Harley Benton TE-90FLT LH VW Deluxe Series

Premetto che prima di acquistarla, non avevo mai sentito parlare del marchio Harley Benton...mi sono velocemente documentato sul sito e su YouTube, e ho riscontrato anche lì che si tratta sì di chitarre "budget" ma anche di strumenti dall'eccellente rapporto qualità/prezzo. Stanco dei soliti marchi, e con l'urgente bisogno di uno strumento mancino, ho ordinato la chitarra con qualche aspettativa.

PRO:
- suono davvero ottimo per la sua fascia di prezzo, e competitivo con strumenti fino al 800-900 Eur. Essendo una tipo Telecaster, il sustain non è il massimo ma che attacco! Abbinata ad uno Yamaha THR5 si tirano fuori bei suoni su tutto il manico. Anche il potenziometro del tono aiuta tanto a cambiare la voce dello strumento.
- setup buono ma con corde da 010 anziché le 09 da descrizione. Nessun problema comunque. Action un pelo alta.
- assemblaggi e materiali: non eccelsi ma decisamente più che adeguati. Gli hambucker sono silenziosi e potenti quanto basta. Qualche leggero miglioramento al nut sarebbe auspicabile ma ripeto, ho visto chitarre ben più costose con errori decisamente più grossolani.

CONTRO: al momento nessuno.

Per ora consiglio vivamente di provare questa chitarra. Con poca spesa ci si porta a casa un valido strumento per imparare a suonare o da portare in concerto.

I currently own 3 Harley Benton electrics (TE-52, CST-24T and this one) a JB-20 bass and a GS Travel-E acoustic.

So far this has been the only Harley Benton I've chosen not to modify at all. After a quick DIY setup the guitar feels and plays brilliantly, holds tune, and sounds huge! Oh, and it looks killer!

To my mind, the time of fearing budget guitars is over. I'm a professional musician, and played over 300 shows last year. My Harley Bentons got equal stage time to my USA Strat, and frankly far more compliments! Once covid is dealt with this TE-90FLT will absolutely be coming out on stage with me.

If you want to see it in action you can head to my YouTube channel (ptfguitarist) and jump straight to my Harley Benton playlist.

Highly recommended guitar, regardless of whether you're just starting out or you've been doing it for decades!

After watching a number of youtube reviews of harley benton guitars,i finally decided to pull the trigger and see if the HB hype is justified. As I am big fan of T-style guitars,the choice has fallen to this cabronita style telly.
The guitar came in almost perfect condition with decent setup. Only thing that required work was output jack which was loose. No biggy, it was 5 minute job to fix this.
I was pleasantly surprised with the built quality; this feels and looks like much more expensive guitar. All the parts and switches ( tuners excluded) are the real deal. Playability is also great ; it is light guitar (which i prefer) and the neck feels amazing.
As for the sound, filtertrone style pickups were perhaps the most positive surprise for me as i thougth i would swap them for sure, given the price of the guitar. Boy i was wrong. Pickups have their own character with a lot of single-coilly chaim and snap to them,but also at the same time having paf-like humbucker characteristics. They work great both clean and with overdrive.
As a last point i would like to mention perhaps the only weak point of the guitar- the tuners.
They are inprecise and feel cheap which leaves a bad afrertaste in,what is otherwise, a great guitar.Of course these can easily enough be swapped out,so it is not a deal-breaker,but i think this guitar is good enough to deserve much better quality tuners as a standard feature.To recap if you like the looks of it and are looking to add telly-style model with filtertrons to your collection, i would highly recommend to give this model a try. You will not be disapointed.

You know what was a great surprise about this guitar and the best thing about it as far as I'm concerned? (Hint: it's not the rarely-seen pickup type or the style.) It's the RADIUS of the fingerboard! Yes, it looks and feels like the neck has a vintage-style (small, rounded) radius. So it feels surprisingly like an older Fender or one of those nice Fender Japan reissues. Makes me scratch my head as the reviews on Youtube mention that it has a flat radius fingerboard. Did I get a (welcome) production-line anomaly delivered to me on this purchase?
Love the color and the style. Con: I hate the volume knob location. Just like on a Strat or Jazzmaster, it gets in the way of my strumming hand. I removed and relocated it as I usually do on my double-cut Fender-style guitars.
Thomann's best and most original Tele style guitar. Definitely not as extremely heavy as the TE-52 and TE-20 that I also purchased. With Thomann, I feel like a 53-year old kid in a candy store. :o)