Harley Benton TE-62DB BK

So I´ve order this guitar because of the hype of Harley Bentons... Long story short, I´ve order a hb35 plus that I´ve had to returned twice already, because of an awful fretwork from HB. Plus, their quality control doesnt work either. So, I am giving one more shot and wait for a 3rd hb35plus and see if it will come better this time.
About this model in particular, it came almost flawless, everything in the right place, fretwork is great, finnishing is great but there is a big but... the pickguard is so awfull cuted that is completly out of the shape. I was thinking to return it but I am so tired already with HB guitars, that I am just done with it... It´s a russian roullete their guitars, so better be still with this one.

Now, the neck is not as confortable as people say it is... It has a very weird shape, doesn't feel good on the hand. And I like 12" radius and fat necks but it has a weird shape. The shape of the neck on hb35plus it is much better shaped and much more confortable years ahead.

The pups are very dull, even with new strings... they sound ok with an overdrive but as soon you go back to a clean sound, it sounds awful, very dull indeed.

So why I am keeping it? Because it is a very good looking guitar and I´ve change the pickups with some good american pups they i´ve from an american tele, and now it sounds better. So I will keep it.

But do I recommend this guitar, even for the price? if you are looking for a good looking guitar, yes. But if you are looking for a guitar that sounds ok or good, I wont recommend it. Even for a student. There are better options out there for almost the same price.
Plus, the guitar doesn't resonate that well.

I am music teacher, so I think I can give a neutral opinion about it.

Hope it will help,

Vou começar por dizer que não precisava de mais uma TE, já tenho a TE-52 da Harley Benton que é excelente e preenche todas as necessidades.
Mas estéticamente esta guitarra, por este preço, é irresistível e encomendei.
Serviço fantástico da Thomann, como de costume.
A guitarra veio com um bom setup, acção relativamente baixa, bem entonada e quase afinada. Bom trabalho da Thomann que faz o setup das HB antes de enviar.
Farei o setup normal, com hidratação do braço mas isso faço sempre a todas as guitarras.
As primeiras impressões são: Uau!
A côr é muito boa e fica excelente com o double bound (especialmente porque é um vintage white), o braço caramelizado também é muito bonito nesta guitarra e o fretboard é um pouco mais claro que rosewood mas gosto muito.
Os acabamentos são perfeitos, todas as superficies estão como deveriam estar, nem uma marca no sitio errado. O encaixe do neck no corpo também está impecável, os frets no sitio e sem arestas.
A guitarra é bastante mais leve que a TE-52, tem um peso confortável, sem ser leve demais (talvez ronde os 3,50/4Kg)
De cima para baixo:
- Afinadores iguais aos da TE-52, parecem piores do que são na verdade;
- pestana de plástico mas bem cortada, com todas as cordas a assentarem tal com devem;
- A pickguard tem 3 camadas e de boa qualidade;
- os pickups são os mesmos da TE-52. Bons pickups que sacam bem os tons de uma Tele, incluindo o twang (talvez os mude só para ter uma opção sónica diferente nas duas TE) e lidam bem com overdrive ou ganho mais alto e têm um excelente tom limpo.
- A ponte é boa mas podia ter selas de cobre/latão de origem. Se bem que estas selas de origem não são más de todo e dão para entonar da forma clássica.
- os botões rodam com suavidade e o switch funciona bem, embora "dance" um pouco lateralmente.
Os botões são de metal cromado, com interior de plástico. Sim, não são de plástico rasca.
- As cordas são D'addario e isso é bem simpático numa guitarra deste preço.
Prós:
tudo o que disse acima e o facto de ser uma guitarra superior às Squier Afinity por um melhor preço.
A tocabilidade é muito boa e o braço bem confortavel.
No que é importante esta guitarra tem as caracteristicas de uma Tele dos anos 60.
A HB é surpreendente na capacidade de produzir uma guitarra destas a este preço.
Contras:
só a quantidade de plástico que envolve a pickguard, placa de controle e pickup do neck.
Não existem na verdade mais contras. Podia haver selas em brass, podia ter afinadores diferentes... sim, mas não é relevante e são upgrades simples, relativamente baratos e que fazem desta guitarra algo ainda melhor.
A guitarra aparece no website da HB e Thomman como sendo da série Deluxe mas no Headstock diz que é da Vintage (que faz mais sentido, tendo em conta o preço e hardware).

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.