Harley Benton TE-20 BK LH Standard Series

Wow! We arrived in France for a couple of days so brought no instruments with us. Things changed rapidly and we realised we were going to be there for longer than we expected. No guitars so we went to the Thomann web site and bought a couple of these, one left handed for me and one right handed for the wife. This is about the LH one. Obviously for something that might end up being used a little I went for the low cost option. Bouyed up by the positive reviews which I took with a pinch of salt, but knowing from experience about Thomann's good customer service I ordered with confidence. The guitars arrived in four working days and we eagerly opened the box. What a surprise was in store for us. First impression, great finish. Closer inspection I could find no faults. Really close inspection and I was questioning Thoman's pricing policy. Under 100Euroes for a guitar better than a standard Fender. SO for instance out of the box no issues with the set up. No issues? Yes. Would I adjust it? (I'm apparently the goto guy for my mates). No way! Barre chords? No problem all the way. Intonation. Measured up just fine, on a Tele for heavens sake. So what about the cutaway?
Fender could do with some lessons here. I could easily reach all the frets. I have had worse on really expensive kit. The join between the body and the neck was all but indetectable. The gap between the scratch plate and the switch plate was non existant. Fret ends? All polished and smooth. The frets, all well polished. No marks on the well finished hardware. Tuners were ok, and it holds it's tune. At this point in the review you might be forgiven for thinking I am enthusiastic! So what about the sound. Obviously whoever makes the pickups has seriously upped their game, or HB have found a better supplier.. Lots of punch, and great tones. Everything you want from a Tele. All the “twang” all the drive, but more. Some mates arrived and we played for a few hours. (Well until after midnight) Everybody tried one of our new guitars, and to a person they were impressed. A lot. We had it plugged into a little VOX 5W amp, with the other four playes all using amps a lot bigger. Still no problem hearing what we were playing. So the pickups have lots of depth and drive. If we lost them would we buy another? Yes in a heartbeat. In fact we are going to leave these in France and order more when we return to the UK to avoid Carnets. Would we gig with them? Yes definitely! If money were no object would we buy a different Tele? No. Could we afford more expensive gear? Oh yes, but why would we? Would this be suitable for a beginner? We always tell our pupils buy the best you can afford, “beginner” instruments are normally a waste of money because the pupil fights the instrument, thinks they can't learn when in fact a lot of the limitations is caused by the inadequacies of the instrument. So these low cost guitars change the game plan because they are the best you can afford. Buy them once and play them till they are worn out.

As a left handed player, my options to try a guitar before i buy is very limited. I own several Gibson custom shops and a couple of Fender strats. You know the quality is good and you know you will pay a premium price for the privilege.
I thought i would take a chance on an HB, nothing to lose right? The price is incredibly low, less than a good night out on the town.

When the HB arrived i was extremely surprised at the build quality. The finish is flawless and the quality of the hardware is excellent. I immediately changed the existing strings to a set of 10-46's and lowered the action and needed to tighten the truss rod 1.25 turns. The nut was fine and the slots didn't need opening for the heavier guage strings. The intonation needed a quick adjustment then she was ready to play. This guitar feels good, i mean really good. It plays as well as my historic 58 and my deluxe strat. Now time to plug it into my DSL40cr... OMG not only does it play like a Tele, it sounds like a Tele! I've been playing this for a week and haven't touched another guitar, it really is amazing!

Of course no guitar is set up for your personal style of playing out of the box but the only issue i have is a slight lack of sustain. This could be down to the nut, the saddles, the bridge material or the fact the strings are not pushed through the body. But for the price of this guitar it's a very minor issue. Will i experiment and change a few things? Possibly in the future if i get bored playing it. But for now it's just great.

If you are an experienced player like myself, do not be fooled by this rediculously low price! Just order one and guarantee you will be blown away!
There is one more problem... It will not be the only HB you will buy!

This is the first electric guitar I played and owned, and though it is probably the cheapest lefty Telecaster on the website, it's still very good and very playable!

The guitar doesn't have any glaring issues- the frets are aligned and filed down, the action seems to be decent, and the tuners keep the strings in tune well. The only issue I have with the guitar is that the tone knob is really glitchy and doesn't work well at all, but I'm not too upset about it. Also, there is a small paint/wood fracture in the back of the guitar, so there must have been a delivery mishap, although I'm not sure where it exactly came from anyway.

Except for a couple small issues, this guitar is very good, and I'm happy that I was actually able to get a quality lefty guitar for the cheapest price I could find. =)

This is a great guitar for a beginner like myself.
I soon found my way around it , and the fretboard is a nice width for my hands and fingers, with no rough edges. The action seems good to me - I don't have to press too hard, but it seems very positive. It holds its tuning remarkably well - my wife plays stringed instruments and is forever tuning them, but this guitar is good enough for practice on for two or three days in a row.
I usually do lessons without an amp, it sounds fine and is plenty loud enough. When plugged in, it is prone to significant hum when only one set of coils is selected. I know this is a characteristic of this type of guitar, but the noise can be an annoying. Careful positioning of where I am sitting helps a lot.
I've tried it with an HB-10G amp from Thomann, and a cheap headphone amplifier bought off ebay, and you can get a range of sound from surprisingly mellow to a distorted growl.

In summary, if you're interested in learning to play, but don't want to spend much - this is a good buy.

I have a wide selection of guitars from a 1952 archtop to a Valaquez classical but lacked a Telecaster- mainly because it is difficult to find a lefthander one that doesn't cost an arm and a leg!
I was delighted to find that Thomann not only had them but at a" budget" price - which meant I could meet my need( to see whether I liked the"sound")before deciding whether to pay more.
Well,I have to say not only is this guitar really"playable" but has the real Telecaster sound- and a price of a meal for one here in the UK!!!
I like it so much with its" out-of-the-box" setup that,for the moment I have no need to look for a more costly item-in fact I probably won't bother at all!!
So,well done Harley Benton and great work Thomann for providing a value guitar and,as always,a speedy and safe delivery to the UK.