Harley Benton TE-90FLT SB Deluxe Series

This was my 4th Harley Benton purchase (I previously purchased an HB mandolin, as well as the Harley Benton TE-52 NA Vintage Series tele and the Harley Benton JB-75MN NA Vintage Series bass) and I have to say my luck finally ran out (somewhat) on this purchase.

With all the previous HB instruments I was blown away by the perfect quality and sound. None of the instruments needed much work out of the box - but I can't say the same for this guitar. Yes, as other reviews have mentioned, the tone of the pickups is stellar and exactly what I had hoped for. But, the build quality on this one was not the same as the others.

Also, the nut is strange because it is a much taller nut, but the grooves are cut so deeply (poorly) that the middle two strings buzz a bit. There was some residue on the frets (maybe rust) as well as on the back of the tuners. I simply wiped off the tuners, but the frets needed to be sanded, so that was quite a process of removing strings, taping neck, sanding, and hoping the frets are level.

The screws for adjusting the pickups were stripped, so barely useable, even though the pickup height needed to be adjusted. I eventually gave up and just left them where they are even though it's not where I want them.

The volume knob makes a strange scratching sound when adjusted, and it's not the cap, which I removed to check. Doesn't matter a lot to me because I basically just keep it at full volume anyway.

There is a strange almost tremolo sound (volume dipping randomly) when sustaining a chord and I'm not sure if that is a wiring issue or a bad volume pot... at this point I will live with it but it's disappointing when compared to other HB guitars.

Not a huge fan of the reverse headstock, but it's "cool" I guess. At least the neck looks and feels great and the tuners work really well.

The body chambers have shielding paint and foil so the guitar is absolutely silent which is a huge plus for me.

Even though there was an inspection sticker, I feel like this one slipped through any quality control. Maybe I just got unlucky this time and got the bottom of the barrel. Still a great guitar for the price, but not as impressive as other (cheaper) HB's I own.

This guitar is awesome!
It's an absolute pleasure to play.
With a little bit of tweaking it turns out great, much better than anything else you can find for the price, and sometimes even double the price. That by itself should tell you a lot!

Here are the pros:
* The frets were levelled, dressed and crowned very well. They needed polishing, but that's to be expected and is easy work that you can do for 15 minutes in home when you change your strings.
* The neck joint is really tight, the neck itself is well centered
* The guitar resonates as every guitar should.
* The tuners are better than I expected, they are somewhat smooth (for the price). You certainly won't find a guitar with better tuning keys for the same amount of money.
* The FLT (we all know what that stands for lol) pickups are probably the best feature of the guitar, it just sounds amazing! As someone who hates single coils but needed clarity I couldn't be more satisfied. The guitar is suitable for everything from super clean stuff to stoner/sludge. Don't expect to play death metal on it though.
* The guitar looks gorgeous altogether.

There are a few cons, that are easiliy fixable though:
* The tone and volume pots are very.. "sudden". The changes in volume and tone are somewhat abrupt. But you can easily change the pots or if you are like me - not really use them except for muting the guitar.
* The tuning keys, albeit smoother than expected, still can be changed for better performance.
* The string trees MUST be changed for higher quality ones or at least roller ones. I replaced mine with Goldo Roller string trees and the difference is big.
* Two of the pickup screws were screwed aslant. They work, but it looks a bit ugly when you happen to notice it.

Still, I'd buy that guitar 10/10 times.
Unless you are completely ignorant or an absolute cork sniffer, you know every guitar has it's flaws, and some work will be done in order to make the best out of it. With this guitar - certainly not a lot.

This is a really fantastic guitar at its price point. I'm really blown away by how much I enjoy playing it.

Mine is as pictured (including the belly cut - something other have reported not having). The only differences are that it also has the sunburst finish on the back and the bridge saddles are a slightly different design.

The good: The body finish is flawless and beautiful. The neck and fret board have a nice satin finish that feels really good. It sounds great! Even the first time I strummed it without amplification I said "wow" to how it sounded. The pickups have lower output for humbuckers (which is what I wanted) and sound fantastic. They're on the darker end of the tonal spectrum, but still sound clear and warm with good midrange. A few of the frets have a barely detectable sharpness to their edges, but not nearly like you would expect for a sub 200-priced guitar - and they were easy to dull with a bit of sandpaper. Setup - the guitar came out of the box with a pretty good setup. Only had to make a very (very) minor truss rod adjustment to provide a bit more neck relief and had to adjust the intonation a bit.

There were a couple of minor quality issues, but nothing major: The pickup selection toggle was loose. One of the pickup height adjustment screws is in slightly crooked, so it sticks up a little further than it should above the pickup. One of the tuning machine heads was so badly misaligned that tuning that string was difficult because of its resulting proximity to the the adjacent tuner (this was easy to fix by loosening the screw on the back and rotating the machine head. There was enough play between the shaft of the screw and the side of the screw hole that I didn't need to fill and re-drill the hole).

Overall, I'm extremely happy with this purchase. Don't expect a $2000 custom shop kind of instrument at this pricepoint. But it is DEFINITELY a better guitar than a couple of Mexican Fender Teles I played a couple of days before this arrived.

This guitar is my 3rd HB. I have the fusion T, and the TE-52NA, both of which are excellent, no matter the price. This one caught my eye too, (I love teles!), but there were a few issues with this one. Not Thomann's fault, but it arrived in N. Ireland via UPS in disgraceful condition. The outer carton was busted open, and badly taped together (by UPS), the inner carton was damaged also, the toggle switch had made a hole through the cardboard, and was wrecked. This had to be replaced. The nut was really badly cut, which I also had to replace. The frets were horrendously dirty, almost corroded looking, which required serious polishing to get playable. The output jack was not great either, the cable never felt like it 'got home' properly, there was about 1mm of 'play in it', and it didn't feel good at all, this also had to be replaced.
All in all, a lot of work for a new guitar, which my other HBs didn't *need*.
On the positive side, the filtertron pickups are a joy, if a little difficult to set pickup height, as the screws are really cheap and the heads strip *really* easily.
This hasn't put me off HB guitars though, but this one didn't leave me quite as happy as the other two I own. I sorted it myself, as its a bit of a hassle posting it back from where I live to Germany.
It's a good guitar *now*, it's just a good thing I know how to do some repairs /upgrades, otherwise this one would have gone back immediately.

After reading a few reviews I decided upon this model and really was not disappointed. The Quality of finish is very good. The Guitar came pretty much set up and almost in tune. I changed the Trees for Goldo as recommended (although how much of an issue this is I do not know). The pickups are a real surprise very punchy but also give a good "Clean" sound. The action as delivered is good and easily playable (could be a bit lower though). The tuners Tune smoothly with no apparent slippage (so far). Volume and Tone controls work well enough, but I normally control via the amp so leave these dialled fully up (the pots and knobs are perhaps the only glimmer of cheapness). Selector switch selects..no cracking popping etc. As with other reviews of this guitar it plays, feels and looks like a much more expensive Guitar. Totally recommended

I'm honestly stunned by this guitar. For the price, it rivals most guitars two to three times its price. Plays well straight out of the box. Smooth fret edges, gorgeous wood grain and neck, and the Filtertron style pickups sound amazing in clean and overdriven amp settings- they're clear and punchy, but drive harder than a traditional Tele does. The Canadian maple neck is smooth and feels fast and sleek, and despite what I've read about the tuners, everything seems to stay in tune just fine so far. In fact, this shipped from Germany to my house in the States over the course of ten days and the guitar was almost perfectly in tune when I unpacked it. I purchased this mainly as an additional guitar to record with, I'm excited to see how this performs!

Highly recommened!

Bought this on a whim really, liked the look and was interested to hear what the Roswell 'toaster' pickups sounded like.
Bought the sunburst model and I was pleased with the build quality and looks; flawless out of the box. A solid, quite heavy guitar that feels good to hold. Good neck, everything feels solid and reliable.
Interesting tones. NOT a Telecaster sound, smoother and more natural sustain than a tele; in fact I was surprised just how smooth the Roswells are, nice Santana, Gilmour tones possible, clear and warm on a clean amp but can put out some grunt as well with some gain. The toasters give a nice even output across the strings and though not really powerful do a good job with good clarity and nice bluesy sustain when needed. Finding it great for blues playing.
Overall, a nice well-made guitar

Bought this and a TE52 at the same time. The guitar was really nicely finished with a few very minor finishing issues

Slight roughness on edges of headstock, nothing major
Sounds good in all positions.

Feels assured, not at all a beginner guitar.

Couple of minor personal dislikes
pickguard is a bit ugly

reversed headstock is a little finicky (for me) for tuning, probably a matter of getting used to it.

For 179 euro it looks and plays like a guitar 2-3 time the price, love it. A nice contrast in look and tone to the more traditional but also great TE52


Update after 2 years:
Brought the guitar for a setup, now a little wiser about QC and guitar issues. Luthier with 20+ years experience checked it out and found uneven frets, on closer inspection he found that the frets were not seated properly as they had not been curved to the fretboard radius and were starting to sprout. All told- 100 euros to fix.

Here's the catch 22, I would not have known as an inexperienced player what the problem was and so wouldn't have spotted in time to return to Thomann. Getting a luthier to fix the problem invalidated my warranty and Thomann will not reimburse (although they have said that any separate issues will be resolved under remaining warranty)

Advice: see if your luthier will inspect the guitar before the 30 day return has elapsed and save yourself money and headaches later, although tbh you shouldn't have to if the QC was done right in the first place. A 'stain' on what was otherwise a good guitar experience.


Further update, Thomann, in their kindness took back my luthier adjusted guitar and without hesitation sent me a new one (after 2.5 years). The new one is a little different than the first. Lighter body, noticeably lighter (more chambers, less ash?) neck is good bit fret ends can be felt, not sharp, just felt. Hardware looks different, bridge particularly, feels a little cheaper? Tuners are spaced very close together on the headstock which can make tuning awkward as even my small hands/fingers are obstructed by other tuning pegs when turning one peg. I think this guitar is made in a completely different factory to the first.

A+ for Thomann's customer service.

Very cool guitar, for the price it's incredible.

It sounds like a Tele, but with a fatter tone.
It's just a rock Tele, so if you are looking for that feeling, go for it.

Neck is quite fat too, I like it in this way but I know that it's not for averyone.

Pay attention to pickup screws, one of mine got spanned while tuning the height of the pickup. Not a big problem, but just pay attention.

Tone is great, not for a cheap guitar, is truly great.
Body is one piece of wood, it resonates extremely well.
Bridge, tuning pegs, pickups, switch.. everything works fine.
Painting is flowless, and the wood under the colour looks better than in photo.

The feeling is that of a guitar which costs 1.000? more at least. I'd buy it again without any doubt.