Harley Benton TE-62DB BK

Tried to source a surprise birthday gift for a colleague on a pooled limited budget. I started looking at what I could get, and after scouring Thomann's website and checking some YT reviews I decided to go for the HB TE-62 DB 62. The guitar arrived super fast from Germany to Sweden in 48hrs. The guitar itself is very light weight but well screwed together. The Poplar body is seriously light and is slightly thinner than a standard big ''F'' tele body modern or vintage. The double binding is very well applied and the paint black and glossy with no obvious blemishes. The biggest surprise I did get was from the neck. It is very nice indeed with a lovely mid size profile and flat radius fingerboard. The caramelised maple neck is comfortable and feels great. The medium frets are fine and could do with a little finishing on the edges and a polish but were acceptable. The neck pocket fit is extremely well executed. Downsides, well you get what you pay for don't you? Tuning pegs are little cheap feeling when turned, the 3 way selector switch is flimsy and the scratchplate could be finished better, however, these are all things that are easily fixed with an inexpensive upgrade or two. Sound wise the bridge pickup is tele twangy, the neck pick up is a bit wooly, both thin sounding but ok, overall acceptable but again easily upgradable. If you are in the market for your first T style guitar or lookin for a tele upgrade project to mess with, then you could do a lot worse than this guitar. The neck alone is worth the money imho.

I am doing this review after having the guitar for a few months. I wanted the TE-62DB in Lake Placid Blue, but it was out of stock for 2-3 weeks, so I got the same guitar in black, which was my second choice. I should have waited.

The good- The guitar looks great if you don't look too close, it sounds very good, and the neck is really nice. I also like the weight and overall feel.

The bad- I purchased 3 guitars from Thomann at the same time and had them shipped to the USA. They all came in one box and there was no padding between this guitar and main box itself, and the guitar came with the rear pot stem stripped. Thomann gave me a credit and I replaced both pots with a Mojotone (solder-less - because I'd just moved and had no idea where my soldering iron was). The credit only covered about 40% of the cost, which was fine, because it was an upgrade -though I am not sure if I would have done it, it not for the damage. I also had to buy USA standard plate and Fender knobs, because Mojo has no metric ones.

The frets on the neck were only a little sharp when it arrived, but after a few weeks, the fret-board shrank, and they became so sharp, I could not play it. So sharp it hurt. I had to buy a file and file them down, which took about 1 1/2 hours and gave me a giant blister on my thumb. Now they are very nice, but it was a lot of work.

The guitar has a quarter-sized wood knot under the paint, below the bridge, which sticks up. I am pretty sure it came out of the factory this way, but it appears to be getting worse as the wood ages. At some point, if it keeps going, it will crack. Very disappointed about this - unlike the other things, I cannot fix it.

The paint on the rear of the guitar is thin and you can clearly see and feel where the three pieces of wood were joined together. Also something I cannot fix. Not a deal breaker, but still kind of sucks.

The guitar should never have passed inspection and never been shipped from the factory. It is not even blem quality.

For the price, I expected I might have to do a little work, but I spent more on the new pots, knobs, plate and the fret file, then the guitar cost, and I still have a guitar with finish issues. I should have shipped it back, but thought I could resolve the issues, but more appeared as the guitar aged. I really didn't notice the finish issues until I did the fret work, because the room I play in is pretty dark. In strong light, they really stand out.

So bottom line, I got a lemon. Most people don't, but I did. Very disappointed. The other two guitars are great.

At first look the guitar is very beautiful, and at second also.
Came setup very well, i just lowerd the strings a bit and the pickups.
The neck feels good, has some width to it but plays nicely.
The frates came POLISHED!! but the fret ends are sharp, haven't found anny deadspots.
Bought the guitar with intention to swap the pickups and do some mods but i don't think i'll do that in a wile because they sound very nice and have pretty good output.
Will be definetly replacing the tuners and switch and pots, they aren't bad, but to me they don't feel really nice.
The nut is good no need to do annything to it, maybe replace it for a bone or graphite but not really neccesery.
The body has a really nice weight to it.
All in all a great instrument came better set up than my gretsch streamliner witch is double the price.