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.

I am big fan of Telecaster Type guitars. They have that certain unique sound that just chimes out so nicely. Being a left handed player, I was limited to this Harley Benton TE-20 Thomann offers at such a great low price. My expectations were not huge, given the price. When the guitar arrived here in the USA, upon opening the box, that all changed. First of all, this is a really nice looking guitar. The fit and finish are beyond good. Once I held it, the guitar felt great in my hands. It's got some heft for a Basswood bodied guitar. The neck felt wonderful and surprisingly, even with its low price, there wasn't a single rough fret end. It's super easy to get up and down the neck on this TE-20.

Now comes the real test. I plugged it into my Fender Champion 100 not knowing what to expect. I started in the bridge position, because that's how I know if this guitar has the Tele sound I love. I'm happy to report that there it was, all the TWANG one could hope for. The sound was true and excellent in cleans. I tried it with some gain, and sure enough, it still sounded wonderful. Next I worked my way through the pup selection switch and fiddled with the tone and volume knobs as I played. I could not find anything about this guitar to dislike sound wise. The build quality is very good, the guitar looks great, and most importantly it sounds really good. The one small gripe I might mention, the tuners a little bit small, but that's not a deal breaker at all. Oh and did I mention how well this guitar stays in tune? I did a lot of bending and hard playing, and much to my amazement, the guitar held tune really well. Another thing that really blew me away...once this guitar had come down to temp from the long journey, it tuned up really quickly. The action was just about perfect for me, and even with the 3 barrel bridge, the intonation from the factory was almost spot on. Are you kidding me? I have guitars that cost 10 times as much that don't come intonated that well.

So in closing, I have to say, I can recommend this guitar with no hesitation. I don't know how Thomann does it, but I'm glad they do.

Perfect service, great communication throughout, and the people at Thomann are wonderful to deal with. Thank you Thomann for getting my inexpensive TE20 to me in good shape. Now if you would only offer a Harley Benton RB 600 and a few more Strat and Tele types in left handed models, my musical world would be a better place.