Harley Benton TE-40 TBK Deluxe Series

Dear fellow musicians and guitar enthusiasts,

I am a hobby guitar player, I consider myself to be advanced beginner/intermediate level player. That said, after looking at a lot of googled photos and online video reviews of this guitar, I decided to purchase it. I own several different guitars, and have played a lot more, and I got friends with some other guitars. I have it for three weeks now, and play it every day, happily :)

Once it arrived:
- the fretboard was very dry and had some white dust over it, strings were rusty. I removed the strings, and used conditioner on it, that really rejuvenated it, and it is quite beautiful ever since. I love the fretboard. It is redish colored, similar to pictures on thomann website. Note that certain videos and pictures online show a dark, black fretboard. This is not the case, it is redish and pau ferro I believe, and it looks, feels, and plays great! I thought I would dislike it in person, and considered darkening it, but I completely changed my mind once I held it in hands.
- Black finish, see through is minimal, like 3%, and I prefer it that way. So very much like in thomann pictures. Excellent quality for this price, no faults.
- knobs and switch are great, knobs are metal, gold color, heavy, feel good when you turn them. Switch is plastic, but ok.
- frets are great, no buzz, not sharp, good quality, feel good
- tuning machines are cheap, a little wobbly, ok, but they work fine. They hold tuning fine!
- Nut is plastic I think, not sure, but it is well made, not sharp, all strings are positioned properly
- Neck is satin, feels good, pretty. Straight.
-Bridge is adjustable, looks great, intonation is fine, action is great (at least for me)
- Sound is awesome. It has a strong character, especially on bridge pickup. I will not change the pickups. I mostly use fender frontman 25r amp. The pickups are cheap of course, so are electronics, but hey, it all works fine. There is a proverb in my country: "every rifle will be deadly in the right hands" :) I have seen skill getting incredible music out of worst instruments. So be critical about the guitar, but also about yourself.
- when I changed strings, the golden holders on the back of the body fell out. That is a minor quality issue, since I put them right back, and once I placed new set of strings, they stayed in place correctly. You can see those in the pictures.
-Guitar looks stunning overall!
- It plays great, the feel is real nice and quite different then rosewood bullet squire fretboard I got, or roasted maple lacquered fretboard on my jet js450, but i like it a lot. Bending is normal, playing is lovely, the wood just feels great, the conditioner really did wonders.

For this price, depending on where you live, you might find similar or slightly better quality new guitar, but probably not. This beautiful? No way. Telecaster like this one for the price? No way. I also considered buying used guitar for my money, but quickly gave up after a few dirty fretboards, broken parts, bent necks etc.
Conclusion:
-if you want to play a single guitar, one and only, gather 1000e+ and buy something amazing, skip this one and any other cheaper guitar.
-If you want a great budget guitar, with minor drawbacks in quality (most important stuff is of solid quality imo) get this guitar! I played and had several similarly priced and some more expensive guitars and when I compare them to this one, it holds its ground solid.
-If you want another guitar for a collection - go get it!
-if you like pretty things haha

Hope this helps to make a choice.
All best, kindest regards.

I bought this guitar because I have been wanting to get a "tele" with humbuckers. I play gigs and do a lot of home recording, everything from classic rock to blues and ambient instrumentals. I saw this guitar reviewed on the Youtube Guitar Max channel,and decided to give it a go.
Considering the low price, I expected it to be a cheap instrument that would need a lot of aftermarket upgrades to be playable, especially the pickups. I was really surprised how good it really is. The Roswell pickups have plenty of bite, and the tone is great. The only thing I found that I might replace is the tuning machines, but once it is in tune, I haven't had any issues with it falling out, and I do a lot of bending. The carved top, binding, and gold haedware against the gloss black finish are stunning. It looks like an expensive custom guitar. Frets, neck, fretboard, finish, and electronics are as good as Fenders I have purchased. If this guitar was twice the price, it would still be a good deal.
In summary, this is a beautiful guitar at a steal of a price. The tuners could be better, but they are not horrible. Overall, it's one of the best investments I have made in a long time. I hope to get more Harley Benton products in the future.

This guitar looks great. The finishing and hardware compliment each other really well. The weight and feel of the guitar is well balance. I am not going to comment on set up since that is something pretty personal, but I will say this... I had guitars that were 3 or 4 times more expensive that needed a lot more work to be playable straight out of the box. Having in mind the price, it should be the expectation of what you are getting. Sure this is not going to sound like a $1000 but you do get a lot of great features for the money. Perfect mod platform to upgrade until your heart is content. I would definitely recommend this guitar. Well done Thomman !!!!!

This is an initial review of this guitar, as I received it yesterday. My review will talk about the whole process of me purchasing this guitar.

I ordered the guitar last week, but I chose the wrong payment option, so there was a delay - I chose the direct bank payment instead of VISA - which I should have chosen. So, the money was transferred on Saturday and I received notification that it would be delivered yesterday.

I sent the sales contact a couple of emails, I received a reply within 24 hours, which is excellent, and expecting any faster response is unreasonable as the sales contact teams will be receiving thousands of emails a day.

So, I received the parcel yesterday. The outer box was large, the packaging consisted of 5 pieces of brown paper, the inner box containing the guitar was not supported properly in the outer box. The outer box was bashed a little - there was no "HANDLE WITH CARE" stickers on the outer box which would indicate to the courier that the item was fragile.

So, I opened the inner box, the polystyrene which held the neck was broken, the little pieces of polystyrene at the bottom of the box were not secured in the box but loose. I am not asking for the padding that a case would provide, but this needs to be reconsidered.

The guitar was inside a bubble-wrap envelope which protected the guitar, paper around the strings and a small piece of polystyrene protecting the switch. The guitar was well protected, but with the broken polystyrene on the neck holder I needed to confirm there was no damage. Luckily there was none.

Now, the review...

The bridge was high, the string action was 2 to 3 mm higher than it should have been, but that was easily resolved - there was a hex-key for the truss-rod, but a small screwdriver to adjust the bridge would have been nice.

The strings on the guitar were good, I suspect 9's. They were loose, but again that was fine. After resetting the bridge height and retuning the guitar was setup. The tuners were tight, someone else might describe them as grinding. If after 6 months or so they need to be replaced then I shall.

The nut is plastic, it is well cut and nice, that will easily be swapped when the time comes.

The guitar is light, when compared with my Epiphone LP, it feels very light. I like it. the pickups are excellent, the neck is brighter than the bridge, the mixture of both gives the best tone.

The volume and tome pots are smooth, no crunching at all which is nice. It would be good if there was a push-pull split selector - maybe for the next version of the guitar.

One thing which I really do not like is this guitar is the through-body holes. If they holes were straight and not at an angle - as it is - it would have been better aesthetically, so much so that I almost did not purchase it. The black high gloss body is phenomenal and the gold hardware is beautiful. It would be good if this model was available in other colours with different colours of hardware as an option.

Beautiful guitar, well worth the money.

Just got it....about 10h ago...
Very impressed with this TE-40.

THE BODY:
It is really beautiful (more beautiful that the pics tend to show). The top is actually not black but a very dark brown (with some flame). The binding is almost the same color as maple (merges very well with the neck) and is flawless. Well finished.

THE NECK:
The neck is strait, C shaped, quite smooth and feels really nice. Nothing to point out or complaint: the nut (plastic, I think, but is well cut), the frets (smooth, no sharp edges, well leveled, no fret buzz), the fretboard (clean, may need a little oil),... Really impressed !!

THE HARDWARE:
The hardware is very nice both in finish and in function. The machine heads are very precise (must admit I was not expecting that) and they hold tune very well. The volume and tone knobs and the 3 way switch feel precise and solid.
The Roswell's pickups... so far so good (see my comments below on SOUND).
The staggered through body strings looks "different" but I actually like it

SETUP
This TE-40 came very well set up. Just needed to tune it. Action is low (just the way I like it). No fret buzz. Intonation is spot on...!!!!

SOUND
The sound of the guitar is a really nice surprise. I just love its tones. The guitar is really versatile. I can almost get all the tones for all the genres of music I wish. I?ve been playing for the last 4hs using the BOSS e-Band JS-10 (using headphones so not to disturb the neighbors). Blues, Country, Funk, Rock even Metal...(only had 4h to play, so far...). It just sound amazing...!!! LOVE IT !!!!!
Really impressed and happy with this guitar...so far.

OVERALL
Really impressed with this TE-40 from Harley Benton...
No complaints...!!! Everything was up to my expectation but the majority were above and beyond.
The only "misleading thing" about this guitar is actually the price...! This guitar is worth more than that.
Lets see how it will age...We'll see if I'll keep my opinion about it in...lets say... 6 months to 10 months...

P.S. Thomann, thanks and keep on getting us this wonderful guitars at this "nice and friendly" prices...

I bought this guitar based on a YouTube review by GuitarMax, got it two days ago. It is an incredible bargain. Came out of the box fairly well set up, just needed to tune it and adjust intonation on a couple of strings. Neck curvature was good, set with a fairly low action, didn't touch that. I went over the finish with a flashlight, (yes I'm obsessive-compulsive,) couldn't find a finish flaw anywhere. I know some people have purchased HB guitars and complained about oxidation/corrosion on the pickups, probably from sitting in a warehouse. Mine had none. The fretboard was Pau Ferro, not African Blackwood, very nice look and feel to it. As you said, the tuners were a bit stiff, but are holding tune perfectly. It came with D'Addario strings, again clean with no corrosion. I've put in several hours on it now, stays well in tune even with hard string bends. Fretwork was excellent, appear to be medium-jumbo frets, checked the level and didn't need to do any fret leveling, fret ends were also smooth as glass. The pickups are great, kind of hot. Even my wife (a harp player) commented about the clarity and attack with the pickups. Back down the tone a little and they sound great for jazz (my main interest). I also own a Harley Benton HB 35 PLUS semi-hollowbody, another incredible bargain. At about $162 including shipping, this guitar is worth every penny.
NOTE: Regarding shipping, I received several emails regarding shipping from Thomann, they had it shipped quickly by DHL. I followed it on line, it got through customs very quickly, then DHL left it sitting in the warehouse for 6 days. When I checked with USPS, who was the carrier for delivery, they had it logged in and did an excellent job getting it here. The day it was delivered, DHL documentation still said it was in the warehouse in Chicago. This is consistent with my other Thomann purchases. Thomann great, USPS great, DHL not so much, just saying. In my opinion, like my other Thomann/Harley Benton purchases, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Well done, Thomann.

Encouraged by the reviews, I decided to treat myself to one of these to compliment my Fender Mex Deluxe Strat so I had something with humbuckers. I didn't want to spend too much as I know I'd end up feeling I had to pair down to one guitar if both were more expensive since this is just one of many expensive hobbies I have unfortunately!

The guitar arrived well packaged and double-boxed and inside the internal box sheathed in bubble wrap. I had a good look all over and it didn't have a single blemish on it from its trip from Germany to Scotland. I've had guitars delivered within the UK from other shops that had encountered more damage en route so credit to Thomann for packinging it so carefully.

Now to the guitar itself. It sounds great, I thought maybe I'd want to use it as a platform to upgrade. I will make some changes but more for my personal preference (I'll put on locking tuners and replace the pickup covers to make them 'zebra' style ones in cream/black as I think that will look nice with the cream binding. The tuners are a little stiff in places but still work perfectly.

The strings seemed a bit dirty/dusty but after a wipe they were fine and sound quite bright (lots of string squeak still so I'd say not corroded or anything). Frets are all smooth enough, no sharp edges or anything. Intonation was spot on and was even not far off being in tune.

Overally I'm really please with this - especially for the price. I'm glad I didn't spend more for an Epiphone or something as I think this does all I need and I won't feel bad if I do change anything like pickups later on. I think it won't be my last HB guitar - already eyeing up something with P90s from them next!

As a very poor individual I always do quite extensive research before I buy something.
In this case I was eying the guitar for about a year and devouring every review I could, while playing my Squier Affinity Tele and there just didn't seem to be any reason why I shouldn't pick this one up. And yeah, the less expensive TE-40 is simply better. ...by better I mean more bang for your buck.

I love Teles and since I play metal I wanted one that is more suited to my needs. I got everything I wanted .

PRO'S:
- First of all, it looks really sexy. It's difficult to see it on the photos, but in reality the body is not black, it's kind of grey-ish brown with visible wood grain and it looks really cool. This is subjective though, you may not care.
- Another I guess subjective things is that the carved top and the belly cut feels awesome and at this price it feels like you're holding something more expensive.
- The guitar was very well set up. I didn't have to do anything (except tune it a little).
- The (obviously) cheaper hardware works well. Tuning pegs are a bit stiff (I don't personally care) and people are sometimes "calling their quality out", but at least in my case they hold the tuning well. Especially considering I play metal and agressively abuse the strings with 3mm pick and a lot of bends. It's kind of surprising to be honest.
- Small thing I guess, but I love the pickup selector switch. it's not the usual cheap piece of thin metal. Functionally it doesn't matter, but it just feels more expensive and rugged.
- Frets were filed well and the fretboard wasn't dry at all (as some review mentioned). Everything on this guitar is just nice and smooth.

CONS:
- Well, for the price it's really hard to say. I guess I don't LOVE the pickups. They're kind of flat. But, for the price,....you know...
- The strings (when going out the body) touch the bridge. This technically doesn't matter (though not ideal), but this actually really bugs me sometimes.
- My guess is that all the shiny gold will be much less appealing in a year or two, but hey, I gotta write something negative.

WELL ANYWAY:
- Honestly I can't really bring myself to nitpick, because at this price I would be personally happy even with less.

It looks beautiful and everyting works well.
If you're considering it, just get it. Really.