every other guitar brand in this price bracket and is a real credit to this company , honestly I can't speak highly enough of them and I would recommend their guitars to everyone from beginner to pro, they have something in the Harley Benton line to suit all players and styles, and this will NOT be my last guitar from Thomann.

PRO'S
beautiful body work
nice neck
frets level
pickups sound great
nut is good and well cut
paint finish is stunning
binding is well done
gold hardware looks great
intonation was spot on right out of the box

CONS

The tuning machines are rubbish on this particular guitar
and I have already ordered some nice locking tuners.

OVERALL
A stunning looking guitar with a price most anyone can afford . It's not perfect but it's more than good enough for this money. All guitars need a setup to suit the owner and these guitars are no exception and I would say if you don't know how to do it yourself have a pro or a friend do it.... it makes all the difference in the world and is essential to you having a great playing experience.
My warmest heart felt thanks to Thomann and there wonderful staff.

I want to be honest about this so I will give pros and cons.

Cons.:

Pickups. The Roswell pickups are way too twangy for my taste, but with a bit of lowering, a new set of hybrid strings and a well oiled fret board I was able to temper it.

This is not to say that they may well get changed later on down the road.

Sting through ferrules, a bit tricky when putting on new strings as the string ends keep catching as you pass them through. Makes for a longer swap time. I would suggest getting a short piece of straw to act as a guide when you change strings.

Pros:

Finish. Wonderful. The black under certain lights is a trans black and was a nice surprise.

The gold hardware looks great, the tuners work well and the bridge is stable and well intonated straight from the box. The controls work well although the tone control is a tad off centre, it isn't an issue what so ever.

The binding around the body is well placed and the creamy white colour adds to the finish.
Can't say for certain what the nut is, but it looks like a faux bone nut but not a cheap plastic one. The string trees are well placed finishing the look well.


The neck is very nice, well playable and feels very soft under my hands. Access to the higher frets is very easy and the overall feel is comfortable.

Recommendations.:

Thomann should lose the Roswells or change them for Ceramics or Alnico twos. They are just too much for this guitar as they are. Perhaps going back to Wilkinsons would be a better bet or going to Iron Gear for a step up as a custom option?

When you get one of these, and you should. Get a new set of strings because the first thing to do is oil the neck with either lemon oil or plain linseed. The fret board is very dry from shipping so should be treated to a nice oiling. The new strings will give a better sound and feel too.


For a guitar costing 125 Euro, you are getting something that is easily double that in price. The added bonus of the string through set up makes this a very stable rhythm guitar.

All in all, a very pleasing guitar and certainly not out of place on stage or in the studio. Leaves room for custom options as well.

Very good value for money for an entry level guitar.
I find the sound quite satisfying, both as clean and ODed, but especially with more synthetic and electronic effects pedals.

Build quality could be better taken care of. Other more famous brands offer, in the same price range, greater attention to details in lutherie and assembly.
With Harley Benton it actually also depends on the single instrument you get: you could be luckier and have a better built guitar, or less lucky and receive a less accurate one.
However, in case you are not satisfied, you can count on Thomann's excellent customer service and ask for a replacement.

BTW, with the guitar I received I am satisfied ! P

Love the smooth neck, very easy to quickly jump between positions. No harsh edges on the frets.

It is a very beautiful guitar, too. The sound is also nice, though I'm not picky.

It's also fairly light which is quite nice and reduces the strain.

Build quality seems overall very good but I have an issue with fret buzz. I get a buzz when I play the lowest 2 strings anything more than gently-to-assertively regardless of what note they are on. I maxed out the action for these strings but this still did not solve it. It would be nice if there were a way to individually adjust action rather than raise either side of the bridge.

Overall, very nice and worth the price, but the issue with fret buzz is quite annoying.

For some reason, I was never that into T-style guitars. When I started out, they just seemed to rub the the wrong way. As I grew more experience and better versed in music however, I found love for their vintage shape, classic tone and the way they just seemed so... Unassuming, not really attempting to compete with the more modern styles. Generally I feel that most guitarists today don't actively look for it but it's always there, and one day I think every guitar player feels the urge to try one.

Since I owned one or two Teles already, I was searching for a new spin on the concept and when I stumbled upon the TE-40, I knew I had found what I was looking for. When I plugged it in I realized that the high output Wilkinson humbuckers were a force to be reckoned with, and yet they seemed to have certain chime that was completely new to me. Since they were of the 4-wire variety I decided to install a coil split and the result was pleasing, to say the least.

I love this axe to bits but I have to point out that the neck heel on mine was noticeably slanted, which made setting up the action nearly impossible. However it was an easy fix with a rasp and a counter lift on the opposite side. Also worth mentioning is that I couldn't seem to lower the bridge enough to match the neck alignment and get my preferred action, but again, it took me 10 minutes to make a small shim and slip it under the neck heel, solving the problem.

One last thing, at the time I bought it I presume Thomann was receiving a new batch of these, which had an ash bur top as opposed to the plain black. However there was no mention of this and I was a little jarred by that when I unpacked the guitar, but the Thomann crew updated the pages with pictures shortly thereafter. I'm not detracting any points for that as it was just a slight misinformation, but hopefully it didn't happen to someone who couldn't deal with it.

Honesty I think I just happened to get a bad apple, but luckily I love tinkering with my instruments so I saw it as a learning experience rather than a letdown, and with the price in mind I can't really say I was expecting custom shop quality.

I'm very satisfied with my purchase, as always, and I hope that Thomann and Harley Benton keep making these offshoot models. I feel that that, as well as their surprisingly good build quality (again, it's cheap, low expectations.) set them apart from the competition in their price range.

I'm holding my thumbs for a Wilkinson equipped H-S-H T-style model with a 2-point tremolo, but until then I'll just have to Frankenstein them together. Best wishes from Matti and Six Shot Suicide :)

So I bought this guitar by the advice of a friend. The guitar itself is a beauty, the sound is not bad for that price range though a bit weak for my taste. The thin E string sits right in the bridge but then touches the edge of the bridge base before reaching the body. I'm not sure if this is a problem but it made me worry a bit. Also, the tuners can't stay in tune (have to set them again even after bending). I'm not sure but they feel like plastic. I'm going to buy new tuners as soon as possible, so I can't actively use this guitar right now. One of the tuners came with a broken screw but this probably happened during shipping. The tuner holds somehow but who knows for how long.
Overall, the guitar is fine. The tuners really need a rework if this isn't only a problem for my specific guitar.

I ordered this guitar at 16 febuar 2022. Very faster shipping in to Russia (4 days! im shocked! Local music stores deliver for 1 week min).

Let's move on to the review.
Looks great. I didn't see any problems in painting and other things.
BUT!
When I first connected the guitar, I realized that there were problems with the bridge pickup, it did not work. There are problems with the position switch. After numerous switches, the pickup still worked, but periodically the pickup also does not turn on.

Tuners have a large stroke (backlash). For such a price, of course, it is expected. I will change it soon.

Sound. So far, I have not been able to fully appreciate the sound of these pickups. After replacing the strings and a little tuning of the guitar, I will add my review.

Anyway thanks Thomann and HB!

This is my first Harley Benton guitar, and overall it’s what I was expecting. It looks and feels like a well-built guitar. I’m very impressed by how well the neck fits in the pocket.

I only have a couple complaints. The volume and tone knobs didn’t initially turn smoothly, but after using them a bit they’re rolling pretty well now.

The fret ends could be cleaned up a bit, but they don’t cut into my fingers and aren’t uncomfortable, just noticeable.

I will be changing out the tuning machines. The stock ones don’t hold tune. The biggest surprise was how good the set up on the guitar was out of the box.

I would definitely consider buying another Harley Benton (especially if Thomann is able to bring the shipping costs to Canada down).