Harley Benton TE-70RW Deluxe Series

Ok, another stunning review for a very inexpensive Harley Benton electric guitar... I am a hobby guitarist, drummer, pianist, and I do all my jamming at home in the basement man cave. I've read all the reviews like YOU have too, probably, because I just couldn't believe all the great things said about the incredibly inexpensive Harley Benton line of guitars. I finally had to "Jump In The Fire" ;) and I purchased this Tele copy, the TE-70RW Deluxe. I also bought a B stock Nashville Line Nylon solid body but that's not the focus of this review.
The TE70-RW has the following traits, in my opinion:
Pros: super inexpensive, flawless fit/finish, arrived with ZERO damage from Germany to Kentucky, U.S.A. in 9 days, good setup on arrival, NOT microphonic, NOT high action, NOT a returned item re-sold to me, the guitar for the $ paid is an OUTSTANDING value. Out of the box & wiped down then plugged in it sounds great. sounds every bit as nice as my Made In Mexico Deluxe Roadhouse Stratocaster and sounds better than the Fender Baja Tele my friend brought over to have on hand for immediate comparison. The Roswell pickups are fine, nothing special but NOTHING at all wrong with them.

Cons: the guts of the guitar are obviously 'cheap' but by no means are they LOW quality, the strings and fret board was 'dirty' and I had to do an extensive wipe down on the guitar. I would love to have a little higher quality fret board wood but that would increase the price.

Bottom Line: You can not beat the quality for the price paid. The CONS that I listed have nothing to do with the guitar tone, playability, or 'function'. I would not expect this guitar to be a 'gigging' axe for a professional but for the normal everyday guy/gal who just loves to play... it is A O.K.

If you are considering a Harley Benton guitar, any model, but are scared of the low LOW LOWWWWWW cost you are just like many Americans and other guitarists from countries outside the 'immediate' are of Thomann Music and that's understandable. Unless you've already done business with Thomann you just don't know if you can trust the reviews online and all that.... Well, there's only ONE way to find out and that is to bite the bullet and give them a chance.

You will not be disappointed.
I had ordered a Ritchie Kotzen signature Telecaster just a couple of days before this purchase. It's made in Japan and is at the top of Fender's 'non custom shop' food chain. I cancelled the order for the Fender and bought 2 Harley Benton's for 1/3 of the price I would've given for the Kotzen model Tele.

I'm extremely glad I did cancel that order. I have Tele sound, tone, feel, and more for a lot less money. Couldn't be happier with Thomann and Harley Benton.

So, this has caused me a problem or a dilemma at least. To be honest I bought this for one reason, to strip it for parts for my other Tele’s and so far it’s much, much better than expected, way too good to use as a donor guitar for parts. I now need to get parts in a different was as it’s erm,.....better than most of my other Tele’s.

The action is too high, way too high but I know that this is down to personal preference and entirely subjective yet needs adjustment. The tuners are ok, it depends on your perspective, they’re not amazing compared to a Schaller locking fender set yet for the money, I don’t get how they can do this, it’s surprising how good they are. The bridge tuner rattles too much at the moment but a setup may fix this.

Overall my neighbours were expecting to see something far from playable yet they didn’t believe that this was supposed to be a donor parts item. Me? I’m keeping this as is, I’ll change the bridge pickups as they rattle too much but overall, this is like modern magic. I wouldn’t expect anything playable at this budget but I am wrong , surprised, and actually really impressed.

Now I need to explain that I have a new guitar and no parts as expected, thanks Thomann, please send new tuners so I can avoid having to justify another guitar.

A quick update----
The tuners turned out to be awful. Dead spots everywhere, slipping, too much dead movement, they rapidly became as bad as the set on my Affinity. So I've made a few mods. I added a set of HB locking tuners, added Göldo string trees, cleaned and lemon oiled the neck twice, graphited the nut slots, and then swapped the strings for a set of Ernie Ball 9's. Now, it holds a note as well as my PRS.

The TE70 is a great base to make some basic changes, adding less than €100 in parts for such good results is worth it. It's still only cost around the same price as my affinity Tele but the results are much better. Next time I buy another HB I will make the same changes out of the box.

Finally, if a female can do all this work in a few hours, surely a chap can do it quicker ;)

I am like a lot of the folks here purchasing a Harley Benton; I read the great reviews here, watched the tests on You Tube and I was compelled to pull the trigger and purchase a guitar to see what all the fuss was about.
I decided on the TE-70RW Deluxe Series Rosewood Tele as I loved the look of the photos, love Teles, and am a huge George Harrison fan.
I have not had one unpleasant moment with this guitar (other than my old fingers do not move as they once did). The finish is absolutely beautiful with the headstock matching the Rosewood Veneer body. The double binding is beautiful and dark fretboard are the perfect compliments to the appearance of the instrument. The frets were in good shape, nothing sharp, and the action was set almost as low out of the box as my Gretsch 6128 (which was professionally set up). The tuners are ok and hold tune; there may be a small amount of play as you tighten/loosen but I have experienced more wiggle in much more expensive Guitars than this one. The pickups are what you would expect for a Tele...neck smooth and sweet, bridge with the Tele twang. Absolutely no issues with the guitar to this point, it is very fun to play and comfortable (fairly heavy, but not LP heavy).
The Guitar travelled from Germany to my home in Michigan in a matter of 4 days damage free. The client support at Thomann were helpful and provided good communication throughout the process.
I understand now what the fuss was about; I have had many guitars produced by the "Elite" makers and I honestly believe I have gotten the biggest bang for the buck with the Harley Benton that I have ever experienced with guitars. I am beyond the years of gigging but I would absolutely gig with this guitar.
I will be a Thomann customer and a Harley Benton fan going forward; Give this guitar a try, you will be glad you did.

This guitar genuinely baffled me. I thought it being a budget friendly guitar it'd have a lot of issues, and it's sincerely brilliant. I own a lot of guitars and have played a hell of a lot as I'm a guitar teacher and was a music student at uni.

The look of this thing is beautiful, the matching headstock is stunning too

The sound is fantastic, pickups have great clarity - I thought I'd have to switch them out ASAP but I think I'll just keep them in

The only upgrade I think I'd make would be some locking tuners (and maybe a bone nut)

However, the playability of the guitar when it arrived was bad, very bad, with an extremely high action. However after getting it a proper set up it plays like butter, just had to lower the action and adjust the truss rod (do not try this on your own if you don't know what you're doing as you might damage the guitar badly - get it done by a professional)

Don't get me wrong, it doesn't play exactly like my US fender Tele, but it's pretty god damn close and cost £1360 less, it plays better than my Mexican fender strat - don't ask how, as I don't know how either

Will definitely need to get it set up
The neck is slightly sticky with the gloss finish it has, but it's easy enough to work around and doesn't hinder playing

Blows squier out of the water, and on par with Mexican fender at least if not better ( admittedly I may have just gotten really lucky as at this price point there could be issues, but if so you can just send it back)

I'm trying my luck and buying the £88 black strat they do now to see how it holds up, but it probably won't be as good.

Try this guitar

I played various guitars, like Gibson SG, Epiphone and Greco Les Pauls, and some cheaper strats. This telecaster is perhaps the first one I have bought brand new, and never regretted that.

I had been choosing between Black Paisley and Rosewood, and finally picked the latter. I like its noble appearance and prefer dark rosewood fretboard to maple.

Before buying, I checked if any musicians use it on stage, and listened to its real sound. The pickups sounding great for the price and consistent with the idea of the telecaster, although they differ from Fender.

Comparing to Squires from local shops, I like HB more, thanks to the deluxe series finishing, even putting aside nearly twice higher Squires price.

The guitar was perfectly packaged and came in ideal condition. It was absolutely playable just out of the box, but the strings were a little higher, than I used to, like 2mm on 12th. I have a lack of experience with this kind of setup, so went to a local guitar workshop to polish the frets and adjust the neck and bridge. I think, this operation is pretty normal for any new guitar, and frets finishing wasn't bad, I have just made sure it's the best possible.

Now I play and record it for half a year, and I think it will take me years to outgrow it, if ever. If your primary goal to express and embody your musical ideas, this is a perfect instrument, pleasant and enjoyable.

I don't leave reviews generally but this guitar has made me so happy that I thought I'd share my experience.

I have started playing again in true mid-life crisis fashion, putting together a new Clapton-esque bluesy rock band and, as singer & (strictly) rhythm guitarist, needed a new Telecaster. Well, you do don't you...

I didn't want to spend a lot of money but didn't want a tuneless plank either, so started with the obvious online research, worked through the various Squier models etc until concluding that the cheapest one that might be nearly good enough quality was the Classic Vibe '60s. But that's still £350 and a bit much for what I wanted.

However, during the research I kept coming across these Harley Benton guitars which, despite being a 'own brand' and relatively inexpensive, kept getting surprisingly good reviews. I went looking, found this beautiful-looking Rosewood TE-70 (I'm a huge George Harrison fan) - less expensive even than I was hoping to have to spend - and, after reading all the reviews, nervously placed the order.

If this story rings a bell with you then don't be nervous, buy it. It's absolutely fabulous, beautiful, flawless, wonderful, everything you hoped it would be, and more. Ok, so it's not an original £8k original but it's every guitar I'll ever need.

It arrived (to Northern Ireland) less than a week after placing the order and was great out of the box. But spend an hour or 2 getting the action down and the intonation set and you have a solid, quality piece of very pretty kit that makes that classic Tele sound you hoped it would, stays in tune, plays beautifully and makes you feel very clever about having found such great value.

If you're reading this it's because you're thinking of buying this guitar. Stop thinking, stop worrying, just buy it - you won't regret it.

Very happy with my Harley Benton TE-70RW Deluxe Series. It arrived at my home 20 miles from Athens GA. USA double boxed and in GREAT CONDITION in the time period stated. No nicks or imperfections, dings , scratches etc.
The binding was perfect, back string thru holes in line and flush, pic guard nicely cut as well and frets were not sharp and fretboard not "dry". These are all critiques of older reviews but it looks as though QC at Harley Benton is now TCB !!!!
The controls work well. It has good sound and the new Roswell PU's are NOT microphonic . It arrived close to tune as well.
Has just a "tiny bit" of fret buzz but LESS than my Fender Standard Tele when it arrived. Fender only had to come from 4 states away and it had a big ding and splinter bubble so I sent it back. My Harley came across the Atlantic and was perfect so Thomann cares about it's product.
A small tweak of the TR and I tightened up the rear strapnut and I have an awesome Tele sound. THANKS THOMANN

I play in a blues band in Northern California. I have been using a 76 Les Paul Standard on my gigs and really like the glassy tone and incredible sustain but it is really just too valuable to take to the dives we play in. I decided i wanted to get a Tele but wanted one that would scream like a tele but would be both inexpensive and replaceable if it was broken or stolen at one of our gigs. I bought and tried out a TE-30, and an ST-62 OW and played a Classic Vibe Tele and a Warmouth Partscaster at a local guitar store. While the TE-30 was the best of the lot, I also was a big fan of George Harrison's Rosewood Tele. When I saw the TE-70RW Deluxe Series on the Thomann website and saw how inexpensive it was I decided to try it out. So I bought one. When I received it, I was not disappointed. The top and back Rosewood (I assume) caps were gorgeous. It also has a black, white, black 3 ply pickguard and three piece brass or bronze saddles. It had a Wilkinson bridge which negated the problems most inexpensive guitars have, body binding, and needed absolutely no fret work. Then I plugged it in and was immediately in love. It had that glassy tele sound from the neck pickup and the classic Tele screech and rumble from the bridge pickup. I've played it on our last two gigs and it cuts through sound like a hot knife through butter. Best of all, if some drunk knocks it over and wrecks it, I can always get another one at Thomanns.