Harley Benton TE-90QM Trans Red

You can look at all the pictures in the world of this guitar and see all sorts of YouTube videos, but you really don't get an impact of how beautiful and well made this guitar is until you hold one in your hands.
If you're looking for that twangy Telecaster sound, it's there, but you have to work with your equipment a little to get it. The tone qualities of this guitar are wonderful but that's why it was designed the way it was. It has some really strong qualities for blues, jazz or fusion and even some mild acoustic qualities. Will it work for rock or country? Absolutely, with a small amount of work. But lets get into the actual guitar for a minute.
Cons: I would have given this guitar 5 stars if it wasn't for one minor issue. The fret ends are very sharp and protruding. I have a suspicion that the fretboard is very dry and needs some attention. So it's time to do some minor work to get it and those frets back to where they belong. There's some discrepancy as to the wood they used on the fretboard. Because they can't use rosewood anymore, they've gone to an alternative wood. The information on this particular guitar is mixed. In one portion of the description they say they used an exotic wood called Amaranth, but in another portion of the same description they say they use Roseacer. It would be nice to know because Roseacer which is a roasted maple sometimes has tendency to develop small splits, even though it's very rare. Amaranth, which goes under a number of different names depending on what part of the world you live in is a very hard exotic wood that is very stable and would be an excellent choice for a fretboard replacing Rosewood. Those are my only negatives about this gutar.
Pros: I have a number of high end guitars from Gibson, Fender, Martin, Schecter and a half dozen others. This guitar visually is absolutely stunning. When I first took it out of the box I was shocked at the finish of this instrument. The workmanship on the body and the neck is superb. The quilted maple finish may be just a veneer, but it is absolutely beautiful and beyond what I expected. When I first ordered the guitar I wasn't sure about the finish on the neck. I don't like neck finishes that are heavy on lacquer. The neck has a really nice satin finish that you can tell will age beautifully and only get better with time. Out of all of my guitars, no matter what the cost, this guitar has the best neck I have ever played.
Intonation, string height, fret leveling (other than fret ends) were perfect out of the box. All controls seem of good quality and work as they should.
The workmanship (other than the dark paint used inside the "F" holes) I have to say is superb.
If you're on the fence and need a push, I hope this review helps with your decision. The service from Thomann was excellent and I can guarantee you that you will never find an instrument of this quality for the ridiculously low price they are selling it for. Have fun!

It’s hard to believe that a guitar as good as this can be purchased for such a low price. Nevertheless, it wasn’t set up when it arrived even though I had paid to have a guitar tech ensure that it was. It didn’t take me long to correct these things at home and in fairness to Thomann, they offered to correct this error. I declined, as it was well within my skill set to sort it out myself. The only reason I had asked to have a tech check it out was because I wanted to improve my chances of getting a decent one, figuring that at the price it must be a bit of a lottery to get a playable guitar. I needn’t have worried. Thomann value for money and build quality being self evident in this case.

Why buy a hollow tele with P90’s? Well, I’ve always loved the sound and flexibility of P90’s and I was curious to hear what they would sound like in this format. At this price, with Thomann’s return policy? Why hesitate?

This is a gorgeous guitar to look at and the fit and finish is extremely good. No flaws evident. The woodwork being of a higher standard that many mainstream models I’ve played over the last sixty years! That’s the benefit of modern C&C manufacturing I guess! Now set up, it plays really well.

As one might expect, there are a few minor negatives. Probably just a one-off but try as I might I couldn’t adjust out pole balance problems on the neck pick-up. Adjusting the pole screw to bring up the gain on the first string just didn’t work! So I cheated and bought a set of Tonerider pickups! I’m sure Thomann would have replaced it if I had asked but I would have ‘specced’ Toneriders if I had been given the choice when I bought it. Problem sorted, it sounds as good as it looks and plays. The pots, switch and socket are predictably low rent but they work well enough for now. A future upgrade possibly but only if they become problematic.

The machine heads (or tuners if you prefer) are better than one might expect and have settled to provide quite stable tuning. A smidge of backlash perhaps but nothing requiring an upgrade at this stage.

Info for the ‘upgraders’ out there; The neck is nicely made, very well finished in a satin coating, no fret sprout on mine and reportedly comfortable if you have medium to large hands. Sadly I have small hands so it feels a little bit fat to me. The truss rod functions perfectly so setting the neck up was very easy. Unfortunately a standard Fender spec replacement neck doesn’t fit this neck socket. The socket is a bit too wide by about 1.5mm so will need shimming if you’re determined to change the neck. Sorry I didn’t get around to checking the socket depth once I noticed the width discrepancy.

So there you are, a great guitar for the money. Eminently playable as is but would probably benefit from slightly more ‘upmarket’ tuners and better electrics. The fitted pickups sound good. I doubt if the balance problem I had is usual so a pick-up upgrade is unlikely to be necessary. I was obviously influenced by personal preference in choosing to upgrade them. Maybe Thomann could consider offering an upgraded version with a standard neck socket, higher quality tuners and better electrics but this guitar is fantastic value for money as is.

Recommended as an alternative choice to the solid body variety of Telecaster in the less than £500 price range.

Surprised how much you get at this price point. You will have issues at this price point. Overall I like this guitar. There's so many things the manufacturer did correctly to produce a quality guitar.

So out of the gate, the guitar was packed great for international shipping. It traveled round the world to get to me, and arrived undamaged. The packing helped make that possible.

The feel of the satin finish on the neck is just smooth and easy to play. The fret ends are all dressed and filed. Not a single fret end has a sharp edge or skin catcher. Some worker spent time dressing all 44 ends.

The quilted maple, bookend matched, flame, top does appear to be real maple veneer. I type that because the pattern on mine is not the same as any of the other TE-90QM pictures I've seen online. And not just the one on the HB and Thomann sites. That is, my pattern appears to be unique. Which you wouldn't get if the manufacturer used a print or picture. Maybe they're using 2 dozen different prints and I just haven't seen mine online, or maybe it's real maple. Unfortunately they finished it in such a way the the 'flame' part doesn't dance or move like you expect a flame top. Like the finish is too thin or they didn't use the correct stain, I don't know. I does look good in static photos though.

Overall the finish is great. Mine did come with two small fisheye blemishes on the back of the guitar body. I, personally, wasn't bothered. I've already put unintended scratches on the back just by playing while wearing a belt. In fact, I don't feel guilty playing it. If I do scratch it or ding it I know it's not a $2,000+ instrument. I can just play.

The plastic, ivory colored, bindings are perfect. I can't even find the seams in the f-hole sections.

Inlay dots and fret board: perfect. No flaws or weird gaps.

Neck and truss rod came straight and didn't need adjusting. Nice.

P90 pickups sound good once the distance to strings was adjusted. Read the 'saddle' section below. From the factory the bridge pickup was much too low and tilted lower to the bass strings. Conversely, the neckup was too high. Adjusting was easy. Overall good pickups. No noise or hum.

Saddle is nice and offers a lot of adjustment. You're gonna need it too. Every single strings action was high and wildly varied. High E string had buzz right out the box when fretted on the first and second frets (e.i. F and F#). Eventually, I got the three bass strings down to 1.55 mm (4/64 ") and three trebles to 0.85 mm (3/64 ") without buzz. Individual fret sections needs filing to get the Low E and High E strings to have such low action without buzzing. High E's third fret wire needed a lot of attention to stop it buzzing. Low E needed minor filing on frets 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8. Intonation on every string was sharp. And not just 'one line on the tuner' sharp. So sharp you can tell by ear even if you don't have perfect pitch. Moved Low E a little over 4 mm and G almost 6 mm. G was coming up G# on the tuner when pressing the 12th fret. You will spend time or money to correct this, unless you don't care about action or staying in tune. Speaking of that...

Tuner knobs / machines. Ooo boy. They look like tuners. They prevent the strings from dangling. Other than that, they're shit. They, absolutely, will not stay in tune. Like for even one song. On top of that they're hard to get in tune. For example, you'll get A. Pluck for a second time. A – flat by one line. Retune. A – sharp by one line. Retune. Flat. Retune. A. Pluck again. Flat. Retune. Sharp. Retune. Flat. Retune. Sharp. Retune. Flat. Retune. Sharp. Retune. Flat. Retune. A. Pluck. A. Pluck. A. FINALLY. Next string. Over and Over and OVER & OVER. Replace these tuner shaped metal dowels of frustration as soon as possible.

At this price point you're getting a good guitar in the TE-90QM. I dare type that it could be a great guitar if you must spend time setting it up and replace the tuners.

First up, I really like this guitar. It's light, the neck feels great, and I love the color and vibe. I've gigged with it several times and gotten nothing but compliments.
That being said, there are a few issues with this guitar. The string ferrules on the back were installed by Mr. Magoo, as they're not in a straight line. Not a huge deal, but it's obvious it was done by eye (and not well). Also, the fretboard material has a rosewood color, but they stained the front of the fretboard black and left the sides natural. It's odd to see a black fingerboard but brown sides. Why not just leave the fingerboard natural? It would look better, in my opinion. But the black does make the MOP inlays pop, which I'm sure is the point.
Cosmetic issues aside, I replaced the tuners with locking Gotohs and leveled and dressed the frets. She plays awesome, so with some TLC this guitar is a winner overall.

Let me start with saying that the level of workmanship can vary from sample to sample, so my experiences aren't necessarily true for you if you decide to buy one. I waited a few weeks before publishing a review, because it takes some time to go over all the details.

This guitar costs 179 euros, but looks like a guitar that could easily cost 10 times as much. The finish is breathtaking. It's actually a pity that they didn't match the headstock ? that would have been absolutely awesome!

The body has a seamless binding which exactly matches the aged white of the Wilkinson P90 pickups. I don't know it it's a real binding or just paint, but I couldn't care less. Even the F-holes have the same binding!

I have another semi-hollow guitar, a Höfner, which is as light as a feather and quite loud when played acoustically. This guitar is not lightweight by any means. It actually feels rather heavy, and when you look into the F-holes it's clear why: there's a massive center block in the middle, and the sides of the body are solid wood too.

The lack of a scale prevented me to weigh the guitar. In any case, this is not a flimsy construction, which I appreciate very much.

When hitting the low E while holding the guitar body to my own body, everything resonates in a very pleasant way. Maybe the 'string-through' system has something to so with that, not sure. Yet it is acoustically just above average, the guitar doesn't 'push much air'. It's enough for practicing though.

The neck is typical for a Telecaster model. It's not as thin as your typical Ibanez shredder, nor as thick as the ones found on a Gibson Les Paul. I think it's just perfect. It's a one-piece neck, so there's no scarf joint. Instead Harley Benton opted for two string trees to get the necessary angle. The string trees are the cheapest you can buy, but they appear to work well.

The neck was too straight out of the box, which resulted in fret buzz here and there -- in spite of the relatively high position of the saddles. No biggy, the necessary tools are in the box. I like my necks ever-so-slightly concave.

The tuners were a bit stiff at first, but accurate. They loosen up quickly. The nut is well cut for strings up to 010-046. For anything beyond that all bets are off.

All frets on my sample were perfectly level, but needed polishing and were *really* uncomfortably sharp at both ends. I had to polish them all, which is a LOT of work. This is something I find annoying, but it is fixable.

The fret board can use some lemon oil or, even better, Dunlop 02 'Deep Conditioner', which will bring back the beautiful rosewood color. In the end I even used a generic 'dark wood conditioner' which made the fret board even darker. Just a matter of taste.

The (Wilkinson?) bridge on my copy is fine. Intonation was a breeze. On almost all guitars I own the action was too high for comfort 'out of the box' and this HB is no exception. Just take your time to adjust the saddles to your own taste and don't forget to keep the radius of the neck in mind.

The sound of the Wilkinson P90 pickups come amazingly close to those on my $$$$ Gibson Centennial Les Paul Special. While these are single coils, there's hardly any hum unless I plug my amp into an AC outlet without a ground pin. Interesting.

In short: apart from the obvious things (general setup), you might have some work cut out for you to fix some annoying flaws. Yet I kept the price tag in mind, price/performance is what counts here.

When all work is done, this is an amazing guitar which can face any competition.

I own many guitars, from inexpensive to 4000€+ of value and top of the line series, and I must admit that for the price it is a really nice guitar.

I really wish I could have had such a nice guitar for that price when I started.

Pros:
- Slim satin finish neck
- Fret work is good, no cutting edges
- Decent nut
- Nice two piece top
- Decent wood
- Pearl inlays
- Large potentiometers
- Good strings
- Good stable tuners
- Setup was OK out of the box, but there was room to get the action lower and the intonation had to be perfected.

The bad:
- The "F" holes binding is really poorly done on the guitar I got
- The finish had small scratches here and there and fingerprints/grease
- While they sound nice, these P90 Pickups are microphonic...
They have to be replaced if you intend to play on stage or with a decent volume.
- The potentiometer shafts are too short for a hollow body!!!
This causes the inappropriate volume and tone knobs to mark and cut into the finish. Very bad. You will have to raise the knobs, change them, or change the pots to use them.

Some other thing to note, the guitar was sent without tension on the strings? Neck had to be adjusted

Conclusion, if you are a beginner, you cannot go wrong for the price.
Buy it, go to a luthier to do a basic setup, then learn to adjust according to your preferences.

I plan to use this guitar during shows and have no fear of breaking it or getting it stolen.

Would definitely buy again!

Harley Benton should make a more expensive model (400 to 500€) with better finish, roasted neck, better pickups, and other colors as well as bridge/tremolo options.

I went to Thomann to try some guitars, and found this one. It's a beautiful guitar with light body, great neck, no sharp edges on frets, awsome feel when playing.

But, when I checked my guitar at home, which I pick up at the store, there are few small problems on it: tiny scratches, a dot looks like something peeled of from on the neckplate, and slightly wobbling 3 way switch. These may not affect a lot on sound, but it's a pain for someone who really cares about the quality.

And the pickups are quite low on output, but the sound is still great, at clean tone.