Harley Benton TE-90QM HH Trans Blue

So, this is the second review as I have now received the replacement TE-90QM HH

I have to admit I am a fan of cheap and cheerful Harley Benton guitars. What?s not to like? They are incredibly well priced, offer a good value and usually, they fit the bill.
Or, I should say, they used to fit the bill?

I?ve bought a lot of HB guitars over the years. Few have been really bad, some have needed some tweaking or better hardware in places, but most Harley Bentons have been just plain and simple good guitars.

Since I already own 20+ guitars, my schedule for buying new guitars is slow. The last HB electric guitar I?ve bought was a HB TE-90QM in trans red with the soapbar P90s. Still with Wilkinson hardware and by all means, it was - and still is - a very reliable and well sounding guitar right out of the box. The only niggle was a slightly wobbly pickup selector switch that got replaced with a better quality item down the road. Other than that, nothing to fret about.
Single coils are noisy. Nothing one can do about that and given the fact it?s a semi hollow without a maintenance cover in the back, shielding and rewiring would be a bloody ...erm? PITA.
So, to fight the hum - and, to be honest, add more guitars to my collection - I opted for the trans-blue HB TE-90QM HH. Being a few years from my first TE-90QM, I expected it to be a more refined and honestly better guitar and boy, was I wrong!

The first TE-90QM HH that I?ve ordered came with a big ding in the back. There was a big crack in the cardboard box as well. So, what happened to QC? In the olden years, every instrument shipped by Thomann used to get at least a visible inspection. But given the increase in volume, this is history by now and the final QC agent is the customer. Well, I called Thomann and without further ado, they sent an RMA and a prepaid shipping voucher and the guitar went back to Thomann. A few weeks later, the second TE-90QM HH arrived and this is, what the review is about.

Now, the TE-90QM HH on Thomann?s product page is a nice looking guitar that looks like is has got some quality hardware. It looks a bit like a Telecaster, but it got rid of a lot of the idiosyncrasies of Leo Fender?s original design. For instance that ashtray bridge and the three-post bridge design that is impossible to intonate. The bridge on the product page is a well rounded, massive and very comfortable design. No sharp edges, very nice to intonate, a well thought out design. The quilted maple top is just a veneer, but on the product page it looks nice. And in the flesh, the TE-90QM used to be like that. But ...

Do not expect your guitar to look like the one on the product page.
Do not expect your guitar to be equipped like the one on the product page.
Do not expect your guitar to be of the same build quality like the one on the product page.

Over the years, a product either gets better with constant refinements - or it gets cheaper with every single fraction of a cent being squeezed out. Unfortunately, the TE-90QM belongs to the second category. Should you receive a new TE-90QM HH today, do not expect to see the same nice quality hardware, you see on the product page. The bridge no longer is that quality item, it?s now more akin to a Squier Affinity/Bullet Telecaster bridge. Not as nice, not as high quality. And, unfortunately, not as well placed. To get the guitar intonated, I had to cut the E6 spring in half because the bridge was placed just a bit too close to the neck and I could not move the saddle sufficiently far back without the spring being in the way. The veneer on the top isn?t as nice either. It?s just a blue wash. The pickups are misplaced as well. The bridge pickup leans too far to the bass. Not easy to correct, as the holes for the mount screws would show once you move the mounting frame sufficiently to fit. Well, a bigger mounting ring would solve that and I am going to print me one on my 3D printer. Too bad, if you do not have access to one.

There?s not only bad with the guitar. The new Pau Ferro fretboard is excellent. Looks like Rosewood, but feels like good quality Ebony. I will take Pau Ferro over Rosewood all the time. Good choice! Nut and fretwork are of the usual good quality. No fret sprout, nicely crowned and levelled, as good as it can be. Switches and potentiometers are okay, they work as expected. Tuners are not Grovers, but doing the job well enough not to have them immediately replaced. The string trees are cheap, but a bit of graphite will keep them going until one replaces them with nicer roller string trees. The guitar is a bit lighter than the old WIlkinson based TE-90QM, but I believe that weight is one of the variables and it depends on the log the guitar was cut out from.

Soundwise, it?s nothing to write home about. Quite generic middle-of-the-road humbucker like and if you are looking for Telly twang, you?re riding the wrong horse. It covers all the bases well enough, but could do with some modifications depending on what you want to achieve. An easy mod would be to replace the pickup magnets with slightly weaker AlNiCo 2 magnets to give you a more bluesy/jazzy sound. You possibly won?t go for hotter pickups, it?s a semiacoustic after all and you won?t be using it for metal.

So, unfortunately, I have to join the choir of the people who say ?they don?t build them like they used to anymore!? I am not saying that it is a bad guitar. Given the price point, it still is a reasonably priced guitar. But it no longer is a guitar that is standing out of the crowd. It?s nice, but no longer great. It?s okay, but no longer exceptional. Or, in other words, I am disappointed. Maybe, if I would not own one of the ?original? guitars of better quality, I would still love it ? but now it just leaves a stale taste in my mouth. I had expected more than what I have got. Mind you, I will still keep it as I like the quietness of the humbuckers, but I will have to try out stacked noiseless P90 in the transred TE-90QM and if those retain the P90 sound and stay quiet, the trans blue TE-90QM HH will possibly end up in the dusty depth of the back row of my collection as Harley Bentons do not have any resale value.

Let me start with saying many things said here are copied form my review of the Tans Red version, because these guitars have many things in common.

This guitar costs 179 euros, but looks like a guitar that could easily cost 10 times as much. The finish looks nothing like the picture on Thomann's website. It's actually more green than blue; the perceived color varies, depending on the light. This guitar would look even more great if it would have a matching headstock.

The body has a flawless, seamless binding all over the guitar. 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.

The 'string-through' system has definitely something to do with the above-average sustain. Just like the Trans Red version this guitars 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 perfect out of the box. Not perfect was the position of the bridge, which was 0.5 centimeters closer to the last fret than the Trans Red version. As a result the guitar was impossible to intonate properly. I had to move the bridge slightly, and cut some of saddle springs in half to get it right. Fortunately I like to fix things.

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.

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.

On almost all guitars I own the action was too high for comfort 'out of the box' and this Trans Blue 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 humbuckers comes reasonably close to what you would expect from a Tele, Slightly on the bright side when compared to a Les Paul, and with enough character of its own. Nice.

In short: apart from the misplacement of the bridge it is a keeper. If you are not comfortable doing work on your guitar yourself and the guitar is obviously faulty, just send it back. Thomann will do everything to make you happy.

Was blown away with the looks of the guitar I received. WOW. Tuners are quite good and hold tune good. Pickups are ok. Don't plan to change them out at this point. Build quality appears to be quite good. Biggest negative is when I swapped the output jack for a puretone jack, the screws holding the plate holding the jack are garbage. Had to find some replacement screws. Otherwise very happy with this guitar.

This is a beautiful instrument. It is extremely handsome to look at, in a stunning shade of deep blue. The pair of ‘f’ holes give a lovely symmetrical look to the guitar. It’s unusual and a real head turner. The paintwork is finished to a very high standard and the binding really adds to the high quality appearance.

My favourite thing about this guitar is how beautifully balanced it feels to hold. It gives the impression of being as light as a feather, especially at the neck end. However, I was surprised to find it actually weighs in at 8 lbs (3.6 kilo) which is the exact weight of my Fender standard MIM telecaster. It is also precisely the same width, excluding the arched top section.

The action is amazingly low and comfortable for an instrument with this price tag. Right out of the box it feels ‘right’ and effortless to play. The frets look very slightly chunkier than on a standard telecaster but they are not at all cumbersome to the touch.

The sound is warm, full and rich, with a particular emphasis on the bass to mid tones. It sounds jazzy and yet has an edge and a growl when you want it to. There is nothing at all wishy-washy about the pick ups.

My criticisms are few and very minor. The back of the neck is very slightly rough feeling but this doesn’t pose a problem. The fret markets are very faint. The strings were a little greasy on arrival and one was kinked but that was easy to put right. My one disappointment is that the quilted maple effect is not as strongly defined as I had hoped. However, this is made up for by the elegant shade of the blue glossy finish.

All in all, this is a heck of a guitar for the money. I don’t know how Harley Benton have managed it but they have produced a top notch instrument that compares very favourably to guitars many times the price.

It is a total joy to own and play and everyone comments on its good looks. The TE-90QM HH is a unique and valued addition to my guitar collection and I feel lucky to have it. If you want a guitar that stands out from the crowd, look no further.

As with all new guitars you have to expect to do some setup refinements.
I have to say that my TE-90QM HH was setup very nicely out of the box.
* No sharp fret ends at all.
* Nut was cut nicely
* Neck relief was slightly off (0.016" at the 7th fret was more than I like so an easy truss rod tweek to get it to 0.10" - 0.012")
* Action was already set to 2mm at the 12th fret.( I prefer about 1.7mm but as it played well, I left it )
* Intonation on E A D B and E was spot on... only slightly sharp on G.
* Pickup height was within 0.5mm to what I normally set.
I've had to setup new Gibsons that needed a lot more work than this.
All in all, a very nice setup straight out of the box.

The tuners surprised me.... they didn't feel cheap at all and hold the tuning nicely.
The paintwork on the guitar is lovely and everyone comments on it.
Colour is a good match to the one on the product page.
A bit bit rough inside the f holes ..... but who the hell is going look that closely inside.
The pickups sound like a telecaster on steriods lol..... just what I wanted.

I have no quarms about recommending this guitar to anyone.

I just got this guitar and I have to say that I am very impressed with the overall quality. The fit and finish is great. It came with the fairly common issue of a slightly high action, but that was easily sorted. I made a small adjustment to the truss rod, and lowered the bridge saddles. The action is now very low - but without any string buzz. The frets are level, but as can be expected at this price point, they need polishing. No sharp fret ends. The frets have been set well, and the neck is also very nice. It feels more like a 'D' shape than a 'C' shape to me, but is very comfortable and easy to play. I like that it has a satin finish, and is nice and smooth.

The tuners seem to be of good quality and are nice to use. The guitar holds tune well - once I had stretched out the new strings a bit first. I'm not sure what the nut is made of, but it seems to work fine and has been cut well. The fretboard is nice and smooth, but as is often the case, could do with some lemon oil to condition it. I will take the strings off at some stage, polish the frets and oil the fretboard.

A couple of minor issues with the guitar when I got it:
The three way switch was back to front, so when moving it forward to select the neck pickup, it was selecting the bridge pickup. That was an easy fix of loosening the retaining nut, turning the switch around - as there was enough slack in the wiring to turn the switch 180 degrees. Then it was a simple matter of re-tightening the locking nut, and the issue was sorted.
I also found that the bridge pickup was quite a lot louder than the neck, so made adjustments to the height of both pickups, and easily got them in balance.

They were just minor issues as far as I was concerned, and very easily fixed. At this price you can't expect perfection, and I think it's reasonably common for people to find they need to do some very minor adjustments to these guitars to get them playing exactly how they like them.

I've been playing for just over 50 years, and have owned many top brand, mid range brand, and cheaper brand guitars over that time. All guitars need to be set up to how you like them in my experience. The fact that HB guitars need adjusting is quite acceptable in my view. My Gibson's, Fender's and others have all required adjustments.

What impresses me about Harley Benton guitars is that you get a very good and usable guitar - for very little outlay. If you want to do them up by replacing various parts - if you feel you need too, you will have a pretty good base to start with to modify.

In saying that, there isn't anything that really cries out for replacement with this guitar. The pickups are quite acceptable. The tuners seem fine. The nut is ok. The bridge is a good one. The neck is very nice. The controls work well enough. All really good - especially for the price.

However replacing both pickups and the wiring and pots - while doing it, would make this a fantastic guitar, and still at an excellent price. It is what I will probably do, as I think the guitar is certainly really worth doing up to how I like it. I often do this with my guitars, regardless of make and model - not just 'cheapies'.

All in all, I would happily recommend this guitar to any player. I like it so much that I will probably order the red version with P90's in it. I'm a big P90 fan and think that this guitar style will work very well with Wilkinson P90's in it.

Thanks Thomann for a very rapid delivery. It took 5 x days from the shipment date to arrival in New Zealand. It was delivered by courier to my door two days later. That is a record for any items I have bought over the years from Thomann. Much appreciated !!!

Great guitar!
Sound and build quality at a high level, thank you!

The appearance of this blue coloured guitar is more that enough to justify its very reasonable price tag. Indeed people who see it are often captivated by its looks and then when they listen to what it can do they go weak at the knees. On arrival the guitar needed only a 10 seconds tune up and it was ready to rock. The action was perfect for me and the feel of that neck for the first time was a delight. Smooth, fast and easy on the hand whilst playing barre chords etc. Sound and tone ways you couldn't really ask for more from a guitar of this price indeed it surpassed my expectations and I'm totally blown away by it. Well done HB for producing yet another remarkable guitar.

Already during unpacking it was clear, that they had no quality wood. Quilted maple completely without drawing what's for sale photos forget. The bridge is also different. Inside, you see that no one has done the job cleanly. Humbucker dirty from wax. The fingerboard came completely dusty. The sound is a bit sharp thanks to a small mahogany plank, the maple top it partially repair. Neck material only average material, but straight and well functioning. I didn't return the guitar because most of the bugs can be removed. It's my second guitar from this brand. If I were a strict design-oriented customer, I'd return both. I had to replace all frets on the LP and regrind the fingerboard, there were bulges. I had to wash and clean everything on the guitar. This brand is more like a semi-finished product for people who want a good material that makes a good sound when is a little finished-tuned. It's not a bad choice, but the risk of returning here is high. Quality is not well controlled. I'm sure you never go to the B-Stock One I saw and have a neck in the propeller. As I say, the guitar is full of contradictions, but for such a price some investments can be a good tool for the discerning.

Well, I play since 1960 and have >25 guitars even now, and yes I have the Tele MIJ and 3 Strats and 9 Les Pauls and everything else X3 ... This is very good guitar and Willkinson pickups are very good. Sore, the neck needs to be played-in, yet after the adjustment of the neck tension and some fine tuning she is so good that I can play her even LIVE, as she is light and sounds great. My Gibson Midtown Custom is better sounding (= same type of quasi-hollow LesPaul rock-blues-quasy-almost-Jazz), yet too heavy and too big, so I will earn at least EUR800.- by selling my Gibson Midtown (but will keep the EUR2400.- Gibson ES-339 custom shop for jazz). If you need a LIGHT quasi-airy-jazzy sounding versatile stage TeLesPaul-caster buy this one for peanuts :-)

I simply can't believe they are selling a guitar of this quality at this price. I found ZERO defects in this guitar. It looks and plays great. I lowered the strings a bit and reintonated (personal preference, it was quite playable right out of the box). The pickups are of lower output, and they sound great for jazz/blues. The neck is playable and comfortable. The only con I can see with this guitar would be lack of a rear access panel, all electronics are accessed through the f holes if you are thinking to do any upgrades. I have played and recorded with this guitar for a couple of weeks now, and my first impression still stands, it's great guitar. The semi acoustic body has added a new sound to my tunes, and I like it! As a matter of fact, I like it so much I just ordered another Harley Benton from Thomann.

Guitar did not look quite like the picture on the website. The details in the grain were not like other guitars I seen reviewed. I expected a slight variation but this was more extreme than I expected, especially compared to others online. The tone knob rubbed into the wood when operated and etched into the grain of the wood. One of the strap pegs was loose. I contacted Thomann and voiced my concerns. We were able to work out a resolution that was satisfactory. Despite some of the quality issues I mentioned above the guitar plays good. Sounds good. Action is acceptable. It's a good looking guitar but it doesn't look as good as the others like it that I seen reviewed online. The tone knob has etched it's way into the grain but you can't see it unless you look at it from an uptop angle, and now has cut a path to move freely. The volume knob was fine. For what I paid and what I got...I decided to keep it with Thomann knocking a little off.

Bought it as a "teaching guitar", an inexpensive guitar I could take to the school where I teach and use it with my pupils. For the price, it's more than great.
The neck is a bit chunky for my taste. The finishing has some issues (some paint over binding, some fret ends popping out, catching strings, some irregularities in the fretboard and the sloppy job on the inside of the guitar).
Pickups are good, not much noise even on really high gain, nice sound, tuners are great, keeping the guitar in tune even after some extreme bends and the veneer looks amazing.
For a very low price you get an amazing looking guitar, with binding even in the f-holes, with a very nice top, good pickups and good hardware.

I love this guitar, it is better than I expected, and I'm going to buy more guitars from Thomann

Very nice looking guitar, but came with a very dry fretboard, corroded strings a very high action and loads of fretbuzz on the 6th string and incorrect intonation.

I have never done any setup work on any guitar (all been good out of the box) and I felt uneasy doing it. However, for this one I figured what the hell - so I went online, took a day full of guitar setup lessons (truss rod adjustment, restringing and lowering string height, fixing intonation - much harder than I thought). It took me a couple of sessions to get it right and I did.

Now this instrument feels and plays nice. Since I am only just done being a beginner, I believe this guitar has added a lot of confidence in my ability to handle a guitar (something we beginners lack) since I set it up (somewhat myself). Overall happy with the purchase, looks slightly different from the photos (more greenish - still pretty good) but I believe that is the case with almost all photos on Thomann. No other comments apart from the fact that its great value for the price - perhaps Thomann could just make sure quality control is tighter - (3.5/5) chances are you could have quality control issues.

Edit: The tuners are not very nice on this one - i wonder if others have had this issue, they skip every now and then.

My first Harley Benton guitar, what a pleasing sight, so stunned to feel the quality in the kneck and the qm top is nothing but so beautiful. In use it sounds really damn fine, the pups are tremendous really, the faults are few.
I had a little over paint from the stain into the lower horn at the front and I have a nylon bushing on one tuner that is cracked, apart from that nothing else is wrong, I have indicated that I would like a replacement tuner sent out and hope that will be the case, so I can swap it myself.
I have no doubt that all will be resolved admirably in time.
I truly believe apart from the very minor faults, this is just stunning value considering the appearance, playability and overall quality of the materials and construction- just so pleased!!

I urge you to cast aside any doubts and pick up what is a real bargain, this is just such a fine player, and with the looks of a very much more expensive guitar, what's not to like?
Go for it, get one of these beauty's and enjoy her!

I needed a guitar that's at least a good back up for gigs where i play 3-5 hours.
I decided at before the first gig that i was going to begin the gig using it instead of the other guitar and long story short, i used it for every single song for the next 5 gigs.

I was playing quite alot of clean songs for the first hour and it handled that very well. Then later I was playing a few very fuzzy songs and i loved it. Then everything from clean to very distorted and it was just great.

This baby has got the looks. Everything about the look and the finish says "higher price tag"

-Tuners are working great.
-I like the neck, although that differs between players.
-The action was perfect
-No fretbuzz anywhere
-I am not a pickup snob.. but they sound just perfect for me.

I also have the "Harley Benton TE-40" and it is lovely to play but the pickup position is weird and i found that it didn't handle distortion well.

Can't say enough great things about this guitar.

So asking a keyboard player to rate a guitar is wrong on all levels, BUT....its been a couple of weeks now and while i am learning it seems easy to play and while I can't believe my fingers won't work while round the wrong way up, i think I'm slowly getting somewhere.

it is a "Gorgeous guitar" just look at it all of my friends who have seen it have commented on it, yes I could have bought a slightly cheaper one but i think i made the right choice....it really looks amazing, great lacquered finish, as i said I'm getting those things on the tips of my fingers (who knew!), So recently I went to a local music shop and saw guitars at a similar price.....check out your local shop as I don't think you'll see anything in the same price point with this quality.

My only complaint is I would love to buy a bass 4 strings should be easier, shouldn't they? but they don't do one in a similar colour.

C'mon Harley Benton....this is a no brain'er.

I have to Edit this. I have now played it for a month or so and The neck humbucker wobbles in its frame, the volume knob has lost its fixation and therefore wiggles in the top and bottom positions. The whole thing just lost all its quality except for the finish. Tuning holds for 5 minutes. i am gonna send it back. Cant play it...

I bought this guitar wholly knowing I will be upgrading some parts of it. As a standalone instrument it is a good instrument for practice use.
Pros:
The satin finish on the neck feels good,
fret ends are not sharp
nut seems to be low enough so that cowboy chords do not go out of tune. (although it is filed very deep, which might cause issues later.
The finish is beautiful and so far haven't found any faults in it.
The bridge seems so work well.
Pickups sound good for the money,

Cons:
Frets at the low e string had scratches, which were visible, and bending high e string feels like trying to bend on a sandpaper. (might be just a case in my model)
Setup out of the box was off. The action was too high and intonation a bit out of place.
Tuners are not the best, and probably will need to be upgraded

In total I would recommend this guitar as a good cheap option to those who can do a bit of maintenance (setup and fretwork) themselves. After setup and polishing frets the guitar plays like a dream.

When i first saw this guitar on the website I thought a lovely double F hole telecaster for that much....WOW...how can they do that !

Decided I would pull the trigger and purchase ( usually only go for well know brands).

First impressions of the guitar were what a great finish, neck profile was good not a modern "C" like a fender but not a massive baseball bat either almost a slim D.

The guitar had a reasonable setup out of the box, just a quick tune needed.

It comes with a good set of Daddario strings, machine heads and hardware seem O.K. considering the price range of this instrument.

Now this is where I had problems...on closer inspection I found flaws in the finish this was not a B stock item but the flaws I found should have been considered B stock. Finish cracked and had come off at the heal, cracked binding and badly filed fret board on the last two frets.

Great instrument for the price... but better quality control needed.

other than 28 days in the mail(covid) it arrived in tact and almost in tune. Looks great.

As a bass player who wanted to branch out in to guitar playing, I was looking for an entry level guitar (sub £300) and this guitar fits my needs perfectly.

When it arrived the guitar looks much better than it does on the website and the semi hollow nature allows me to practice without an amp if the family are asleep.

Exactly what I was looking for, and just that little bit different to everything else out there at the entry level.